Procedural Art |
A process is a naturally occurring or designed sequence of changes of properties or attributes of an object or system. Three types of process combinatorial systems in mathematics are called permutation, combination, and variation. Each begins with a limited number of items, a set of things. In permutations, the positions of these things are shuffled within the whole set, as in an anagram. For combinations, one can take out any number of elements from the set and put them together in a smaller group. Variations are permutations with repetitions allowed; in variations, one can permute to infinity.
Art can be defined as the arrangement of colors, forms, or other perceived elements in a manner that affects its audience by stroking the audience's perception and emotional senses. The evaluation of art has become especially problematic since the 20th century. Three approaches are clearly apparent: the Realist, whereby aesthetic quality is an absolute value independent of any human view; the Objectivist, whereby it is also an absolute value, but is dependent on general human experience; and the Relativist position, whereby it is not an absolute value, but depends on, and varies with, the human experience of different humans. Marrying the worlds of process with the world of art gives birth to a concept called procedural art. Procedural art can be described as artwork that mathematically permutates, combines and/or varies. Realizations of this type of artform can be seen in spiritual and religious implications; practical or utilitarian art; and heavily used in fine art. It's a method of making art. The term refers to how the art is made, and not taking into account why it was made or what the content of the artwork is.
An algorithm is a step by step procedure for solving a problem. The commonplace procedures we use for multiplying and dividing numbers are algorithms. With precise details for each step the procedures yield the same result whether executed by a computer or by a human. Because permutations of finite algorithms, when repetition is allowed, provide infinite variations, exhaustive variations suggest a key to the mysteries of the infinite in artwork. Algorithms in artwork are sometimes represented by fractals or derivitives thereof.
A procedural artist develops formulas and/or templates materials, and will then execute a random or semi-random process to work on those elements. The results will remain somewhat within set limits, but may also be subject to subtle or even startling mutations based on a pseudo-random ideal. Artwork should be self-contained and operate with some degree of autonomy. The algorithms in procedural art may resemble, or rely on, various scientific theories such as Complexity science and Information theory. Systems may exhibit order and/or disorder, as well as a varying degree of complexity, making behavioral prediction difficult. However, such systems still contain a defined relationship between cause and effect.
In practice, a computer generated realization of procedural art should involve:
Procedural Modeling uses algorithms to affect the shape and positioning of geometry:
Texture Synthesis in the context of 3D computer graphics is a little misleading because it only refers to variations of the colour of a surface, it does not imply anything about its structure or roughness. Individual shaders are small functions written in a specialized programming language then compiled together to form the texture which defines the way light is reflected and refracted by an object in 3d space. Shaders can be broken into specific groups: Expression Based Animation involves the animator defining initial conditions and adjust abstract physical parameters, such as forces and torques, in order to control positions, shapes, and motions of models. Procedural animation can be very useful for generating much lifelike motion from relatively little input.
Algorithmic Flow of Dynamics simulate physics using trigonometric algorithms. Restraints and driving factors are formulated into the action and reaction of 3d geometry related to its integration with other dynamic geometry. Use of this artform can be used to generate mystically influenced works or chaotic inspirations of terror. The possibilities are endless. Simple procedures, when compiled with each other in string equations, develop wondrous effects and aesthetics. The process is determined by the artist and his mastery of the form and attention to algorithmic detail. Permutations of abstract symbols is often linked to creation, whether divine or artistic. What is it about permuting letters or numbers that leads to mystical experience? Is this experience born out of the creative transformation that occurs or out of the meditative activity? What role can the computer play as a stand-in for this process? What is the qualitative difference between permutational systems that are intentionally driven, and those systems that are manipulated with operations? Life is nothing more than a process. When do these artistic creations take on the form of life?
The Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation, is a mystical Hebrew text. According to the Sefer Yetzirah, the universe was fabricated by the Infinite One, the Ain-Sof out of permutations of letters and numbers. All that is formed and all that is spoken emanates from one Name. This divine name is the Tetragrammaton, or YHVH, according to the Kabbalists. The 231 "Gates" correspond diagrammatically to the number of lines that can connect the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet when they are placed in a circle, in other words, the number of two letter combinations that can be formed. The ten numbers, or sephiroth, are divine, and they represent ten divine emanations. A diagram called the Tree of Life, derived from the Sefer Yetzirah and represented in many different versions over the centuries, shows how the ten numbers are connected by exactly twenty-two lines, corresponding to the twenty-two Hebrew letters, when placed in a particular arrangement. This procedural work of art is an ancient equation for the existence of life. This process poses the question does art imitate life or does life imitate art. I think the two exist as one.
Mathematicians explore such concepts, aiming to formulate new conjectures and establish their truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions. Artists use abstraction and logical reasoning to study the shapes and motions of physical objects. Mathematical concepts and theorems need not correspond to anything in the physical world. Insofar as a correspondence does exist, while mathematicians and physicists may select axioms and postulates that seem reasonable and intuitive, it is not necessary for the basic assumptions within an axiomatic system to be true in an empirical or physical sense. Thus, while many systems of axioms are derived from our perceptions and experiments, they are not dependent on them. Artists take this same standpoint. Symbolism of reality or surreal representations of ideals can all be expressed with art. Existence and non-existence are inconsequential. Life is a member of the class of phenomena which are open or continuous systems able to decrease their internal entropy at the expense of substances or free energy taken in from the environment and subsequently rejected in a degraded form. Does this prove that procedural animation in art is life? A measure of information in a transmitted signal or message can be monitored. Subjects contain the ability to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and process a natural selection.
Despite the intellectual pursuits of higher math and complex procedural systems, procedural art celebrates and gives a look into life and its mysticism broken down to its most basic equations and builds into complex theorems. The geometry of existence develops the angles of each of our perceptions. Process transcends all forms and limitations, even the most sublime. The dynamic forms of living artwork developed by process elevate a divine inspiration from both the product of the process and the procedures themselves. Creation of and engagement with procedural art is what keeps me inspired as an artist. The development of animated imagery through concept and equation sparks an energy of life into my work. Everything that physically exists; the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them; it is all part of the great art of process. In this great process of life, I am an artist of the moment, and time is a passing thing as am I. May we all proceed into the future.
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