Experiments In Organic Form
A collage of projections inspired by the unpredictable properties of nature.
produced by: Harry Wakeling
Introduction
At the start of the project I was interested in creating a series of collages inspired by the painter Felipe Pantone. His work takes inspiration from digital culture, making frequent use of neon gradients, grids and optical illusions. I was also inspired by the work of Superstudio, an architecture collective from the 1960s. My original plan was to create a series of projection-mapped scenes using a black and white grid, interspersed with psychedelic, neon shapes.
Concept Development
The project developed gradually as I tested different styles. Through my experimentation I became interested in devising scenes that were inspired by natural elements, utilising the skills I had gained during the last ten weeks of study. I had moved away from creating a piece directly inspired by the style of Felipe Pantone and Superstudio, however I will still interested in including the collage elements of their work. The end result contains 3 scenes inspired by various forms of nature. The first scene makes frequent use of recursion, a pattern commonly found in plants and wildlife. The second scene is inspired by space, utilising transformation and rotation. The final scene contains experimentations with noise and vector arrays; the use of colour and the patterns remind me of a volcanic eruption. Certain sketches also make use of the timer functions in Open Frameworks. In scene two for example, I set up a sketch that draws a random spirograph pattern every 10 seconds. I achieved this by including a function that generates a random number to inform the shape of the pattern- this would redraw every ten seconds, along with the background so that it would start again from the beginning.
Technical
Certain sketches in the project take inspiration from themes taught to us during the first term, for examples vectors, repetition, sine and noise. I also took inspiration from themes that were introduced on Programming for Artists and Designers, as well as the work of Daniel Shifman. I intended for the piece to be a culmination of all the main skills I had learnt over the last ten weeks. As my idea adapted and changed, I produced storyboards and sketches that informed the movement and style of my piece. Going into Open Frameworks, I started by producing as many experiments as possible, setting myself time constraints for each sketch. Once I was happy with the amount of content produced I began importing them into PiMapper – this took longer than expected, particularly the sketches that required the background to redraw at timed intervals.
Future development & Reflection
There are certain improvements I would like to make to my piece if I had more time. One scene that I would like to develop further is the space sequence. My original plan was to get each piece to blend together, however due to the nature of certain sketches I was unable to apply the same textures (such as stars) across each one to make them look like a unified piece. This is something that I would like to test if I had more time. I also had to repeat similar code across different sketches, such as in the first scene where I include two animations using recursion. I feel I added enough variety to each respective sketch for it to still be entertaining, however if I had more time I would like to include an experiment using a different process. Despite this, I still feel happy with the work produced, and I feel that this project has benefited me a great deal. It has given me the opportunity to reinforce the knowledge I have gained this term, and I look forward to what term two will bring.
References
The project takes inspiration from a variety of sources, for example the work of Daniel Shifman, as well as the topics introduced during our first term. Certain sketches were based on examples that were adapted and changed to suit my needs.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wiverLQl1Q&list=PLRqwX-V7Uu6bXUJvjnMWGU5SmjhI-OXef&ab_channel=TheCodingTrain
- https://learn.gold.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=16022§ion=5
- https://learn.gold.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=16022§ion=3
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l__fEY1xanY&ab_channel=TheCodingTrain
- https://learn.gold.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=16022§ion=4