Module 1: Generative Art

Prompt: For the first module of CPSC334, we were tasked with making a generative art program that changed depending on screen size specifications.

My Project

I created an application that creates randomly colored, randomly positioned circles of randomly varying transparency which expand and contract based on different sine calculations. Based on screen size, the number and size of the circles will change.

In class, we were introduced to the art of Manolo Gamboa Naon. One of my favorite pieces is the one below (bbccclll). What really struck me about this work were the interesting colors created by the overlap of various transparent shapes.
When it came to my own generative art, I also wanted to explore the color relationships between overlapping shapes of differing opacity but in a dynamic application - this way, there would be a constantly changing display of intersecting colors, which I hoped would be visually interesting.
To make it customizable for the space, I decided on adding or removing the number of circles on the screen, as well as adjusting the size of the circles based on screen size. This way, the overall vibe of the application would remain the same across screen and window sizes, but also would also be visually appealing on smaller screens.
I also decided that I wanted to randomly generate the rgba values and positioning of the circles. As I thought about the idea of “generative art,” I knew that I wanted to control as little as possible about the final result so that every run of the program would yield a different piece. “Unpredictability is part of the attraction” (McCormack et al, 2009).

I decided on using Processing for this project, which was a new language for me. It ended up being super fun to mess around with, and I definitely see myself using it for projects in the future.
In terms of adjusting to screen size, I ended up creating two applications when developing - one that automatically creates a fullscreen display based on your screen size (as per the initial project requirements) and one that initially creates a 1501x800 window that can be resized using your mouse. Both run the same generative art piece.
- The adjustable one was created with the intention of testing to make sure my application would run correctly no matter the width and height of the screen. It’s also a lot of fun because every time you resize the window, the application reruns with completely different colored and positioned circles, so you can really see how different the generated results are!