Project Plan / Design

The algorithm

The heart of my project is an L-system written in JavaScript with the p5.js library. In its current state, it's just a demo that I have to refresh every time to generate a new painting. Sometimes it crashes, the algorithm draws pixels out of bounds, repeats the same drawing multiple times, draws an uninteresting straight line, or draws nothing. I must tame this wild system and get it to do what I want! There’s no rhyme or reason to this process, but the end result should be a program that resolves all of the former issues and still makes exceptional patterns. I will code and tweak my code until I get the desired result.

Process documentation

Accompanying the exhibit, I will include the prototype drawings and iterations that lead me to the final result.

The exhibit

For the exhibit, these paintings will be presented in three modes:

1. Each painting will be printed on dot matrix roll paper. My favorite ~15 or so paintings will be mounted.

2. A CRT monitor will show my finished L-system painting-generator endlessly toiling away through an infinite number of different configurations.

3. Each painting will be uploaded to a purpose-built project website.

The website

A website will be created to host information about the project, a gallery of the paintings, and a version of the algorithm so that anyone can generate their own unique painting. This will likely be linked to my portfolio website, and will be created using the Next.js framework, a CMS with Sanity.io, and hosted on Vercel.

Challenges

Paper quality and quantity

The biggest challenge is getting a printer and a type of paper that will produce an excellent color and feel like a vintage plotter copy from an early computer graphic. Testing paper and printers will cost money, and I should sort this out sooner rather than later.

What the hell does this mean now?

I feel settled in with something that will work– Like I can actually see this exhibit happening, but the meaning or the “why” of this project is a little lost on me. Why do we care about my endless toiling machine that makes these weird abstract drawings? It's not really even about me learning to paint anymore is it? I don’t know, I certainly have my doubts.

Algorithm tweaks and final touches

This thing that I created which I don’t even know what I did because I don’t understand algorithms, I need to wrangle it and make it make things I like. And I want the toil to look interesting, like something somebody would enjoy staring at for a long time. How I’ll get there I don’t have much of an idea. I’ll keep writing rules that make sense for an L system, but I’m making certain inputs like rule configuration and color dynamic.

Hopefully I’ll get to a place where the program can continue endlessly without crashing and the drawing doesn’t go out of bounds or create a blank screen.

Website perfectionism

I want to make a beautiful and performant gallery for this project as well as a portfolio for my work in general. I risk running out of time for this part of the project.