Aggregation by Ulterior Projects is a series of “code generated geometry based on the principals of aggregation”.
Posts marked code
Experimental Bookshelves by Ulterior Projects
About the project:
For this project, we take a step away from traditional bookshelf design and step towards functional art pieces.
Each design starts with a bit of custom code that incorporates growth functions found in nature. This step ensures that the shape of each piece is completely random and unique. The executed code generates a basic polygon mesh that is then hand shaped into the final form.
Leo Villareal does amazing light sculptures that pulse and flash in hypnotic patterns. According to New York Times reviewer Ken Johnson “There should be benches. You just want to sit and gaze in blissful stupefaction at Volume” (pictured top).
There’s more to his work than just pretty flashing lights. He described his process to CNET News:
“My work is focused on stripping systems down to their essence to better understand the underlying structures and rules that govern how they work,” Villareal told CNET News. “I am interested in lowest common denominators such as pixels or the zeros and ones in binary code. Starting at the beginning, using the simplest forms, I begin to build elements within a framework. My work explores not only on the physical but adds the dimension of time combining both spatial and temporal resolution. My forms move, change, interact and ultimately grow into complex organisms.
‘Inspired by mathematician John Conway’s work with cellular automata and the Game of Life, I seek to create my own sets of rules,” he continued. “Central to my work is the element of chance. The goal is to create a rich environment in which emergent behavior can occur without a preconceived outcome. I am an active participant, serving as editor in the process through careful selection of compelling sequences.”
To really appreciate his work you need to see it in motion. Here are videos of the pieces pictured above:
Cylinder, 2011 from Leo Villareal on Vimeo.
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC HD from Leo Villareal on Vimeo.
Grace Hopper: The gifted mathematician and pioneer by Charis Tsevis.
We’re flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We’ve tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question. — Grace Hopper
Scott Snibbe makes really cool apps. You may have seen something about the interactive Biophelia app that he designed with Bjork. In this video he demonstrates several of his other great apps: Gravilux, Bubble Harp, and Antograph.
Gravilux has just become available for the Kindle Fire, but it won’t be available on Android until the end of its run on the Amazon Appstore. I find his reason for this rather interesting: the Kindle’s connection to books.
[They] are one of the last media in which people focus in rapt concentration. Amazon’s Kindle Fire has the potential to promote this kind of attention with other forms of media, such as apps and games, and it’s the type of attention we hope to sustain with our uniquely creative, mind-expanding apps.
Dictionary Words is a project by code artist Scott Murray.
Murray describes his project:
Simple, yet hypnotic: the system randomly selects two words from an extensive English dictionary and displays them on-screen. The words fade out, and are replaced by two new ones, ad infinitum.
The word pairings are unexpected, and range from poignant to absurd — or, more accurately, we perceive them as such. I was surprised to see this piece elicit a range of reactions, including discomfort, joy, sadness, and laughter: complex emotional responses to random data!
The piece triggered my interest in narrative and human perception. How do our brains make meaning when none objectively exists? (More problematic: How susceptible are we to misinterpreting meaning that is being communicated?)
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