Yoichiro Kawaguchi

Some great computer animated works I hadn't seen yet from Yoichiro Kawaguchi using his unique style through his "GROWTH Model", a model based on growth algorithm, a self-organizing method to give form to one's rich imagination or to develop one's formative algorithm of a complex life form. See more info about Yoichiro Kawaguchi and his work process on this previous post. See more;

Origin, 1985

Embryo, 1988

Flora, 1989

Composed by Tod Machover, computer graphics by Yoichiro Kawaguchi. Based on the voice of Karol Bennett.

Gigalopolis, 1995

Cytolon, 2002

Flowpi

Can't wait to receive this limited printed publication (100 copies) featuring the great algorithmic work by Jonathan McCabe, who has worked with Bryce Wilner to make together this piece called Flowpi, which title makes reference to a combination of a "flow" and a pattern forming system named after the pomacanthus imperator fish. The book contains thirty-one new compositions by Jonathan McCabe. To see more info and how this generative and organic texture really flows check out this previous post about Flowpi. See more;

The book's pages were printed by Sunrise Digital on Indigo Text 80# paper. It's  available in paperback only, it costs 20$ and it's possible to buy it here.

Manfred Mohr

Here are some amazing experiments made by Mandred Mohr back in 1973.  He was invited by the CEO of La Companie Generale de Micromatique (a data storage and preservation company, which specialized in micro films) to experiment on their brand new machine DATAGRAPHIX 4460 to make computer animations. Along 4 years Mandred Mohr created these great studies geometric forms despite the process of was extremely slow at that time. See more;

Update: there's an interesting interview with Manfred Mohr at The White Review, where Manfred talks about the beginning of his carrier, earliest computer drawings and animations and also how difficult was for people to understand (his) computer based works as art in the 70's. See here. (thanks for the tip Lawrence Lek)

Cubic Limit, 1973-1974

"A single large cube, with solid edges, rotates in 3-D. As it rotates, it slowly breaks up into 25 embedded cubes each starting at the same center point but moving slowly towards their positions on a 5x5 grid. At the same rate, they are shrinking in size so that they fit onto the 5x5 grid as non-overlapping cubes.." more info about Cubic Limit here.

Square Roots, 1972-1973

"The earlier 16mm film (around 4 min), 'Square Roots' (1972-1973), was my first attempt to make a computer movie. I abandoned this short film because I felt it was too narrative. Subsequently I made the more abstract film 'Cubic Limit' (above). Nevertheless, although unedited, this is a short amusing film which has some of the 2-D elements which I later used in 'Cubic Limit' in 3-D." 

Transformation I, 1972-1973

"This short 16mm film (around 1 1/2 minutes) is 'Transition I' (1972-1973). As an inauguration gift, I transformed a sketch of the new city hall into the coat of arms of my hometown Pforzheim. Images from this film are published in the book: Pforzheim 1973"

Transformation Study, 1972

"This very short footage (around 1/2 minute) from 1972 is a study of a cube transforming to random points and back."

Complimentary Cubes, 1973-1974

"This footage 'Complimentary Cubes' (around 5 1/2 minutes), from 1973 - 1974, was originally written for the film "Cubic Limit" but was not used in the film. It shows 2 sequences of all the combinations of 2 rotating cubes, one with 'n' edges and the other with '12 minus n' edges. Images from this film were published in the catalog "Cubic Limit", 1975."

via | VIDEO CIRCUITS

Blank Process by Clement Valla

Blank Process (Areas of interest on the studio wall as determined by a computer vision algorithm), 2012 by Clement Valla. High resolution digital scan, Open CV software, archival pigment on canvas, plywood 30 inches by 40 inches each. See more;

Yoichiro Kawaguchi

"Yoichiro Kawaguchi was born in Tanegashima Is, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan in 1952. He was graduated in Visual Communication Design at Kyushu Institute of Design in 1976. He received his Master degree from Tokyo University of Education in 1978. After teaching at Tsukuba University of Tokyo. Kawaguchi started to create computer graphics since 1975, he is an internationally acclaimed CGI artist. He achieved a unique style using his "GROWTH Model", a model based on growth algorithm. Selforganinzing artificial life media metropolices and highly dense creations of primal wildness represent sailent characteristics of his work. Since SIGGRAPH'82, he consistently presents work in the United States." See more;

"Professor Kawaguchi is an expert on the "GROWTH model," a self-organizing method to give form to one's rich imagination or to develop one's formative algorithm of a complex life form. As the art or a time progression, a program generates a form and this form is allowed to grow systematically according to a set formula. Howwever, this "GROWTH Model" is not based on a static process that allows constructive mathematics to take its course.

Though observation of eddies and spirals, repetitions of simple form of inner mathematical principles, which are hidden behind the seemingly complex outlook of living creatures, are deduced. Placing subtle forms like that of a conch shell as a starting point, the shapes of ammonite, nautilus, tentacles, plant vines and coral become visual references for this model.

The most important concept of the "GROWTH Model" is the "recursive structure," which is a repetition of simple rules within complexity. By running a genetic program implemented with this structure, the computer continuously creates multiplying images until it maximize its memory space. Beginning with an initial shape, the computer generates how the final image appears. Therefore, the "GROTH Model" is a way to give an unforeseen form to the progress of time.

The model is not intended to create or a faithful representations of reality but to produce a new bionomic pictorial space backed by an algorithm. A self-organizing form created by the "GROWTH Model" represents a creature that sesually moans and squirms and might have existed in the evolutionary past or that may appear in the distant future. It is a "life form of probability."

The following video shows an episode about Yoichiro Kawaguchi, from the UK Channel 4 series "283 Useful Ideas From Japan" first shown in 1990.

via | DIAMOND VARIATIONS

Universal Constructor by Bill McKessy

Cool work created by the new media artis Bill McKessy (Memphis, USA) using cellular automata, genetic algorithms, neural networks, openframeworks and c++. See more;

"Arranged on a lattice are these buckets. The buckets can contain a neural network, which is an artificial model of a brain. The color of the bucket is representative of the layout/makeup of the neural network. The brain can see its four immediate neighbors on the lattice (up down left right). It observes how many neighbors it has at each position, and what species the contents of the neighboring buckets. The bucket then makes a decision to move some or all of the its contents to one of four neighboring positions.

If the contents move to an empty bucket, the brain will mutate slightly when copies into the new bucket. Enough of these mutations eventually creates a different enough species that when the bucket tries to pass along its own contents, there will now be a "fight". Only similar species cooperate by just passing along the contents of the bucket. From ostensibly initial random conditions and simple rules emerges highly complex, self organized structures." - Bill McKessy

N12 3D-printed bikini

Jenna Fizel and Mary Haung from Continuum Fashion have created a 3D-printed bikini called N12, it was developed in collaboration with 3D-printing company Shapeways. 

The N12 bikini is the world's first ready-to-wear, completely 3D-printed article of clothing. All of the pieces, closures included, are made directly by 3D printing and snap together without any sewing. N12 represents the beginning of what is possible for the near future.

N12 is named for the material it's made out of: Nylon 12. This solid nylon is created by the SLS 3D printing process. Shapeways calls this material "white, strong, and flexible", because its strength allows it to bend without breaking when printed very thin. With a minimum wall thickness of .7 mm, it is possible to make working springs and almost thread-like connections. For a bikini, the nylon is beautifully functional because it is waterproof and remarkably comfortable when wet. See more;

The bikini's design fundamentally reflects the beautiful intricacy possible with 3D printing, as well as the technical challenges of creating a flexible surface out of the solid nylon. Thousands of circular plates are connected by thin strings, creating a wholly new material that holds its form as well as being flexible. The layout of the circle pattern was achieved through custom written code that lays out the circles according to the curvature of the surface. In this way, the aesthetic design is completely derived from the structural design.

N12 is significant in being a ready-to-wear design. Not only is it comfortably wearable, it is also immediately buyable at an approachable price point, differing from pre-existing experimentation with 3D-printed fashion that is more avant-garde. We also offer a selection of sizes.  

Visit the store to see/buy the different products here.

One of the goals of the circle patterning system is to be able to adapt it to any surface, at any size. This means that future articles of clothing can be produced using the same algorithm, this could be taken a step further into absolute customization by using a body scan to make a bespoke article of clothing, 3D printed to exactly fit that person only.

via | Dezeen

Inspiration from Nervous System

This is a great example of how into a good teamwork and with the necessary machinery is possible to make cool things in no time. In the last days Nervous System has added a new member to the team, is a laser cutter, just Epilog Helix 60 watt machine with an 18 "x 24" inch size bed, to turn their ideas into prototypes and produce their products in their own studio as well. To celebrate the new incorporation, they decided to create a new display to show their jewelry at ICFF. They spent designing it one day, the next day it laser cutting and the last day assembling it. See more;

"The design was a riff on our unimplemented designs for the New York Gift Fair from earlier in the year. It is sort of a bunch of ellipsoids stitched together into a set of “caves” for hanging necklaces and convex regions for holding earrings and bracelets.  But the part we really spent time designing was how each piece would fit together and how each shell would be discretized into panels. The panels are created using a tangent planes method to develop a non-triangular surface discretization. We worked to create a pattern spiraling six-sided panels with a somewhat elongated plant cell type shape.

Jesse wrote a Processing program to create all the connectors, place the holes in the panels and label all the pieces for “easy” construction. The connectors and panels were laser cut from baltic birch plywood and snap together for a tight fit. To cut down on assembly time we only used one connector per edge, but some of the larger panels could have definitely used a second connector." - Nervous System

Glycerin - Air - Water

This is another of their inspirational experiments I really enjoyed to see. The video documents several Hele-Shaw Cell experiments using two 16×20″ panes of glass. Intricate branching patterns emerge as we insert glycerin, air and water into the cell.

I highly recommend visit their website and store and see their super cool final products.  http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/