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Different approach towards more organic shapes. C&C much

appreciated. Thanks for your interest, Alex

It has an almost skeletal and scale like appearance, like a dinosaur that has been atomised and is starting to re-shape in another time zone.

This stretches the senses and captures the imagination.

A most original and creative image.

It would be very interesting to know what material you started with to create this?

Best Regards

Alf

Alf, I always find it fascinating to experience what others see in these abstract pictures. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts!

Don't know whether this is what you were heading for: the 'material' I started with was a formula for a double pendulum. I slightly modified it so as to feed the algorithm to my little software tool. Hope this answers your question. :-)

All the best to you,

Alex

I must confess, I'm as much in the dark as when I started.

I wouldn't know what an "Algorithm" was if it hit me on the head!

What I imagined was involved in the process would be that you took an image of, say a flower for instance, then procesed it and altered its properties somehow in order to arrive at this wonderful image.

Not that it matters in the slightest if I don't understand the way you arrived at the result.

For me, you seem to have mastered a technique and consequently produce some mind blowing images.

But I thank you sincerely for trying to explain.

Best Regards

Alf

Alf, thanks a lot for your enduring interest. I must apologize - the above answer turned out quite technical in nature. So let me make another attempt:

The creative process is probably best explained by comparing it to other artworks. As an example, consider the work of Gail Harmer. She produces beautiful abstracts / digital alterations by advanced post-processing of actual photographs, e.g. flowers.

In contrast, my pictures are purely computational: They are not based on any existing photograph but always start with a blank image.

The color and luminance of each pixel is then determined by evaluating some highly complicated mathematical formulas. For example, if these formulas return 0 for a certain pixel, then this pixel will be inked in black.

The formulas I used for the above image were based on the physical law for double pendulums. I modified these formulas so as to use them to create abstract art.

I hope this explanation is less confusing than the one I gave before. :-)

Best regards

Alex

Many Thanks for your enduring patience!

Maths was never my errm strong point : - )

But I am now much clearer about the process used to create these images.

Now for my next question: -  Do you have prior knowledge of the outcome of the mathematical formulas, or is everything purely experimental?

I would imagine that after adding or subtracting certain values previously, you will have a good insight to the effects they will have?

Best Regards

Alf

Wow, you certainly start from scratch, and I would have to study this for some time to be able to come up with such artwork. My kudos to you alexander, very impressive!! Your technique and the 'journey' getting there are far above what I could ever achieve!!!

Alf, thanks for returning again. You definitely ask the right questions!

Concerning general shape, pattern and curves, I do have a vague idea of what a single formula is going to produce. Complete predicition, however, seems out of reach - especially when several formulas come into play.

In case I am not satisfied with the outcome, I just go back and slightly change my formulas. I then keep repeating this step until I finally arrive at a shape / pattern that I wish to process further.

To a certain extent, this iterative process can be thought of as taking a picture with very long exposure time: You know pretty well what you want to end up with, but if the result is not satisfying, you try again, using different parameters, like e.g. depth of field, shutter speed, and so on.

In contrast, I do have full control over the colors. In particular, I can decide which parts of the image I would like to highlight and which parts I prefer to hide.

Summing up, this genre is maybe best described by the term 'computer-assisted abstract algorithmic art'.

Best regards,

Alex

Gail, thank you so much. I do very much appreciate your kind words.

I would guess that everybody has his or her own approach to creating art. Being a big fan of abstracts on the one hand, but having two left hands on the other, it seemed quite reasonable for me to dive into algorithmic art. :-)

Best regards, Alex

Again thank you for such a great insight to the processes and procedures that you undertake to arrive at such creations.

One final question......from a blank screen to completion, how long does it take?

I realise of course that it will be infinately variable according to the formlas you use and the cross effect of others, but if there is such a thing, an average time scale for completion?

Or maybe a more specific question would be easier to answer, so how long did this one take?

Cheers Alex

Alf

Hi Alf,

I was expecting this question ;-) and - as you already guessed - there is no general answer to it. One has to distinguish between the creative process (defining the formulas and its parameters) and the actual computation time. The latter heavily depends on the complexity of the formulas as well as the desired resolution of the finished picture.

The creative process usually takes 2 up to 10 hours.

Computation time for this one was about 10 hours. In fact, I once needed one of my pictures in 36 mega pixels resolution - that took more than two weeks rendering time ...

Best regards and thanks again for your interest!

Alex