Visiting the Museum

This art project started with a visit to the Nasher Sculpture Garden in Dallas. Just as its name suggests, The Nasher is a museum dedicated to displaying the artistic physical form.

Their November 2018 exhibit pulled together a survey of work from Jean Hans Arp. It's an impressive collection of items including drawings, reliefs, and sculptures.

I enjoyed looking through the Arp exhibit and one of his pieces grabbed my attention. This collage:

An algorithm started building up in my head as I studied Arp’s collage. Algorithms are code recipes defining procedures instructing computers to perform actions. This is how programmers tell computers what to do.

Art as Algorithm as Art

The algorithm didn’t seem too tough. Arp’s collage has:

• A limited palette
• An arrangement of off-white shapes
• A 4x4 array of squares

I imagined what it would take to simulate the look and feel of paper cutouts. I figured it would be a fantastic problem to solve while practicing new programming techniques.

Human Computer Interaction (HCI)

Arp’s human hands made the original collage. In this situation your human aesthetic guides my algorithm to a positive outcome. You play the part of a code coach suggesting changes in direction as the computer makes collages.

Picking a collage square and tapping the Make Collage button signals my algorithm that you want more of what you see in terms of shape and color of the square. You influence the weight of color and shape attributes based on your interest. The algorithm gives you more of what you want over time, and less of the other stuff.

Some people might call this process “generative computational art".

Continue generating collages until you hit upon the final one you like. Coach the computer to edit away what you do not need and move together towards what you want.

I want to consider algorithmic assistance like this suggests ways that humans and machines might work better together in new ways rather than against one another. Do not think you will be replaced by automation - use it to multiply your effort!

Visualizing Weighted Bias

This simple webapp tries solving the problem of built-in bias by visualizing the weights around color and shape as simple infographics. Find this along the bottom edge of the main page. The intention of these two UX widgets is:

• Revealing that bias exists
• Showing approximately what it is

Massive companies are using machine learning algorithms trained by big data to determine the probability you will click on an advert, or purchase a certain item, or behave a certain way. Bias like this filters endless mass results into a few highly targeted choices. In effect offering "personalization."

That is a useful benefit, and a potential danger. Every human being wants to ask the question, "Do you understand me?" Will we be comfortable hearing future answers big brands provide?

SVG

How does this webapp accomplish its graphics? You might think it is solved in traditional HTML ways such as: <div> tags, font icons, images, and background color style. There is something better!

This webapp uses the HTML capability called <SVG>.

Drawing collage boards is a demonstration of the web platform's 2D graphics capabilities. Specifically the drawing functions found in the Scaled Vector Graphics (SVG) engine. SVG is well suited for this. If you you want to build interactive graphics in your webapp then it is well worth your time experimenting with SVG.

SVG is composed from a set of HTML tags describing 2D shapes. In the case of this app SVG draws the pieces making up the tiles forming the overall collage board. Here are a few of the SVG features used: <rect>, <polygon>, <g>, transform, fill, <defs>, <pattern>.

More Learning Goals

Writing this computer program offered a practical application of SVG as well as several other web technologies. I locked in learning on:

• CSS Grid - for more powerful page layouts
• ES6 - the latest syntax of JavaScript
• webpack - for bundling JavaScript resources

Contact Me

I am a Dallas-based computer programmer. My interests include: JavaScript, coffee, chocolate, augmented reality, photography, baking, and machine learning.

Feel free to connect with me in one of these ways:

• LinkedIn
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• Email

-Ken Tabor