USMS2002 is a project that exists in, and attempts to expand, the space between information visualization and algorithmic art. 2002 mortality data, taken from the National Vital Statistics Report issued by the Centers for Disease Control, are used as the basis for a series of discrete probability distributions. The probabilities are then abstracted and visualized in a manner that alienates them from their seed data.

Aestheticization of information is not a new concept. However, what differentiates this project from other information visualization projects is that it is uninformative. The goal here is not to display information in a manner that makes it easier to digest and comprehend, but to obscure the information and use it as an almost-invisible tool for the generation of non-intentional art.

Because the goal of this project is to draw attention to the distance between the seed data and the nature of the output, it is essential that there be as much distance between these two elements as possible. As such, the serene, aesthetically pleasing images are generated using the ugliest available data source, chosen to inspire an immediate, visceral, negative response in the viewer the moment she becomes aware of it.

Interference Cellular Automata were born out of the desire to overlay the patterns of individual one-dimensional cellular automata, creating complex, unique images based on the simple rules of CA. A secondary goal of this project was to bring the CA concept off of the screen (most CA live on the internet) so that they might seem more real. This ‘realness’ was very important so there also had to be some human influence (and error) built into the system.

I programmed a drawing environment where I could control a number of the cellular automata’s traits while drawing – size, color, direction, and location. I let the computer pick the rule of the CA randomly (each CA has one of 256 unique rules, which determine the pattern) so that the act of composing the interference image was a little more fun. I had to work with the computer and hope that my choices complemented the computer’s. Often they did not, but the tension of the process mimicked the tension between the cellular automata. The results are composite images straddling the generative art genre and more traditional human compositions.

The Botanical Garden is an endless sequence of growing plant structures. The plants themselves start as points and grow out and unfold into complex organic forms. Some resemble real life, others become very abstract and alien. But all are formed using the real math — the real code of nature — that biologists use to describe actual plant growth and structural patterns. This includes leaf venation patterns, phyllotaxic arrangement of leaves and flower petals, Lindenmayer systems of growth, Johan Gielis\’ \”superformula\” modelling framework for natural forms, and such. The plants autogenerate, plus there is limited user interaction to generate new forms.

A slitscan is an image-processing algorithm that takes a very small slice of the visual field and appends it to a growing panoramic image. Slitscanning creates an alternate vision of space and time, a small sample of space is smeared across time, what is left are discrete artifacts of the visual space at instantaneous moments in time. Objects that remain static become continuous lines of color while objects that move across the scan line scan themselves in like a flatbed scanned moving across a document.
By controlling the number of scans made within a period of time a slitscan image can portray space and time at different aggregations, like time-lapse photography captured at different frame rates. I choose to make three scans, one that would take a minute to complete, one that would take a hour to complete, and one that would take twelve hours to complete. Breaking with the tradition of linear panoramic slitscan images, I choose to make the scans circular, one inside the other. By offsetting the rotations of the three scan lines based the internal clock of the computer, the speed and placement of the scans mimic the hands of an analog clock.