RASTER sample output #
In general, RASTER is about the materiality of pixels and raster imagery. As opposed to vector representational techniques that rely on precise point to point relationships in space, rasterization structures visual information in a grid of discrete elements. This means that most images we see and interact with on a daily basis are made up of these finite pixel grids. An image's materiality is revealed when you either try to scale it up or zoom into it. It can be further revealed when using post-processing effects such as blurring or sharpening; these processes analyze each pixel in relation to its neighboring pixels and modify them according to some rule. RASTER attempts to have a discourse around these phenomena in the context of generative art and procedurally produced imagery.
The project is also formally inspired by the color field paintings of Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still, artworks that are as much studies of color as they are gestural expressions.
Sometime in early 2021, I became a bit obsessed with both dithering and the idea of a painting that would paint itself forever. This inspired a series of different projects made with Processing and a variety of techniques such as physics simulation, procedural animation, and recording mouse gestures. Rather than try to replicate the painterly effects of physical media, I also started to explore what a strictly digital painterliness would look and feel like. My speculation was that I needed to make the discrete pixel as present as possible. It eventually became evident that it was too computationally expensive to use particles and shapes to render the movement of brush strokes painting over and over, especially when having to update all the pixels on the canvas every frame. Then, I discovered shaders, which enable simultaneous access to all the pixels on the screen using the GPU. This was a game changer for the technique I was working on. Using shader feedback and simple noise algorithms, I could finally achieve things like real-time smearing and other fluid effects. These shaders form the basis of most of my current painting projects. RASTER builds on top of these shader painting techniques and is the most intricate program I have built using them so far.
RASTER begins with a grid of points (a 5x5 grid, randomly culled to either 24, 18, or 12 points). These points form the structure of the brush strokes. Instead of randomly distributing points on the canvas, the grid allows for an even distribution that will likely create a more harmonious composition. Each brush stroke is made by connecting two randomly selected points on this grid like patches on a modular synthesizer. This line is processed as a bezier curve with a randomized control point to achieve a curved stroke.
To animate the gesture, I derived my own algorithm that takes an array of points and interpolates from one to the next and loops back to the first when it reaches the end. Points were then distributed along the brush stroke curve so the path could be animated from start to end. Some randomness was introduced into the points array to give the stroke some extra wiggle.
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