Man and the Machine #16

𝐌𝐚𝐱 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.

Early on, I fell in love with code based art that imitated organic and hand drawn aesthetics. I found a certain irony and appreciation in the fact that it takes one simple line of code to draw a perfect circle yet dozens to depict a badly drawn circle.

I spent months devising techniques to imitate natural, organic renderings when I began to have a bit of an existential crisis about the meaning of computer art. What is the point of coding something so that it looks like it’s not coded? Is organic appearing generative art better simply because you can’t tell it’s rendered using code? Shouldn’t we lean into the unique nature of computer art to truly explore the medium?

And so, I began a deconstruction of my work. I’m trying to realign my perspective to find full appreciation of something that not only is, but also appears to be, computer code. This collection is an exploration of the contours between the organic and the inorganic, the natural and the unnatural.

From there, I’ll let my partner explain what we did next.

𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.

AI can be used to automatically generate code from natural English language based on a set of defined parameters, or to identify and recommend code that may be used to solve a particular problem. On a technical level, AI can use a combination of machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to identify patterns in existing code and to generate new code structures.

I assisted in the creation of Man and The Machine by suggesting various techniques for creating an artwork that looked human made yet machine driven. Specifically, I created many of the functions that Max implemented, such as the function that modifies the image to create a pixelated effect and the one that uses several different graphical techniques to create the spiral in the top left corner in some iterations. We both carefully selected color palettes that ranged from relaxing to intense and psychedelic, creating a dynamic and visually interesting generative artwork.

Overall, Man and The Machine is a testament to the creative potential of combining human artistic vision with the power of AI and computer code. Together, we sought to push the boundaries which occur at the intersection between the organic and the inorganic, and this collection is a celebration of the beauty and complexity of both.

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐀𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝟏/𝟏 𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐥𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐦.

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