15 Variations



Project #1 : 15 Variations


In this project, I was challenged to make 15 different quick artworks with the idea of exploration and experimentation. For my project, I was inspired by ideas of randomness and how it could spark my own creative responses and promote playfulness. I used my background in computer science to code a random word generator that gave me a prompt for each art work that consisted of two nouns, an adjective, and a verb. In order to create my list of words I consulted a dictionary, my friends, and AI to help me generate my list. I then used these responses to directly inspire my collages. Examples of my prompts included: “orange spotted birdcage” or “white defective fortune.” For this work, I was inspired by ideas of how randomness in code is based off of algorithims because true randomness is very hard to achieve. I wanted these works to serve as a digital/modern attempt at surrealism by using random generations to potentially provoke new meaning and create a playful dialogue. 


For the first iteration of the project, my word generator just generated an adjective, color, and noun. Resulting in the following variations:

Orange Dusty Digestion 
Orange Spotted Birdcage
White Giant Oyster
Black Acidic Butter

From these initial variations, I decided the aspects I enjoyed were manipulating images in photoshop through filling elements because I thought it acted like a visual randomness and I enjoyed playing into the glitch. However, I thought my variations would seem more surreal if I tried to incorperate two different nouns and colors instead. This is how my code looked

 

And these were the resulting variations:

Utopian Vending Machine White Pinata
Red Goat Supreme Sponge
White Karaoke Abundant Oyster
Purple Milk Parallel Corsage
Yellow Horn Stinky Doorway
Rough Radio Pink Peanut
Yellow Clock Elegant Olive
Green Muppet Blue Battery


Bibliography

“René Magritte” MoMA. Museum of Modern Art Publishing.Accessed April 1st, 2024.https://www.moma.org/artists/3692. This shows the works of one of the original surrealists who I find most inspirational because of the way Magritte takes objects we are familiar with and puts them into a completely unfamiliar setting. I thought a lot about his work when generating ideas for my own.

Stott, Grace.“Works” Grace Stott.Accessed April 2nd, 2024.https://www.gracestott.comI am inspired by this Charlotte based artists because of her playfulness she employs utilizing objects that carry meaning in her own life.

“A. Michael Noll Artworks” Digital Art Museum.Accessed April 1st, 2024. https://dam.org/archive/noll/artworks.htmOne of the first programmers who used code and a computer to generate random geometric patterns and shapes to create digital art.

Reas, Casey. “INDEX” Reas Casey. Accessed April 1st, 2024.https://reas.com. Artist who creates his own data sets that then influence how his artwork comes out, like how I created my own word generator.

Mario, Klingermann “Work” Quasimondo.Accessed April 1st, 2024.https://quasimondo.com   Artist who inspires me because of his work that intersects surrealism and the digital world  through utilizing codes and algorithims.