Through Curved Air

Through Curved Air releases on January 9th on Art Blocks.

Through Curved Air is the continuation of my technical exploration into variation in generative art. It builds directly on top of the ideas and code from my earlier works Coquina and Primordial. In these earlier works the variation is primarily found in the way shapes are arranged on the canvas; the type of shape which is used is particular to each work. Each output from Through Curved Air is similarly made up of many small shapes, but those shapes are generated using the same techniques used to create unique arrangements, resulting in a texture that gives the output its own distinct character.

There’s a discomfort to talking about how a project which starts as a technical exercise begins to take on meaning. I don’t want my art to feel disingenuous, like I’m trying to make it feel deep as an advertising technique. Does the fact that my ideas weren’t fully formed when I started disqualify me from molding the work around them as it continues to evolve? No matter the medium, an artist always develops technical skills required to execute a piece, so it’s really just a question of whether there is any difference between whether those skills are honed while the canvas is still blank or if the piece is in progress before the technique reaches the requisite level.

Thinking about these issues led me to consider other challenges around conveying meaning through my art. The one that stood out the most to me is this: how do I make art which feels as though a human is responsible for it? A real person is always responsible for assembling the script for a generative work, but when they delegate the specifics of how an output should look to the algorithm, the individual output can lose that sense of human touch. Through Curved Air is about trying to preserve that feeling. You can read more about my thoughts on conveying meaning in generative art here.