art by factors
I was asked what one piece of advice I'd give to artists looking to make more work or to be more productive. The key to that I think, is to cultivate a lack of preciousness. To care more about the 'how' of the making, rather than the 'what' of the made.
But, if I could give one other piece of advice, it'd be to have friends and acquaintances who are more creative than you. Surround yourself with people who make and create things that are beyond your ability to even dream of. Because inevitably it will push you to do things you've never thought to do.
For me, Sascha Bregenhorn is one of those people. Sascha is an incredible graphic designer. His work consistently inspires me. But he's also a web developer and web designer, and he made something I can't even comprehend. He calls it Artifactor.
Artifactor is a website that creates a new piece of art every 20 seconds from a combination of svg graphics, mask images, background colors and Unsplash photos. All of it scaled, positioned, rotated, and aligned by chance. Ones and zeros pulled from a technological hat. Art by random integers. "Art by factors", Sascha says.
It's not only brilliant but beautiful. How something calculated, and arbitrary, and mathematical can create something so elegant and engaging. Something so wonderous and unbelievable.
Like nucleotide daisy chains twirling into doubles helixes. An intricate and almost accidental ladder of heredity that leads to something magical. Something like you.
I took screen shots of some of the images the site created.
I arranged and manipulated them in Affinity photo.
I printed some of them.
And I made collages, like the one at the top of this post and the one below:
Maybe the work I made isn't as ingenious as what Sascha does, maybe it isn't as interesting or inspiring. But its given me something to explore that I wouldn't have come to any other way.
P.S. ICAD - the never ending story - Day 108 - 110
P.P.S. - I came across the N.J. Berrill quote below in a blog by Maria Popova:
“We, each of us, you and I, exhibit more of the true nature of the universe than any dead Saturn or Jupiter.”
It inspired me to make this piece.
I’m really enjoying these articles Duane but this one has really given me pause for thought. I’m so tech-avoidant these days (probably the result of being chained to a screen and desk for 30+ years!) but Sacha’s work sounds so fantastic. The fact that the image is gone after 20 seconds is what stopped me; I love the beauty in transience, like a cloud passing - blink and it’s different - or a wave breaking then pulled back into the sea to form again. All these things that we miss when we aren’t looking. Thanks for sharing this, I’ll be chewing it over all day I think 😁
'To care more about the 'how' of the making, rather than the 'what' of the made.' ⚡