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Complexification, the art of programming

I’ve often heard computer programming referred to as an artform, and no more evident is the beauty of code than in the works of Jared Tarbell. Complexification is a series of graphic images created by computer programs. Jared writes, “With an algorithmic goal in mind, I manipulate the work by finely crafting the semantics of each program. Specific results are pursued, although occasionally surprising discoveries are made.”

  • http://www.upso.org/ upso

    i had work in a show with jared once. i had never seen his stuff printed or in person before. it was so amazing in so many different ways.

  • http://www.upso.org upso

    i had work in a show with jared once. i had never seen his stuff printed or in person before. it was so amazing in so many different ways.

  • http://www.laurasu.com/ Laura

    Jared! Wow, you’re on drawn! Congrats. =)

  • http://www.laurasu.com Laura

    Jared! Wow, you’re on drawn! Congrats. =)

  • http://www.theheartfulblogger.blogspot.com/ tammy hanna

    These are beautiful. The bottom one reminds me of cubist art.

  • http://www.theheartfulblogger.blogspot.com tammy hanna

    These are beautiful. The bottom one reminds me of cubist art.

  • Keith Handy

    If you guys are interested in featuring more generative art, maybe you’d like to see some of my stuff. This isn’t a proper webpage, this is just me testing googlepages, so I don’t as of yet know how to nicely line these things up; but anyway you can click on them to see them full size:

    http://keithhandy.googlepages.com/

    Having been on a generative mailing list for a while, I’ve seen a few other interesting things too, but you have to wade through a lot to find the best stuff.

  • Keith Handy

    If you guys are interested in featuring more generative art, maybe you’d like to see some of my stuff. This isn’t a proper webpage, this is just me testing googlepages, so I don’t as of yet know how to nicely line these things up; but anyway you can click on them to see them full size:

    http://keithhandy.googlepages.com/

    Having been on a generative mailing list for a while, I’ve seen a few other interesting things too, but you have to wade through a lot to find the best stuff.

  • craftsman

    Very nice Jared. Your work has a depth that is wonderful. I can see a true soul has created it.

  • craftsman

    Very nice Jared. Your work has a depth that is wonderful. I can see a true soul has created it.

  • http://www.glorbox.com/ Glorb

    i had work in a show with jared once. i had never seen his stuff printed or in person before. it was so amazing in so many different ways. What a nice guy. :)

  • http://www.glorbox.com Glorb

    i had work in a show with jared once. i had never seen his stuff printed or in person before. it was so amazing in so many different ways. What a nice guy. :)

  • http://www.zanografix.com/ zanografix

    Its interesting how much this type of art has progressed. When I draw an abstract and convert it to a duotone, I have to adjust peaks and levels of each color. The gradients are pretty close and I used to have to make masks for everything. With 256 levels of gray potentially you could have 256 different masks. On the small repitions that Jared uses I could imagine thousands of iterations with the same minute changes. I have enough trouble with gray scale masks and the computer does a far better job than one tired brain.

  • http://www.zanografix.com zanografix

    Its interesting how much this type of art has progressed. When I draw an abstract and convert it to a duotone, I have to adjust peaks and levels of each color. The gradients are pretty close and I used to have to make masks for everything. With 256 levels of gray potentially you could have 256 different masks. On the small repitions that Jared uses I could imagine thousands of iterations with the same minute changes. I have enough trouble with gray scale masks and the computer does a far better job than one tired brain.

  • http://badbuttons.com/ Kate Black

    Jared just does stunning work. I would love to have a print of one of these.

  • http://badbuttons.com Kate Black

    Jared just does stunning work. I would love to have a print of one of these.

  • http://www.gregmccann.com/misc/saddle_mts.jpg Sagebrush Gardener

    I enjoyed these images, as well as others on the processing.org web site. I got an amazing picture from the Dreamlines program using “psychedelic” as a keyword – it was a haunting shadow of a beautiful violet face in an abstract sea of color. Some of these automatically generated images are better than things I’ve seen hanging on gallery walls.

    But what does it mean if anyone can make something that looks this cool with such little effort? Is it “art”, or will this style look as tired in five years as fractal designs look now?

    SG

  • http://www.gregmccann.com/misc/saddle_mts.jpg Sagebrush Gardener

    I enjoyed these images, as well as others on the processing.org web site. I got an amazing picture from the Dreamlines program using “psychedelic” as a keyword – it was a haunting shadow of a beautiful violet face in an abstract sea of color. Some of these automatically generated images are better than things I’ve seen hanging on gallery walls.

    But what does it mean if anyone can make something that looks this cool with such little effort? Is it “art”, or will this style look as tired in five years as fractal designs look now?

    SG

  • http://www.upso.org/ upso

    you cant compare it to something like a fractal. this stuff has a level of sophisitcation that takes it away from being eye candy. this is very much a form of art. no question about it.

  • http://www.upso.org upso

    you cant compare it to something like a fractal. this stuff has a level of sophisitcation that takes it away from being eye candy. this is very much a form of art. no question about it.

  • Scott

    This stuff is so endlessly watchable. Just amazing! I saw an article about Jared in Wired magazine last month and their description didn’t lend itself well to what he was doing. This did the trick! I’ve spent hours just watching my computer make a painting. I really should get out more…

  • Scott

    This stuff is so endlessly watchable. Just amazing! I saw an article about Jared in Wired magazine last month and their description didn’t lend itself well to what he was doing. This did the trick! I’ve spent hours just watching my computer make a painting. I really should get out more…

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