happy happy happy
March 30, 2006 1:58 PM   Subscribe

When all else fails, go to your happy place.
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posted by signal (25 comments total)
 
this site rox
posted by docpops at 2:00 PM on March 30, 2006


No forest with Heather Locklear?
posted by keswick at 2:02 PM on March 30, 2006


My bad. Didn't see I had to scroll down. What am I looking at?
posted by docpops at 2:03 PM on March 30, 2006


If you want to make me feel like I'm really lame, show me the beautiful things people make with processing and remind me that I can't get boxes to shop up right when I try it.

Much less get stuff like that to happen.
posted by illovich at 2:07 PM on March 30, 2006


docpops writes 'What am I looking at?'

Happy Place renders the resulting configuration of a system of friendly nodes. They are connected at random with preferences to nodes closer. Connections between nodes are considered friendships.
posted by signal at 2:12 PM on March 30, 2006


Doc, you're seeing examples of the output of a Java program. If you want to run the program yourself, immediately under the first picture are three choices: small, medium, and large. Clicking on one will spawn a Java applet that will draw pictures similar to the ones on the front page, although each one is likely unique.

This is REALLY neat.
posted by Malor at 2:14 PM on March 30, 2006


Doc, you're seeing examples of the output of a Java program

Technically, a prosessing programm running in the java virtual machine.
posted by delmoi at 2:22 PM on March 30, 2006


Yup, neat.
posted by Gator at 2:30 PM on March 30, 2006


I'm pretty sure my happy place isn't made up of bent coat hangers, dirty nylons, and blonde hair.
posted by crunchland at 2:33 PM on March 30, 2006


Interesting idea, but the images look like something the cat would cough up.
posted by maryh at 2:38 PM on March 30, 2006


I still like Substrate (and I thought I saw it on mefi). Best of all, it's now an XScreenSaver module!
posted by jepler at 2:38 PM on March 30, 2006


See, that's why cats can't get ahead in the art world. The really talented ones are always owned by philistines like maryh.
posted by nebulawindphone at 2:50 PM on March 30, 2006


For those who haven't heard of it, processing is an awesome tool for programming multimedia. It's similar to Flash in terms of capability (that's what used to be Jared Tarbel's primary tool, but one of it's big strengths is that it uses a pixel- (or gl-) based renderer, so it's capable of handling large numbers of objects much better than flash is (one of the big problems with using Flash as an algorithmic drawing tool is that it tends to freak out once you get more than 40 or 50 objects doing things at once). Plus you're programming java rather than actionscript, so you get access to all of it's built in libraries, and things like openGL.

There are a lot of other great examples of what people are doing with it in the processing gallery.
posted by peptide at 2:55 PM on March 30, 2006


Meeee-YOW, Miss Thing nebulawindphone!
posted by maryh at 2:56 PM on March 30, 2006


whoops - that last link again.
posted by peptide at 2:57 PM on March 30, 2006


All is see is more Goatse.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:03 PM on March 30, 2006


Your happy place doesn't sound very happy, Astro Zombie.
posted by ooga_booga at 3:07 PM on March 30, 2006


and I thought I saw it on mefi

You did. A couple of times at least. And deservedly so... Tarbell's a goddamn genius. The bastard.
posted by ook at 3:18 PM on March 30, 2006


One of my favourite processing apps is Cinema Redux by Brendan Dawes, currently working with Magnetic North.

I could never get processing to work, particularly with that program (probably because Dawes' app used the live feed from a camcorder as input), so I recoded the app in Python and used tiny stills from framegrabbed films to reproduce the same blueprints (blatantly, because i fiddled with the final image in PShop to match Dawes' blueprints) that you can see here [self-link] (there's a link to the script I used on the page).

(Slightly off topic, because MN play around using Flash to control meatspace environments, I'm also reminded of this which I think Matt should implement; and this which I think is brilliant and wanted to try for myself but worked out that it involves microprocessors and some fancy Flash coding way above my level of experience.)
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:20 PM on March 30, 2006


Speaking of Flash, I like how Complexifacation makes minimal use of it, but does it right, making for beautiful looking little bits of flash scattered throughout the site. Nothing I hate more than a flash load bar. Well, at least on the internet.
posted by Roger Dodger at 3:29 PM on March 30, 2006


I find the images quite beautiful, and very organic. Interesting stuff, thanks for posting it. Somewhat related: Norwegian computational artist Marius Watz.
posted by edlundart at 3:44 PM on March 30, 2006


I don't know--blond hair, nylons--dirty being a matter of perception. Napoleon, for example, sent a message to Josephine, “I’ll be home in three weeks, don’t wash.” That was his happy place.

Bent coat hangers can unlock car doors, and that can make a bad day a happy place.

Remember those cards that would spin at the fair? One could squirt paint and make art. Same deal here. I might have been young and happy then. I do remember that place.
posted by BillyElmore at 8:03 PM on March 30, 2006


Heh. Ok, maybe I was projecting a little. (Now that I think of it, I could very well have been describing my mom's closet when I was a kid.)
posted by crunchland at 8:15 PM on March 30, 2006


Fugly hair balls. Urp.

I think I just puked in my mouth a little.
posted by mooncrow at 7:12 AM on March 31, 2006


This is fascinating, especially the applet at the very bottom that doesn't leave traces, but instead charts the arrangements of a bunch of boxes.

It's like a political modeler - larger boxes are more important people. Occasionally a large box drifts to the center and the radius of the entire group shrinks; other times, large boxes polarize themselves and the configuration splits into two far-off groups.

I'd love to see this done with boxes corresponding to the members of Congress - wouldn't that be fascinating?
posted by ikkyu2 at 3:46 PM on April 1, 2006


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