Wanderers

Each composition in the Wanderers series begins with creation of a virtual landscape, which defines macro traits. Each individual wanderer is "born" at a specific location in this landscape, and that place of birth becomes its origin story, influencing key personality traits like how far it will travel, initial direction, propensity to change direction, avoidance of other wanderer paths, color, etc. Its personality may be influenced by the parts of the landscape it passes through on its journey.

The Algorithmic Brushstroke

One hallmark of great artworks is that they engage at multiple scales. You are taken by the image, then drawn in closer to look at finer details. This is true for both historical representational art, and more contemporary abstract work.

It revolutionized my experience of art the first times I was able to view great paintings in person, up close. Today it is exceptionally easy to reproduce or generate almost any image. That technological reality shifts importance from the raw aesthetic appreciation to a deeper understanding of the artistic choices that led to the creation of the work — the artist's hand, so to speak.

In this large scale, long form algorithmic project, I sought to capture both of those ideals. Work that satisfies from a distance and also closer up. And where a close reading of fine details helps reveal the internal logic of the work, as much as individual brushstrokes help illuminate a painter's intention.

Backstory

This project began innocently enough, with exploration of well known space-filling curves, like Hilbert and Moore curves. After writing my first algorithm to generate these patterns, I began to explore ways to make the paths more nuanced, unpredictable, and interesting. As I iterated on the algorithm and viewed the output, I found myself anthropomorphizing some of these small digital paths. One might seem lost, and another determined. Some felt curious, others defensive or even paranoid. This is the genesis of thinking of these compositions as a collection of "wanderers."