I found a reference to this animation in an article entitled 25 years retrospective: from humble beginnings, computer art transcends traditional media: part 1 digital art in the January 2002 issue of Computer Graphics World (vol. 25, issue 1 (p. 18).
I had printed off the article in 2002 while I still had access to InfoTrac at my workplace (University of Saskatchewan Library). There were no graphics included when I had the article emailed to me. When I came across it again today, I decided to see if my local library had a copy on InfoTrac. Well, it did, fully accessible to library card holders, and with both PDF and text copies. The PDF is pretty awful, and the text copy has small pictures but between the two and my original text-only copy, I can figure out what text goes with what picture.
The article provides a good overview of computer art as found in Computer Graphics World. I wanted to see if I could find better copies of some of the art so I went Googling and found this animation at video.google.com. What is really neat is that it was created at a construction company.
September 26, 2008
Fibonacci animation from Computer Graphics World
July 29, 2008
One hundred and one shades of gray
Once upon a time (1999), John Maeda wrote a book, Design by Numbers, which was meant to assist readers in "acquiring the skills necessary to write computer programs that are themselves visual expressions". The "programming system" that he developed, DBN, is still available at Design By Numbers. It's a Java program run from a DOS window, so it starts from a .bat file, if you download it to use on your computer.
In the book, Maeda allows the reader to construct simple programs using straightforward commands. As the book progresses, the commands become more complex, involving a lot of typing if you want to follow his instructions exactly.
The first program consists of only one command - Paper 0, Paper 1, etc., up to Paper 100. Each program, when run, shows one "sheet of paper", consisting of whatever solid colour, or shade of gray, plus black and white, is requested. While the program will do this faithfully, it doesn't provide a way to show this result, except in the display area.
This animation is my attempt to show the 99 shades of gray, plus white and black, by using a program which will produce and display them more or less properly. Not as easy to do as I first thought, since I had to find a program with a colour set option for black to white, with 1-increment steps, which could then export to a video file which could handle the subtle changes of shade. I used Corel Rave 3.0, which I don’t believe is being made anymore - I got it as part of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Rave has a very convenient colour palette named ' percent grey' which shows all 101 shades that I wanted.
The next problem was to find a format to save in that would show all 101 shades. Flash works well but Blogger didn't like it. A .mov file doesn't show the shades. So I chose .avi, even though it is a large file, and the numbers are blurred a bit. A lot of fussing, I know, for something that is sort of 'geeky' but I like doing finicky things.
DBN wasn't developed any further than beta version 4, although I could find only version 3.01, but Processing, "an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions" sort of carries on the same idea in colour. I like the simplicity of DBN though, or I will until it gets too complicated.
This is a screen shot of the program in action. Very simple and very quick.
May 28, 2008
Such a Small Spider
These photos were taken last July with a macro setting on my Canon Digital Rebel XT.
The spider is Araneus diadematus. The Nick's Spiders website says that it is an orb weaver, common to Britain and Europe, and also, obviously, to Nova Scotia since I took this photo outside my front door. His pictures of spiderlings reminded me of the multiple baby spiders I've swept from my balcony and front entrance.
Shaun Ivory's Spiders website has more information about Araneus diadematus, including a really large photo at the bottom of the page.
April 30, 2008
Past exhibits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867)Graphite with white highlights on paper; 12 1/8 x 9 in. (30.9 x 22.8 cm)
Richard Wagner Stiftung, Bayreuth
Other archived exhibits have audio files as well as images. For example, Richard Avedon: Portraits has sound for some of the photographs along with the transcripts.
The Met is one art museum which takes its online presence seriously. There are comprehensive exhibits in many cases, and there's no searching around for image files, like there is with sites which provide only podcasts of the audio which a viewer would hear if she or he were in the art gallery. The Met's podcasts allow you to subscribe, listen on site, download episodes, and read the transcripts.
March 28, 2008
Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings / Lords of Creation
This exhibit has two online web pages - and two titles. According to the New York Times review by Holland Cotter "Mayan Treasures at the Met: Passing Strange Communications From the Beyond", the show first appeared at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art as Lords of Creation. The online exhibit is excellent, although I would have wished for larger images, or a magnifying tool. The presentation is in Flash, and once you enter a section, the only way to get back to the main page is the little curved arrow to the left of the exhibition title.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art called their exhibit Treasures of Sacred Maya Kings and it's presented in their standard format - some text and some pictures. It's not fancy but their Past Exhibitions start in 2000, with images of the works appearing mid-year. The pictures can be enlarged, but not magnified.
