Fundamental Understanding

(Click image to enlarge)

It’s amazing how doing something yourself instead of just observing it can deepen your understanding of that thing tremendously. Above are 6 screenshots of fractals generated by a tiny program I wrote using only 153 bytes, which is 1000 times less than the size of the image itself! When stripped to the bare essentials, there’s really not that much to an iterated function system (the process behind the creation of a fractal).

Nowadays, computers provide the structure which carries an amazing amount of the human soul in it – communication, expression, creativity, connectedness. It might just be an external manifestation of the major shift towards freedom humanity is experiencing.

With that in mind, I have to tell you: the first time you run a program which actually makes the computer do exactly what you intended, creating something meaningful out of a bunch of dead numbers and instructions, it feels a bit like being god.

Experimenting

Sometimes, it’s important to drop all expectations and go at your task from a completely different angle. Life is about movement and change, so there’s no point in trying to stick to the same things forever. I have blocked my own creativity countless times by this, dismissing something before even knowing it.

When I first started building this piece, I found it rather strange. I’d been experimenting with some new techniques I learned in a tutorial I came across (one of the few that’s actually comprehensive, going beyond the program and right into the underlying principles), and the results were a bit bizarre. Anyway, rather than censor myself I’ll just put it up here, as I will continue to explore this style and see where it leads me. The sketchy feel has actually started to grow on me after a while, it’s a nice break from my usual methods.

So, what do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.

What do Androids Dream of?

Electric Sheep.org has the answer for you.

Why settle at just having your computer sitting idly on your desk, letting its CPU cycles waste away, when you can turn it into an outlet for collaborative, evolutionary art?

I believe the free flow of code is an increasingly important social and artistic force. The proliferation of powerful computers with high-bandwidth network connections forms the substrate of an expanding universe. The electric sheep and we their shepherds are colonizing this new frontier.

Not much to add to that… just that it curiously reminds me of a certain blog post.

Elementals

This is my interpretation of the elementals associated to the four classic elements. An elemental is a concentrated manifestation of the energy of a certain element, and is therefore very hard to understand or explain using only human concepts and language. I don’t pretend this to be a thorough description of them; instead I’ll try to come close to the meaning each of these forces has for me in particular.

Air

Air is subtle, spontaneous and light. It has great strength shown in a gentle form. It is unpredictable: One day it blesses us with a caressing breeze, and on the next a storm brews inside it.

Fire

Fire is energy of change, of chemistry or, to be more accurate, of alchemy. It acts in a concentrated form on a single point, waiting for the moment to be suddenly released, triggering the transformation of matter.

Water

Water is a soft but persistent force. It is the flow of life, of time. A continual transformation, tender but powerful, which stands in contrast to the sudden and violent fire.

Earth

Earth is the force that nurtures, the base of everything, the mirror of the universe. It turns inwards, where strong roots are supported, and seeds of possibility are nourished and protected.