prosthetic knowledge

Structures 4 by Atelier Olschinsky 

Another set of illustration work by an artist who successfully adopts an abstract realism approach. In this collection, familiar urban motifs become recursive fractal compositions with a surreal structural effect.

More Here
Previous work by the artist covered on this blog

The Art Of Alexandra Roozen 

Hand-drawn abstract monochrome art with algorithmic, patterned and digital feel.

More work can be found at the artist’s website here

The British Countryside Generator 

Indie gaming level creator using procedural methods - “In short: maths lets us do what our budget does not.”

The British Countryside Generator, as we’re calling it, is our procedural world engine for Sir You are Being Hunted. It’s plugged into Unity, which we are using as our overall development toolbox. It’s still a work in progress, but already delivers much of what we want for our game world, without us having to hand-place environmental features, as you might in traditional level editing. You can see some examples of the environments produced by our system here and here.

There are a few main reasons that we chose to use procedural generation over less code-based approaches. The most important one, of course, is that as a small independent developer we could never afford the resources, production time, or team size to produce the large, explorable game worlds that we all love at Big Robot. Procedural content generation allows us to use sneaky maths and coding to overcome many of those issues and stay closer to the open world style vision that we are aiming for. Another reason for using procedural techniques is that it gives us the ability to generate a huge number of environments that will be unique to each player and really increase the levels of replayability and emergence in the game.

More Here

New Work From Viktor Timofeev

Artist inspired by 3D gaming architecture has taken a new direction in his paintings. Before, it was much closer to wireframes, bold geometric angular shapes and light washes. Now, whilst still retaining his eye for ‘cyber-architecture’, has upgraded his pallette to create richer abstract worlds.

You can follow his Tumblr blog here

An optical illusion animation by intothecontinuum which plays on what you see depending on the angle of your monitor:

The second GIF is supposed to simulate what the first GIF may look like if viewed with your monitor angled downwards. It is the same as the first except the brightness was increased using Photoshop.

Mathematica code:

R[n_] := (SeedRandom[n]; RandomReal[])
G[A_, s_, c_, T_, x_] := A*T*Exp[-(x - c)^2/s]

ListAnimate[
 Show[
   Table[
    Plot[
     100 - n + 
     Sum[G[.05, 6, 100*R[n], 
                 Sum[G[1, .01, k - R[2 n], 1, m/100 + t], 
                 {k, -3, 3, 1}], 
                x],
     {n, 1, 100, 1}], 
   {x, -10, 110}],
    PlotStyle -> Directive[Black], PlotRange -> {{-10, 110}, {0, 100.5}},
    Filling -> Axis, FillingStyle -> White, Axes -> False, AspectRatio -> Full, 
    ImageSize -> {500, 700}],
  {n, 0, 100, 1}]],
{t, 0, .95, .5}, AnimationRunning->False]

Geometry Daily 

Tumblr blog by designer @tilman who creates a geometric composition everyday:

Why are you doing this?
I love it. I get a serious flow when I draw simple shapes, combine them and experiment until they start to “sing”. I’m a designer with all my heart. It’s an experiment. A journey into a world of possibilities.
Also I am currently taking a year off of “normal” agency design work. Until September 2012 I stay at home and look after my two little kids while my wife returned to her full-time job. Doing this graphics project besides my dad duties will keep me on my designer’s toes.

Why geometry?
I love geometry. Lines, curves, rectangles, circles, triangles are a simplification of our real world but also their building blocks. Geometry, like physics or mathematics, defines how our world is constructed. I find endless beauty in this construction. I see god in there.

You can see more and follow the blog here

Codeable Objects 

Processing coding library for designing physical objects like the ones pictured above using geometric computation:

Codeable Objects is a library for Processing that enables novice coders, designers and artists to rapidly design, customize and construct an artifact using geometric computation and digital fabrication. The programming methods provided by the library allow the user to program a variety of structures and designs with simple code and geometry. When the user compiles their code, the software outputs tool paths based on their specifications, which can be used in conjunction with digital fabrication tools to build their object. 

More about how this works can be found at High-Low Tech here

Wooden Clockwork Fractal Computer

Blog by Brent Thorne documenting the development of his clockwork wooden computer designed to calculate and draw fractals:

I’ve been working on this for a while now.  Its a wooden computer that computes continuous self-similar fractals.  I’ll post the working model of a general computer implemented in gears as soon as I get some laser cutter time to complete the counter/comparator unit. 

How the hell is this supposed to work?

I could tell you that it took years and years of research and development to create a theory of computation that could be implemented in wood, but alias it would be untrue.  The idea was formed after only a few reductions and one night when I couldn’t get to sleep.  You see, computers are much simpler than your teachers might of taught you in school.  You don’t even need the Boolean logic primitives to create a computer.  These so called primitives are merely symbolic.

The most primitive computer is comprised of only two parts and from these two parts we can create all others.  Those two parts are memory and a comparator.  Some may claim that any practical computer must also have input and output, but that just is memory, or registers, memory again, or an ALU, nope that’s a comparator.

We can further delineate memory into two types, read-only and read-write.  We need the read-write type of memory to store temporary values for comparison.  For example, read-write memory could be a toggle or counter.  Read-only memory is convenient for storing tables or a program, however these two examples are symbolic and not necessary for computation.  An example of read-only memory is pegs in a disc, where the presents of a peg represents a symbol.

The true heart of a computer is the comparator.  A comparator simply compares two values.  One of those two values was read from memory previously and the other value is read at the current position in memory.

Now that we have our fundamental blocks we can start creating all the other complications that are common to modern computers. 

You can find more information about the project at the blog here, including some videos of prototypes in action.

16th Century Geometric Perspective Illustrations

Found at BibliOdyssey, a collection of mathematical illustrations found in an obscure paper manuscript.

The album of geometric and perspective drawings (Codex Guelf 74. 1. Aug. fol.) from the 1500s is available online from Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.

It consists of more than thirty watercolour sketches of polyhedra^ or, as the Latin title on one of the images above has it, perspectives of the regular solids (a standard descriptive name, originating with Plato and Euclid).

More information and examples can be found at BibliOdyssey here

Mineral Fractal

Not much information about this, other than what you can see in the above photograph. A fractal-like form found in mixed minerals - photograph taken by Pascal Petit.

[link to Flickr page]

The Wire Sculptures of Ruth Asawa 

Synaptic Stimuli has introduced me to the artist and her works, which are both mathematical yet human from their construction.

From the artist’s website:

Ruth Asawa is an American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture, public commissions, and her activism in education and the arts. In San Francisco, she has been called the “fountain lady” because so many of her fountains are on public view.

When Ruth was 16, she and her family were interned along with 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry who lived along the West Coast of the United States. For many, the upheaval of losing everything, most importantly their right to freedom and a private, family life, caused irreparable harm. For Ruth, the internment was the first step on a journey to a world of art that profoundly changed who she was and what she thought was possible in life. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she reflected on the experience: “I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am.”

More great examples of her work can be seen at Synaptic Stimuli here
The Artists own website can be found here

Note: Synaptic Stimuli has a sister Tumblr blog called ‘Delicious Dimension’ which you can see here

Meta by Lukasz Karluk [aka julapy]