_playGnd by Nick Briz

Nick Briz launched few weeks ago an excellent and fun platform to learn and play with webGL, it is called  _playGnd, a perfect introduction to webGL and its possibilities working through animated threedimensional objects on the web. I find this project very interesting, specially for those ones who are not into programming and could think that webGL it's too complex.  

The _playGnd has three simple sections which Nick has explained very well through a video tutorial series that introduce you to be in touch and generate threedimensional environments easily using pre-programmed functions and by copying and pasting and modifying codes from different libraries. These are the 3 sections, explained into the post; the [1] graphix[toCode] interface, the [2] realtime editor, && the [3] sketches archive. See more;

[1] graphix[toCode] interface
http://threejsplaygnd.brangerbriz.net/gui/

"Software is the medium that is not a medium. [...] Code is never viewed as it is. Instead code must be compiled, interpreted, parsed, and otherwise driven into hiding by still larger globs of code. Hence the principle of obfuscation." - Alexander Galloway, The Interface Effect (2012)

"In this first section you generate code for basic three.js geometry using a GUI (graphical user interface). Traditionally GUI’s ‘obfuscate’ code. In the interest of making things more accessible they hide the code, and as a consequence compromise digital literacy. In the _playGnd the GUI is still concerned with accessibility, but in a way that augments the code rather than obfuscating it." - Nick Briz

[2] threejs [realtime] editor
http://threejsplaygnd.brangerbriz.net/editor/editor.html

"An iPhone is not technology, it's packaging and conventions. [...] Your software choices are like any addiction or religion, they want your loyalty and they want your money and they want you to think like them. [...] it's culture politics masquerading as technology." - Ted Nelson, The Myth of Technology/Computers for Cynics(2012)

Traditionally we don’t tend to think of our tools as being ‘political’, but software isn’t neutral. It reflects and imposes the politix of the folks who create it (some, like Galloway, argue it is itself ideology). The _playGnd is no less political and no less bias than any other digital tool, but it stems from a different ethic (an experimental new-media art ethic). For this reason you’ll notice that the editor is a little bit different from the conventional. First, it’s built into the browser + shares the same space as your sketch, which allows for immediate feedback >> you can experiment, tinker, play in ‘realtime.’ Second, the editor includes a ‘snippets’ menu to encourage copying + pasting + modifying + collaging code. - Nick Briz

[3] sketches archive
http://threejsplaygnd.brangerbriz.net/archive/

after you finish working on a sketch in the editor you can ‘archive_it’, which adds your sketch to the xanalogically inspired archive. You can view all the other sketches saved from the _playGnd in the archives as well as remix (fork + edit your own variation of) any sketch in the archive. - Nick Briz

Credits: _playGnd has been buit on the shoulders of these open source projects: three.js (most importantly), HTML Editor (heavily modified version), CodeMirror, and dat.GUI. Also makes use of AsciiEffect.js ( by zz85 ), CSS3DRenderer.js (by mr doob ), Detector.js (by alteredq + mr doob ), ShaderToon.js (by alteredq + mr doob ), proxy.php (by Abdul Qabiz ), and tween.js (by sole ). Some great help from Branger_Briz. Inspired by the ideas/worx of Katie Salen, Mary Flanagan, Alexander Galloway, Martin Heidegger, Marshall McLuhan, and most importantly Ted Nelson && mr doob.

More info about all the credits and inspiration that Nick took to build this platform is on the bottom of this page.

The following still images are some tests made by different artists for the launching of  _playGnd , click on the images to see them. To check out all the (big already) archive go here.

firstStudy without plane by Emilie Gervais

Moody Vibes by Claudia Maté

Rock/through/2planez by Jenifer Chan

Emilio Gomariz

Some pieces made this year, Emilio Gomariz.
The GIF above is called T/001, is a pixel based generative transition between RGB colors, it's originally displayed through tile repetition filling the whole page as you can see here. See more;

RGB Landscapes, 2013

http://emiliogomariz.net/rgbl/

RGB Landscapes is a GIF series containing 52 pieces featuring horizontal RGB lines which are animated horizontally creating different moire effects.

1PXW, 2013

http://emiliogomariz.net/1pxw/

1PXW combines web and GIF allowing the user to create a horizontal landscape formed of 1px width animated GIFs using the menu to choose between the different (15) sets and to pop up them by moving the cursor over the little black surface, where Y = changes time interval and X = keeps same time

HR URL01, 2013

http://emiliogomariz.net/hrurl01/

HR URL01 creates an animated horizontal composition which works through vertical repetition of any image URL inserted as source then is possible to change the height of from 10px to 1px.

Random Rainbow, 2013

http://csh.bz/rr/

Random Rainbow is a collaborative piece between Emilio Gomariz & Chris Shier made for DigitArt exhibition curated by BRIGHT at Centre Pompidou. The piece was featured through Pompidou's internal WIFI connection at Studio 13/16 during the show (June 29 - August 5), now the piece is already online at http://csh.bz/rr/, it has different behavior on mobile devices as it allows the multitouch feature, as you can see in the video below. 

ii URL02. 2013

http://emiliogomariz.net/iiurl02/

ii URL02 works through interactive (1px height) horizontal distortion, the user can insert any image URL such as GIF, JPEG or PNG, play with and share the customized URL as the example below would be http://emiliogomariz.net/iiurl02/?url=http://computersclub.org/draw/collection/CC_1004.png . A piece finished because of some great help from Chris Shier too.

Scans by Bruno Levy

Interesting digital scans made over reflective surfaces such as aluminium wrap and plastic wrap created by Bruno Levy who moved the surfaces during the scanning process in order to capture the analogue distortion. See more;

POLYVINYLIDENE CHLORIDE / scans, 2013

ALUMINUM / scans, 2013

Video Death by Henry Driver

Video Death by Henry Driver_

"The documentation of a monitor as it deteriorates and loses all grounding. Forced to repeatedly display footage of its own decay, it slips into insanity. Confronted with mortality and the falseness of eternity, it self-destructs. Unable to be human and create an illusion of immortality or stability. It is consumed." - Henry Driver. See more;

Christophe Lepot

Very interesting work and visual studies made by Christophe Lepot using Processing. Several of his pieces are pixel based compositions which are created and distorted pixel by pixel. It's great to see these experiments as huge formats around 10.000 pixel width and in some other pieces it's possible to see an animation showing the distortion process. Interesting also his "espaces couleurs" and archives from 2004-2007. See more;

multiple s1 HChL 1

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_multiple/s1_HChL_1.php (10000px x 7156px)

detail_

ChHL 1 2 3 4

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_s3/sRGB_s3.php

HChL a + HLCh a

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_d3/HChL_a_HLCh_a/web-export/index.html (javascript animation)

HChL a

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_d1/HChL_a/web-export/index.html (javascript animation)

HLCh b

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_d1/HLCh_b/web-export/index.html (javascript animation)

HChL 1

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_s2/HChL_1.php (18000px width)

HChL 4

http://www.amup.org/sRGB_s1/HLCh.php (18000px width)

gradients c2 d1 b

http://www.amup.org/gradients_c2_d1/gradients_c2_d1_2/applet/index.html (applet java animation)

thanks to Valerie Collard for the tip!

Takagi Masakatsu

Not sure when Takagi Masakatsu relaunched his website, the thing is that the new site shows now a lot of stills from many of his great video works with a pretty nice resolution where is possible to appreciate the texture and forms of his creations over video such as in the still above which is from a piece called Anyura, 2011, very impressive. See more;

Check out a previous post showing some videos of Takagi Masakatsu here.
The texture and colors from Wave are awesome too, see here.

Ymene: 1. idu mi, 2010

Earth's Creation #1, 2010

Toner, 2006

Philharmony, 2007

The color of empty sky, 2005