2021 has Come!

“Creativity is the brain’s invisible muscle – that when used and excercised routinely – becomes better and stronger.” - Ashley Ormon This is an abbreviated version of the newsletter to update last week. Due to the holidays, I haven’t finished the output in time for you to enjoy. But we will be back to normal next week. But first, we have an announcement…. 🥁 We have a winner!!! Daryl from Manitoba has won the giveaway!...

January 2, 2021 · 4 min · 723 words · Chris Ried

Can we use Simplex Noise to Generate Music?

Originally posted on Substack Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. - Ashley Smith Good Morning Friends, I have to say that this is going out a little later than usual but I think you will find some of the articles today to be much more in the details around simplex noise and the like but not all....

December 19, 2020 · 7 min · 1435 words · Chris Ried

Would Picasso Use Code to Generate Art?

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” - Edgar Degas The soul of art is depicted in the quote so well. Art is… a little hard to pin down with words but it isn’t just simply the act of transcribing from the physical world to paper. So what is it? We do know it is important to us. We dedicate entire buildings to the collection of art, we have art stores, art classes, and even entire markets that deal in it....

December 12, 2020 · 8 min · 1570 words · Chris Ried

Cloud Fractals, Blooms, and Spinning Parametrics

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” - Leonardo da Vinci Good morning friends, We are but a couple weeks away from Christmas having officially rung the bells of another Christmas season. Albeit, it is far from the traditional in store experiences of long lines snaking through the store and popping out at the seams. This year, across the globe our store fronts have transitioned to the internet. And there are some great advantages of it....

December 8, 2020 · 6 min · 1217 words · Chris Ried

Generative WebAssembly Music, Climate Change and Exploring Differential Growth

Originally posted on Substack “Curiosity is the main energy…” - Robert Rauschenberg Here in the US, we just celebrated Thanksgiving Day, but with this unfortunate year; many of us have not been able to see our family due to restrictions, lock downs, etc. Yet there are always things that we can be thankful. For me is technology, programming languages and the ability to create using them and have done alot more this year than I have done in previously....

November 27, 2020 · 5 min · 951 words · Chris Ried

Multiplayer Stable Diffusion, Song of Life, and Simulating Rope

Originally posted on Substack The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar there is to new ideas. -Edward D Bono Good morning! Hope you have had a great week! This week I’ve a few links to some musical platforms. Hope you find some inspiration to make some interesting works by simply experimenting with various implementations. There are definitely way more ways to do this out there but I’d highlight some of the less frequently used visual programming platforms for your enjoyment....

November 26, 2020 · 6 min · 1161 words · Chris Ried

Cloud Fractals, Blooms, and Spinning Parametrics

Originally posted on Substack “The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.” -John Tukey Hello friends, I hope that you all have had another amazing week being creative. A bunch of you have left feedback that you want to see more code; and so I have added a section called “Snippet of the Week” in which I will highlight shorter pieces of code that inspire me to further play with it and mutate it to being something else....

November 21, 2020 · 7 min · 1299 words · Chris Ried

Generative Art, Touch Designer and Genuary 2021

Originally posted on Substack The art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of our great men. - Captain J. A. Hatfield My apologies for not being able to put together a newsletter last week. There was so much going on in the week that I hadn’t found the bandwidth to put it together and then needed a little R&D over the weekend....

November 21, 2020 · 8 min · 1563 words · Chris Ried

Poetic Gameplay, Emergent Structures, and Bending Light

Originally posted on Substack “scattered star-light falls a faint birdsong on the water’s surface” - Wayfinder The poem was the generative haiku that was generated as I played through Wayfinder. What is it you ask? Wayfinder is a web-based generative art game that takes the player on a contemplative cause-and-effect journey through nature. Symbolizing the give-and-take relationship humans have with the natural world, players move a mystical character through forest, grasslands and tundra in search of poetic tokens dotting the landscape....

November 21, 2020 · 5 min · 920 words · Chris Ried

What is the Future of Generative Art?

Originally posted on Substack “A blank canvas…has unlimited possibilities.” - Stephanie Perkins I’ve spent a significant amount of time thinking about the question, What does generative art looks like in the future? When reading through the hurdles that 60s technology (and earlier) was able to produce and I have to sit and ponder. With their limitations in processing, cost and storage, input constraints, technical abilities, one has to stop and think about what does pushing those bounds look like today....

November 21, 2020 · 10 min · 2059 words · Chris Ried