5 ms·

Show HN: Generative art with ant colony optimization algorithms

87 points by adyer07 7y ago

adyer07 7y ago
Thanks for reading! I’m particularly interested in hearing how a technical audience responds to art like this. Did it resonate for you?
- jgon 7y ago
  I really enjoyed it and it motivated me to explore some of these techniques in my own projects!
- zadkey 7y ago
  I most resonated with the "Objects in a git object tree, graphed by ants." This felt very real or close to real for me.
  - adyer07 7y ago
    Yeah, I still feel like there's a lot unexplored there. Abstract code visualization seems like it would be an interesting project in its own right.
- undershirt 7y ago
  The first one looks like pictures of my eye taken after my doctor scans it with a light (I suppose that's just an angiogram you mentioned later). Those rasters were my favorite, and I love the artful clarity of complexity you achieved. I came away appreciating emergence a bit more. Interesting how the complexity resisted the contrivance during attempts to press it into shapes! (subscribed to your newsletter)
  - adyer07 7y ago
    Thank you! I do wonder why the resemblance to veins is so strong. There must be something interesting and emergent going on there, too.
  - reroute1 7y ago
    That's exactly what I was thinking! Blood vessels and capillaries. Cool project.
zadkey 7y ago
This is really cool. Do you have some code that you are willing to showcase?
- adyer07 7y ago
  Certainly - you can look at the source for the p5.js port here, which is basically a line-by-line port of the original processing3 simulation: https://github.com/oxling/p5js_ants https://github.com/oxling/p5js_ants The other parts, the rasterization and vectorization, I haven't cleaned up to the point where the source isn't terribly embarrassing! One of the weird things about this project was the code became more of a means to an end than an artifact in itself, so it's littered with a lot of dead experiments, swear words, and so on.
cube2222 7y ago
It seems to be dead: "Error establishing a database connection"
- sulZ 7y ago
  I'm getting the same. Hopefully it will be fixed when I check back again later.
  - adyer07 7y ago
    Shoot! On it.
  - adyer07 7y ago
    OK, should be back up.
s9w 7y ago
I don't know anything about web hosting, but how come HN kills pages so quickly? This has 33 upvotes right now - even when I assume that translates into 1000times the clicks - 33k of anything don't seem that much to my naive assumptions. Is web hosting that hard?
- flir 7y ago
  It might have gone over a bandwidth threshold.
  - adyer07 7y ago
    Server ran out of memory, apparently - back up now, with more swap space on the server :)
twoquestions 7y ago
Good stuff! For some reason you just don't see a lot of machine guided/generated art like this out there, and that's a shame.
- bdr 7y ago
  There’s a lot of it happening, it just doesn’t get the most attention. If you’re in NYC there’s a great exhibition on now that includes generative art: https://sfpc.io/sevenyears/ https://sfpc.io/sevenyears/
lupetrucci 7y ago
I've worked on a similar topic during my Msc Thesis. It was an application to help evolve parameters of ant colonies using evolutionary computation to render non photorealistic artworks. Here's a sample of it running: https://vimeo.com/93903230 https://vimeo.com/93903230 Here's the link to he project: https://cdv.dei.uc.pt/photogrowth-ant-painting/ https://cdv.dei.uc.pt/photogrowth-ant-painting/
- adyer07 7y ago
  Thank you for the link, this is fantastic! I love the complex interwoven nature of the patterns.
GaryNumanVevo 7y ago
This is some of the most visually stunning stuff I've seen in a while. Excellent job!
triclops200 7y ago
This is a similar topic to the first paper I worked on that got published! We built a system that allowed ants to do compass straightedge construction. Paper link is here: https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/papers/alife16-geometers.pdf https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/papers/alife16-geometers.pdf

87 points by adyer07 7y ago

Thanks for reading! I’m particularly interested in hearing how a technical audience responds to art like this. Did it resonate for you?

jgon 7y ago
I really enjoyed it and it motivated me to explore some of these techniques in my own projects!
zadkey 7y ago
I most resonated with the "Objects in a git object tree, graphed by ants." This felt very real or close to real for me.
- adyer07 7y ago
  Yeah, I still feel like there's a lot unexplored there. Abstract code visualization seems like it would be an interesting project in its own right.
undershirt 7y ago
The first one looks like pictures of my eye taken after my doctor scans it with a light (I suppose that's just an angiogram you mentioned later). Those rasters were my favorite, and I love the artful clarity of complexity you achieved. I came away appreciating emergence a bit more. Interesting how the complexity resisted the contrivance during attempts to press it into shapes! (subscribed to your newsletter)
- adyer07 7y ago
  Thank you! I do wonder why the resemblance to veins is so strong. There must be something interesting and emergent going on there, too.
- reroute1 7y ago
  That's exactly what I was thinking! Blood vessels and capillaries. Cool project.

zadkey 7y ago

This is really cool. Do you have some code that you are willing to showcase?

adyer07 7y ago
Certainly - you can look at the source for the p5.js port here, which is basically a line-by-line port of the original processing3 simulation: https://github.com/oxling/p5js_ants https://github.com/oxling/p5js_ants The other parts, the rasterization and vectorization, I haven't cleaned up to the point where the source isn't terribly embarrassing! One of the weird things about this project was the code became more of a means to an end than an artifact in itself, so it's littered with a lot of dead experiments, swear words, and so on.

cube2222 7y ago

It seems to be dead: "Error establishing a database connection"

sulZ 7y ago
I'm getting the same. Hopefully it will be fixed when I check back again later.
- adyer07 7y ago
  Shoot! On it.
- adyer07 7y ago
  OK, should be back up.

s9w 7y ago

I don't know anything about web hosting, but how come HN kills pages so quickly? This has 33 upvotes right now - even when I assume that translates into 1000times the clicks - 33k of anything don't seem that much to my naive assumptions. Is web hosting that hard?

flir 7y ago
It might have gone over a bandwidth threshold.
- adyer07 7y ago
  Server ran out of memory, apparently - back up now, with more swap space on the server :)

twoquestions 7y ago

Good stuff! For some reason you just don't see a lot of machine guided/generated art like this out there, and that's a shame.

bdr 7y ago
There’s a lot of it happening, it just doesn’t get the most attention. If you’re in NYC there’s a great exhibition on now that includes generative art: https://sfpc.io/sevenyears/ https://sfpc.io/sevenyears/

lupetrucci 7y ago

I've worked on a similar topic during my Msc Thesis. It was an application to help evolve parameters of ant colonies using evolutionary computation to render non photorealistic artworks. Here's a sample of it running: https://vimeo.com/93903230 https://vimeo.com/93903230 Here's the link to he project: https://cdv.dei.uc.pt/photogrowth-ant-painting/ https://cdv.dei.uc.pt/photogrowth-ant-painting/

adyer07 7y ago
Thank you for the link, this is fantastic! I love the complex interwoven nature of the patterns.

GaryNumanVevo 7y ago

This is some of the most visually stunning stuff I've seen in a while. Excellent job!

triclops200 7y ago

This is a similar topic to the first paper I worked on that got published! We built a system that allowed ants to do compass straightedge construction. Paper link is here: https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/papers/alife16-geometers.pdf https://cs.gmu.edu/~sean/papers/alife16-geometers.pdf