I am frankly a little freaked out by Alexa and Siri. I was raised in an era where we were most concerned about big brother watching us. The idea that I can be speaking in my house about something and then log onto my web browser and be inundated by targeted ads and biased information is disconcerting. What is most insidious is how we are generally not aware of how the choices we make impact the resulting information we are fed.
This piece is about reinforcing bias. As you click on the image on the screen, your pixel color information is processed in such a way that where you click on the image impacts how your color choice will change the available colors. The point is, we will live in a colorless world if we continue to create without consciously being aware of how our design choices impact the end result.
A tranquil evening at the beach made even more tranquil by the removal of pesky extra colors.
The rules were as follows. Find a picture. Click on the screen. Use only your mouse. Continue clicking anywhere on the image. Stop when you either run out of colors or decide you like the results.
The underlying algorithm gets a pixel from a mouse click. This color is compared to all other colors on the same line. If the color you are looking at is withing a certain tolerance of the original color, then change it to the original color. The tolerance is dependent on where you mouse is in the x direction. The transparency of the effect or strength of the effect is determined by your mouse y position. A final effect tolerance is dependent on the mouse y position and results in how wide and deep your new color is written. Basically, if you are mousing more to the right, you will have less variation. Only saying…..
I was struck by the purpose and intent behind this piece!
Is this something you had worked on / thought about previously or was it made from scratch for this project?
I created this for this project. Thank you.
I noticed that although the pictures are confusing, if you squint and look at them, they look like the artwork that you are trying to create. That’s awesome!
What made you come up with this idea?
I really want to be conscious of how I put myself into what I create even unintentionally. We bias what we make by being who we are. The inspiration came also from my work with quilting and trying to represent things by boiling them down to their essence. At the same time, my work with quilters has inspired me to find ways to show how bias is created in digital media that a quilter would relate to.
I was struck by the sense of impasto feel. At some point, it really looks like an impasto oil painting.
where do you get inspiration from？
love how this just worked in the browser, I was able to make something very fast and I was able to understand your workflow from the examples and the work you made. The abstraction of these images is fun and creates a texture that seems familiar, soft, faint, and present.
have you done this with moving image?
what a great idea to work with moving images. I wonder what that would look like.
So simple, so fun. I’m sharing this. I tried it so many times. Seeing how simple yet readable I could get it, how awesome it could look. Nature has some unique color pallets.
I’m a bit confused about the rules. Was it to click?
Regardless, I love the design of this.
heh…its funny you focused on the rules as well. I did the same with your work. After looking at other pieces, I realized I over complicated things ….again…. My rules were so imprecise. You have given me reason to consider all the ways my rules could be misinterpreted. You make me think in creative ways. Is that your super power? 🙂