Hiding in Plain Sight

This project is a study and exploration in the fields of Abstract Expressionism and Algorithmic Art. I am trying to find a middle way between a humanistic expressive look and feel, and a computational structural foundation underneath it. First I shape and sculpt a simplex noise field to have a base structure to work with. Second I slice it up in layers where some layers are removed and others are being kept as the final sculpture. Third I draw strokes of the remaining layers and give it an expressive style.

I have no designs for the brush strokes, it is all generated as a consequence of how the system is programmed on what to reveal and what not to reveal. There are strict ranges where the noise field stays in which give certain consistent visuals, but they are random ranges and not fixed designs. This decision gave a lot of room for interesting random strokes, as if the algo is brushing expressively.

I have only scratched the surface of sculpting noise fields and drawing an image out of it. To think about the possibilities of algorithmically shaping structures and drawing an expressive artpiece is just mind-boggling. The project title is hinting on the potential of these artpieces, where inspiration to further develop this art domain is hiding in plain sight.

Hotkey
s - to save an image as PNG - 8000 x 5000

library: p5js
license: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Made by Mark Bobeldijk, July 2022