4x4 Generative Design (with Auto-Illustrator, Java, DBN, Lingo): Life/Oblivion

""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." -->Golan Levin--> creator of Flong.com-->Adrian Ward--> creator of Auto-Illustrator.com and Slub.org-->lia--> creator of Turux.org and Re-move.org-->meta--> creator of Meta.am

4x4 Beyond Photoshop 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 website 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