Gallery of Computation

December 31, 2004 5:40 AM

ComplexificationJared Tarbell 's summer update to the gallery is the most mesmerizing example of computer generated art I"ve ever seen forming on my monitor.The Sand Traveler is a rendering of 1,000 traveling particles, each in pursuit of another. Over time, patterns of travel are exposed as sweeping paths of color.
posted by hortense (18 comments total)

One final variation simply rotates the sand stroke 90 degrees, painting color perpendicular to the actual point-to-point connection. This is by far the most irregular of all the Sand Traveler variations, producing structures that almost seem nervously alive.
posted by hortense at 6:03 AM on December 31, 2004

Beautiful.
posted by Jimbob at 6:12 AM on December 31, 2004

I like the node garden.

This is good, hortense, thank you!
posted by kamylyon at 6:24 AM on December 31, 2004

Wow. These are buh-yooo-teeful. I wish I could hang about 20 of these on my wall. (Thanks for the link!)
posted by contessa at 6:25 AM on December 31, 2004

Before clicking on the link I groaned to myself, great, more digital "art", but wow -- this is stunning.
posted by Robot Johnny at 6:34 AM on December 31, 2004

absolutely incredible find, hortense. thanks!
posted by moonbird at 6:52 AM on December 31, 2004

Right purty.
posted by picea at 7:09 AM on December 31, 2004

Thanks for this, hortense, great link!
posted by jonson at 7:27 AM on December 31, 2004

I think mathematically generated images like this lie somewhere between art and natural beauty, but there's no doubt they are beautiful. Thanks.
posted by dreish at 7:31 AM on December 31, 2004

Buddhabrot!

Great stuff.
posted by strikhedonia at 8:04 AM on December 31, 2004

Awesome.
posted by Foosnark at 8:07 AM on December 31, 2004

Very cool. For some reason, Substrate makes me think of Frank Lloyd Wright.
posted by ssmug at 8:12 AM on December 31, 2004

Jared is my hero. More of his work can be found at levitated.net.
posted by gwint at 8:32 AM on December 31, 2004

These are wonderful. I think I'll get one of these as a gift to someone who I know would appreciate this kind of stuff.
posted by odinsdream at 8:35 AM on December 31, 2004

Wow, fantastic images.
posted by codeofconduct at 9:12 AM on December 31, 2004

[this is very good]
posted by DakotaPaul at 9:12 AM on December 31, 2004

Holy Pixel! Best of the Web! Why have I never heard of this Jared Tarbell before?

(hours later)

I particularly enjoyed his elegant presentation on Hatching Computational Creatures (Warning: the above page only really works (for me) in IE, not in Firefox. Also, examples open full-screen, which is lovely, except then I can't close them without killing IE, and they use up a lot of (my old) PC's computes. Still, it's so cool I don't care.) It marked the first time this longtime Flash-hater actually felt like learning Flash (one of the rare times I see source, too, but: what is a .fla? how do I open it? do I need to buy something to program this?) (Addendum: I still mostly hate Flash, okay?)

Interviewer: Is there any overall message trying to get out?
Jared: Computer Science is fun.

In my random clicking, I especially liked Quarter Round Mosaic and Invader Fractal. Oh, and Combinatoric Critters! Also: Moonlight Midi Music visualization. More pretty patterns.
posted by Turtle at 10:31 AM on December 31, 2004

Complexity is pretty. This is good.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:46 AM on December 31, 2004