May 2010

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Sonic Acts XIII / reviewed by Trace Reddell
05.07.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Top: RyNTH at the Planetarium Artis, Amsterdam [Sonic Acts XIII], Bottom: Slides from ‘Generative Spaces: The Spatio-temporal Subroutines of Runtime Planet Earth’

Trace Reddell has posted a comprehensive review of Sonic Acts XIII – The Poetics of Space at Leonardo Reviews Online. He wrote a positive reviews of both my full-dome piece, RyNTH, as documented in a previous post and my lecture: ‘The Spatio-temporal Subroutines of Runtime Planet Earth. On the former, a performance that took place at the Planetarium Artis, Amsterdam, he says:

‘Paul Prudence’s ‘RyNTH’ is a full-dome grayscale piece that frequently shifted from long lines and descending bars to vast spheres experienced from both interior and exterior vantage points. This was one of the most stunning uses of the full-dome that I have seen. The use of grayscale emphasized subtle contrasts and shifts from states of complexity to simplicity, all based on only a few basic, generative forms. The dynamic motility of these forms put the audience in motion both within the forms as well as in a space occupied by the formal structures. In this way, Prudence’s work visually and sonically enacted for me something compelling about the Sonic Acts XIII festival as a whole’

Trace is Associate Professor of Digital Media Studies at the University of Denver. He has a strong interest in expanded cinema specializing in the works of Jordan Belson and the legendary Vortex planetarium concerts organised and performed by Belson and Henry Jacobs in the late 60’s.

My Flickr Set of the festival, conference and art exhibit can be found HERE
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Flash Books [Generative Design]
05.07.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Top: Flash Math Creativity, Bottom: Fresh Flash: New Design Ideas with Flash MX

Between 2002 and 2005 I wrote chapters for a series of Flash books, published by Friends of Ed, exploring creative programming and generative design with Actionscript.

The first and probably the most well known of these books these was Flash Math Creativity [2002], a book of design experiment iterations. Fifteen artists made four code experiments and then mutated each experiment 10 times annotating the code, and explaining how minute changes to the code creates a wide range of differing effects.

Fresh Flash: New Design Ideas with Flash MX [2002] explored the new syntax and structure that appeared in Flash MX. My chapter , Experimental Interfaces, involved the production of a set of experimental GUI’s generated at runtime using the Drawing API and the new event model.

These experiments were developed further in Flash Interface & Application Design [2003]. Trig functions were used to plot elements of a multi-dimensional array generating spiral and DNA shaped data visualisations.

My contribution to MX Components: Most Wanted [2004] was a chapter entitled ‘Pattern generators, mouse toys & dynamic geometrical designs’ discussed three simple post-functional components for amusement and distraction.

Photographic documentation of the books can be found HERE
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Vague Terrain 14: Biomorph [Curation]
05.07.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Work made for Vague Terrain 14: Biomorph

Back in early 2009 Greg Smith dropped me a line with an invitation to curate an issue of Vague Terrain – the web journal of digital arts he launched in collaboration with Neil Wiernik in fall 2005. Being a long time fan of both Vague Terrain and Greg’s personal online writing project Serial Consign, I took up the offer and decided to work with a topic dear to the heart of my recreational research weblog Dataisnature.

One of the central themes over the past 5 years of the Dataisanture weblog is the use of code by artists to create biological simulations, algorithmic botany and computational ecosystems. Drawing on some of my favourite artists working within this paradigm, and featured on this blog, the idea of VT:14 Biomorph came into being. 10 Artists/writers/architects were invited to submit work.

Some keywords and ideas to reflect upon were: Morphogenesis, Algorithmic Botany, Emergence, Genetic Algorithms, Cellular Automata, L-systems, Bacterial Aesthetics, Biomineralisation, Autogenesis, Self-generation; Cellular Division, Cosmobiotechnics, Biomimicry and DNA sequences.

VT14 showcases the work of Kat Masback, Daniel Widrig, Biothing, Robert Hodgin, Emma McNally, Jon McCabe, Michael Hansmeyer, Wilfred Hou Je Bek, David Lu and Marc Fornes. You will find Cosmobiotechnic drawings and biochemical schemas, form-finding, algorithmic and emergent architecture, work inspired by Alan Turing and Ernst Haeckle, and a conjectural piece of Bacteriopoetics to boot.

Vague Terrain 14: Biomorph can be viewed HERE.