Author: Ryan Opande

Casey Reas ideology of art made me reevaluate my thought that art is something that should be consciously shaped by an artist. His concept makes me embrace the capabilities of letting the unknown unfold and curating it to become what one wants it to be and this is enough to be considered as creativity. I bared the thought that randomness in art is an accident but on viewing his catalogue of artwork I came to understand that randomness is an active and thoughtful way to come up with new possibilities in art. This has changed my view of artists ownership where an artists role is not reduced but rather redefined as someone who curates chance and thus expanding what is considered  art.

Ultimately, Reas discussion on randomness in art has impacted how I approach my creativity in art. The idea of using chance not as an afterthought but as a way of discovery creates more freedom in art. This has inspired me to take chance as an opportunity rather than a risk as in this way I become a collaborator with the unknown, guiding it to become something surprising yet deeply personal. This has consequently enlightened me that art is not just the outcome but rather everything from the imagination, process and implementation and it is not only what is planned but what comes out naturally through the process.

Concept

My art assignment was inspired by a The Weeknd concert that I attended. I was amazed by the stage setting particularly how the lighting was done which I really liked. The criss-crossing lights that were constantly moving from all around the stage and changing colors perfectly rhymed with the vibe of the song being performed. If the song was more chaotic the lights would move faster and the color be more dark but when the song was more of chill the lights would move more slowly and be of more bright color. Adding to the video by Casey Reas on art, I came to visualize how the lights bear a chaotic theme in terms of movement and color but this chaos is what makes the concert more lively by creating a good vibe. This inspired me to try and recreate a similar thought but in terms of art. I do this by excluding the stage as a whole and just focus on the lights and the pattern of illumination and color. My art has light coming from the top and side which is moving to represent the light that is fixed to illuminate the stage alone. The circles which change size and color represent the moving lights that illuminate the audience.
Code Highlight
The part of the code that I am really proud of is how I executed the moving circles and making them change their size while moving.

// Changing size of circles
let size = 30 + sin(speed + i * 0.05 + j * 0.05) * 20;

fill((speed * 20 + i) % 255, (speed * 30 + j) % 255, 200);//random colouring
ellipse(x + sin(speed + i * 0.1) * 20, y + cos(speed + j * 0.1) * 20, size);

j += 50;

I implemented this by first ensuring that the circles have a minimum size. Then I used the sine function to generate values that change between -1 and 1. The sine wave makes the circles to move up and down and each circle having a different oscillation . Then by multiplying the sine function by the constant 20 ensures that the size of the circles also changes as they move. This whole results in the circles changing size in a wavy way. The circles also change color depending on their position on the screen which results in the circles having unique color in different places on the screen.

Visual Code

Reflection/Future improvements

I am proud of how I have been able to use loops to come up with something lively as compared to my first assignment. I am also proud of how I explored my creativity and being able to put down my experiences in terms of art using p5. For the future work I would like to have more user interaction with the art work like having mouse or keyboard engagement to directly change the art. I would also like to refine the movements of my art to be more complex and more random in order to embrace Casey’s logic of chaos. Other than that I am impressed with the art that i came up with and the progress that I have had.

Concept
A portrait of myself. I was inspired to create the portrait by the assignment and also to play around and learn how to use p5.js
Code
Coming up with the sketch was really fun and helpful in implementing what I learnt in class. It was a great way to interact with p5.js and know what I can do with it. I am proud of how I managed to incorporate what was taught in class particularly using the arc function to come up with the sketch.

Reflection
I believe that I still have room to improve the portrait. I had challenges making the hair and ears so learning how to make it more realistic would be really great. I would also like to make the portrait more lively by adding more things in the background and having more movements.