The machine that I’ve chosen for generating art is that which is used to function
a walking toy dog that after a few steps flips to stand on it’s feet again. The machine upon stripping down the exterior, is battery operated. The battery functions wheels that allow the rotation of thin iron bar knobs along which are set the limbs of the toy. There are wheels that separately govern these limbs and another set, which is larger in number, to regulate a spring mechanism that facilitates the toy to flip on it’s limbs. These latter set of wheels move slower than the other to let the spring slowly move downwards upon which it snaps back up which in turn makes the toy flip. This toy because of it’s relatively heavy and many different motor activities makes it a preferable machine for multi tasking in the genre of Generative art. What I have done to modify the machine, is to detach the limb first to lay bare only the rotating knobs along which pencil halves have been attached using rubber bands to hold it upright from the front. Around these pencil halves I have attached ear buds that are supposed to dipped in color, to give it the quality to generate patterns upon forward movement which is governed by the pencil sticks. The iron knobs at the back have single ear buds attached to them which make a pattern as they drag along the forward movement. At the back, the head of a paint brush is attached to the knob that extends from the spring system so that at regular intervals, when it’s brought down, it presses against the surface, to leave a mark As i understood machines and the concept of generative art better, i got the opportunity to read published works on generative art, which helped broaden my perspective on it.
The medium of expression that appeals to the art community is that which gives great freedom to the artist as well as the art piece. More the amount of freedom presented, much more credibility rests in the art piece. And from the many fundamental questions as well as answers that govern the multitude of concerns of the art community, rises a question against the very credibility of an art form, in itself. This art form beckons to be called by various aliases, to head the various different sub-heads that it looks over. Generative Art as it is known over disputed understanding of whether it should head such revolutionary art forms it houses within, is in the simplest of words, a form of art that allows a free and random generation of an art that beyond a set of guiding principles, governs itself without any theoretic/pragmatic intervention of any sorts. To think of such an art to be made possible, it of course has to dwell in the future, than in the past/present. Innovative techniques of stemming the human intellect into an artificial body to provide for superhuman tasks, is quite the necessity. Thus, starting from a time which saw the end of a bloody era, of wars being waged against mankind by itself, started the noble glorification of extending knowledge and intellect to embody humanitarian concerns. With different technologies being developed to make things ‘simpler’, came the adversely overt concern of complicating the methods used in ‘making things simpler’ to generate something that has always given humanity, asylum, art. A development that started in the 1950’s, started as an alternative medium of expression, opposed by the ever so accepted forms of art, especially the fine arts. When George Nees exhibited his first work in the 1960’s, he created a revolutionary foreground for a then small group artists that chose to develop art, with the rapid growth edging towards the age of technology . The contributors of this genre, used various mediums, of electronic/ digital/computer technology to make Interactive Art, Evolutionary Art and much more. Creating a great foray of enhanced multimedia and graphics. The hostility of an age of great knowledge was now slowly being broken down to accommodate a larger mass. Using a set of pre- determined rules rather than a step-by-step algorithm, computers were given the time and space to do their own thing. Many subheads of generative art used music and video to enhance the experience the art provided. A lot of generative art also makes the audience an integral part of the final work, interdependently placing the viewer/’user’ as an artist too. But then again has a question been risen that doth taunt the existence of this art form, ‘ if an art being generated by un-emotionally inclined technology, be termed as art?’, as an integral part of art is it’s intrinsic value of emotions. To answer this, I believe we should pay heed to our biological selves which have been developed over a great deal of time and have been a product of a series of modifications which help make us objects that create art. In the same way, we ourselves have developed Artificial Intelligence with great zest and zeal, and should keep faith in this zest and zeal to not only help society but also please it allowing it to harbor all potentialities. This is an exquisite form of art that allows perception in the randomization that, at some point has tingled our imagination.
Generative art, a divergent or rather avant-garde genre of art was introduced to me as i took a course in Play & Invent as my project. Being a man who has at very few occasions handled machines, i was excited at working with and on machine functions which can be beautifully understood in the randomized patterns you can see.
The term generative art is used to classify an art piece and the process it uses, to describe random art generation through the independent and unattended functioning of a machine, in a progressive manner. Generative art thrives on the use of computer programmes that provide artists with an aesthetic, efficient and a much more systematic approach to the work. But what our objective, my course members and i, was to use machines that perform simple tasks (primarily toys, mini-fans and other spare parts), modifying their abilities to complete the tasks at hand. Ours was an approach to create analog generative art machines. Finally after weeks building up to the title of the course, we reached the ultimatum of presenting an installation. The response to this was exhilarating, as each one tensed over the conceptuality and practicality of each of these installations and that's where i started with all the others. As time passed by with ideas, i finally felt satisfied with the primordial instinct of hunger which stemmed from my own hunger for ideas. And all of this made way in form of dog teeth sticking outwards of an apple. I shall disclose my concept note and say no more.
SATIETY The essence of hunger is what precedes and dominates the appetite of the mind. And the absolution gained from such a venture renders the man oblivious of what the pangs had earlier made him do. You do not bite into your hunger, the hunger bites into you. The apple uses more calories to digest, than it provides you with. Bon Apetit! Today we presented and discovered installations, as done by those who found great acclaim in them. The following five were the ones that greatly inspired me. Seedbed, Vito Acconci. (1972) The Colour Beneath, James Turrel. (2013) Sun In Your Head, Wolf Vostell. (1963) Monolith, Gustav Vigeland. (1943) Weather Project, Olafur Eliasson. (2003) As i read and understood this installations done in different mediums of material and expressions, ore than any ideas i found these to help me through the confidence that these artists showed to boldly represent their ideas in such a revolutionary way. Today , the evening was good,
I liked it , The breeze blew pleasant, The sky shone orange , I looked back to see if it was the sky, Or the streetlights , The sky turned purple further ahead into the night, My stomach was full from a meal I had with a friend, I sure could’ve used a smoke , But I quit months back, I had been earlier spending my time on the terrace of an abandoned, Under-constructed building, I was there with a few of my friends , I missed the city I used to call mine , The weather would be the same there , At this time of the year, I wish I had you , With me , We could’ve seen the stars , And figure which constellation is where, We could’ve kissed each other a good night. As we understood the different facets of art, an important medium couldn't be left out of the 'picture', yes i am talking about cinema!
This series of images that has encompassed people from different walks of life from time immemorial has been a great way to reach out to larger group of people with great ease and comfort. And so we sat to view 3 extremely moving films that usher and extrapolate emotions of awe, inspiration and love. We started this trifecta of moving images with an episode of Simon Schama's Power Of Art which features in a documentary style of presentation the recreation of the lives of prolific artists ranging through a vivid timeline. The episode we chose to watch was that which revolved around the life of the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. A man with great zest and zeal in his form and moral structure, his principles were his priorities. Having been a great admirer of his work from a few years back, i was watching this film for about the 10th time and i felt no compulsion at any moment of the whole experience. I feel that this 1 hour documentary rather than preaching about his art techniques, concerns itself with the initial inspirations in the life of the artist, the humane behind the mask of incredulous achievements. Never does this specific documentary find myself at a more confident stance as it beautifully connects the humble life experiences of this great artist to his art. It rediscovers the art through the eyes of the artist, which is more than an aspirant could wish from a mentor. The next film on the list was a completely fictional Hong Kong Film directed by Wong Kar-wai which revolved around the melancholy that was in the lives of different individuals that dwell, for a brief period of life, in the same apartment complex. Both wedded and abandoned by their respective spouses, find a strangely soothing relationship in the shadows of social constraints. It helps project the overly dramatised emotion of love in a very different offbeat manner. It slowly unfolds a poignant moment of realisation of an impending farewell. This film used a very skewed sense of time to describe the proportion of it to human emotions which don't know of such institutions. The third of the selection was Pollock, a docu-fictional account of the famous Abstract Expressionist American painter Jackson Pollock, directed and played by Ed Harris. A completely dramatised version of the life of this prolific and largely controversial man, doesn't fail to reach out to the audience as they show him as the protagonist. It is an entertaining affair as the life of this artist unfolds in front of the audience. In this process of watching and observing we understood three types of films which are : Documentary/Non Fiction, Docu-Fiction and Fiction. Under these categories along a discussion we realised how each one of us chose to interpret each style differently, holding safely a reason for such an acceptance. We learnt and understood to accept any discrepancies in the interpretation of many, Worry would have me looking sullen,
On days I’d look at with an angle, obtuse, Finding elements of surprise my life would let happen, As I searched in the orange of the evening for a muse, The dawn would subside all such desires, Indulging me to binge in tea and tobacco, Whilst urine painted dog designs on tires, On walks that pained to digress into the morrow, Rain would find occasional comfort between grains of sand, Much alike the entrapment suffered by lust as it rests between thighs, And I might as well exaggerate the gesture at hand, To accommodate a symbolism quite bland, Of rhetorical innuendo, Drawing acute comparisons between remark and response, Both, reflexes that worry my brow, Giving room for great possibility; bon chance, So drawn are you in verse, Susceptible to a statement so terse. |