Portraiture
From Rhizome Artbase
2007
Description
It may not be intuitively obvious how machines can imitate human imperfection. The computer is usually employed either creates exact digital copies or removes order from meaningful data. Rarely, can it create anything on the continuum in between. And that's the area I am most fascinated by.
What is usually considered faulty in both humans and computers, are often just the things that can be re-worked in our favor. Human impulse to project comprehensibility, and machines tirelessly undaunted by their meaningless mistakes, make an ideal combo.
This program takes in an image, determines the main colors, then creates 2 random compositions using variously shaped rectangles. The rendition that is closest to the original is saved. An evolutionary contest is on. The other canvas keeps trying, making variants of that winning image hundreds of times a second. Eventually (granted, you'll get tired long before it does) getting close enough to replace it as the new winner.
27 November 2007
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