Exploring Generative Media - Sonics & Visuals
"You don't have to understand what you're doing to do it." - Brian Eno
What is it? Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. An autonomous system in this context is generally one that is non-human and can independently determine features of an artwork that would otherwise require decisions made directly by the artist. In some cases the human creator may claim that the generative system represents their own artistic idea, and in others that the system takes on the role of the creator.
Generative Media - Today in class we defined generative media and created a shared Google doc to crowdsource the details about the topic. We then took some time to explore who created the conceptual framework for it and who's working in it.
Assignment 1 - Start a new page on your class website titled GENERATIVE ART. You'll make this page as a collection of your research on generative media and you'll be making your own too.
Click the google link below to "Generative Media Notes" and read them. Copy and paste them if desired.
Click the google link below to "Generative Media Notes" and read them. Copy and paste them if desired.
Assignment 2 - Click the "How Generative Music Works" site and explore. Add a "what I learned" paragraph or two to your page about the site and its content. What was most interesting? Take a screenshot or two.
The class was asked to explore options and apps to create visual generative media as well as audio. Many folks found great interactive apps but as we learned, generative media is a system based conceptual approach to making art and music. It is a algorithm that takes a few basic instructions and complex patterns emerge.
Assignment 3 - Try a generative music app or two. Download some apps for computer or device and try generative music.
Get some screen recordings and add them to your page along with a description.
Generative Music Apps
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5 Free music generators (non-AI)
https://submarinechannel.com/top5/top-5-of-our-favourite-things-interactive-generative-music-sites-2/
Assignment 4 - Join the Generative Art Reddit Community
Assignment 5 - Try Generative Visuals!
Generative Music and Visual Apps Recommended by the Pros
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AI Art Generators
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Generative Music Ideas
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SilkSilk - Interactive Generative Art
Create beautiful flowing art with Silk.weavesilk.com
Creating cool motives or mandalas with just your mouse or touch.
GPU Fluid WebGL Fluid
ExperimentEdit descriptionhaxiomic.github.io
Creating a background for your new LSD website.
Pt.http://williamngan.github.io/pt/
An experimental library on point, form, and space.
Chrome experimentsChrome ExperimentsChrome
Experiments is a showcase of work by coders who are pushing the boundaries of web technology, creating…experiments.withgoogle.com
Nearly everything here will entertain you for a while.
Three.js three.js — Javascript 3D libraryEdit descriptionthreejs.org
Another popular WebGL library.
LinifyCreate Line ArtLinify generates line art from an image using only straight lines.linify.me
Fade-in effect taken to the different level.
PhiloGLhttp://www.senchalabs.org/philogl/demos.html
Some implementations of the popular WebGL framework.
UpdateAs Pete Kistler pointed out, there is a new project called AIArtists.org and they have a nice list of generative tools at Creative Tools to Generate AI Art.
Milan Švehlahttps://milansvehla.com/
Create beautiful flowing art with Silk.weavesilk.com
Creating cool motives or mandalas with just your mouse or touch.
GPU Fluid WebGL Fluid
ExperimentEdit descriptionhaxiomic.github.io
Creating a background for your new LSD website.
Pt.http://williamngan.github.io/pt/
An experimental library on point, form, and space.
Chrome experimentsChrome ExperimentsChrome
Experiments is a showcase of work by coders who are pushing the boundaries of web technology, creating…experiments.withgoogle.com
Nearly everything here will entertain you for a while.
Three.js three.js — Javascript 3D libraryEdit descriptionthreejs.org
Another popular WebGL library.
LinifyCreate Line ArtLinify generates line art from an image using only straight lines.linify.me
Fade-in effect taken to the different level.
PhiloGLhttp://www.senchalabs.org/philogl/demos.html
Some implementations of the popular WebGL framework.
UpdateAs Pete Kistler pointed out, there is a new project called AIArtists.org and they have a nice list of generative tools at Creative Tools to Generate AI Art.
Milan Švehlahttps://milansvehla.com/
Music visualization software
Advanced Visualization Studio (Justin Frankel) (platform: Windows)
- Cthugha (1993, Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt) (platform: DOS)
- Magic Music Visuals (2012-2018, Color & Music, LLC) (platforms: Windows, OS X)
- MilkDrop (2001-2012, Ryan Geiss) reimplemented as projectM (platforms: Windows, Linux, Android)
- Neon (2004, Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin) (platform: Xbox 360)
- Psychedelia, (1984, Jeff Minter), an early "light synthesizer", did not use audio input but was designed to create visualizations in accompaniment to music.
- Pure Data (e.g. visualization of incoming music signals)
- G-Force (2000, Andy O'Meara, SoundSpectrum) (platforms: Windows)
- Virtual Light Machine (1990, Jeff Minter) (platform: Atari Jaguar)
- Visual Music Tone Painter (1992–2004)[6]
- Vsxu (2003-2014, Vovoid) (platforms: Windows, Linux)
ASSIGNMENT and RECAP
I hope you found some new ideas and approaches to creating media. We're going to go new places with this information and do some novel things.
For NEXT CLASS:
Please present your generative media page you are assembling on your class website. It should have screen caps and notes as well as your experiments in audio and visual generative art.
Post your compiled Generative Media Project to the top of the page. The final result should be a video with accompanying audio. The length is up to you but we will screen about 30 seconds of the project in class.
As with all projects in this class.. be chill. This is about experimenting, trying completely new approaches to communication and expression and not everything leads to a predictable end. Pushing the boundaries of the way you think IS THE POINT. You will run into technical limitations and be questioning your choices and that is all part of the process. I think it's far better to run into those limitations than to not try and surpass them.
I think the main goal here is to surprise yourself with the results.
Trust your instincts and avoid the obvious.
For NEXT CLASS:
Please present your generative media page you are assembling on your class website. It should have screen caps and notes as well as your experiments in audio and visual generative art.
Post your compiled Generative Media Project to the top of the page. The final result should be a video with accompanying audio. The length is up to you but we will screen about 30 seconds of the project in class.
As with all projects in this class.. be chill. This is about experimenting, trying completely new approaches to communication and expression and not everything leads to a predictable end. Pushing the boundaries of the way you think IS THE POINT. You will run into technical limitations and be questioning your choices and that is all part of the process. I think it's far better to run into those limitations than to not try and surpass them.
I think the main goal here is to surprise yourself with the results.
Trust your instincts and avoid the obvious.
Student Examples
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This section is just a collection of interesting videos I found. Watch and enjoy.
Use Premiere for Generative Music! Click Here!
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Let's Jam! - Download ENDLESS
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Class Generated Lecture Notes
GENERATIVE MEDIA
What Is it?
What Tech is needed?
What purpose does it serve?
-The purpose for generative art is for the artist to create a process for themselves.
-For example, natural language rules, machine or a computer program.
Why would people use generative media?
-People would use generative media to create music, dialogue, and marketing videos etc.
-Also, it controls the magnitude of randomness introduced during the generative process.
- It can be interesting to try something random and see the creative process and the outcomes of a project.
Where can people see and experience it?
-People can see it anywhere, really. Generative media is online and in apps, so if a person wishes to listen to generative media, they can easily find the proper song/playlist to do so. Animated (moving) screensavers are often generative art as well, so it can also be seen and experienced there.
How can people create their own?
-People can create generative art by any means, recording randomness or sounds they found worthy--they can also create their own art by using any number of free or paid apps and technologies such as endless art, radar, and weavesilk.
GENERATIVE MEDIA
What Is it?
- art and/or music created at random by an algorithm or system
- Brian Eno described that generative music must
- Change continuously and never repeat itself exactly
- Last forever
- Change continuously and never repeat itself exactly
- Can also be used for language rules
- Systems can be programmed to be fully autonomous or pattern based/based on chance
What Tech is needed?
- computer/technology/ AI
- Program that creates a process/has a language
- None (for ambient sounds)
- Georg Ness
- Bradley G Munkowitz
- Wassily Kandinsky - theoretical works, not generative
- Brian Eno
- Steve Reich
- Terry Riley
- Joseph Nechvatal
- Zach Lieberman
What purpose does it serve?
-The purpose for generative art is for the artist to create a process for themselves.
-For example, natural language rules, machine or a computer program.
Why would people use generative media?
-People would use generative media to create music, dialogue, and marketing videos etc.
-Also, it controls the magnitude of randomness introduced during the generative process.
- It can be interesting to try something random and see the creative process and the outcomes of a project.
Where can people see and experience it?
-People can see it anywhere, really. Generative media is online and in apps, so if a person wishes to listen to generative media, they can easily find the proper song/playlist to do so. Animated (moving) screensavers are often generative art as well, so it can also be seen and experienced there.
How can people create their own?
-People can create generative art by any means, recording randomness or sounds they found worthy--they can also create their own art by using any number of free or paid apps and technologies such as endless art, radar, and weavesilk.
