2.15. « Bio-tech » Art
See DNA.
2. 15.1. Random from process
Generative art, seen as a transfer of creative power to a work of art, may be practiced without a computer. Of that we find roots in all the arts whih use random phenomena of nature, or classical random drawings :
- Yi-King is an algorithmic text generator from an random drawing on six bits,
- coffee grounds reading, and all the forms of x.mancy, generating, through more or less algoritmhic rules, revelations or predictions
- drug use to bracket the artists rational will and let speak the random neuronal processes.
Mor "artistically" :
- color flows on a slant plane, with sufficiently fluid matters (or, partly, the Pollock's drippings),
- fire, with burning and smoke effects (John Cage) (Variations III, 1992),
- ceramics crackles (atomstrom.deviantart.com/gallery/32600213),
- chemical effects, as for instance crystallization of a copper sulfate spread on the ground (Roger Hiorns Seizure (2010) artangel.org.uk//projects/2008/seizure/about_the_project/seizure),
- multiple experiences of Anna Dumitriu (web.mac.com/annadumitriu/AD/News_and_Links.html),
- bubble effects in liquids (Kim Pimmel. blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/08/ ) and water sculptures algorithmic-worlds.net/blog/blog.php?Post=20110812).
It is a kind of mergence and transfer. But the affordances remain limited. The resulting quality depends mostly on the artist's capacity to carefully prepare the process, and... to show only the successful results.
On the scientific side, Alan Turing went farther, looking for the mathematical roolts of natural forms generation (dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf). René Thom has given inspiration to a lot of artists, in different works, but mainly after the publication of his major text Stabilité structurelle et morphogenèse (Thom, 1972).
A third approach is more important for the future : the use by artists of properly biological effects. Dominique Moulon signals then in his Art contemporain et nouveaux médias (Moulon, 2011).
Animals are sometimes a source of inspiration for generative art, for instance dogs or ants.
2.15.2.
Selective gardening and breeding
2.15.3. Eduardo Kac
2.15.4. « Art orienté objet »
2.15.5. Human nature, a material for art
Monastic life is an impressive example of man devoting himself to a fundamental wok of art.
2.15.6. Convergence or multiple blossoming ?
Ken Goldberg (and not Goldbert as erroneously in the book).