Research and Inspirations
Most of the inspiration for this week’s Digital Fabrication assignment came from the examples that were shown in class. However, time spent outside of class going down the rabbit hole for each artist’s website or IG account provided even more inspiration and a nice basis for exploring patterns and mark making in the “wild”. I’ve added a few of my favorite artworks from the artists that were shown in class below.
The examples above are from Tyler Hobbs’ IG account. His ability to create an organic feel from code is something I would like to emulate in my future work. There is a wonderfully different order and randomness that seems to arise each time the code is run.
These next examples are from Sougwen Chen’s IG account. Her artwork also has some incredible organic qualities that I find extremely interesting. While most of her work is hand drawn I feel that creating code generated art that has similar qualities will produce wonderful results.
Process and Progress
With some inspiration from these amazing artists I began my process of documenting “wild” patterns. The documentation began almost immediately and I saw some interesting patterns in various places: on friends’ clothes, out the windows of the EDP studio, on the bike ride home from campus, and in various other places over the weekend. Below I have included a few of the patterns that I used as templates for my vector patterns.
In the past I have been pretty loyal to the Adobe Creative Suite, however for this project I wanted to experiment with Affinity Designer. The overall experience was very similar to Illustrator but I found a few differences in the interface and process. While most of the pen tools features were the same some of the keyboard shortcuts took some relearning. The ability to apply patterns to shapes also slowed down my workflow. I was able to create some end results that I was happy with so it’s been a decent first foray into Affinity Designer. I’ve included thumbnails of the 6 vector files I created based on several documented patterns.
Reflection
I’m very excited for the next step in the process where we get to use the plotter to bring these patterns to life. Since that step has yet to happen I feel the need to reflect on the two parts of the process so far that have been the most enjoyable. Almost immediately after our first class I began the process of documenting patterns that caught my eye. In the past I have admired natural patterns but rarely documented them so this exercise was a welcome change. There is something wonderful about being able to archive those patterns to reference as inspiration later. I will definitely be doing this on a more consistent basis to help inspire my creative coding and plotter based projects. Instagram has become another great archival tool and source of inspiration for my future mark making practices. It serves as a useful digital vision/mood board and reference. I also realized after I created my patterns that there weren’t any instances of the organic curves I liked from Tyler and Sougwen’s work. I’m not sure why but all the patterns that caught my eye as I explored this weekend were very linear. In the future I’ll have to make sure I incorporate both of these elements because I do really like the fluidity of the wavelike forms from those works.
EDIT :: Found this video after I completed the assignment but I felt that it was relevant enough to include. Textures have the ability to create their own patterns. Patterns which may be interpreted by each viewer slightly differently. The inspiration that can be found as one walks around is basically limitless.