5 ms·

On Generative Algorithms

259 points by siavosh 10y ago

kimburgess 10y ago
Beautiful output and great, light summary of each process! I've been watching the pieces Anders has been posting over the past few months and freaking love his aesthetic. There's been HN threads on it before, but just in case anyone hasn't seen it and wants to dive down the rabbit hole that is biomimetic / natural systems influenced generative work, check out Dan Shiffman's awesome http://natureofcode.com/ http://natureofcode.com/.
- siavosh 10y ago
  Awesome thanks. Looking for more references if anyone has them. Also if there's any work combining things like this with genetic algorithms?
  - eggy 10y ago
    Today, I like to use Extempore [1], a self-contained, physical computing environment with a Scheme-like language and another that compiles to be as fast as C based upon an LLVM backend. You can code audio and visuals all in Lispy goodness within Emacs. Processing is still cool, and there is a JavaScript version available and lots of books and online examples. It really kicked it off for me [2]. The term 'Creative Coding' seems to be the one that is sticking and encompassing the widely different approaches to creating art with code and computers and other electronic interfaces and devices. Very exciting time for this field right now. Livecoding is another term you'll hear for creating mostly music live in code, with some still doing visuals [3]. Fluxus was a favorite of mine [4]. openFrameworks, a C++ toolkit has a lot of libraries, including ML and AI stuff, to try out a bunch of different things [5]. There are examples of people using GA (Genetic Algorithms), ANNs (Artificial Neural Networks), GP (Genetic Programming), MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) methods and more to create artworks, visual, audio or mixed. The Nature of Code and some YouTube Videos for SuperCollider and other creative coding software touch upon some of this, but you need to Google for specific examples, since people are using them all over the place. My first exposure was a Java Applet where people would look at a generated artwork and hit +1, 0, -1, for like, neutral, dislike, and the applet purportedly used a genetic algorithm to make a new piece. The piece would evolve with the user being the fitness function by participating in judging the pieces. I am playing with Darknet, a C-based CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) that can utilize the GPU, and also work with OpenCV [6]. You can use it to generate text based upon famous writer samples, or recognize objects in an image or video. [1] extempore.moso.com.au [2] https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ [3] toplap.org [4] http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/ http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/ [5] http://openframeworks.cc/ http://openframeworks.cc/ [6] http://pjreddie.com/darknet/ http://pjreddie.com/darknet/
  - kimburgess 10y ago
    Scott Draves has been running a distributed generative art project since last century (1999): http://electricsheep.org/ http://electricsheep.org/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep for a quick summary. As well as using a pretty interesting fractal algorithm for the content it uses a genetic algorithm for filtering of results and progression. He posts everything to GitHub too if you're interested: https://github.com/scottdraves/electricsheep https://github.com/scottdraves/electricsheep https://github.com/scottdraves/flam3 https://github.com/scottdraves/flam3
- kowdermeister 10y ago
  I was looking Dan's videos all day, nice closure for the day :)
- dups 10y ago
  And what a fantastic rabbit hole. I would recommend 'Generative Design'. http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/ http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/ (There is an English edition) A really beautifully designed book. Great to leaf through for inspiration, but also has decent example code for a variety of techniques.
GuiA 10y ago
Great resource. If you're into it, make sure to check out the "The Algorithmic Beauty of..." series of books. There are three: - The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants - this is the original one. Fascinating read - one of the authors creates a rule system (L-system, now fairly well known in the procedural generation world) that allows for the generation of plant like organisms. Other approaches are presented, the prose and illustrations are wonderful. This one is a must have - a beautiful example of what can be accomplished when mixing math, natural sciences, computation, art, and design. - The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells - this one is very good too. If you've wondered how sea shells can have almost perfect checkerboard patterns and so on, this is the book for you. Highly recommended. - The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges, and Corals. My least favorite of the three - some of the content overlaps from TABO Plants - but that's only because the other 2 are so good. If you have interest in the matter, you probably want to read it as well.
- detaro 10y ago
  The author has made the first book available online here: http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop (and tons of related papers)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
sushirain 10y ago
Reminds me of Turing's morphogenesis. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing-patterns/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing-patterns/
KleinBottler 10y ago
Very nice descriptions, i really like the visual algorithmic "explanations". If you are interested in algorithmic descriptions that express other domain specific knowledge (e.g. architecture) check out http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763 http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763
inconvergent 10y ago
Glad to hear that you seem to enjoy the site! Happy to try to answer questions if you have any.
- boothead 10y ago
  Love this! Some of these algorithms are inherently recursive, have you used/looked into a functional language to create them at all?
  - inconvergent 10y ago
    Thanks. No, I've been using python/cython because I know it well already. I've considered learning a functional language though. So I'd be happy to get suggestions. Eg. I would choose a language that has a decent community as well as some good tools for drawing/pixel manipulation/3d modelling, depending on what's available (honestly I haven't researched it at all yet).
    - noelwelsh 10y ago
      You've probably seen my tweet already. The current draft of Creative Scala v2 can be found here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8669329/creative-scala.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8669329/creative-scala.p... The graphics library it uses is here: https://github.com/underscoreio/doodle https://github.com/underscoreio/doodle The source for Creative Scala is here: https://github.com/underscoreio/creative-scala https://github.com/underscoreio/creative-scala Would love to get your thoughts on this material.
      - inconvergent 10y ago
        Hi. Unfortunately I can't dive into this right now. But I'm bookmarking it! Scala sounds interesting to me.
    - boothead 10y ago
      There's the diagrams package in Haskell for vector drawing: http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html Juicy pixels for raster manipulation: https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels And gloss or haskell for mac as a processing kind of environment: http://gloss.ouroborus.net/ http://gloss.ouroborus.net/ http://haskellformac.com/ http://haskellformac.com/ (http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html) There's an old comment thread from a year ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_a_hobby/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_... I'd be interested to know what you think about the feasibility of using these tools to produce the kind of things you make :-)
tunnuz 10y ago
This is beautiful :)

259 points by siavosh 10y ago

Beautiful output and great, light summary of each process! I've been watching the pieces Anders has been posting over the past few months and freaking love his aesthetic. There's been HN threads on it before, but just in case anyone hasn't seen it and wants to dive down the rabbit hole that is biomimetic / natural systems influenced generative work, check out Dan Shiffman's awesome http://natureofcode.com/ http://natureofcode.com/.

siavosh 10y ago
Awesome thanks. Looking for more references if anyone has them. Also if there's any work combining things like this with genetic algorithms?
- eggy 10y ago
  Today, I like to use Extempore [1], a self-contained, physical computing environment with a Scheme-like language and another that compiles to be as fast as C based upon an LLVM backend. You can code audio and visuals all in Lispy goodness within Emacs. Processing is still cool, and there is a JavaScript version available and lots of books and online examples. It really kicked it off for me [2]. The term 'Creative Coding' seems to be the one that is sticking and encompassing the widely different approaches to creating art with code and computers and other electronic interfaces and devices. Very exciting time for this field right now. Livecoding is another term you'll hear for creating mostly music live in code, with some still doing visuals [3]. Fluxus was a favorite of mine [4]. openFrameworks, a C++ toolkit has a lot of libraries, including ML and AI stuff, to try out a bunch of different things [5]. There are examples of people using GA (Genetic Algorithms), ANNs (Artificial Neural Networks), GP (Genetic Programming), MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) methods and more to create artworks, visual, audio or mixed. The Nature of Code and some YouTube Videos for SuperCollider and other creative coding software touch upon some of this, but you need to Google for specific examples, since people are using them all over the place. My first exposure was a Java Applet where people would look at a generated artwork and hit +1, 0, -1, for like, neutral, dislike, and the applet purportedly used a genetic algorithm to make a new piece. The piece would evolve with the user being the fitness function by participating in judging the pieces. I am playing with Darknet, a C-based CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) that can utilize the GPU, and also work with OpenCV [6]. You can use it to generate text based upon famous writer samples, or recognize objects in an image or video. [1] extempore.moso.com.au [2] https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ [3] toplap.org [4] http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/ http://www.pawfal.org/fluxus/ [5] http://openframeworks.cc/ http://openframeworks.cc/ [6] http://pjreddie.com/darknet/ http://pjreddie.com/darknet/
- kimburgess 10y ago
  Scott Draves has been running a distributed generative art project since last century (1999): http://electricsheep.org/ http://electricsheep.org/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sheep for a quick summary. As well as using a pretty interesting fractal algorithm for the content it uses a genetic algorithm for filtering of results and progression. He posts everything to GitHub too if you're interested: https://github.com/scottdraves/electricsheep https://github.com/scottdraves/electricsheep https://github.com/scottdraves/flam3 https://github.com/scottdraves/flam3
kowdermeister 10y ago
I was looking Dan's videos all day, nice closure for the day :)
dups 10y ago
And what a fantastic rabbit hole. I would recommend 'Generative Design'. http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/ http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/ (There is an English edition) A really beautifully designed book. Great to leaf through for inspiration, but also has decent example code for a variety of techniques.

GuiA 10y ago

Great resource. If you're into it, make sure to check out the "The Algorithmic Beauty of..." series of books. There are three: - The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants - this is the original one. Fascinating read - one of the authors creates a rule system (L-system, now fairly well known in the procedural generation world) that allows for the generation of plant like organisms. Other approaches are presented, the prose and illustrations are wonderful. This one is a must have - a beautiful example of what can be accomplished when mixing math, natural sciences, computation, art, and design. - The Algorithmic Beauty of Sea Shells - this one is very good too. If you've wondered how sea shells can have almost perfect checkerboard patterns and so on, this is the book for you. Highly recommended. - The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges, and Corals. My least favorite of the three - some of the content overlaps from TABO Plants - but that's only because the other 2 are so good. If you have interest in the matter, you probably want to read it as well.

detaro 10y ago
The author has made the first book available online here: http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop http://algorithmicbotany.org/papers/#abop (and tons of related papers)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

sushirain 10y ago

Reminds me of Turing's morphogenesis. https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing-patterns/ https://www.wired.com/2011/02/turing-patterns/

KleinBottler 10y ago

Very nice descriptions, i really like the visual algorithmic "explanations". If you are interested in algorithmic descriptions that express other domain specific knowledge (e.g. architecture) check out http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763 http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/7/10/12763

inconvergent 10y ago

Glad to hear that you seem to enjoy the site! Happy to try to answer questions if you have any.

boothead 10y ago
Love this! Some of these algorithms are inherently recursive, have you used/looked into a functional language to create them at all?
- inconvergent 10y ago
  Thanks. No, I've been using python/cython because I know it well already. I've considered learning a functional language though. So I'd be happy to get suggestions. Eg. I would choose a language that has a decent community as well as some good tools for drawing/pixel manipulation/3d modelling, depending on what's available (honestly I haven't researched it at all yet).
  - noelwelsh 10y ago
    You've probably seen my tweet already. The current draft of Creative Scala v2 can be found here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8669329/creative-scala.pdf https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8669329/creative-scala.p... The graphics library it uses is here: https://github.com/underscoreio/doodle https://github.com/underscoreio/doodle The source for Creative Scala is here: https://github.com/underscoreio/creative-scala https://github.com/underscoreio/creative-scala Would love to get your thoughts on this material.
    - inconvergent 10y ago
      Hi. Unfortunately I can't dive into this right now. But I'm bookmarking it! Scala sounds interesting to me.
  - boothead 10y ago
    There's the diagrams package in Haskell for vector drawing: http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html http://projects.haskell.org/diagrams/gallery.html Juicy pixels for raster manipulation: https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels https://github.com/Twinside/Juicy.Pixels And gloss or haskell for mac as a processing kind of environment: http://gloss.ouroborus.net/ http://gloss.ouroborus.net/ http://haskellformac.com/ http://haskellformac.com/ (http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html http://learn.hfm.io/fractals.html) There's an old comment thread from a year ago here: https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_a_hobby/ https://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/2naug0/haskell_as_... I'd be interested to know what you think about the feasibility of using these tools to produce the kind of things you make :-)

tunnuz 10y ago

This is beautiful :)