DESIGNING PROCESSES

RATHER THAN ART

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Edited by Omar Vulpinari
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A Fabrica Workshops project

directed by Bruce Sterling

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by Bruce Sterling
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A zealot with rigid, abstract, unswerving processuality — the growth of plants,
principles will find that life becomes surreal. boiling liquid, the cracks in mud —
Generative art is quite like this. Generative processuality is all around us. A rather
art is a twenty-first century effort using similar ruckus struck the visual arts in
networked tools to make images and the early 1900s, when the machineries of
objects that the twentieth century could cinema revealed hidden realities of motion,
not imagine. time, and space.

Generative artists are sociable. They are
eager to share their code, to swap tips
about hardware, and to validate each
other’s other worldly efforts. Their beloved
computer language, Processing, crafted
specifically by and for computer artists, is
open-source software — with all the dense,
web-based sociality that breed of
software implies.
Furthermore, Web 2.0-style participatory
sites such as FlickR and Vimeo
have become the global galleries for
generative art.
Yet the machinery is not central to
the effort. The core of generative art
is the artistic ability to see and shape
‘processuality’ — the code of form.
This Fabrica workshop carried
‘computational aesthetics’ outside the
computer. We methodically experimented
with processuality, crafting tightly-written
instructions to generate images, objects,
and situations in the real world. By taking
that step into ‘dynamic abstraction,’ by
forfeiting some human control, artists
and designers can coax radically strange
results from even the meagerest resources.
The teams were given tiny graphic scraps
the size of postage stamps. The rest was
left to their rigor, imagination, discipline,
and insight.
I’m proud to say that everything you see
in this booklet was generated — through
processes they built themselves.

Processuality is a modern change in

artistic perception, inspired by the
craft of software. Our world is rich with
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Designing Processes Rather Than Art / by Bruce Sterling
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Ernst Heinrich Haeckel’s Artforms in
Nature (Kunstformen der Natur, 1904) is a
legendary favorite of generative artists.
Why? Because the ‘art’ forms here have
no human origin. They were all generated
by processes — in this case, by biological
activities. By picking them out, curating
them, and arranging them on the page,
Haeckel framed them as ‘art.’
Also, Haeckel’s work has long been in the
public domain, so it’s free for use for any
purpose. Generative artwork, for instance.
We’ll design a simple ‘process’ for creating
graphic elements from Haeckel.
BEGIN
1. Go to FlickR. Find the comprehensive
scan of the entire work of Haeckel put up
there by some freeware sympathizer. The
online community certainly is supportive.
Wow.
2. Pick out one image.
Bryozoans should do (image left).
3. Print out the image on paper (image A).
4. Get some scissors.
5. Cut the page in half (image B).
6. Cut the halves in half (image C).
7. Cut the halves in half (image D).
8. Cut the halves in half (image E).
10. Cut the halves in half (image F).
This seems mechanically repetitious,
but ‘processes’ never get tired. 2, 4, 8,
16, 32 — nothing comes more easily
to a generative process.
11. Now we’ve got a scattered galaxy of
graphic elements that no human being
could have planned or foreseen.
Using human judgment, pick out three
processed elements as the ‘art’ (elements
1, 2 and 3).
END

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 A B
D E
Below are your three graphic elements for
the Generative Art workshop.
1 2
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C
F You might do wallpaper, an animation, a
You have these three elements, you have no
more, and no less. You are required to use all
three of these elements and you can’t use
anything else. These are your constraints.
3 Apprentice problem, or, getting the process
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Your assignment is to DESIGN A PROCESS that Your process has to begin with the word
uses these three elements to create BEGIN and end with the word END.
a COMPLETE AND FINISHED WORK that you will
show at the end of the workshop. This process has to be so clearly phrased,
so simple and so accurate that ANYONE
can execute it anywhere and get the same
music video, fabric, or a poster. These are results (or very similar results). You’ll find
all typical applications for generative art. that this is quite hard to do. Pressing the
button and running the process is easy.
You might even print out the elements, Backing off to think deeply about process
put them on cardboard, and use them as in a clear and intelligible way is the hard
3D elements to generate architecture or craft-work of generative art. That’s where
furniture. These are rarer, but generative the action is.
art is getting into generative building and
generative manufacturing. Furthermore, you’re not going to execute
this process yourself (even though you
You can take these elements and copy can practice doing it so as to refine your
them, multiply them, repeat them, invert process). You’re going to be handing your
them, rotate them, mirror them, change process to SOMEONE ELSE to ‘execute.‘
their scales, assemble them in flocks and If they can’t understand what you mean
patterns, overlap them, even colorize them and follow the instructions correctly,
or cut them in fragments. you’ve failed!
But: these elements are all the graphics
you have. Don’t add anything else. The second unique problem is the Sorcerer’s
Generative art has two unique challenges. to stop in some complete and finished
First, it never directly designs any artwork. position. Since processes aren’t human and
It ‘generates‘ art through process. You are have no aesthetic judgment, they tend to
designing a process. Your process has grind on endlessly. As a generative artist,
to be explicit and rigorous. It’s a set it’s up to you to choose where to stop your
of instructions. process and how to frame the results as
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your completed work of art. and mechanical; if it’s too loose, it will look
sloppy and chaotic. Try to find a sweet spot
This is also hard to do; but if you fail to where the process seems to ‘live.’
design a process that produces a coherent
artwork, you haven’t made any art; at best, Good generative art is for human beings;
you’ve made a tool. Almost anything can be it combines regularities with surprises
a generative tool — a ruler, scissors, in a humanly pleasing way.
a repeating drip of paint.
Making tools is not the point here. When the
workshop is over you must have something
complete and coherent to show.

In conclusion, a few general words of

advice that seem to have helped other
people struggling to create good generative
processes.

Start simple. Let the complexity grow from

the process itself. Repeat it till you get a
good intuitive feel for it. Get comfortable
with its processuality.

Be fast, clear, small, elegant and bug-free;

avoid unnecessary stunts that will create
random confusion.

The rules come out of the parts, while the

parts come out of the rules. The details
reflect the logic of the whole creation.

If it’s too tightly controlled, it will look boring

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PROJECT 1
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FLOWER, ZOOM, PUZZLE
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Processor: Lawrence Blankenbyl
Executor: Fernando Acquarone
Secretary: Hanna Abi-Hanna
Critic: An Namyoung
Art director: Diego Beyró
Assistant: Geremia Vinattieri
Haeckel’s work reminded us of micro
organisms like bacteria. Our initial idea was
to write a process that could mimic the
growth and decay of bacteria or disease.
Initial research phase.
We looked at some video art that used
generative techniques and decided
to create a video with several layers
or processes. A layer of patterns and
graphics created by a generative process,
and a second layer using stop motion
photography. Each step of the earlier
process is printed and then photographed
with a person holding up the frame to
camera. This created two processes, one
inside the other.

All the processes that we generated are

infinite. Each of them could potentially go
on forever, so creating a work of art using
these infinite building blocks was entirely
dependent on the ‘stopping’ and the
‘framing’ of these processes.

The final output we chose is in the form of

three videos (one of each process) playing
simultaneously on one screen.

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Flower graphic process.

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GRAPHIC PROCESS:

FLOWER
BEGIN
1. Make twenty identical copies
of element 1.
2. Paste one copy of element 1 vertically
centred on a portrait A3 page.
3. Capture an image of this page.
4. Align and place a copy of element 1 over
the last placed element.
ZOOM
BEGIN
1. Scale element 2 to A3 format.
2. Capture an image of this.
3. Scale the image 125%.
4. Crop centred to A3 format.
5. Capture an image of this.
6. Repeat twenty-three times steps 3
through 5. Zoom graphic process.

5. Rotate the top most element six degrees END

counter clockwise and paste.
6. Capture an image of this page.
7. Repeat steps 4 through 6, eighteen times.
8. Scale the last placed element 120%.
9. Make twenty identical copies of this
element.
10. Paste one copy of the newly scaled
element centred and aligned with the top
most element on the page.
11. Capture an image of this page.
12. Repeat x times steps 4 through 11.
END
PUZZLE
BEGIN
1. Make nine identical copies of element 3.
2. Create a 3x3 grid using the nine elements
in a landscape format centred on an A4
sheet of paper. All sides should meet but
not overlap.
3. Remove middle element so only eight
elements remain.
4. Capture an image of this page.
Puzzle graphic process.
5. Using only vertical and horizontal
movement, move one element into the
empty slot.
6. Capture an image of this.
7. Repeat twenty-three times steps 5 and 6.
END

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VIDEO PROCESS:

FLOWER
BEGIN
1. Stack prints of all the images captured
from graphic process FLOWER in the same
order they were captured; the first captured
image on top, the last on the bottom.
2. Stand three feet away from a still camera.
3. Hold the stack of images up to the camera
and take a picture.
4. Remove the top most image from the stack.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all prints.
END
PUZZLE
BEGIN
1. Stack prints of all the images captured
from graphic process PUZZLE in the same
order they were captured; the first captured
image on top, the last on the bottom.
2. Stand three feet away from a still camera.
3. Hold the stack of images up to the camera
and take a picture.
4. Remove the top most image from the stack.
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all prints.
END

ZOOM
BEGIN
1. Stack prints of all the images captured
from graphic process ZOOM in the same order
they were captured; the first captured image
on top, the last on the bottom.
2. Stand three feet away from a still camera.
3. Hold the stack of images up to the camera
and take a picture.
4. Take half a step back. Each step measures
the length of your foot.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all prints.
END

Final three videos playing simultaneously on one screen.

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DIS-PLAY
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Processor: Lizy Cretney After seeing all the possible outcomes and
Executor: Lorenzo Fanton challenges, we were very attracted with the
Secretary: Tak Cheung element of live performance and human
Critic: Simone Cannolicchio physical interactions. This led us to develop
Art director: Pau Casals a concept for a generative game.

We adopted an arcade game format to

create an interactive play. The goals and
challenges of this game are governed
by the generative output from the given
graphic elements. Similar to a shuffle of a
deck of cards where the randomness would
result in different play every time. The game
is scripted to produce a winner that will end
the generative process.

The resulting work is a finished piece

of generative art. It has a structure with
a beginning and an end. The process
instructions have elements of deviation to
produce a random outcome. This game has
inherent play value, human emotional value
(love for the game) and a resulting visual
graphic value. After each game the path of
every player manipulates the graphics on
the playing board. Every artwork created by
each DIS-PLAY game is a recorded history
of the players’ choices, of strategic body
movements, results of the game and
of the fun.

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Construction of the grid.

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PROCESS:

The player who first picks up all his/her
coloured markers wins the game and ends
the process.
Two to four players may participate.
BEGIN
(Making the game board)
1. Take element 1 provided and crop
it to form a square.
2. Divide the image into an 8 x 8 grid.
3. Print each square of the grid to fit
a sheet of A3 paper.
4. Trim the white edges to form
the square unit.
5. Place the 8 x 8 grid onto the ground.
This is your game board.
(Playing the game)
10. The players take turns moving to
different squares (adjacent not diagonal).
The square he/she leaves behind turns
upside down. If the player moves onto a
square containing his/her coloured marker
he/she may collect it. Moving onto a square Game in progress.
containing another player’s marker
is not permitted.
This continues until a player collects
all of his/her markers.
END

(Making the markers)

6. Take three sheets of different coloured A4
paper for each player.
7. Cut each sheet to form a circle with 20 cm
of diameter. These are the markers.

(Preparing the game)

8. Each player chooses a different starting
corner. The starting player is chosen by any
conventional game selection method (dice,
scissors/paper/rock, etc).
9. Players take turns (clockwise) in placing
markers on squares of the grid. One by one.
The intention is to place them as far apart
as possible because these will become the
goal markers for the player to their right.

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LOOPY CANOPY
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Processor: Patrick Waterhouse The loopy curtain holds elements of order
Executor: Gabo Gesualdi and disorder. Order is obtained by the
Secretary: Jade Folawiyd loop strings that can be made of a limited
Critic: Mariana Eggers number of thirty. A random process
Art director: Clara Failla is elaborated on each element as the dice
is used to control what strand you connect
to the next, to develop the weaving.

The intriguing aspect of this canopy is

that its behavioral prediction is almost
impossible. Therefore the results of the
loopy canopy remain within set limits, whilst
also being subject to startling variables.

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PROCESS :

BEGIN
(Phase 1)
1. Go to the photocopier with three images
(elements 1, 2 and 3).
2. Blow up every image to 400%.
3. Cut the white borders of each.
4. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 twice.
5. Arrange the images randomly in the
photocopier and photocopy. This is your
new base image.
6. Make forty copies of it.
7. Put the copies with face up inside
the printer again.
8. Print forty copies. Now both sides
are printed.
9. Stack all the copies together.
10. Place them landscape in the guillotine.
11. Cut stack into strings with width of 2 cm.
You will have lots of strings.
12. Pick up a string and loop it. Join the
edges together with a stapler. You have a
ring now.
13. Repeat twenty-nine times step 12. You
have thirty rings now.
14. Pick up a string and loop it through the
center of two rings and join string with
stapler. This is the process to make a chain
of three rings.
15. Use process explained in step 14 to
make thirty chains of three rings, thirty of
four, thirty of five, and thirty of six.
(Phase 2)
16. Pick up one of the prints from step 8.
17. Use this print to make a cube following
a method of your preference
or see this video: http://it.youtube.com/
watch?v=gvC7dDewBNc
18. Put numbers from 1 to 6 on each side
of cube, now it’s a dice.
(Phase 3)
19. Roll the dice.
20. Take one of the chains with the amount
of rings corresponding to number from
dice roll.
21. Place it on the floor in vertical position.
22. Repeat ten times step 19, 20 and 21,
placing the chains side by side.
(Phase 4)
23. Join first and second chains, by their
bottom ring, with one string.
24. Repeat step 23 between second and
third chain, then between third and fourth,
then between fourth and fifth, and so on till
tenth chain.
END
The process.

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WORM
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Processor: Joao Wilbert This project is an investigation into generative
Executor: Elena Gianni systems of growth that have self-imposed
Secretary: Christopher Knowles beginnings and ends; events akin to natural
Critic: Julian Koschwitz occurrences defined by their platform
Art director: Joshua Levi constraints.

The Worm Project is actually a list of

instructions and the result of following them
is a sculptural output. Users of the system
generate and print 3D cube templates, the size
of which are defined by the maximum printing
area of one’s personal printer. One continues
to print these cubes progressively smaller
until the cubes became physically impossible
to assemble. The larger the user’s printer, the
larger the initial cube, and therefore the more
cubes are produced in a single execution. This
provides a variable beginning with the naturally
occurring end.

In the next phase, users arrange the

assembled cubes following specific if-then-
else rules. The only undefined variable of this
phase is the environment, and the shape of the
environment the user selects radically changes
the aesthetics of the process’ sculptural
outcome. This is similar to nature; a process
of a growth where the building blocks of an
organism interact with the environment to
produce shape. Watching this process unfold
inspired the worm as a metaphorical guide.
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PROCESS:

BEGIN (Folding boxes)

(Creating box templates and prints)
1. Scan elements 1, 2, 3.
2. In image editing software, divide
elements 1, 2, 3 in half vertically.
3. Select the left half side of 1, 2, 3 and measure
its width.
5. Use this value as the height
for elements 1, 2, 3, so that all four sides
are of equal length creating a square.
6. You should now have three squares. Duplicate
each square. This will provide you with six.
7. Arrange squares in this order vertically:
element 1, 2, 1, 2. Place the remaining two
squares lining horizontally on both sides of the
second element 1 you laid vertically. This will
create a cross shaped image which will serve
as an unfolded box.
8. Add one quarter of the square height made
of white paper on the top and bottom and left
and right most squares of the cross. This will
provide flaps to put glue on for folding
boxes later.
9. Adjust this image to fill the largest printable
area of your paper.
10. Copy this image on a different sheet
of paper, 95% the size of the previous image.
11. Repeat step 10 x times until cross shaped
image is no longer visible.
12. Print the cross shaped images.
13. With scissors, cut the cross image
out of the white paper.
14. Fold along the boarders of each square
until you have six individual sides.
15. Apply glue to the white paper flaps indicated
in step 8 and fold the cross into a cube.
16. Continue folding cubes until they become
physically too small for your hands to fold.
Result: You will end up with a series cubes,
each 95% the size of the previous.
(Building the Worm)
17. Choose an environment/surface.
18. Start with the largest box: set it down
on the chosen surface.
19. Set down the box 95% the size of the
previous box. Place this face to face with
first box matching same image (elements 1, 2
and 3).
20. If you reach the end of your plane or
a physical barrier begin stacking RIGHT. If you
cannot stack RIGHT, stack LEFT. If you cannot
stack LEFT, stack upwards. If any number
of boxes fall while stacking, use the last box
stacked as the starting point to continue from
step 19, no matter where it has landed.
21. Continue this process until you run
out of boxes.

Print result: Many prints, each with an image Result: Worm built
95% the size of the previous prints. END
The process.

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CRUMPLED
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Processor: Gustavo Millón While brainstorming we started folding
Executor: Victor Hugo Cabañas, rejected ideas into paper balls. Throwing
Luis Nascimento crumpled balls we stumbled on our actual
Secretary: Francesco Novara idea. We discovered that all the balls
Critic: Sanjin Petrovi together somehow created interesting
Art director: Vendi Budi patterns. Thinking more deeply on this
idea we realized that there was an inner
generative peculiarity in it: no one could
repeat the process and come out with an
identical result. We then photocopied some
of the paper balls together and the pattern
that came out was interesting. The process
was reproducible and anybody could do it.

The entire process work led us to a symbolic

meaning: our work referred to a place where
anybody could put their new ideas, good
or bad. So decided to use it as a pattern
for a notebook cover.

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PROCESS:

BEGIN
1. Pick element 1 and enlarge image on
photocopier until you reach A3 format.
2. Repeat step 1 for elements 2 and 3.
3. Make four more copies of each
enlarged element.
4. Take one of the fifteen enlarged copies
and crumple it into a ball of paper with
the print side on the outside.
5. Repeat step 4 with all other
enlarged copies.
6. Put the balls on the screen
of the photocopier.
7. Arrange them as you like.
8. Press copy button.
9. Repeat step 7 and 8 until you are satisfied
with the result.
10. Now you have a generative pattern that
you can use for a unique cover of your own
notebook for new ideas.
END

The process.

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2D SPACE-FILLER
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Processor: Lars Wannop The concept of our project was born with the
Executor: Martina Stancati idea of applying the end result on a 2D area.
Secretary: Nora Varas
Critic: Vincent Van Uffelen It was decided to use an equilateral triangle
Art director: Jacqueline Steck of three different sizes using the three
different pictures that were given, in order
to generate patterns or even textures.
With the process that we have created,
unique patterns can be generated. Moreover,
these patterns can be used to customize
any sort of object and area like carpets,
wallpapers, curtains, baseball-fields,
parking lots.

Developing our project, we managed

to make an accurate process that is possible
to use with any sort of image. This would
still generate millions of different patterns
that later could be applied and customize
whatever you want.

Our 2D SPACE-FILLER is a design project that

works within the framework of textile design.
It is a generator of designs that engages with
the shape of any space making it a pleasing
area where to live and work.

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PROCESS:

CONSTRAINT the excess white paper.

The given process can only be applied 7. Steps 5 and 6 might have to be repeated
on spaces having borders with minimum depending on the size of the space.
distance from each other larger than two
times the largest triangle’s side length. (Executing the process)
8. Move to random position of the space.
NOTES 9. Start with one of available triangle A’s
Each tile must touch one side with another and place it printed side up on the floor.
already placed tile. Make sure that the edges 10. Place tile, identical to first, side up,
of the two tiles are aligned. adjacent to previous tile.
This process makes use of tiles of three 11. Repeat step 10 until space has been
different sizes. A smaller tile is available completely covered by triangles of that size.
if the last used tile has been either the 12. Place next smaller tile available
biggest or medium sized one. and continue as per Step 10.
Space should be a 2D plane of fabric, 13. Continue this process, always filling
wall, floor, etc., that you intend to cover the space, before moving to the next
with the tiles. smallest tile.
END
BEGIN
(Creating tiles)
1. Open images provided (element 1, 2 and 3)
in a digital image processing software
of your choice.
2. Triangle A: create an equilateral triangle
(keep a minimum side length of 25 cm) and fill
it completely with a crop of element 1.
3. Triangle B: create an equilateral triangle
scaled to 50% of the triangle A and fill it
completely with a crop of source element 2.
4. Triangle C: create an equilateral triangle
scaled to 50% of triangle B and fill it
completely with a crop of element 3.
5. Print multiple triangles of each size.
The process.
6. Cut triangles from print sheets and discard
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Bruce Sterling interviewed by Andy Cameron
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Why Generative art? How do you deal with this absence of
I got interested in generative art in intentionality considering that normally
2007 when I saw that people were doing with artistic works, we have this idea
generative work with computer fabricators. that it’s the person who is expressing
I’ve been very interested in fabricators for something to his or her audience? Humans
a long time; any kind of method of moving who are expressing their meaning, their
digital plans into physical actuality makes feeling, their position and their point of
little bells go off for me. view, all of that goes out of the window
Then I saw these guys were using with generative art. So, in a sense, it
fabricators with generative processes becomes something that is no longer part
instead of simply executing plans. They of inter-human discourse, but it becomes
were writing this kind of mobile code that almost like a natural fact.
causes these fabricators to output things I think it does go out of the window but
that were not pre-planned. I immediately it kind of creeps back into the basement,
thought, “ok this is like some kind of the attic.
the equivalent of an acoustic guitar
undergoing electric feedback.” They are What do you mean?
actually getting shapes and volumes Well you know, writing is an expression of
and forms out of this approach that are thought but software is an expression of
humanly impossible. will. So if you look at the software that you
use to generate all these forms, images,
How do you know if it’s any good or not? whatever, I mean the software has a kind
You turn this stuff out but isn’t most of of clarity and intentionality that’s very,
it junk? very intentional even more intentional than
Yes, but in my line of work, science fiction, some kind of direct declaration by
author Theodore Sturgeon coined the law an author, because in fact that’s a series
that says, “90 percent of everything, is of deliberate commands, “do this, do that,
junk or crap.” In any case generative art if this then do that” so it’s a kind of a huge
since it’s so easy to generate it’s more like reservoir of sort of raw intentionality in
99.9999 percent of it is junk. the code and then somebody has to frame
the output and they also have to sort of
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winnow through in this enormous potential sequence. In criticising generative kaleidoscopes bounded brass jewel like But the danger is that you end up with
of generated forms, so there you’ve got art I think the process is what’s happening, colours, but they are all kaleidoscopes. those pieces I really dislike when
a kind of curatorial will coming out. in sort of what this things brings programmers are making things that
to the table. Fine art isn’t a thing outside of us, fine generate stuff that looks like oil paintings.
So that’s where the value comes back into art is whatever we decide is fine art. If you I just think that that’s so wrong because
it? A kind of process of selection? What kind of things can help us to think are suggesting that generative art is a they’re trying to make generative art
I think that generative processes do very, about this new way of designing, what meaningful putting together of two words which emulates their vision of what fine
very strange things to value. Normally kind of things that came before? In your if that’s legal as it were, that surely means art should be, which is way outdated. In
we think of objects having some kind of lecture you talked about gardening... that the concept of what fine art is has the examples that you showed the other
inherent value but most generative stuff Being a writer I’m hung up on metaphor to stretch rather than saying, “this lies evening for example I much prefer the
that I’ve seen to date, and I think that like a lot of writers are so I was collecting outside of it.” square ones to the ones where people try
the purest expression of generative stuff metaphors that seem to me to apply Concepts of fine art have been subjected to be painterly. What’s the point of trying
has to use extremely cheap materials, generative art and I’m also collecting to a great deal of stretching for over a to be painterly?
kind of really humble materials: card metaphors that generative artists have century and that’s not what I really find I completely agree. I was showing examples
boards, Styrofoam, plaster, mock up used to describe their own work because of interest. I am interested in art, I’m there some of which were being done by
style stuff, and then invest a great deal they really do have to struggle to establish interest in generative stuff but I’m also guys in the 1960s who are actual artists
of processuality into it. Actually if you’re a new vocabulary that sort of validates interested in just trying to shape the and discovering algorithms and then there
doing generative art and you’re doing it what they are doing, judge their own vocabulary and the approaches of a very are paintings being done by basically
with something that is inherently precious intentions. So, it is rather like gardening encoded little infant field. I don’t think programmers or computer hobbyists that
it tends to deflate the impact of the work in some sense because you sort of have we are going to find a mature suddenly find these graphic outputs things
and detracts from the purity of your ability seed, there is a program, and you have understanding of what generative art and sort of say “ Hey wow! I can twist the
to just see the process itself. like the earth which is like the machine is really good for, for maybe another twenty contrast button up to eleven, let’s see
that’s producing it and you sort of have years or so. The first experiments that you what comes out!” Okay, that’s not very
One of the values that you’re identifying to wait patiently as the process works its can legitimately call generative art are artistic. It’s just not. What it is, is tinker
is being able to perceive in the form of the way through. You have to weed the bugs probably fifty, forty-five years old now, but toy-like or playful or hackerly.
things the processes that have led to the out of the process other wise the bugs the hardware is different and the software I think you need a method by which you can
making of that shape or that form. will eat the process, so forth and so on is different and there’s a sort of a more sort of say, “this is the golden road forward
I think that’s got to be the key to an and eventually you end up with a prize productive capacity and new methods of and this is just junk.” It’s cheap to make
aesthetic there, the processuality is really pumpkin! But people will not call gardening writing code and sharing artistic input. and there is lots of it, and you put it on
what you find. fine art and it’s possible that generative What I’m really looking for your Flickr set but no that’s not making you
design is not fine art. Maybe are some place markers and I don’t think into Michelangelo you know, I’m just sorry.
Therefore the material itself isn’t really it isn’t, maybe it is more like an optical that kind of relativism in art criticism helps That’s what I’m trying to establish here.
interesting. toy, like a kaleidoscope. When you go in a situation like this, because generative
If you’re doing movie criticism you talk out you can make a kaleidoscope: there art is already all over the map it doesn’t What about the concept of breeding, do
about things like the cinematic quality are bad kaleidoscopes where the glass need more freedom. It really needs you think that’s useful? The idea that if we
of the image or particular cinematic is kind of dirty, there are a really nice kind of some harsh... take the biological gardening metaphor
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and push it a little bit further you are two, that’s not a metaphor for evolution. objective existence outside of humanity? not, even there is no human creator or no
making a generation of things, you’re But you can automate the selection intentionality, what it would have is some
selecting the ones you like, you then brief process, you don’t have to humanly Uh- no. processuality.
on them and then select again, in that way intervene in the breeding at all, you can Well, then if we die all beauty dies.
it’s generative but it’s guided by... in the just sort of say, “Okay, whichever one Yes, but the junk and the beautiful piece
same way the evolution is a kind of... moved fastest to this fake environment Beauty is something that we make when might have had the same processes
On Flickr there is a set I watched with some gets re-bred.” we look at something. It’s not something operate upon them.
interest, which is called Generative and that’s there before we look at it. They might indeed.
evolutionary art, and I don’t think they are But you can’t code for aesthetics, can you? Maybe so, but my own suspicion would
the same thing. Evolutionary art can be No. be that there are other animals and other They might have been floating around the
a generative technique, but it’s certainly mammals, birds even, which have some ocean for the same amount of time, so
not the only generative technique. And I mean that’s where the human has to be. sort of inherent- not what we call aesthetic what makes one beautiful and the other
I think in a lot of cases these biological It seems to me that I’m just coming back sense, but they are doing this sort of thing not beautiful?
metaphors although are very seductive to to the beginning of this discussion. When that we call aesthetics, they’re pre-lingual Well, if I were Jared Tarbell, I think I would
generative artist that say, “I’m growing my you abstract the human completely, you things, but you know if you let a bird loose, tell you that it was something about the
image, I’m nurturing it, I’m gardening it, It’s are abstracting value. he’s going to go to the meadow with the iterative texture that made it beautiful. I
biomorphic, It’s life like,” they actually fall You can’t code for aesthetics but I think flowers and trees, he’s not going to the mean, why are the cracks in one piece of
flat because some of the most interesting there is aesthetics of code. arctic wasteland unless he’s not an arctic mud beautiful while the cracks of billion
applications of generative art are not bird. So you know clearly he’s got some other pieces of mud not particularly
biological looking at all. Information, But if there isn’t someone who’s making a kind of understanding of areas of the striking? It does something to our sense
visualization, applications and so forth decision somewhere, about what’s good, planet that are inviting and pleasant to be you know. The most beautiful photograph
they’re really means of making the invisible what’s to be presented as the good thing, in. I don’t know, I mean I worry about the I think I’ve ever seen, and at least my
visible and they don’t have to look like a the work of art; then you really don’t have traps set in that, because I think that there favourite photograph in the world is a
pretty tree or a lovely flower or a nice stuff. value you just have process. are difficulties in describing the beauty Man Ray photograph, and of course Man
I guess, but we are sort of wandering into of objet trouvée, you know found objects Ray was a pal of Duchamp and he did
No, I don’t mean that it ends up looking a strange ontological realm there. I mean which are done without artistic intention. a lot of objet trouvée work- but it’s a
like biology I’m talking about a formal no human being has seen what’s going on And you stumble across one, you know, photograph of a dead leaf. And this leaf
process which seems to me to be actually on the dark side of Mercury or something. just the driftwood problem. Most driftwood is so unbelievably dead that you can’t
not even a metaphor but almost a… Does that mean there are no beautiful looks like junk, 90 percent of driftwood stop looking at it. It’s really wrinkled up in
Well, there are a bunch of those. I mean things there? I mean we’ve never been is junk. Then every once in a while, you a kind of organic ecstasy of death. He’s
there is the Lindenmayer system, there is to Pluto, do you think that Pluto has find a piece of driftwood that is really gotten right in on it and he’s captured
the Karl Sims system of evolution. no beauty? evocative. There needs to be some kind every vein and every miserable crisping
of vocabulary or to me it seems like there of the thing, and even though it’s a leaf,
If I generate a hundred images and But in a sense there is no beautiful thing ought to be a vocabulary in which you can it’s a truly powerful surreal image. It’s like
then select two, and then use those to there until somebody sees it. say that a piece of driftwood had aesthetic the agony of some king, it’s overwhelming
generate another hundred and then select Well yes, do you think beauty has an merit that another piece of driftwood did in its aesthetic power. He didn’t paint it,
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he didn’t airbrush it, he was Man Ray and yesterday we were talking about breeding problems in that field. It’s just hard to Bruce Sterling
when he saw a thing like that he had the dogs. It seems to me a profoundly write the code. It’s hard to start. It’s really Author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954.
Best known for his eight science fiction novels, he also
ability to recognise the potency of it. generative thing to do. hard to stop. You just have to say, “Okay,
writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism,
In a way it’s like the early days of cinema my process is done, it’s achieved, I’m not
opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging
So can we connect the eighteenth where you had these motion capture going to tinker with it anymore, I made this,
from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne.
century aestheticization of the landscape things, and you were able to see the way this is a work of art for you, buy it, design it, His nonfiction works include The Hacker Crackdown:
and of the natural world in some ways? animals move or the way human beings collect it…” Law and Disorder on The Electronic Frontier (1992),
Because the way you appreciate the alps move, and you got Vorticism and Futurism Tomorrow Now: Envisioning The Next Fifty Years (2003)
as the English did in the eighteenth and and this kind of dynamic abstraction, It’s really hard to stop. and Shaping Things (2005).
nineteeth centuries, and suddenly start where you suddenly had this machine The stopping is harder than the beginning, He is a contributing editor of Wired magazine and a
to see sublime beauty in the alps, you’re that made people aware that there and the beginning is very hard. columnist for Make magazine.
doing the same thing aren’t you? You’re were aspects of motion or action that He also writes a weblog. During 2005, he was the
looking at the results of a process or a were made visible to us and that had an It’s an inherent part of these processes; “Visionary in Residence” at Art Center College of Design
in Pasadena. In 2008 he was the Guest Curator for the
series of processes, and you think “Wow, aesthetic quality. The ability to write code there is no reason to stop in a sense that
Share Festival of Digital Art and Culture in Torino, Italy.
that’s really beautiful.” and to generate code seems to be doing we have this concept of permanent beater
He has appeared in ABC’s Nightline, BBC’s The Late
Maybe landscape appreciation has a similar kind of thing. when we talk about Web 2.0 stuff, that’s
Show, CBC’s Morningside, on MTV and TechTV, and in
something to do with it. But I really very real. That’s something I know from Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the New York
suspect the processuality is kind of a What about the process versus the my world. Times, Fortune, Nature, I.D., Metropolis, Technology
new thing in the world, that until we had product? You said in the brief for the The Internet was built without an off switch. Review, Der Spiegel, La Repubblica, and many
code we weren’t actually free to do that in Fabrica borsisti that you are interested in other venues.
the same way like before the romantics, the process itself? But actually what gets What’s inherent in coding is that you
people were unable to see the beauty in a shown is usually not the process but the don’t need to stop doing it. There’s always
mountain range. They’re just saying, “its end result of the process? Do you think something else to do, there’s always
cold up there, I don’t want to go, maybe there is another level of generative art something to add or tinker with or modify.
I’ll go goat hunting or gardening is much, where we can actually see the thing, There is never an end to the question
much nicer.” or we can look at the code for example? “What if?”
Yes, well it has a dual face to it. I mean Well, I think that is a very severe problem,
And the parlour is nicer than the garden... if you’re doing good generative art you’re and you really need to tackle it head on.
I think we may be hitting a native form definitely designing process. And the thing
of twenty-first century aesthetics here. about process is that you can run it again I think we can stop.
We are actually able to see the value of and again and again. Stopping is good! We’ve got to stop
process now. And that’s a good reason to use cheap somewhere! Pull the lever; it’s done!
materials because you’re going to be Real artistship!
Because we have a process machine, doing it and you’ll say, “that one’s no good,
and that allows us to go back and look and that one’s no good, and that one’s
at processes that came before. I mean no good.” So I think there are two major
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By Marco Mancuso
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This essay was written as a response to Modern ecology began with Charles
“Designing processes rather than art” a Darwin’s studies. In his “theory of evolution”
Fabrica Workshops project (November 2008) published in 1859 in On the Origin of
directed by Bruce Sterling. Species, he underlined the adaptation
of the different organisms to the various
GENERATIVE NATURE kinds of environment, which are subjected
Aesthetics, repetitiveness, selection to the age-long examination of natural
and adaptation selection. However, the word was coined by
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel in 1869 and comes
In his De Rerum Natura, Lucretius denies from the Greek óikos meaning “house” and
any kind of creation, providence and logos meaning “discourse”. It is therefore a
original bliss and maintains that people biological science that studies environment
freed themselves from their condition and the relationships that the different
of need thanks to the production of living organisms establish between each
techniques, which are transpositions of other and with the environment itself. For
nature. A god and some gods exist, but some time, Haeckel was a strong supporter
they did not create the universe, nor do and popularizer of Darwin’s theories, but
they deal with people’s actions. Lucretius he soon became one of his most bitter
maintains that the rational knowledge of enemies; he firmly refuted the process
nature shows us an infinite universe that is of natural selection as the basis of the
made up of complex forms and constituted evolutionary mechanism, in favor of a
by atoms; it follows natural laws, it is thought that was more focused on the
indifferent to people’s needs and can be environment as a direct agent on natural
explained without gods. organisms, which is able to produce new
species and generate diversity.
When an artist uses a conceptual form of
art, it means that all of the planning and Ernst Heinrich Haeckel’s thought and work
decisions are made beforehand and the represent the starting point of this critical
execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea reflection. First of all, because it was the
becomes a machine that makes the art. theoretical and practical cue suggested
– Sol Le Witt by Bruce Sterling during his workshop for
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Fabrica, to which the text refers. Secondly; adaptive and evolutionary practice. Computers are simply the tools for its lies in the conceptual planning of the work,
because it allows me a philosophical storage in memory and execution. This the (basic, elementary and geometric)
and critical reflection, aspiring to find a In other words, if the stages of the approach opens a new era in Art, Design execution can be carried out by everybody,
possible point of contact between nature, embryological development of a species and Communication: the challenge of a thanks to a series of detailed instructions
theories of evolution and programmatic and actually trace the evolution phases that new naturalness of the artificial event as a that are suggested by a thinking unit with
generative art. Is it impossible? Well, led it to its position in the natural order, mirror of Nature. Once more man emulates a procedural approach. He also claimed,
I would say no, on the contrary. Above all if the survival of each species basically Nature, as in the act of making Art […].” “There are several ways of constructing a
we try to compare and amalgamate, like the depends on its interaction with the work of art. One is by making decisions at
colors on a canvas, the German biologist’s environment. According to Haeckel, the Although, over the centuries, biologists each step, another by making a system to
research on one side with some works mechanism thanks to which new species and morphologists have widely denied make decisions.”
of conceptual and minimalist artist Sol Le and a new diversity have origin is that of a a so close correspondence between
Witt and the possible relationship between gradual addition of a certain development ontogenesis and phylogeny, and so In this kind of approach the work of the
mathematics and nature on the other, trajectory starting from an initial unit, between unity and complexity, the germ of last years of some of the most important
and what is known today as art and which is determined by imposed external thought is interesting and I think it is worth generative artists and designers in the
generative design. (environmental) parameters, which are able continuing to nourish it… world (Casey Reas, Ben Fry, Jared Tarbell,
to influence the gradual direction of the Theodore Watson, Lia, Toxi, Andreas
Nature as an art trajectory itself. Forms, colors, lines and instructions Schlegel, Marius Watz, Robert Hodgin, to
“Kunstformen der Natur” literally means As everybody knows, US conceptual mention only some of them) is reflected: if
“artistic forms of nature”: this is the title At this point, a first important reference to and minimalist artist Sol Le Witt, who the human being identifies himself/herself
of biologist Ernst Haeckel’s 1898 most the theoretic and methodological bases of died not long ago, is one of the spiritual with the author of a series of mathematical
important text, his most complex and Generative Art seems evident, as one of the fathers of modern artists and generative instructions that can be suggested to a
fascinating research. Moreover, this is pioneers of this discipline, Italian architect designers. By reducing art to a series of computer, the resulting work of art will
the text from which Bruce Sterling took, Celestino Soddu, suggests, “Generative instructions thanks to which everybody is be the sum of the operations that the
for those participating in his workshop, Art is the idea realized as genetic code of able to draw forms, colors and lines in the computer has carried out autonomously.
some primary images that could be the artificial events, as construction of dynamic two-dimensional and three-dimensional Therefore, as for Sol Le Witt the emotional
graphic material and starting point for an complex systems able to generate endless space, creating geometric elements that elements of the authors, their joy at a
aesthetic and methodological reflection on variations. Each Generative Project is a are repeated and modulated according to moment, their frustration, their apathy
the practices of generative repetitiveness. concept-software that works producing standard space proportions, Le Witt loved were constituent elements of a free
By watching the richly decorated plates in unique and non-repeatable events, as reminding that “all the people are able interpretation of the instructions that had
Haeckel’s text, it is undeniable that nature possible and manifold expressions of the to participate in the creative process, to been suggested to them and so of the
is able not only to create spontaneously generating idea strongly recognizable as become artists themselves”. It is well- resulting work of art, in the universe of
real ‘art forms’, but also to produce a vision belonging to an artist/designer/ known that the artist tended to separate digital software as well (from Processing
a direct correspondence between a certain musician/architect/mathematician. This the planning stage from the realization of to VVVV to Open Frameworks, to mention
generative aesthetics, starting from generative Idea/human-creative-act the work; he devoted himself to the former, the most widespread) we can hazard the
a fundamental unit/nucleus to come makes an unpredictable, amazing and whereas his assistants devoted themselves thought that the instructions given by the
to a complex entity, and a consequent endless expansion of human creativity. to the latter: if the artistic process thus artist/designer can be freely
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interpreted by a kind of ‘emotiveness’ begins: if an artist/designer decides, in nature. Among these, the fractal form par of the thought underpinning a modern
of the ‘thinking’ computer. advance, a series of instructions that will excellence is the spiral, the constituent ‘computational ecology’: between Turing’s
be given to the computer, it is difficult not element of the shell of many annelids revolutionary theories on morphogenesis
Le Witt’s conceptual indifference to any to think that nature operates by following and conches, which is one of the main (every living organism is able to develop
kind of aesthetic judgement, the aversion only its evolutionary spontaneity. At the objects of study of Ernst Heinrich Haeckel’s complex bodies, starting from extremely
to prearranged aesthetic conventions that same time, it is fascinating even to think theories and one of the most beautiful and simple elements and basing on processes
are assimilated by the public, a general that as the artist/designer does not know fascinating geometric forms. of self-assembly, without the aid of a guide
indifference to any kind of distinction the final effects of the instructions, giving following a prearranged plan) and the most
between old and new are perfectly reflected the computer the freedom to interpret If we shift the field of analysis to recent studies that have been carried out
in the words of one of the most important them, similarly nature does not care about mathematics, to numbers, to equations on genetic algorithms (a particular class of
generative artists in Italy, Fabio Franchino, the effects it produces on the organisms and algorithms, the level of intersection evolutionary algorithms using techniques
“In the evening I give some instructions to living in it, giving them evolutionary freedom between science, technology, art and of mutation, selection and recombination,
the computer, which processes data and of forms and elements that we, human nature does not change. And if the so that a certain population of abstract
autonomously generates lines, forms and beings, only afterwards could maybe procedural and generative method is what representations of possible solutions to an
colours during the night; in the morning, consider as ‘works of art.’ we have chosen as the guiding element optimization problem evolves into better
when I wake up, I judge the results. If I of this treatise, it is not surprising to think solutions) almost fifty years of studies,
like the product I will keep it, if it is not Numbers in evolution that the construction of fractals follows a analyses and research passed; they aimed
satisfying I will throw it.” Today, one of the most fascinating reiterated process, that is, the repetition at underlining the nearly computational
mathematical theories is undoubtedly that of a starting element for a theoretically properties of Mother Nature on one side,
Well, I do not know what these things of fractals: according to the definition of infinite number of times until, after a while, and the ability of digital machines to
suggest to you: I think that also in this their discoverer, Polish mathematician the human eye cannot distinguish the simulate and repeat complex natural
case we can make a comparison with Benoît Mandelbrot, they are geometric changes in the starting element any longer. phenomena. Frankly, I do not wonder any
the natural universe. If we assimilate the shapes, characterized by the endless We must not forget the fact that, as it is longer what is the most fascinating form
environment, nature in its widest meaning, repetition of the same pattern at ever acknowledged, fractals are influenced of art or the most difficult process…
as the entity that is able to cause a series smaller scales. This is the most intuitive by certain controlled casualness. There
of changes, evolutions and dynamics, definition that can be given to shapes that is thus again the element of casualness, Moreover, I think that the most interesting
then the organisms living in contact with exist in nature in an impressive number but of spontaneity, as the distinctive (or answers to these themes can be found in
it (again, the concept of ‘ecology’) are able do not still have a precise mathematical unifying) element between computer and the studies and theories of Karl Sims, the
to interpret these vital codes, to assimilate definition. The natural universe is rich nature, according to which evolutionary famous artist and researcher from Mit Media
them, in order to react to them and in forms that are very similar to fractals, mechanisms cannot be predicted from Lab; in particular, we can find them in his
autonomously generate a series of forms, forms that do not follow the norms of the their constituent elements and it is often 1993 work, Genetic Images, which drew
colors and systems that can be seen as the Euclidean geometry: a stretch of coast, the impossible to reconstruct them, starting inspiration from his paper Artificial Evolution
result of their evolutionary process, which branches or the roots of a tree, a cloud, the from their visible manifestations. of Computer Graphics, where he described
comes to a complex final system from a snowflakes, the ramifications of a lightning At this point of the text, the procedural, the application of the genetic algorithms
starting unit. The difference maybe lies in and the dentation of a leaf are example of generative, iterative and evolutionary for the generation of 2D abstract images,
the ‘spontaneity’ with which this process fractal forms originating spontaneously in element may be considered as the pillar starting from complex mathematical
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formulas. Therefore according to of natural evolutionary processes to Marco Mancuso
Critic, art curator and consultant for new media, digital
Sims, Darwin’s evolutionary theories create complex forms without the external
art and electronic culture, with a focus on contemporary
can be simulated by means of a generative presence of any designer or programmer: audiovisual art and design.
software or appropriate mathematical “It is thus possible that these generative He is founder and director of the DigiCult project,
algorithms; in this way, “populations techniques challenge an important based on the active participation of forty professionals,
of virtual entities specified by coded aspect of our anthropocentric tendencies, that represent the first Italian-wide network of
journalists, curators, artists and critics in the field of
descriptions in the computer can be according to which it is difficult for us to
electronic culture.
evolved by applying these same natural believe that we are planned not by a God Mancuso is working with the new born agency DigiMade
rules of variation and selection. but by casualness showing through the as curator/promoter for several Italian artists and
The definition of fitness can even be altered codes of a natural evolution,” concludes teaches at NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) and at IED
as the programmer desires.” I think that Sims. Maybe true art lies exactly (European Institute of Design) in Milan.
what is interesting in Genetic Images is in all these things.
the fact that this work was presented as
an interactive installation: in other words, http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/haeckel/
kunstformen/natur.html
it was the public who could choose and
select the most interesting images and http://www.flickr.com/photos/origomi/
forms from an aesthetic point of view, sets/72157601323433758/

among those generated by a computer http://www.celestinosoddu.com/

simulating a process of artificial evolution.
The selected images were then recombined http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot

by the computer to create new ones, basing http://www.karlsims.com/genetic-images.html

on alteration and mutation methods,
similar to those of natural species during
their evolutionary process. Karl Sims
thus wonders whether these interactive
evolutions can be considered a creative
process. If yes, is it the public who develop
an independent creative attitude or is
the presence of a designer making the
computer follow precise creative paths
necessary? Or is it maybe the computer that
develops autonomous creative tendencies?

In his treatise, Sims duly mentions biologist

Richard Dawkins who, in his book The
Blind Watchmaker, talks about the ability
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 Work in progess.

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 Final presentation.

Guest commenter Marco Mancuso.

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Contents Workshop participants
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04 Foreword Hanna Abi-Hanna, Fernando Acquarone,
06 Brief Namyoung An, Diego Beyrò,
12 Output Lawrence Blankenbyl, Vendi Budic,
38 Interview Víctor Hugo Cabañas, Gonzalo Campos,
49 Essay Simone Cannolicchio, Pau Casals,
56 Gallery Tak Cheung, Lizy Cretney,
Mariana Eggers Giannone, Clara Failla,
Lorenzo Fanton, Jade Follawi,
Gabo Gesualdi, Elena Gianni,
Valerie Gudenus, Joshua Levi,
Julian Koschwicz, Christopher Knowles,
Gustavo Millon, Francesco Novara,
Sanji Petrovic, Martina Stancati,
Jacqueline Steck, Nora Vegas,
Vincent Van Uffelen, Geremia Vinattieri,
Lars Wannop, Patrick Waterhouse,
Joao H. Wilbert
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Designing Processes Rather Than Art Contact
---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------
A Fabrica Workshops project Michela Liverotti
directed by Bruce Sterling mliverotti@benetton.it
tel. +39 0422 516272 - fax +39 0422 516347
Guest commenter Marco Mancuso
www.fabrica.it/workshops
November 25th - November 28th 2008
Fabrica
Fabrica Workshops program director: via Ferrarezza
Omar Vulpinari 31020 Catena di Villorba - Treviso, Italy
Coordination: Fabrica
Barbara Liverotti, Serena Cortella is the communication research center
of the Benetton Group.
Photography:
Mauro Bedoni, Piero Martinello,
Gustavo Millon, Sebastiano Scattolin
Video:
Alessandro Favaron with Chiara Andrich,
Heloisa Sartorato
Technical assistance:
Luciano Alban, Stefano Bosco, Daniela Mesina
Web design:
Paolo Eramo
Designing Processes Rather Than Art booklet
Design:
Lars Wannop, Daniel Streat
Texts:
Elisa De Martini, Phoebe Mutetsi
Production:
Daniela Mesina
© Fabrica 2009
Thanks to:
Laura Pollini, Sam Baron, Enrico Bossan,
Andy Cameron, Federico Mariotto, Babak Payami
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Environmental, Social, Relational
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The title of this workshop and lecture program is rooted

in Fabrica’s heritage of cross-cultural creativity for social
concern. Its precise definition however emerges directly
from a recent debate between Fabrica’s researchers that
had the specific objective to identify common interest
platforms for future studies.
Environmental, social and relational themes are
central to human ecology, a transdisciplinary field using
holistic approaches in the search for harmony between
people and their natural and created environment but
mainly between people and their societies.
Along these lines Fabrica wants to investigate,
experiment, catalyze, document and disseminate how
contemporary communication, design and artistic
expression can contribute to helping people solve
problems and enhance human potential, within near and
far environments.
The workshop series will bring to Fabrica international
creatives from all fields of communication, design
and technology who share a common desire to apply
innovation to social improvement.
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www.fabrica.it/workshops
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