Dr. Woohoo!

The hyper-talented Lee Brimelow and MNR show-n-tell different plug-ins from the present and future of plug-in development for the Creative Suite @ MAX 2009. This is a great video for Flash / Flex developers as well as a primer for designers to see what is possible when you connect-the-dots between code your favorite CS applications.

Celeste Motus, II movimento from dottore on Vimeo.

Continuing on my quest to rid the world of ugly color palettes, I have created a couple of new color palette options – leveraging Adobe Illustrator’s color tools, Kuler and In The Mod: Color Analytic applications – for openFrameworks (OF) and vvvv artists/developers. The incredibly talented defetto (check out his new site at abstractbirds.com) helped push me and developed the vvvv Patches and I received excellent beta testing support from vadim.

There are two types of colors tools that I will share with you: 1) Scripts that run within Illustrator and 2) several stand-alone applications, both of which export the color palettes as XML files in a format that’s compatible with OF and vvvv.

Kuler > Illustrator CS4 > openFrameworks
Illustrator has some incredible tools for editing color palettes as individuals or in groups. Simply create a color group, drop some color swatches in that group and double click it to explore all of your editing options (and/or check out Adobe’s online help for editing colors here). What most people may not realize is that via an ExtendScript – Adobe’s enhanced version of Javascript – can automatically determine how many colors and groups there are in a Swatches Panel and then make additions, changes, deletions or simply retrieve more information about each swatch, e.g., what the RGB values are of each swatch. Combined with the ability to read and write files, we can easily import and export colors to / from whatever formats we want. Unfortunately if we tried this in Photoshop, we would fail because our script wouldn’t be able to tell us how many swatches we have due to self-imposed limitations from Adobe [ I love you guys but come on, I've begged for this for how many years? ].

In the following video, I will walk you through the process of installing the ExtendScript, selecting a group of colors from the Kuler extension in Illlustrator, exporting them and importing them into openFrameworks.

Kuler > Illustrator > openFrameworks from dr woohoo on Vimeo.

This tutorial was built on a Mac using Adobe Illustrator CS4, Xcode and the fat version of openFrameworks v006 with the following addons (ofxTuio, ofxMSAFluid, ofxMSAInteractiveObject, ofxXmlSettings and ofxSimpleGuiToo).

1. ofxMSAFluid
for the kuler > AI > OF integration, as i mentioned previously, i’m using memo’s sweet ofxMSAFluid. the first thing you’ll want to do is follow memo’s instructions on downloading the OF addons for ofxMSAFluid here: memo.tv/ofxmsafluid. once you can build and run that project proceed to the next step.

2. kuler + ai magic
download and unzip the OF and the AI script from here: drwoohoo.com/downloads/Kuler_AI_OF.zip.

3. after completing steps 1 + 2, watch the video again if need be… the script + OF code will make more sense at that point.

Kuler > Adobe Illustrator CS4 > vvvv
For vvvv lovers, download the script that I wrote and vvvv Patches via defetto from here and follow the same process as described in the video up to ~4:30. Further instructions can be found in the download in the ReadMe-Kuler 2 vvvv.pdf.

ITM: Your Images and ITM: Webcam > openFrameworks
As previously mentioned, the second set of color tools for openFrameworks involves two stand-alone applications. The first, In The Mod: Your Images allows you to drag-n-drop images from your computer onto the application which then extrapolates the colors, analyzes and visualizes them and enables you to save then either directly to Illustrator or Photoshop or as XML files for Processing, openFrameworks or vvvv. In The Mod: Webcam supports the color functionality, however it lets you quickly capture colors via the video streaming in from your Webcam.

How do you save the colors from ITM: Your Images or ITM: Webcam to use in vvvv?
After selecting a palette, click on the vvvv icon (it’s black with white copy and says ‘vvvv’ on it), fifth to the left in the bottom-right corner of the application. A save dialog window will open. Select the location you would like to save it.

How do you import the colors into vvvv?
To import the XML color palette (as an xml file that includes the following variables: red, green, blue, frequency, relative frequency, and cumulative relative frequency) into vvvv you will need the following:

1) The latest version of vvvv
2) Download the vvvv Patches from here. Read the file ReadMe-In The Mod 2 vvvv.pdf for step-by-step instructions. As a bonus, there is an Illustrator script and set of instructions (ReadMe-Kuler 2 vvvv.pdf) on how to export color palettes directly from Illustrator.

Dr. Woohoo –> HYPE –> AIR –> Illustrator from Joshua Davis on Vimeo.

Here’s a new HYPE video sneak peek from Dr. Woohoo.

When a great team of people start rallying behind a great concept… you get “make magic” buttons.

Then when you start talking about “multi-user” art creation and the ability for each participant to render the current state of the work in real time in illustrator… the future is looking really sexy.

Especially when it comes to this idea of editions. Editions has always existed as a duplicate of an original… an original that never changes. This presents a great opportunity to create editions… of a current state of an original that is ALWAYS changing… and modified by the public.

hype.joshuadavis.com

Branden Hall, Joshua Davis, Dr. Woohoo, Andy McDonald

Genetic Architectures vol II

Genetic Architectures vol II explores, through theory and practice, how algorithms can sculpt architecture coming from the perspective at ESARQ - UIC (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya) Barcelona. This is not a book where the code is exposed, unfortunately, however with articles from Alberto T. Estavez, Evan Douglis, Francois Roche and the well-thought out and eloquent prose of Karl Chu, I highly recommend it for any artist using code to generate their artwork and who is interested in knowing more about what magic is possible. Here are two ( GenCity | The Floral Obsession | Christina Cogdell’s lecture Metaphor, Ideology, or Process? | Digital-Botanic Architecture II the latest book by Dennis Dollens, the editor of Genetic Architectures vol I, which includes a free pdf version and a lot of Rhino work ) accompanying websites that I think you will enjoy. 

Autogenic Structures on Amazon

After reading the article by Douglis in Genetic Architectures vol II, I was thrilled when I found this new book by him. Beyond the somewhat redundant articles complimenting his contributions and innovative approach to teaching and pushing the boundaries, I found the descriptions and imagery to be the most satisfying. I was also surprised at how many times Processing was referred to. I would have rather seen less descriptions about Douglis and more examples of the actual Processing + Rhino code the articles so often referred to.

Algorithmic Architecture on Amazon

Kostas connects the dots between the concepts of modern computational theories that embrace algorithms in what he refers to as algotecture, a precise and extremely detailed exploration into the language of and the code (Maya’s MEL scripts) used to generate said algotecture. It is a fascinating and ambitious attempt to contextualize the evolution of design in architecture, engineering and art that’s worthy of comparison to Karl Chu’s article in Genetic Architectures vol II. I only wish he had included more code for the sections on (Syn) biosis, Periplocus (Complexity) and Stochastic search. For at least some papers relating to this subject matter, you might want to refer to BioThings’s Alisa Andrasek’s list of references found here.

There is one correction I would like to make in relation to the following excerpt from the book:

‘Corporate architectural practices, such as SOM, NBBJ, or RTKL, use the computer simply as an efficiency tool while continuing to develop design through traditional manual means, and prominent avant-garde practices, such as Gehry, Morphosis, or Zaha Hadid, use the computer as a means of marketing and presentation, despite their unsubstantiated claims to the opposite. Occasionally, there are some young architects fresh out of school who may be able to use computational methods in design. Yet the majority of architecture practices, despite their appearance, are still developing ideas through their own human minds or by simplistic NURBS-based formal mongering.’

I have personally seen the computational design work created at Zaha’s firm and they have a firm grasp of using code to hijack and sculpt their commercial tools of choice. One needs to look no further than the work from Shajay who works in the Code | Design group at ZH. To be fair, this book was published in 2006, so it’s possible things were different at that point in time.

On a side note, Kostas was generous enough to provide us with the following pdf that explores + provides the code behind generating a 3d Fractal (L-Systems) in Maya using MEL:

Generating a 3d Fractal (L-System) via Maya’s Mel code

cradle to cradle on Amazon

On a path from Ernst Haeckel’s Art Forms of Nature to Janine Benyous’s talk on Biomimicry in action @ TED, I found cradle to cradle. C2C grabs you from the first page and pulls you into your living room to view the world from the eyes of an Architect and Chemist, McDonough and Braungart, respectively. Examining what chemicals are used and how they effect us, we travel from our living room to the structure of the house and outward through a journey that every person creating objects - from the designer, artist and architect -“ should read. The best part of C2C is when it looks to nature for inspiration in regards to how to build and not just minimize our negative effect on the world, but how to create and contribute with a positive end result.

Here’s a video of a talk that Bill McDonough gave at Bioneers 2000. The value of the 45 minutes it takes to watch this will pay for itself over and over again. It’s simply that good and that important.

——

After finding so much wonderful material on Architecture + Code, it begs the question, are there well-thought out books on Hybrid arts as well?

Glassblowing Chandeliers from bombonia on Vimeo.

“Find out about the many languages and tools available for both designers and developers to customize and automate Creative Suite for integration inlarger workflows.”

Be sure to check out the new Creative Suite Actionscript Wrapper Library (at about 33:30), the replacement for SwitchBoard and PatchPanel.

Flash on the Beach (FOTB) ‘09
As promised, here is a link to my slides + lecture notes. It took longer than expected due to reasons: 1) it was my turn to sit next to the sick, coughing family on the flight back from London, where in turn I was sick for the better part of a week; and 2) I felt I needed to exploit the format of the slides by explicitly adding detailed notes to each one – a luxury that an hour presentation simply does not give you. Be forewarned, the notes are random thoughts and it is in a raw and early stage of research. The insights and conclusions I make might lead you in circles, or you might find a grain of truth that is worthy of further examination.

A YouTube Channel for Intelligent Video Art
As I worked my way through several books on Cybernetic Art, Artificial Life Art and Genetic Art, I created a spreadsheet of the names, titles, urls, etc. of video art that continued to grow and grow and grow. I was able to include only a fraction of the video art within my presentation at FOTB, but I wanted to share the entire list with you.

To my amazement, a large number of quality, avant garde videos are available on YouTube. However, with the exception of the excellent MediaArtTube, most of the videos I found were not easily available, especially from an iPhone / iPod Touch. With that in mind, I would like to share with you a new YouTube channel: In The Mod: Video Art++.

The Vasulka Archives
As much as it pains me to find out that a book I desire is out-of-print and unavailable, a void of greater size is created when the same is true for an important piece of video art. There were numerous times during my research for my presentation that I simply could not find relevant videos online. During a conversation I had with Simon from the Santa Fe Complex, he mentioned the Vasulka’s Archive. It turns out that from the late 60s the Vasulka’s have amassed an enormous collection of tapes, papers, videos, articles or magazines of avant garde related pieces for their archive. The archive consists of artwork from a variety of different artists who would donate their personal collection to the Vasulka’s for various reasons including the fact that they knew the Vasulka’s would take great care with their work.

We are fortunate to have Woody and Steina still with us and it is the perfect time to explore a relationship with a foundation to digitally archive this library so that it can easily be shared with future generations. With that said, if you know of someone with a track record of protecting artwork with the highest amount of integrity as well as funding such an endeavor, please let me know and I will forward their information on to the Vasulkas.

Hiatus
On a side note, I wanted to sincerely thank everyone who attended the conference as well as John and Joe for inviting me back for a 3rd year in a row. I feel at home when I’m in Brighton and I love seeing all of my friends again and celebrating this crazy, wonderful journey that we are on. John + Joe put together a conference that feels more like a functional family getting together to share with each other wonderful ideas. With that said, it is time for me to hibernate for at least a year from the conference circuit and focus my energy on creating artwork using the tools that I have created as well as hijacking existing features and functions from a worthy list of creative and mentally stimulating applications. I look forward to seeing you again at some point in the future, as much as I look forward to creating artwork that I would love to share with you.

All that is solid melts into the air. from Sooz on Vimeo.

“Professor Charles Csuri’s computer film, Hummingbird, was produced by digital scanning of an original hand-drawing of the bird. The computer translated the drawing into xy plotting coordinates and processed variations on the drawing, assembling, disassembling, and distorting its perspectives. Thus the images were not computer-generated so much as computer-manipulated. There’s no actual animation in the sense of separately-moving parts. Instead a static image of the bird is seen in various perspectives and at times is
distorted by reversals of the polar coordinates. Software requirements were minimal and the film has little value as art other than its demonstration of one possibility in computer graphics.” - Gene Youngblood, Expanded Cinema