Contrast Agent is a collaboration between artist Tim Richardson and creative technologist Sean Zellmer. The title refers to chemical agents used in CT scans that make soft tissue visible in x-ray imaging. We were inspired by the ways this process reveals our interior physiology, making the connection between our exterior and interior bodies transparent. 

Drawing on CT imaging, we explored fractal geometry as a visualization of human physiology. The geometry is constructed with cylindrical orbit traps that possess an inherent self-similarity. Much like the vascular system of the body, the orbit traps have a nested symmetric structure with finer details mirroring the overall structure. 

This symmetric structure became the core motif for the edition and is embodied as an infinite visual loop. Each unique artwork is bound to this temporal cycle, creating an animated ‘liquid physiology’ emblematic of the shifting realities we engage with on a daily basis.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Artist - Tim Richardson 
https://www.instagram.com/timrichardsontv
Richardson's work has been exhibited internationally and is in the Collections of Deutsche Bank and Sir Elton John. Three books have been published on his work, most recently the monograph Spiritual Machine by Prestel UK.

Creative Technologist - Sean Zellmer
https://www.instagram.com/lejeunerenard/
Sean Zellmer has made a piece everyday for 5+ years focusing on shaders. His work has been exhibited in Times Square as part of Decode Experiential and in São Paulo for FILE Festival 2018. He has collaborated with brands such as Lush and Vans.

Contrast Agent

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

Nine factions populate the virtual space. While Utopians develop the main net, the others work on their nodes building an economy system over the secondary chains.
Each station is focusing on one activity but there’s some dangers out there: Scammers and Hackers trying to survive doing obscure things.
There are also some drafts and blueprints of stations waiting for a faction to buy and build them. Who knows what its final purpose will be.

This project plays with procedural architectonic structures. I’m using a sci-fi style to present a virtual world populated by space station-like structures.

Use Mouse to Control the Camera.
Click: Stop Rotation.
Double Click: Reset Auto Rotation.
Press Any Key to Change Background Mode. Space -> Stripped -> Fog -> Transparent

Stations

Rapture is a series exploring magical seals overflowing their boundaries, gradually dissolving into the surroundings. It is imagined as abstract iconography for a fictional mystic religion. Rapture is the conclusion of a system I have been working with and perfecting over several years and it is the first time that it is presented completely autonomous. The series consists of computationally heavy art pieces, with calculations happening while the seal shake to contain its powers. 25% of the proceeds from this project will go to the preservation of the Ecuadorian rainforest Bigai through Randers Rainforest Wildlife Foundation.

Rapture

How can intent be communicated when ideas are filtered through a pseudorandom number generator? Simply looking at the output does not make it clear whether a stroke is placed on the canvas because of a decision by the artist or by a roll of the dice. The artist’s hand is more present in the process than the result; they choose the algorithms, tune the parameters, and prune the features. As I experimented with my code, I held a particular idea in mind, but I was uncertain how it would finally manifest. I pursued a visual composition that made me feel a certain way, and the visuals I landed on communicate my feeling better than anything I can put into words. Through Curved Air is about the challenge of communication. Regardless of the medium, I can never be certain that the message I intend to send is the message that is received.

Through Curved Air takes inspiration from musical minimalism, where repetition is used to highlight changes in rhythm and harmony. Every output is created by repeatedly copying a single shape. Each copy only has meaning in relation to the other shapes nearby, and that meaning changes with the context around it. Delicate structures form and are subsequently obscured by further layers, and though they may be hidden, they still affect the perception of the final image. Clicking on the canvas will start or stop the looping mode, where the image is recreated in a slightly different way. New facets are exposed as the composition changes yet remains the same. Just as I spend my days trying to share my inner experience through my art, Through Curved Air uses each shape and each loop and each token hash to attempt to create a common feeling between myself and the viewer.

Through Curved Air also takes inspiration from the paintings of Joan Mitchell. I was drawn to her expressive strokes, vibrant colors, and use of negative space, all of which come together to give a more intense feeling of looking at a landscape than just looking at a painting of a landscape. Her energetic marks clearly communicate that there is a human being behind the art. The marks of generative works are often similarly representative of the underlying process, but instead of drawing focus to the artist behind the piece, they draw attention to the algorithm. To convey human emotion in the way I intended, I had to use a subtler algorithm.

The technical tools to convey this emotion are tools I have been consistently developing in my practice. I love making generative art because I can design a system where I understand how all the components work, but they can still come together to produce a result that surprises me. The algorithm behind the compositional variation in my earlier works Coquina and Primordial is one I continued to evolve, and it rests at the heart of Through Curved Air. In fact, I pushed it further than ever, using it to create the individual shapes that form the building block of each output. This emergent variation permeates the work and results in surprising images that more closely resemble paintings than anything I made previously. I believe the potential for surprise is key to conveying emotion through code. When the possibility space of the algorithm grows too large to understand, the mind wanders to the person behind the algorithm. Perhaps the human element is the struggle to understand, or the struggle to be understood.

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Through Curved Air #30

Jacob Gold

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