### Good job, Computer. Do that some more.

To what degree can we teach a computer to make a painting? One that resembles creation from the imperfect hand of a human. Here, the computer attempts to hide itself from the viewer in the details, such as inconsistent borders or uneven layers of paint. Intentional flaws that a human might make unintentionally.
Good, Computer is an exploration of not only how small cumulative inaccuracies create complete images, but also the forms and harmonies that those images evoke.

Consider the following:

***A set of 4 colors is to be considered -- singly as "actors," together as "cast." They are to be presented in 4 different arrangements -- as "performances."***
***Although they remain unchanged in hue and light, in "character", and appear in an unchanging outer frame, the "stage", they are to produce 4 different "scenes" or "plays," each to be so different that one and the same set of colors will be seen as 4 different sets, presented by 4 different casts.***
***And all this can be achieved mainly through changes in quantity which result in shifts of dominance, of recurrence, and consequently of placement.***
***The essential question: which group of colors is ready to lose its identity as a cast?*** 
***-- Josef Albers***

We can answer this question simply by asking ourselves why we're drawn to some arrangements more than others. In doing so, we consider not just tone, but also quantity, intensity and weight in order to form new relationships between the colours. And as such the viewer gives each image their own subjective personality.

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Good, Computer

This generative art project by CryptoWiener brings the crowd to the party and the party to your wallet. Create life on chain and give birth to unique citizens of algorithmic art in 32x32 pixels. Each character tells its own story of a wild and unstoppable event in history that we are all part of. // 

Concept & Design: Ross & Nissla //
Names: Jan //
Code: Porphy & Ross

geVIENNAratives

“little boxes on the hillsides, child” is a series of abstract suburban cityscapes powered by a program of LIA’s own design and development. Over the 25 years of her artistic career, LIA's working process has typically involved as much intuition as it does engineering skill, and this piece is no exception. Growing from an initial Processing sketch by way of the artist's careful selection of angles, transparencies, and line weights, a virtually infinite sequence of house-like forms appears and disappears. LIA conceives of her practise as a conversation between her own fluid concepts and the formal precision required of software code; when accidents or bugs appear, they are often treated as a part of this conversation and incorporated into the final work. In this piece the “cheeky blue” and “cheeky red” features arise from a bug in calculating the colour spread, and have been retained for their aesthetic contribution to the images. Taking inspiration from the song “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds, this piece is a contemplation of houses and cities. The cyclical relationship between the construction of homes, the lands and environments they have replaced, and the ecosystems that will eventually replace them is echoed through an infinite production of geometric compositions. “little boxes on the hillsides, child” is the successor of “little boxes on the hillsides, mother”, presented in the exhibition “Synthetic Imagination” at bitforms gallery San Francisco, October 2–November 15, 2021. The NFTs minted on Art Blocks are the children of the “mother” work: brilliantly colourful, they are rendered in stillness as an artifact of the mother program's generative output, whose ancestry can be activated on the Art Blocks website by pressing the 'a' key to reveal the animated process behind the production of the still image. Dutch auction starting at 5Ξ and decreasing every 5 minutes to 0.2Ξ (5→4→3→2→1.5→1.25→1→0.75→0.5→0.4→0.3→0.2), 25% of sales over 0.2 ETH will be donated to charity (5% to the Processing Foundation, 20% to COTAP - Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty).


little boxes on the hillsides, child

Spiromorphs are procedural roulette figures that investigate aesthetic relationships between form, symmetry and rotary motion. Variations are plotted using chained circles that overlay periodic continuous curves on an empty universe. The dynamic engine generates emergent morphologies of different colors and types while producing irregular yet harmonic forms. Charity: 5% of sales will be donated to National Alzheimer’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization helping families who suffer from neurological diseases.

Spiromorphs

Augury is a festive collection ranging from vast sorbet-colored landscapes to dense pattern iterations.
 
Augury remixes frames from LoVid’s red, green, and blue (RGB) luminous moving image work. For over two decades, LoVid has been making audiovisual works using custom-built handmade analog video (and audio) synthesizers. In addition to moving-image media, LoVid’s outputs capture stills (frames) from generative video and incorporate these into digital collages, textile designs, wearable works, prints, and more. An essential part of LoVid’s process involves translating signals and experiences from one medium into another. This conversion/interoperability appears critical for living in an interdisciplinary, intermedia, intersectional mixed-reality world.

With Augury, LoVid continues exploring on-chain processes that are inspired by the mechanism and aesthetic of analog synthesis.This collection builds upon LoVid’s first analog video synthesizer-inspired collection: Tide Predictor. Each output in Augury grabs frames from the Tide Predictor algorithm (using a unique new hash) and arranges them on the screen based on a set of instructions, possibilities, and limitations.  The generative compositions in Augury are therefore both procedurally related to and visually reminiscent of quilting, tapestry pattern designs, and tactile weaving. They use visual elements that LoVid often employs in static works: mirroring and repetitive looping, abrupt changes in intensity and detail, overlapping recycled patterns, and a colliding playful mix of lines and signals buzzing in different directions. 

The rules applied in Augury are primarily set around placing variable levels of density on the borders, the edges of the work, creating a sense of dynamic movement and discovery. Focusing the viewer’s gaze outside the center encourages shifts in perspectives, literally and symbolically. Augury is inspired both by the ideas and aesthetics in the Pattern and Decoration (P&D) movement and Glitch art. 

P&D emerged in the 1970s as a response and challenge to a predominantly white male aesthetic that dominated the artworld and historically marginalized art forms and practices of women and people of color. P&D took a feminist approach by shifting the conversation around crafts and decorative arts, placing them on an equal canonic level with western-style paintings. Augury expands this conversation to generative art and challenges hierarchies and relationships to status, economy, and desire. 

Glitch art refers to artifacts that were created by machine error, intentionally or by chance. Glitch as an art form originally emerged as a response to and celebration of loss in signals “fleeting artifacts that momentarily offer a glimpse into the inner workings and complexities of storage, display, and communication technology” (Iman Moradi, 2009). In Augury, LoVid incorporates a color palette, textures, and shapes inspired by both digital glitches and inherently unstable analog outputs. Aesthetically and viscerally, Augury finds beauty in discarded marginal dysfunctionality. 

This collection’s title, Augury, refers to the practice of interpreting omens/predicting the future based on the behavior of birds. Complex systems and environmental signals inspire and require attention. LoVid’s Augury harnesses and embraces this chaos, the turbulent flow of data, to bring you a sweet and colorful feast for the eyes, food for thought and beyond!

Art Blocks Presents

Good, Computer #71

Dean Blacc

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