Art by Number: Generating Dynamic Art with FlashŽ March 29, 2006

Members: free / Non-members: $5.00

Join us for a very informative session on Generative Art with Jeremy
Thorp of Blprnt.com and Gary Stasiuk of Liquidjourney.com.

Presentation no 1:
Creativity Through Code: Generative Art and Design

Generative Art (GA) is composed or constructed through the use of
software algorithms. In this presentation, Jeremy will look at the
emerging GA community and will demonstrate, in detail, the
techniques and methods he uses in the creation of his own work.
Projects created both in Flash and Processing will be demonstrated
and deconstructed to give insight into how generative artworks take
form. Concepts such as Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms will
be examined, as well as how new ideas can open a variety of pathways
to creativity and inspiration. Designers will learn a bit of code.
Coders will learn a bit of design. And everyone will endeavor to
take a few brave footsteps into the world of digital art.

Jeremy Thorp
A former geneticist and part-time rock star, Jeremy is a Flash
designer and digital artist from Vancouver, Canada. His extensive
portfolio includes work for the CBC, Honda, and FOX. Jeremy is a
Flash instructor in Langara College's Electronic Media Design
program. He also acts as a consultant and trainer for a number of
design agencies worldwide. Blprnt.com, Jeremy's unique collection of
organic Flash experiments and generative artworks, has won numerous
awards and has been featured in many design magazines both online
and in print.

Jeremy's wesbite:
www.blprnt.com

Presentation no 2:
Digital Creatures II

Digital Creatures is a journey through the development evolution of
the dynamically generated creatures featured on Liquidjourney.com.
The presentation is a visual overview of the main structural
concepts that bring these creatures to life, rather than a journey
through code. It will touch on several of the difficult issues that
emerged while developing these creatures, and the techniques and/or
solutions used to resolve them. Examples from liquidjourney.com will
illustrate the growth of the ongoing process to develop these
creatures. Some of the specific areas of focus include animating a
chain of objects, creating 3D volume in 2D space, building a
wireframe mesh, animating the wireframe mesh in a lifelike manner,
creating a bitmap mesh or "skinning" the creatures, and shifting the
creatures into 3D space. The presentation wraps up a quick overview
of AI simulations where creatures act and react based coded
behaviors.

Gary Stasiuk
Gary Stasiuk is a Flash educator, designer & developer working out
of Vancouver. The focus of his professional work centers on user
experience, interface development, and information & data delivery
via Flash. In 2004, Gary launched the open source art / experimental
Flash project liquidjourney.com as a creative venue for his
interactive experiments and photography. The goal of the project is
to develop innovative code and new ideas for Flash games and
applications and to seek and build relationships with other like
minds in the Flash community. He also develops media content through
his company, Praxis Interactive as well as creating interactive
material for educators with the Media Design Group, at Simon Fraser
University. As an educator, he teaches and develops Flash courses at
the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, in Vancouver.

Gary's wesbite:
www.liquidjourney.com

For more info, contact:

Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH
[email protected]