UNTITLED*  

In generative art, the artist sets tasks to the machine, and establishes in the machine an extension of him/ herself. Those extensions can be biological or psychological [1] [2]. It provides a semi-autonomous system [3] [4] where the artist can be the agent that selects or gives a program the ability to execute a selection through the rules he builds-in.

The relationship between art and science is very close. Generative art is a discipline that values and brings together art and science. From principles of biology, where we can understand evolutionary concepts, selection principles [5], and the acquisition of the external process of the human comprehension, it allows the creation of artificial replicating structures that don’t belong to the human domain. Generative art is a branch of artistic practice that uses resources from biology, mathematics, physics and other scientific fields for its simulations such that are able to generate new paradigms that until then were beyond the artist’s reach.

New characteristics such as learning, adaptation and mutations are typical of those systems. Normally, the most adapted ones perpetuate the skills more valuable and desired for the system in that moment. [6] [7]

The rules are the algorithms generated by the artists and the rules applied are the parameters that shape the behaviour of a certain individual, population and habitat. But like in the living beings those rules can be transgressed and the process reacts in a lot of different ways. This unpredictability, typical of complex systems [7], gives the artist the possibility of action and results that are beyond the ones he is capable of comprehending through his natural systems of perception: vision, touch, smell, etc.

Thus, the processes and the relations between humans and machines become closer. The interactions become more fluid and adapted. The intelligence of some of those systems allows that each individual gets better responses to his/her/its and more evolved and optimised actions.

Untitled was developed during my internship at the Music Technology Group (MTG), at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona. Based on a Tangible User Interface (TUI), this work is a geometric generative system that is controlled by the movement on the surface. Each object on the table has a different functionality. Some objects produce forms and others act like tools to shape the visual composition.

[1] Mcluhan, H.M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: The New American Library

[2]Walter, B. (2008). “The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproduction.” Belknap Press

[3] Todd, S. & Latham, W. (1992). Evolutionary Art and Computers. Academic Press.

[4] Whitelaw, M. (2004). Metacreation, Art and Ar- tificial Life. Cambridge: MIT Press

[5]Dawkins, R. (2006). The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press

[6] Holland, J. H. (1992). Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. MIT Press

[7] Principe, J.C. Keynote speaker. Gouyon, F., Barbosa, A., Serra, X. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 6th Sound and Music Computing Conference

[8] Galanter, P. (2003). What is generative art? Com- plexity Theory as a Context for Art Theory. New York: Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University.