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Open Source Art?

Posted by michael on from the slashcode-vaguely-resembles-the-scream dept.

gz writes "The Whitney has put online an exhibit where viewers are encouraged to examine the source code of the program that generates the art, despite the fact that the majority of viewers have no idea what the code means. Projects use Java, C, Perl, Lingo, and VB."

11 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Obvuscated Perl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've seen some 'artistic' perl programs that the code, itself, looks like a camel, and, when run, turns into two camels (in code) that, when run, returns to the original camel.

  2. My graffiti kiosk back from '94 by turnstyle · · Score: 2, Interesting
    This reminds me of a kiosk I built for an art gallery show here in SoHo NYC back in '94. Basically, Curator let the gallery visitors add digital graffiti to digitized pictures of the art on display.

    It was incredible fun, and quite interesting to see how the graffiti layered up (all stages were saved progressively).

    If at all interested, I've got some lingering info about Curator on my personal page (Curator is about the 3rd project down)

    --
    Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
    1. Re:My graffiti kiosk back from '94 by turnstyle · · Score: 2, Interesting
      fwiw, the reason Curator comes to mind in the context of this 'open source art' thread is how user contributions made it increasingly interesting with each passing day.

      Basically, it started off with about 50 pictures of art, but in a month it collected well over 500 spontaneous graffiti'd images.

      Most were scribbly crap, but many were really quite good, and when you looked at the whole, you could start to detect patterns (such as the image of the baby that everybody got violent with: one made bloody, another with a syringe, another crying, etc).

      My point is that the user contributions really took on a life of their own, and totally surpassed what I had started with.

      And that's how I imaginge many open-source developers feel about their work.

      --
      Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
  3. I'll hop on the wagon and open source some art... by arsheive · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wrote something to generate pictures based on iterative choices from mutations of a blank image. Thing is, I had my head up my ass when it came to java at the time, and have not gone back to fix it at all. Y'all can feel free to check out the source and improve the hell out of it...

    --
    @AlexSheive
    :wq
  4. Re:try saying this code isn't free speech by stratjakt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A painting is art, a paintbrush is not.

    Similarly, the onscreen display could be considered art, while the code that generated it may not.

    Noone has won anything.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  5. Literate Programs by Macrobat · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I wonder what the reception to this would be if the programmers had all used Literate Programming. It's one documentation technique that's intended* to make source code and comments more expressive and meaningful, and (hopefully) lead to better code. It seems to me that the artsy crowd might respond favorably to a literate program.Google will tell you a little bit more.

    (*Note thatI said intended; I don't know anyone personally who uses it, but the examples I've seen are pretty interesting.)

    --
    "Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
  6. Re:try saying this code isn't free speech by sphix42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    >>A painting is art, a paintbrush is not.

    Bad analogy, I think. What about a 20' high paint bursh? What about one so small that it only has 10 hairs in it? Both of these are examples of art. Someone would need to put a lot of creativity and time into each.

    Art is everwhere and a blanket statement like yours will never be accurate.

  7. Re:try saying this code isn't free speech by iamafreeman · · Score: 1, Interesting
    the art is also in the creation of the brush strokes, so it is also in the key strokes.

    brush strokes create pictures

    key strokes create source code

    therefore source code is art
    if (action.stroke.brush == art and apply(empty_canvas_space, action.stroke.brush == art and action.stroke.keyboard == art) then
    apply(empty_text_buffer, action.stroke.keyboard) = art;
  8. Webcollage by quake74 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My favorite app (not in the exibition) which generates art is Webcollage. It's a perl script which collects images at random from the web and pastes them together. It's my xscreensaver default and I am always amazed by how FEW pr0n images it shows (last one, a couple of months ago).

    quake74

  9. How about *this* generated art? by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The 256 byte demo called "Tube" (Windows) from 256b -- a site for 256 byte intros.

    Among the most jaw dropping experiences *I* have had at least. What it is? Oh, just a rotating 3D tunnel effect in 256 bytes without Direct3D, OpenGL or similar graphics engines. :) It's generated on the fly as well, which makes it actually fit the "generated art" topic IMHO.

    Assembler source for compilation in NASM included.

    As some one said: "porn for coders". ;)

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  10. I've been waiting so long for this... by jdbo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...I come from an art school background (now coding db-backed applications for websites, came to the field via graphic design like everyone else graduating from art school in the late 90s...), and have _long_ considered that code reflects much more about a program than the utilitarian aspects of a) "what does this program do?" and b) "how well is it engineered?".

    My first "real" (snort!) job coming out of school was working with a team of other grads on the schools' website - within a week we were all able to recognize each other's code/quirks. And this was just plain vanilla HTML (among the least expressive of languages)!

    the more interesting aspect is that of "code as art", in which the particulars of implementation (esp. the person doing the implementation) can invoke an aesthetic response, above and beyond the utility of that implementation. (or, in other terms, "much of what makes art interesting is that which is both pleasing and useless").

    Anyway, I'm just happy to see that coding is beginning to be recognized as an expressive medium - whether it will ever be considered as such indpendently of the final product, I rather doubt (even printmaker's original plates/stones/etc. are rarely considered outside the context of an actual print run, and that medium is old old old...)...

    tangent: this is perhaps one aspect in which open source coding (may not) necessarily result in the most "aesthetically pleasing" code; while the actual architecture of the program may be elegant and pleasing, the idiosyncrasies of any particular coder will be overwhelmed by multiple contributions to a project, (outside of the project leads who may be able to enshrining their own quirks as style/pattern requirements). However, I tend to find most "art by committee" to be lacking a very strong vision, and instead ends up becoming a whole ends up as simply the sum of its parts.

    I may be wrong, just throwing the idea out there!