BSaST v0.9.13 seed 1713832960 frame 133

I wrote a script in the Processing language which randomly generates colored, nested circles on a grid akin to my cousin Daniel Bartholomew's work of the same title. When the Processing script runs, it animates the circles, and if you tap on them, their color animates. I entered it in the Springville Museum of Art's 34th Spiritual and Religious Art of Utah Contest (if it makes it into the show, it will be displayed on a large kiosk). [2019-10-04 UPDATE: This work made it into the show! It was on display at the Springville Museum of Art, October 16, 2019 – January 15, 2020.] Here is the artist statement:

"..by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.." -Alma 37:6

Tap or swipe circles and watch what happens!

Just like your interaction changes this work, I believe that God interferes with reality–sometimes to dazzling effect. I believe that mere existence is amazing besides, or if not, filled with promise.

Images you interact with are "tweeted" @earthbound19bot (Twitter social media).

I coded this in the Processing language with Daniel Bartholomew's support and input. It imitates his original pen and marker works of the same title, with animation, and generating any of about 4.3 billion possible variations at intervals.

BSaST v0.9.13 seed 1713832960 frame 133

I dedicate all these images to the Public Domain. I can literally make 4.3 billion other ones if anyone "steals" these. [UPDATE 2: The kiosk saved as many user-generated works from interactions with it as it could, and I've archived them in my "firehose" gallery here.]

Continue reading

[UPDATE: there's a lot more to light and color science than I perhaps inaccurately get at in this post. Also, try color transforms and comparisons (if the latter is possible?) in Oklab.]

It turns out that all of the digital color models in wide use are often bad for figuring out which of any two colors are "nearest," according to humans.

Sometime in my web meanderings, I stumbled on information about the CIECAM02 color model (and space), including a Python library that uses it and a (gee-wow astonishing at what it can do with color) free Photoshop-compatible plugin that manipulates images in that space. [EDIT 2020-10-07: link to that plugin down and I can't find the plugin on the open web anymore. Here's a link to my own copy of it (in a .zip archive)] If you do color adjustments on images using an application that's compatible with Photoshop plugins (a lot of programs are), go get and install that plugin now! Also: a CIECAM02 color space browser app (alas, Windows only it seems?).

I wrote a Python script that uses that library to sort any list of RGB colors (expressed in hex) so that every color has the colors most similar to it next to it. (Figuring out an algorithm that does this broke my brain–I guess in a good way.) (I also wrote a bash script that runs it against all .hexplt files (a palette file format which is one RGB hex color per line) in a directory.)

The results are better than any other color sorting I've found, possibly better than what very perceptive humans could accomplish with complicated arrays of color.

Here's an image of Prismacolor marker colors, in the order that results from sorting by this script (the order is left to right, top to bottom) :

Prismacolor marker colors, sorted by nearest perceptual
Prismacolor marker colors, sorted by nearest perceptual

For before/after comparison, here is an image from the same palette, but randomly sorted; the script can turn this ordering of the palette into the above much more contiguous-appearing:

Prismacolor marker set colors, random order
Prismacolor marker set colors, random order

(It's astonishing, but it seems like any color in that palette looks good with any other color in it, despite that the palette comprises every basic hue, and many grays and some browns. They know what they are doing at Prismacolor. I got this palette from my cousin Daniel Bartholomew, who uses those colors in his art, which you may see over here and here.)

Some other palettes which I updated by sorting them with this script are on display in my GitHub repo of collected color palettes.

Here is another before and after comparison of 250 randomly generated RGB colors sorted by this script. You might correctly guess from this that random color generation in the RGB space often produces garish color arrays. I wonder whether random color generation somehow done in a model more aligned with human perception (like CIECAM02) would produce more pleasing results.

250 randomly generated RGB colors
250 randomly generated RGB colors
250 randomly generated RGB colors, sorted in CIECAM02 color space
250 randomly generated RGB colors, sorted in CIECAM02 color space

See how it has impressive runs of colors very near each other, including by tint or shade, and good compromises when colors aren't near, with colors that are perceptually further from everything at the end. Also notice that darker and lighter shades of the same hue tend to go in separate lighter/darker runs–with colors that well interpolate into those runs in between!–instead of having lights and darks in the same run, where the higher difference of tint/shade would introduce a discontiguous aspect.

Tangent: in RGB space, I tested a theory that a collection of colors which add (or subtract!) to gray will generally be a pleasing combination of colors–and found this to be often true. I would like to test this theory in the CIECAM02 color space. I'd also like to test the theory that colors randomly generated in the CIECAM02 space will generally be more pleasing alone and together (regardless of whether they were conceived as combining to form gray).

I really can't have those as the last images in this post. Here is a favorite palette.

Lake Bonnevile Desert Colors
Lake Bonnevile Desert Colors

Here's the URL to that palette (in my palette repository).

[Edit 2020-10-07: I had renamed or moved several things I linked to from this post, which broke links. I corrected the links after a reader kindly requested to know where things had gone.]

average of diff and average views of satellite photos of the Earth
average of diff and average views of satellite photos of the Earth
average of diff and average views of satellite photos of the Earth
average of diff and average views of satellite photos of the Earth

This is one of thousands of images like it (each unique though) I've recently generated with an experimental process. The experiment is a success if I may say so.

This is the process to (potentially) get some way cool procedural images from satellite (or any!) images, accomplished with a new script at https://github.com/earthbound19/_ebArt/blob/master/recipes/diff_avg_supercomposites.sh :

Phase I.
– collect several cool satellite images of civilization and/or wilderness, e.g. from this site: https://earthview.withgoogle.com/
– for every image pair in the collection, make a "diff" image (subtract the RGB values of every pixel in one image from every pixel in the other image), and save the result
– for every image pair in the collection, make an averaged image (average the RGB values of every pixel in one image with another), and save the result
Phase II.
– liberally delete less impressive results
Phase III.
– for every diffed result, average it with an averaged result and save that.
– for every averaged result, subtract (diff) a diffed result.
– liberally delete less impressive results. Good luck–with 17 source images and heavy pruning in Phase II, this will give me 17k+ results, so far all of them compellingly cool.

(Phase IV: sort all results by approx. nearest most similar and string them together in a movie of crossfades to see works between the works.)

(Phase V: accidentally produce glitch art because your computer ran out of hard drive space and memory doing all this, but the processing script keeps calling the utilities that do this, and the utilities break. I'll post some glitch results later).

(Phase VI: realize you have a storage and bandwidth problem for your new many gigabytes of images.)

Base work created by Filter Forge auto-collage filter custom setting. I probably also used a custom variant of the SideToSide filter; that in built up alpha and hue layer variations to produce rectangular hue/tone variety. I might like to call this post-plasticism (after Piet Mondrian's neoplasticism; this is structurally similar but uses any color).

See http://s.earthbound.io/4G for original, print and usage. ~ Base work created by Filter Forge auto-collage filter custom setting. I probably also used a custom variant of the SideToSide filter; that in built up alpha and hue layer variations to produce rectangular hue/tone variety. I might like to call this post-plasticism (after Piet Mondrian's neoplasticism; this is structurally similar but uses any color). A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 01 FF auto-collage
See http://s.earthbound.io/5f for original, print and usage. Variant created with Flaming Pear India Ink plugin for Photoshop (which does amazing work). ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 15 FP India Ink
See http://s.earthbound.io/5e for original, print and usage. Variant produced by sending another variant throught the Filter Forge SideToSide filter (modded). ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 14 FF sideToSideMod
See http://s.earthbound.io/5d for original, print and usage. Variant produced by sending another variant throught the Filter Forge SideToSide filter (modded). ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 13 FF sideToSideMod
See http://s.earthbound.io/5c for original, print and usage. Variant produced by sending another variant throught the Filter Forge SideToSide filter (modded). Which is fantastic filter/effect that creates art in its own right from virtually any source image. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 12 FF sideToSideMod
See http://s.earthbound.io/5b for original, print and usage. Variant produced with Filter Forge Chalk on Chalkboard filter. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 11 FF chalkOnChalkboard tweak
See http://s.earthbound.io/5a for original, print and usage. I probably used a custom variant of the Filter Forge SideToSide filter to create this. This is an alpha mask (to build up alpha and hue layer variations to produce rectangular hue/tone variety) which I thought would make its own great variant and I tweaked and saved it as such. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 10 BW Alpha
See http://s.earthbound.io/59 for original, print and usage. Hue etc. adjustment variant done in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 09d
See http://s.earthbound.io/58 for original, print and usage. Hue etc. adjustment variant done in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 09c
See http://s.earthbound.io/57 for original, print and usage. Hue etc. adjustment variant done in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 09b
See http://s.earthbound.io/56 for original, print and usage. Hue etc. adjustment variant done in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 09a
See http://s.earthbound.io/55 for original, print and usage. I believe this collage of output from the Filter Forge auto-collage filter (a collage of collages) was the foundation of all other variants in this series. So this might more accurately be called variant 1. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 08 collage of FF auto-collage (work base)
See http://s.earthbound.io/54 for original, print and usage. This variant was produced with the Filter Forge Chalk On Chalkboard filter. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 07 FF Chalk On Chalkboard
See http://s.earthbound.io/53 for original, print and usage. Variant created with Dynamic Auto-Painter pencil from comp05 (my notes say, whatever on earth that is supposed to refer to). ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 06 DAP pencil
See http://s.earthbound.io/52 for original, print and usage. Variant created with Dynamic Auto-Painter wax, with hue adjustment in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 05 DAP wax
See http://s.earthbound.io/51 for original, print and usage. Variant created with Dynamic Auto-Painter wax, with hue adjustment in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 04 DAP wax
See http://s.earthbound.io/50 for original, print and usage. Variant created with Dynamic Auto-Painter wax, with hue adjustment in *LAB color mode. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 03 DAP wax
See http://s.earthbound.io/4L for original, print and usage. Variant created with Dynamic Auto-Painter wax. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00076 variant 02 DAP wax

"Narmth" is an invented adjective. The hex color scheme used for the color variants here is at: https://github.com/earthbound19/_ebdev/blob/master/scripts/imgAndVideo/palettes/recreated_palette_00001_narmth.hexplt

See http://s.earthbound.io/4q for archive, print and use options. ~ Doodled, scanned, fixed up and vectorized by yours truly. A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00090 variant 2 random color fills from color scheme narmth

This first is vector art (an svg), which you may save and reuse. You may reuse these works freely under Creative Commons Attribution 4. I'd appreciate credit in reuse.

The animated variant is concieved as unobtrusive decorative video art. Or maybe it would be distracting. I don't know, because I don't know who displays art as such. Do you?

See http://s.earthbound.io/2y for original, print and usage ~ The swirling strokes in this were achieved with the liquid ink bristlecone preset in Corel Painter 2016 ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00099 abstraction (cyan, blue, orange, red)

The swirling strokes in this were achieved with the liquid ink pine preset in Corel Painter 2016. Tap or click image for ~2K resolution, free for personal use. Here's a link to prints and merchandise available at pixels.com, and another link to prints available at ImageKind at up to ~ 35" x 56".

The following variant and resource images which I made along the way, I release into the Public Domain:

Variant via the Filter Forge "side to side" filter by Skybase:

An alpha resource via the Filter Forge Terrain Hightfield Generator by LigH; I used this (and variants of it) as a transparency channel in filter layers to make uneven interesting application of filters:

See http://s.earthbound.io/2u for archive, print and use options. Randomly colored via http://s.earthbound.io/BWsvgRandomColorFill ~ Original black and white version doodled, scanned, fixed up and vectorized by yours truly. A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00091 abstact line art variant 2 random colors
See http://s.earthbound.io/2t for archive, print and use options. ~ Doodled, scanned, fixed up and vectorized by yours truly. A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Work 00091 abstact line art black and white

I made black and white vector art of a doodle and did random color fills of the blank areas from a palette. I automated this with bash scripts and CLI utilities on Windows+MSYS2.

I also strung many of these images together in an animation mostly sorted by next most similar image (also with scripts).

Thumbnails link to larger resolution images, free for personal use.

What does this make you think of / feel / postmodern / angst / ruminate / ritualize? If you do not know, the COMPUTER-GENERATED POSTMODERN "ARTIST STATEMENT" DRAWING HAT can tell you!

I think it's a happy coincidence that my first run of the random color fill script produced grass-like color below and sky-like color above.

I've changed the name of this since after I gave up numbering works (cataloguing them is a technical feat that got away from me), and starting naming some works that I have no better name for by date. This was originally named and titled Work 00091 [+some description about abstract line art with random color fills]. Later, in syndicated media posts I renamed it 2016-11-24, which date is an error. My files named by date for this are 2017-01-13 (with redevelopment later in 2021). Blahuarg.

See http://s.earthbound.io/2s for source, print and usage. ~ Contact sheet of 9 fractals from a larger selection of fractal flame abstract art from the brood in title. Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood ~ I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbtred them. These fractals result. They happen to be reminiscent of snowflakes.
See http://s.earthbound.io/2s for source, print and usage. ~ Contact sheet of 9 fractals from a larger selection of fractal flame abstract art from the brood in title. Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood ~ I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbtred them. These fractals result. They happen to be reminiscent of snowflakes.
Select from snowflake-like fractals brood 1

See http://s.earthbound.io/2s for original resolution source images, more snowflake-like fractals from this set, and prints and usage.

Contact sheet of 9 fractals from a larger selection of fractal flame abstract art from the brood in title.

Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood

I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbred them. These fractals result. They happen to be reminiscent of snowflakes.

Watch this space for a fractal animation of many of these.

See http://s.earthbound.io/2g for original, print and usage. ~ Based on something I started way back in 2003. Gah. I'm old. This is however a near overhaul of that. Created with Corel Painter, Filter Forge, and Photoshop. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Abstraction (Work 00079)
See http://s.earthbound.io/2g for original, print and usage. ~ Based on something I started way back in 2003. Gah. I'm old. This is however a near overhaul of that. Created with Corel Painter, Filter Forge, and Photoshop. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Abstraction (Work 00079)

Click or tap the image for a high resolution version, free for personal use. If you want a print please leave a comment. ~ Based on something I started way back in 2003. Gah. I'm old. This is however a near overhaul of that. Created with Corel Painter, Filter Forge, and Photoshop. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at: http://s.earthbound.io/artgib

I think this randomly generated statement works as well as many other Artist Statements you may have read!–

Works utilize this medium today. A concrete form with various organisations, including the work /Black Out/, in which imagination, dreams, and death are largely intuitive: preferring that the settlers went on to study sociocultural trends in photography, media and intellectual creativity in masterpieces of probably the most loved French post-impressionist masters.

See http://s.earthbound.io/2a for source, prints and usage. ~ Fractal flame abstract art. Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood ~ I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbtred them. This fractal results from alternating the genes of 2016 11 14 21 22 46 962407600 and 2016 11 14 21 53 58 616402600.
Work 00088 Fractal Flame
See http://s.earthbound.io/2a for source, prints and usage. ~ Fractal flame abstract art. Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood ~ I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbtred them. This fractal results from alternating the genes of 2016 11 14 21 22 46 962407600 and 2016 11 14 21 53 58 616402600.
Work 00088 Fractal Flame

Fractal flame abstract art. Click the image for a giant resolution image, free for personal use.

Print up to 5' x ~3' available yonder.

Produced via http://s.earthbound.io/autobrood ~ I randomly generated a lot of fractals, picked pretty ones, and interbred them. This fractal results from alternating the genes of 2016 11 14 21 22 46 962407600 and 2016 11 14 21 53 58 616402600.