The Onion Code

"The Onion Code" 
Algorithm based analog print series

I'll pick up right where I left off.  Using the Perlin Hatch Code, I developed a while back I created a series of analog prints.  Unfortunately my printer just can't seem to communicate with the my system properly so I  tend to get partial images and misprints and all kinds of other errors.


So I embraced this and made a small 11 series run of prints ranging in size from 5"x7" to about 1.5"x3.5".  I overprinted blue and green variations of the code overlaying and altering ink densities.  I also cut out smaller pieces and taped them to larger prints to achieve interesting overlays and angles.

Processing: Saving Images

Saved Frame (Perlin Noise based)

So you made something cool in Processing... now what?  Whats that you say? you haven't made anything cool in Processing yet?  Here are some tutorials to get you started with this versatile and fairly easy to learn programming.  Additionally, Processing has excellent documentation describing how to utilize the most commonly used objects.

Now that you've begun to create digital art using code, you may want to share it with your friends.  Actually, that was probably one of your goals to begin with...  There are a few options that Processing offers right out of the box that allow you to make images and movies from your sketches.  Saving images is actually quite easy and only requires a small bit of code.  The object we will explore in this tutorial is called saveFrame().

Catherine Havasi: Digital Intuition through Natural Language Processing

ConceptNet Map describing
relationships between concepts

20110221

As my faithful readers will know, I have recently become very interested in data processing.  This season's ATLAS lecture series has been excellent so far, and I couldn't pass this one up.  Catherine Havasi conducts research at the MIT Media Lab in the field of Natural Language Processing or NLP.  This is the field that is defining the way  we use computers to analyze data, specifically in the linguistic realm.  For the past 12 years, she has been working on  a research project, Open Mind Common Sense, which shifts the focus towards Natural Language Understanding.  Using assumptions about how things work and the connections between objects and concepts, conclusions can be made about very large data sets.  She presents these conclusions in a three dimensional vector space known as AnalogySpace (built in Processing) and a database known as ConceptNet.

C3 showcase at DU

LED globes

I was unexpectedly invited to a new media showcase at the new Digital Media Studies and Electronic Arts, Media, and Design center at the University of Denver.  These are two degrees the university offers.  Their new center "C3" (Center for Creation and Collaboration) had just recently been finished and this was the inaugural gallery event.  I didn't know exactly what kind of work I'd be seeing, other than the work of students and instructors of the various programs.  I was invited by Synthia Payne who might possibly be teaching a Digital Audio and Telematic Music course next semester (if you're intrested, email her).

Hullo, My Name is Lily Foster - Hunter Ewen

Hullo, My Name is Lily Foster is a multi-media extravaganza conceived by Hunter Ewen. Extraordinary projections, paintings, poetry, and music by Hunter centered around a semi-fictitious character ‘Lily Foster” played by soprano Elizabeth Comninellis. There were live musical excerpts, aeriel dancing, and a theatrical story of a young girl coming to terms with her sexual abuse. Projections were designed in Jitter and Processing

Video Wall/Paintings

There was also a video wall with quotes to and by the fictitious Lily.  Hunter (Lily's) paintings were also showcased.