"Computers are capable of an unimaginably greater number of things than any specific piece of software might lead one to believe. I believe individual artists should dictate the possibilities of their chosen media and not some big companies like Adobe and Macromedia"
Golan Levin
Tools can control as well as serve. Across the web, pioneering artists and designers are recognising the exhilarating freedom and unparalleled control offered by programming. The 4x4 Project invited four influential and respected artists renowned for their stunning experiments with code and art, to work together on the theme of Life and Oblivion. The 4 authors Golan Levin, Adrian Ward, meta and lia have been responsible for some of the most ground breaking and influential sites on the web.
4x4 Generative Design requires no prior knowledge of programming, only an appetite to control your own creativity. The four authors provide the inspiration and information to allow you to create and to generate using different programming languages including: Java, DBN, Auto-Illustrator, Lingo, MAX and Nato. The point is not to follow or to replicate but to mutate, transform, hack and move on.
This book and the accompanying web site immerse you in the four phases of the 4x4 process:
Theory: personal accounts of the creative process, manifestos, diaries, mental sketchbooks, and associated ephemera
Life and Oblivion: access to the finished applications online, and artwork from the pieces presented in the book
Process: detailed, firsthand, technical descriptions of the creation of each piece, along with relevant source files on the web site
Noise and Interference: the four authors discuss the project and mechanically reclaim each other's works creating beautiful and arbitrary hybrids
This book is one of a set of four which explores the creation of original Photoshop artwork. If you feel strongly about the work you see here, there is a forum on friendsofED.com where you can offer your own review and hear what your peers have to say. The four books may be purchased individually (1903450454, 1903450462, 1903450489, 1903450470) - and they make a pretty cool picture when you lay them out together.
Hotwiring Photoshop with code will kick it into life, or into oblivion. This book shows how designers explore external generative tools then introduce that content into Photoshop - a package with which everyone is familiar. Photoshop is used by designers and artists working in all fields. This book (together with the others in the set) shows how design gurus push the tool beyond its perceived limits. In this book, Photoshop will be used in conjunction with a wide range of different programs and scripting languages - from Lingo rendering engines to java.
