GRAPHEME

Released on the occasion of the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke.
www.tribute-hwf.com

“One criterion for art involves the process used by the artist for shaping the work. In the special case of mathematically supported fine art, the artmaking process occurs in a mathematically defined operation that allows the generation and transformation of images, methods used for picture processing.” - Herbert W. Franke

I first came across Franke’s ‘Ornamental Alphabets’ in his book 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘴 - 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘳𝘵, and was intrigued with the idea of using a simple letterform to explore different generative image processing techniques.

I’ve used letters and writing in my work for a long time, both with letterpress printing and in my asemic poetry programs. With asemic writing, I generate unrecognizable letters to reference text, and here I use recognizable letterforms removed from their typical function as language signifiers.

My goal with this project was to build as much texture and layering as possible by warping and collaging the letters together in various ways. The font I’m using is a design I made years ago to supplement my wood type collection for printing. I really enjoyed being able to bring that part of my past work into my generative art practice.

Each image is composed of the letters found in the hash for that piece, divided into either vowels or consonants. The program builds on a technique I’ve used before, where I generate an image to an off-screen canvas and then dive through the pixels to pull out the color and form I want to surface in the final image.

25% of the primary sales will be donated on-chain to the Foundation Herbert W. Franke. These funds will be used by ZKM Karlsruhe to digitize Franke’s 1,800 manuscripts and make them publicly available. Any additional funds raised will be donated to the Rütgers Foundation which supports children and young adults in Africa so that they can get access to and work with technology.

• Press “R” to increase the pixel density and reload the image (this can be render intensive and will create a really large file suitable for printing)
• Press “S” to save a copy

Made with p5js
Artist: Sarah Ridgley
October, 2022