The net.art generator automatically produces net.art on demand.
This version of the net.art generator creates images. The resulting image emerges as a collage of a number of images which have been collected on the WWW in relation to the ‘title’ you have chosen. The original material is processed in 12-14 randomly chosen and combined steps.
The net.art generator was programmed by Panos Galanis from IAP GmbH, Hamburg, and was a commission by the Volksfürsorge art collection.
My own example:
More at squareONE Explorations. Triptych: Ruh From Hubble
I did spend hours judging my own “luck of the draw.” This was very enjoyable. As a collagist and digital artist, I reckon the Galanis Generator is the best of the current lot. It occupies a gray area because its procedure appropriates random material via google, and, by definition, derives kitsch product. Yet, results could be passed off as being the result of craft, even artistic, skills.
(I did do some futzing with the raw collages using Photoshop.)
To me, it is a Web 1.0 deployment. Java-driven toys came in with the entry of java. So-called ‘generators’ make up a genre of appropriation.
For example:
Made here.
I’ve executed a series of cartoons using cartoon generators; of which there are many.
i’ll be checking out the other collageate art you have generated without the use of the ‘tool’ too, as i am a liker of collage and montage from a way back – and always wanted to be able to make same.
alas, the copy of photoshop i was given has languished on another computer while i travelled about – i once tried to wrangle it for practical purposes (showing how the big tree one yard over, gone, would change the nature of my view of the sky – not to mention local birds’ view of the whole damn block) but i failed in my mean endeavour. i think it may be time to take up the photoshopping cudgels again, although without any training whatesoever, i hope to not do myself a damage. in fact, i have been inclining towards going back to using the net equivalent of the telegraph, and picking up paint and brush once more.
anyway, it seems you need to set up a contest – for us to guess what was the title you gave the tool in order to get that very nice picture which includes, it seems, a lovely jet engine of some description…?
but, if i understand you correctly – before i visit the site – one does need to make one’s own choices and interventions in order to come up with the product? hence, appropriation might be only part of the process. if one were able to use one’s own pictures, then would the ‘appropriation’ label still be stickable? also what is the status, evaluation-wise, of the term ‘appropriate’ (v) these days?
I will now attempt a series of pieces (ha ha!) around the following terms:
semiotics
folk
psychology
trajectories
net
dynamics
And, give you the first 5 versions without ‘artistic’ judgment.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
I like–sort of–number 1. Note the search got ‘fixated’ on one particular image. Next, I ran:
eldon
frank
mike
stephen
net
dynamics
Here, I chose version #4; a keeper as I see it.
but now i have my own pedantic, teacherly, and reader-friendly from MPOV comment on your very nice collection of examples… more than four examples is difficult to keep in the head, and this web interface, or even computer screen modality – man, i find it lacks affordances all over the place, and here is one – i have to keep scrolling up to remind myself of what was number 5 (#5), and even then, i need to quickly count down from the top of the list. in this process i found myself wishing that the list had been similarly numbered as the art e.g.s were.
or, wait! are we sposed to join the titles with the pieces?
is this a new contest?
Almost needless to say, the instrumental affordances of–say–the typical ‘screen’ require accommodation to its array of constraints. As for me, on desktop or lap, I’ve mastered the two finger scroll on the trackpad, so I’m not prone to reach for the mouse. Wait…I don’t even have a mouse.
I can report that the web art generator utilized here comes up with interesting stuff only after playing around with the combination of search terms and the number of images. Thus, a quick run through a single set of search terms by way of one try with each of the image quantity choices, 2-3-6-8, gives a rough trial of the potential of the terms.
It’s interesting to sort out this heuristic.
and the scrolling is a problem in and of itself – as far as the technology allows, i can also wrangle the laptop controls courtesy of scrolling and tapping and nice trackpad thingie. but it does not match the ease of hard copy. no. not at all.
still, i wish we had had a list like:
1 eldon
2 mike
3 frank
4 stephen
5 net
6 dynamics
and then the pics, numbered similarly.
…so that when i did scroll up and then back i did not have to waste my poverty of mental energy on anything that involves numbers or counting.
[as a 'visual', i remember numbers better as forms, pictographs, rather than as interims from the top, or amounts... a big sad part of my life is my inability to deal with numbers very well]
In the second instance, for example, the terms were:
eldon frank mike stephen net dynamics
and the offered result was the one of many I thought seemed ‘artful’.
misunderstanding was activated by visual/formatting gesture of a list…
one item per line.
would have not bothered with all that palaver if the terms had been left in one line with maybe a comma in between… although, i get the reason why you listed them…still, the term (concept?) “ordering” does seem to be operative with the art generator.
Photoshop Express
Who needs their own copy and installation on some box?
My online gallery proceeds from this tag on Explorations, My Casual Art. Emphasis on casual and, as with the music, naive.
As you’ll find out, the Galanis Generator does all the work. You plug in search terms; a scripted web agent brings back images and mashes them up behind the scenes, and delivers the collage.
Years ago I designed an experiential learning tool that uses google image search as a ‘randomizing’ collector of novel data, and this provides a data set to experientially reflect upon.
did not enjoy the photoshop express experience…
could not find any way on the ‘test drive’ to actually manipulate the photos they provided there for that purpose… according to the blurbs.
maybe need to flickr more consistently – i mean, for me to put in the effort getting it set up.
However “artless” is bound to set me off no matter what.
Then I am likely to get my feathers ruffled.
Forcing me to keep a sharp eye out for commentable ineptitude as well.
Equating Frank or his actions to “ugly” however is beyond the pale
especially when he’s already said: “I guess the proper method is to upload images first so you have the url ready for insertion. Established experts like Mike and Stephen must be cringing.” & “I await the expertise of real webmasters.” All of which I said without entertaining the prospect of being burnt in effigy.
Ah well, not everyone is going to get this. But it made me happier. Looking for deeper or secondary messages and meanings can be an interesting pastime.
“the eagle hides his claws”
As to the subject at hand, ‘scuse the overlarge collage from my first time efforts with picasa, like our rotating subject thingy this is another tool for taking raw information and making it complex.
That’s not a bad thing because in the complexity we read new and
perhaps deeper meaning into it or understand differently.
I did haring as a take off on herons and played both ways on the
ol’ generator.
enjoyed the large juicy graphics above….and, well….
i’ve been chary to add pics and vids in comments – but i took two (very poor) photos with you in mind frank: one in helsinki, and the other in yufuin, a tourist town in kysuhu. they were taken with the canon IXUS, a good all-rounder that fits in the shoulder bag and can be wielded at will while walking.
and here seems a good juncture to view them – have only vague idea what sort of birds, but admired the water-waiter with the cool white headgear in the stream at yufuin, standing stock-still blending in with the background – we almost didn’t see him.
anyway, now need to humbug finding way to add them to comment…
need to submit, then edit – is my only sure fire way, not knowing the html or way to attach from this panel.
[edit1:OK, now they are far too big. hmmmm, with posts, i can smallen up the graphics. now i will have to try humbugging again. had trimmed both images, but obviously the second one has less information in it than the first - thinking the lighting]
[edit2: so, i smallened them up on the desktop, then re-put them on the server, and now they are more manageable in size]
have not yet tried picasa – next on list.
meantime i have downloaded the ole GraphicConverter in its latest form (a whopping 99MB), an application i used to use in japan in the old OS7 days. the workings are pretty much the same at top level, but i gather you can do much more with it ‘underneath’ these days… anyway, i really prefer to take pictures rather than fiddle with them, but i’ve also wanted to make pieces that have hotspots and wording for uploading to websites, so maybe this will give me a nudge.
files before they’re sent.
This is scaled to 480 using it. picasa also hunts your hard drive for all
of your pictures as well when it is installed.
I guess the proper method is to upload images first so you have t
he url ready for insertion. Established experts like Mike and Stephen
must be cringing.
So, then you just add it to the post.
Even smaller would be thumb offering from wordpress.
Which didn’t seem to work with my stalker picture, so this is minimum picasa size, preserves my shooting buddy’s anonymity while giving you a peek at my humour.
labelling of bird species too, is encouraged from this end… hhh
i am also looking for a detailed expansion of the instruction:
“then you just add it to the post”
so, adding to a _post_ from the desktop and the functions i have with my image browser is not so difficult, but just adding them to a comment is not such a straightforward deal….
anyway, i found a workaround solution – by uploading the pics to one of our sites, then linking them to comment page with URL, then checking the visual, then reconfiguring the photo (aka humbugging), and uploading to to the site again (it overwrites the old file).
btw, i am reluctant to let anything have access to my computer, picasa snooping about looking for all my images? ooooh dearie me noooo. frank, you have taught me too well… but, then, since it is you who is recommending this…..
picasa as a hard drive snoop can overcome frail memories and provide central organization, you download this freebie, scooped up by google early on, and install it on your machine..
The tools picasa provides allow you to skip any of a dozen programs out there and do one stop upload from camera/card – organization into folders – selection and grouping by topic -
simple editing of contrast, brightness, hue and sharpness with button clicks. Doing so while in a higher magnification mode shows instant results.
Note to firewall, in this case Comodo Pro – no picasa, you can’t call home.
As for bird identification, well the first baby I couldn’t identify even using my iphone bird book for the region, I’d stumbled up out of a ditch under cover of a train passing announcing for the level crossing and made a very quick shot which doesn’t pass critical focus tests. The second is a heron of course but which variety I am still not clear on, it isn’t blue however and the reason I shot it from so far away was the color of the tidal grass. The third was a wily long lens snoopit, who resorts to high iso, extra teleconverters and long lenses to sneak about and photograph you.
btw, are you able to identify birds found in helsinki harbour with black heads, or apparent-heron in japanese stream with white headgear?
also, do you know v nice site, “the internet bird collection”?
i found it while searching for recordings of magpie song.
but actually, better recordings of australian magpie song and antics to be found on good ole youtube….