Square Planets

Square Planets was inspired by a series of OP Art paintings done by Victor Vasarely, called Planetary Folklore Participations No. 2. (c. 1970). Vasarely died in 1997 in the early days of computer art. I'm sure he would have embraced this medium. This is the third in a series of Vasarely inspired Generative Art pieces I am offering.

I became interested in Victor Vasarely's graphic artworks while I was in art school. As I struggled to learn computer graphics I wondered how do I write a program to produce imagery with a similar aesthetic? I call the process of creating algorithms inspired by other artists: "Art"ificial Intelligence.

Square Planets consists of four layers of squares contained within a background square superimposed on top of one another. Each layer is translated from the previous layer but still lies within its boundaries. The background color of each layer is random and its set of squares are another random color. The squares that make up layers two and three are rotated either clockwise or counter-clockwise some random number of degrees within a predetermined range.

There are many Gestalt interactions within this piece. Layers (square planets) interact with each other in interesting ways. Each new generation with its random color assignments significantly affect your depth perception. Layers appear to come forward or recede. Sometimes there is more "after-imagism" between the square sets. Candy for your mind.