"Von Neumann" is named in honor of mathematician and physicist John Von Neumann, whose "middle-square" pseudorandom number generator powers the engine used in this installment.
In computer programming, nothing is completely random, it's all pseudorandom. That is, to create a "random" number, you feed a number into a formula and the result is your random number. Usually, computer functions such as Math.random() use the current date (including milliseconds) to feed to their random formula, and this is random enough. Yet technically, if you knew the formula, and the number fed to this formula (seed), you'd know the result.
In the case of this August installment, I wanted a random engine which I could feed a specific number, and it would always return the same random-looking number (if fed the same seed). I would use the pseudorandom product to scale, rotate, place and color various shapes in a space, creating pseudorandom artwork.
Middle-Square
Von Neumann came to the rescue with his middle-square method which is extremely easy to work with; quite simply, you square a 4 digit number, and choose the 4 middle digits of the end result.
11112 = 1234321 -> 3452
More elaborate PRNGs have been created, but the simplicity of this middle-square method, and the visual results were exactly fine for my purpose.
Result
The end result will replicate some pre-drawn shapes a specific number of times, then proceed to rotate them, scale them, animate them, position them and finally color them according to a color array I choose. All of this based on what random-seed the engine is fed. You can either enter this 4-digit random seed in the upper-left textbox, or you can drag the crosshair to use its coordinate to generate a seed for you.
In the next couple of months, I hope to elaborate this engine, add restraints, remove other restraints and generally see where it'll take me. Art happens all the time.
The exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station is teeming with life. As humans were evacuated from the area 20 years ago, animals moved in. Existing populations multiplied and species not seen for decades, such as the lynx and eagle owl, began to return.
"Nuclear Guardian" is inspired by a heart-breaking story of how animal life has started to return to the area that was once irradiated by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown.
Ambient and slightly distored pictures of Tioman Island, Malaysia.
Local mythology tells a mighty dragon who was not allowed to visit his sister. When he did anyway, the gods turned him into stone and he fell into the sea forming Tioman Island.
fabric – The arrangement and physical relationship of components or constituent elements of something
Click around. Drag around. Go play.
This is the most over-due installment I have made in 5 years. So what does that mean? It means I'm getting better at not caring, which is an overlooked quality in some situations.
meadow – an ecosystem in transition from an open, disturbed condition to a forested state having a variable mixture of grasses, herbaceous plants and often small shrubs or trees
I have to admit that "Dryads" is pretty much last months concept, revamped. There are a two reasons for this:
It is okay to milk a novel idea. Recycling is good.
I've been busy elsewhere and needed something light and relaxing.
Reason #1 explains itself.
Reason #2 deserves explanation; coming up with a concept is the hard part. Once that concept has been formulated, elaborated and actualized, it's just play from there. Happy 2006, and be nice to the trees this year!
Beware! Pixies were spotted flying around somewhere in Sweden! Pixies are nasty little green fairies that like to dance in the shadows of stones.
About "Pixies"
While green is among my favourite colors, I find the dark hue hard to work with. Forcing myself to do so anyway was the primary drive for "Pixies". This was a success in the sense that this is probably the first installment where all 5 parts of the whole are in the same hue—usually I drift on to other colours.
The photos are from Sweden, and while not online, there are a few other pictures in my photo gallery that are from the same place/period.
The light streaks were made by waving a flash light in front of a tripod mounted camera with prolonged exposure. These streaks are actually from early 2004 as well. I guess you could call this a left-over mashup. But hey, don't we all love that?