Teaching / Courses / Algorithms & Procedural Art Processes

Information and Syllabus

Algorithms & Procedural Art Processes

Instructor: Robert Spahr
Contact: rob@robertspahr.com  AIM: rospahr
Office Hours: TBA

Course Syllabus Location: http://www.robertspahr.com/apap/

Required Text:

Blinn, Bruce. Portable Shell Programming: An Extensive Collection of Bourne Shell Examples. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR.

Hemenway, Kevin & Calishain, Tara. Spidering Hacks. Sebastopol, Ca: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Description:

This course will expose students to very basic perl and shell scripting in a linux environment as well as command line image manipulation. Spiders are programs used by search engines to index the content of the Internet. We will create a "spider" whose sole purpose is art making, and it will be automated to go out onto the Internet and harvest content that we will then re-process to create art. The class will develop and share blocks of code that will perform simple tasks that will form the basis of our "digital toolkit." Using this toolkit we will create procedural processes for the generation of art images. After taking this course, students will have had an introduction to simple perl and shell scripts, as well as a deeper understanding of how technology, automation, and the Internet can be used in the creation of art. We will explore the use of chance as well as the implications of using the Internet as source material and its impact on authorship.

Syllabus:

Week 01
Introduction and overview of Algorithms & Procedural Art Processes

Week 02
Open Source Software, The Linux Operating System
Critique PROJECT #1

Week 03
The Internet, Client vs. Server, Search Engines, Spiders

Week 04
Basic Shell Scripting Concepts
Proposal for PROJECT #2 is due.

Week 05
Basic Perl Scripting Concepts

Week 06
Creating a Spider, Scrapping a web site

Week 07
Image manipulation using Imagemagick

Week 08
Midterm Exam

Week 09
Building a digital toolkit

Week 10
Cron, Archiving, SSH, Secure Copy
Proposal for PROJECT #3 is due.

Week 11
Critique PROJECT #2

Week 12
More Perl, Shell, & Imagemagick

Week 13
More Perl, Shell, & Imagemagick

Week 14
Critique PROJECT #3

Week 15
Final Exam

Project 1: Images of Chance

Experiment and develop a methodology of creating an image from appropriated images. Create a procedural process, written on paper, clearly expressed in a way that another person could follow your "process" and generate an image based on your rules. Be sure to incorporate some form of chance in your process, so that each time the process is performed, the final image will be different, due to some form of indeterminacy.

Project 2: Change Over Time

Create an automated spider that harvests images from the Internet, and create an algorithm that will produce a different image based on an external variable. Create a minimum of 25 images, all created from the same script. How does this process affect the traditional definiton of authorship? In what way does the use of chance affect the creative process? How does the role of "artist" change, when an automated algorithm creates your art? How does the lack of an original handmade object change the market for the art object? Is this art more democratic? How do you think this form of art making fits into the history of art?

Project 3: Information Images

Create a script that will produce an image that contains information about the world over time. As your script is run, have it map information about the world in a visual form. For example, when the weather in NYC is over 80 degrees, your image is created with a warm color palette. When the temperature is below 32 degrees, your image is created with a cool color palette. How does an art object that contains real time information about the world differ from the traditional role of art? Does this shorten the aesthetic lifespan of the art object? Or does it just add another layer of meaning? What is the relationship of the visual aspects compared to the conceptual nature of these images?

Evaluation:

Your final grade will be determined by the digital images you create, as well as their support materials, your attendance and participation in reading discussions and critiques.

Artwork will be graded on artistic, creative and intellectual merit.

Grades will be based on the following:

Web Resources:

Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial v1.05r3 A Beginner's handbook

Open Source Definition

The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Steven Raymond