Art Resulting from Computing

Introduction: Programming And Art

Computer graphics and art may be created through writing algorithms – instructions for determining sequential steps for carrying out operations, which result in a work of art. They have been considered the solution of choice, especially before the advent of graphic software packages and applications, being a merger between a programmer and design, ready for creating computer art graphics. Changing a pre-written code is also a solution, using for example, Processing.org., HTML, Blender with Python + HTML, or by combining either augmented reality or virtual reality with actions performed by an user. There are many ways of creating art that utilize technology without writing programs. An artwork based on a photo manipulated scanned image may be drawn on a computer screen with the use of graphic or painting software. One may also apply digital multimedia packages, videotape animated sequences of those images immersed in a computer graphics-created environment, and stimulate real time interactive communication through art. Pictures made with computer programs and scene description languages to provide three-dimensional, or animated images may be projected on a screen. Transformed image may also be brought into the visualization system or the virtual reality 3D immersive world to develop interrelationships between some media. Structures can be shared or translated between media and thus we may construct both the new forms and the meaning of these media. In this process, we combine computation and thought representation. This way, we may visualize images, forms, music, poetics, and interactive fiction. We may also make metaphors of inter-sensory synaesthetic experience in the real time interactive systems or enhance virtual communication over the web.

Figure 1, “Birdcage, Sometimes a Dome” is a sculpture made after computer program. Rotational ellipsoid has been selected as a form of choice to assemble a three-dimensional structure. A synthetic, almost abstract appearance of this wooden sculpture may be interpreted as a framework for an architectural structure or another construction; we host our pets in forms resembling our own edifices.

Figure 1.

Anna Ursyn, Birdcage, Sometimes a Dome (© 1988, A. Ursyn. Used with permission). Maple, after 3-D computer program outputted into a plotter. VAX mainframe, Interactive Graphic Library (IGL), FORTRAN 77

Realities created with the use of programming refer to our imagination and experience that are based on physiological reality of the mind. Not only the well-trained eye of a mathematician can perceive the sense of mathematical beauty. Sculptors render appealing forms which are, sometimes even without their knowledge, perfectly fitting mathematical equations. With the use of programming, artists create shapes and forms that represent the beauty of mathematics: multi-dimensional spaces, hyperbolic planes, and fractal-like repetitions. They as well produce intriguing natural forms that obey the rules of equations, such as the Nautilus shell. Mehrdad Garousi (2012, p. 28), who creates pure fractals without use of image processing software, considers fractal art a conjunction of art, mathematics, and computer technology because of simultaneous existence of order and disorder, chaos and regularity, and complexity and self-similarity.

Many Types Of Art Created With Computing

Programs written in computer languages may serve for creating traditional forms of art and design, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, as well as for the interactive arts including installations, web-based and multimedia projects, 3D animation, performances, and experimental works. Art created and often displayed with the use of computers has been first designated as generative art, computer art, electronic art, digital art, or algorithmic art. Authors often use the terms electronic art, computer art, and digital art interchangeably, when they these categorize art forms into several groups and describe generative art, interactive installations, video and animation art, web art, electronic music, and information art (that links computer science with information technology). For example, Redström, Skog & Hallnäs (2000, p. 103) define informative art as “computer augmented, or amplified, works of art that not only are aesthetical objects but also information.