Welcome to

left: Blossfeldt Fractals (detail) – William Ngan & Right: Crystalpunk Automaton – Wilfried Hou Je Bek
Metaphorical brings to us a new work based on the photographs of Karl Blossfeldt and generated using a species of algorithm similar to L-Systems. Check out the dynamically generated Blossfeldt Fractals here, you can also read about the [...]

Originally by paul from dataisnature.com on November 8, 2006, 10:43am

Circular Tensions, Homage to Oskar Fischinger – Harry Smith
Donjuanauxenfers has uploaded ‘Early Abstractions’ a cycle of early experimental films and animations by the great Harry Smith. There are a number of short individual films on the compilation although they are presented as one long stream in this context.
Part 1 contains three films that are [...]

Originally by paul from dataisnature.com on November 16, 2006, 7:31am

Stringlattice() (detail) & Matrix() (detail)
Reese Inman uses computer algorithms to provide a map or blueprint for the construction of her paintings. Like a freeze frame from Conway’s Game of Life, and intricate mappings of other rare Cellular Automata, her paintings shimmer with pixillated light. From afar its is possible to imagine the final output [...]

Originally by paul from dataisnature.com on March 26, 2007, 3:31am

Spin Cycle by Spencer Kiser is a turntable that allows the user to navigate color and aural spaces. It’s a plain ordinary turntable, surmounted by a webcam. On the same turntable, there are some colored plexiglass discs (shoot by the camera). Depending on chromatic combinations and on the dj’s juxtapositions, sounds are produced. During

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on March 13, 2007, 3:34am

After investigating on ’semantic capitalism’ and ‘taylorisation of speech’ with the project ‘Google Adwords’, Christophe Bruno reflects on the economic dynamics of collective hallucination. According to the French net artist “The Web, specifically in its version 2.0, is an implementation of control

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on March 19, 2007, 5:45am

In a supposed free-speech society, control over public spaces is paradoxically becoming tighter and tighter and advertising looks more and more like propaganda. Surrounded by ads communicating always the same messages, people are getting used to such a standard. Art then intervenes to alert

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on March 22, 2007, 11:27am

‘Rediscover analog’ sounds like the guideline for many contemporary digital artists who research in the audio-visual field. Combining this attitude with the desire of going over the limits imposed by a specific technology you get a project like ‘Synchronator‘, analog sound and video signal hacking by Dutch artists Bas van Koolwijk and Gert-Jan Prins. The duo,

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on February 25, 2007, 6:08pm

How does generative art relate to semiotic? Does the randomic association between the signifier and the signified blur the process of meaning construction? If you adehere to the interpretative perspective, that includes the context as well as the interpreteur as parts of the communication process, it doesn’t.

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on February 27, 2007, 7:28am

In a special edition of El Pais Digital reporting the Arco festival in 2001, the Spanish artist Ricardo Iglesias, one of the net art pioneers in his country, said that nothing or almost nothing (”only cliché”) can be said about net art in five or six lines. However he mentioned a series of isolated topics that

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on March 7, 2007, 4:34pm

CD + dvd C0C0S0L1DC1T1
The beginning of the first video works by Julio Soto, ‘The Possibility Of Utopia’, looks like taken from Peter Cook’s radical project ‘Plug City’ or from another artwork shown at the famous Archigram exhibition in 1973. It’s a very imaginative meta-narration that takes place in the unknown

Originally from Neural.it :: media culture, hacktivism on March 9, 2007, 4:53am

Over the coming months ill be posting a lot of images from my explorations with the fantastic software – vvvv from Meso.

“vvvv is a toolkit for real time video synthesis. It is designed to facilitate the handling of large media environments with physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, audio and video that can interact with many users simultaneously. “

It is a modular programming environment with similarities to Max/Msp except its pc only, and free, with a supportive group of practitioners and healthy development scene.

At the moment im mainly learning from hacking existing patches apart and together but as i learn more ill be posting the results and resources up here. For now a few screenshots from my exisiting experiments……..

Originally from seen on March 16, 2006, 5:08pm

Going to birmingham tomorrow to visit VIVID
They are showing a series of films by Woody and Steina Vasulka

“Steina and Woody Vasulka are widely acknowledged to be leading exponents in the field of media art. Their body of work is unique; spanning the entire range of formats and confirgurations of electronic media; single and multiple screen video, live performance, real time processing, installation and interactive technology. From an historical view point (insofar as we can consider the short history of media art) their contribution is evolutionary.”

The film screening which finishes on Saturday is part one of an ongoing exhibition.
Part two consists of exhibtions of their installations and culminates in a talk hosted by the artists, followed by a pratical workshop exploring interactivity.
Ive just banged my application in the mail. Fingers crossed.

Originally from seen on March 16, 2006, 5:48pm

Went to the Vasulka exhibition at VIVID in Birmingham.
Lots of video goodness – No 54, Artifacts, C-Trend, Violin Power and The Art of Memory all stood out.

Violin Power

Remember theres more to come – Part 2 will focus on their installation art and features Theatre of Hybrid Automata and Machine Vision.ont>
It runs from 13th April until 6th May at Vivid.

Theatre of Hybrid Automata

There will also be a talk and workshop by the Vasulkas in April.
More details to follow….

Originally from seen on March 20, 2006, 1:40pm

Lately i have become interested in perlin noise, a function which attempts to construct randomly varied values which mimic the naturally ocurring randomness of nature. Many natural phenomena display this random variation from the waves in the ocean to the distribution of grass on a field. Developed by Ken Perlin who used it to control the texture generation in TRON, it is now used in computer graphic applications to produce effects such as fire and clouds.


an example of perlin noise to create natural environments
rendered with terragen

Using the software VVVV i have been experimenting with perlin noise – rendering it onto a grid and controlling it with oscillators.

when moving they appear as natural waves with slowly evolving patterns. Its remarkable how human eyes see nature in numbers.
In future i intend to develop the process to produce a controllable morphing landscape synth.

more pics to follow….

Originally from seen on March 15, 2006, 1:22pm

This is the first post in a new section which looks at heroes and instigators of computer and video art. The series will begin with Lillian Schwartz.

Lillian Schwartz is a pioneer of computer generated art. A trained illustrator and painter, she began experimenting with the computer as a tool for the creation and manipulation of works of art. Throughout the seventies and eighties she created numerous visionary films exploring abstract computer animation usually with killer soundtracks. Over this time she collaborated with other talents such as Kenneth Knowlton, John Claude Risset and Max Mathews as well as other leading scientists, engineers, physicists, and psychologists and developed work with Bell Labs and Experiments with Art and Technology (EAT).



I was lucky enough to see many of her outstanding works at Lovebytes festival many years ago and again in Leeds at the Evolution festival a couple of years later. Her work is often incredibly playful and defined an abstract aesthetic which celebrates computer imagery on its own terms.

“Speaking from my own experience, it depends on my mood at the time of editing images into their final film form that decisions as to which of the many elements are brought out of their general order, out of their appointed array, and raised together to a new order and form.
Even among the more recent artists Delacroix, Cezanne, and Matisse, the same desire for system and regularity for an ordered universe seem to dominate.”

Lumen Arts and curator Greg Kurcewicz have put together a touring film and video programme of her work – A Beautiful Virus Inside the Machine – which is still shown occasionally.

Look out for it if it passes through a town near you…..

Originally from seen on March 21, 2006, 6:58pm