Melbourne Topographic Drawing, Grasshopper, Painting with Robots, 2023

Painting with Robots Assignment 3 | Wall Installation | SEM 1 2023 S Putu Sarmadharti Pradaswari N S3793644 T

Christopher Ferris

Contents Page Painting with Robots | Wall Installation

Precedents Theme 1(Spin Force) Theme 2 (3D Effect) Theme 3 (Image Sampler - Melbourne Aerial Map) Theme 4 (Image Sampler - Melbourne Topography)

3 7 15 19 24

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Painting with Robots

Seed Drawings

Clement Valla

http://clementvalla.com/work/seed-drawings/

Seed Drawings

”

Overview Characteristics • Drawings by thousands of individuals, • Grid system custom software, inkjet on paper • Texture • 2011-Ongoing, Dorsch Gallery, Miami, • Movement FL, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, • Diversity Brown University, Providence, RI, India- • Colour depths (sculpted) napolis Museum of Contemporary Art, • Organic profile (natural Indianapolis, IN motif)

Precedents & Inspirations

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Painting with Robots

Book From the Sky

Xu Bing

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/77468

Book From the Sky Overview Characteristics • ca. 1987–1991, China • Sculptural • Installation of hand-printed books and • 3D Dimension ceiling and wall scrolls printed from • Volumes & folds wood letterpress type; ink on paper • Literacy • Pictorial

Precedents & Inspirations

”

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Painting with Robots

Gravitational Arena

Xu Bing

https://www.xubing.com/en/news/details/685

Gravitational Arena Overview Characteristics • 2022 • Sculptural • A massive whripool installation, con- • 3D Dimension sisting of hanging alphabets. Leverag- • Volumes & folds ing tensions and gravity in forming this • Literacy porous mass. Interaction between the • Weight & force artwork and space is achieved by the • Space & place giant ground installation of mirror, establishing an immersive effect

Precedents & Inspirations

”

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Painting with Robots

Landscript

Xu Bing

https://www.xubing.com/en/news/details/685

Landscript

”

Overview Characteristics • Started in 1999 • Literature • Landscape imagery made out of scripts • Pictorial • Sketched scenes with Chinese charac- • Glyphs ters • Landscape • Transforming 2D representation of na- • Mass, mater, and form ture into a different level, which is through a linguistic lense

Precedents & Inspirations

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Painting with Robots

Theme 1

Spin Force to Manipulate Original Chinese Characters

Points of Exploration

1. Exploration around the use of field line to establish fluidity in the deformation that is often found in the nature 2. Spin force to deform the original Chinese characters in three different ways; (1) Direct spin foce, (2) Chinese character curves dragged towards the forces, (3) Chinese characters deformed in the direction of the forces 3. Exploration started from applying random sets of populated spin forces to a more structure arrangement; applying various Chinese characters

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Painting with Robots

Diagram

Chinese character arrayed in a grid formation

Spin force through Field Line is applied onto the original curves

of Logic

Theme 1

Original curves are deformed by the forces and adjusted with Graph Mapper & Curl Noise

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.3 Divide surface: 6 Spin Force Geometry counts: 6 Radius: 115 Loop repeat: 50 Curl Noise Divide length: 7

Preview • Applying direct spin force by populating random starting points in Grasshopper • The original curves of the Chinese character are twisted towards the direction of the spin forces • Learning point: First step in achieving fluidity to follow the characteristics found in nature, such as water flow that is also associated with the material characteristic of an ink as in the “painting” realm

Dimension 300 x 300 mm • Movement: -6 to 3 • Rotation : -10 to 6

SPIN FORCE 1-1

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.1 Divide surface: 10 Curve distribution:

Spin Force Geometry counts: 10 Radius: 200 Strength: 3 Loop repeat: 50

Preview • Adding the numbers of surface division to increase detail • Adding “seed” into the random population to obtain a new set of starting points for the spin forces • Learning point: Prominent development in the second version of the first script is allocating a set of different Chinese characters to create elements of “randomness” and “nature”, despite the fact that the painting is created by a robot

Dimension 300 x 300 mm • Scale:

Curl Noise Divide length: 9

SPIN FORCE 1-2

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.3 Divide surface: 6 Spin Force Geometry counts: 10 Radius: 150 Strength: 10 Loop repeat: 50 Curl Noise Divide length: 7

Preview • Spin forces create loops that are representated by the force curves (flows) • The original Chinese character curves are now dragged towards the force curves (flows), creating a painting that mimics a cellular structure • Only apply one Chinese character in this exploration • Learning point: Discovering a new way of utilising the spin force to create a differing arrangement or deformation

Dimension 300 x 300 mm • Movement: -6 to 2 • Rotation: -10 to 6

SPIN FORCE 2-1

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.3 Divide surface: 6 Spin Force Divide surface: 2 (For spin force locations)

Radius: 150 Strength: 10 Loop repeat: 50

Preview • Learning point: As the previous exploration (Script 2 version 1) has presented a cellular structure in the outcome, this part of the development encourages the possibility of this arrangement to further replicate the natural reference. Therefore, instead of populating random starting points, the points are now located on a grid that has resulted in a more rigid structure • As shown, the distribution of the forms visible in the painting is more organised or balance

Dimension 300 x 300 mm • Movement: -6 to 2 • Rotation: -10 to 6

Curl Noise Divide length: 7

SPIN FORCE 2-2

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.2 Divide surface: 6 Spin Force Geometry counts: 10 Radius: 200 Strength: 10 Loop repeat: 50 Curl Noise Divide length: 9 Distortion Graph mapper:

Preview • Learning point: Script 3 explores a new way of utilising the force curves in deforming the original Chinese characters, which is by pulling the original curves in the direction of the forces • Only one Chinese character is applied in this script • Curl Noise is applied to emphasise the shape manipulation, creating a marble pattern found in the nature such as water. This effect is assisted by the use of Graph Mapper.

Dimension 300 x 300 mm • Movement: -6 to 2 • Rotation: -10 to 6

SPIN FORCE 3-1

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up Curve(s)

Curve Array Scale: 0.3 Divide surface: 5 Spin Force Geometry counts: 15 Radius: 150 Strength: 10 Loop repeat: 50 Curl Noise

Preview • Learning point: The second version of script 3 fulfils the curiosity of a different Graph Mapper in affecting the deformation • Numbers in the surface division is decreased to receive a clearer view of the deformation and the radius of the spin force is reduced

Divide length: 9 Distortion

Dimension 300 x 300 mm

Graph mapper:

SPIN FORCE 3-2

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Painting with Robots

Theme 2

Creating 3D & Volume Effect with Scaling & Character Distribution

Points of Exploration

1. Inspired by the precedents that showcases the presence of 3D effect in a 2D application 2. Arranging the characters in a way that is outside the basic square grid 3. Exploring dark and light values of an object, scales, rotation, and distortion by vector

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Painting with Robots

Diagram

Circular grid showing the arrangement of the Chinese characters

Multiple Chinese characters are oriented on the circular grid, scaled, and rotated to emulate the dark and light values of a volume (cone)

Digital data transferred to be painted by the Universal Robot

Curl Noise is applied to the base curves with the rotation vector as the data that is leveraged to create a directional effect

of Logic

Theme 2

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up

• Learning point: Attractor curve around the perimeter of the circle is utilised to determine the distribution of the various Chinese characters and to scale the Chinese character in order to create a 3D effect (Dark and light values of a volume) • Graph Mappers assist the target scales and character distributions

Curve(s)

Scale Graph mapper:

Domain: 1 to 2 Rotaion Orient direction

Dimension 300 x 300 mm

Direction A: Unit X Direction B: Point A (Orange) & Point B (Blue)

3D Base

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up

• Learning point: Attractor curve around the perimeter of the circle is utilised to determine the distribution of the various Chinese characters and to scale the Chinese character in order to create a 3D effect (Dark and light values of a volume) • Graph Mappers assist the target scales and character distributions • Vector from a central point to the centroids of the Chinese characters is utilised to guide the Curl Noise deformation, a more organic image of the overall painting Scaled Curve(s)

Curl Noise Divide curve: 100 Curl noise scale: 0.01 Domain: 0.3 to 4.6 Data for “move”: Orient direction vector

Dimension 300 x 300 mm

30%

3D Curl Noise

60%

90%

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Painting with Robots

Theme 3

Distributing Chinese Characters to Create Painting Based on Values from Image Sampling

Points of Exploration

1. Image Sampler to determine the positions of multiple Chinese characters, which is determined by the colour or brightness values 2. Images used are (1) an aerial map of Melbourne, Victoria and (2) watercolour painting (fluid, water, ink) 3. Chinese characters that are applied have meanings that are related to the word “city” 4. Finding the connection between nature and Chinese characters (ink) through “painting” as the medium

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Painting with Robots

Diagram of Logic

Theme 3

Image Sampler as data for colour values, determining the characters allocation

Multiple Chinese characters distributed onto the grid (surface division)

Digital data transferred to be painted by the Universal Robot

Curl Noise and Graph Mapper applied to further deform the base arrangement

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Painting with Robots

Process

of Image Manipulation

Melbourne Aerial Map

Melbourne aerial map is edited in Photoshop into a pixel, black and white image.

The second image is the input for the Image Sampler script in Grasshopper. Colour grid is chosen in the encouragement of the precedent’s art style and to help with the data translation from image to characters

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up

Preview

Curve(s) Image Sampler Divide surface: 30 Image sampler:

• Learning point: Image sampler to determine the distribution of the Chinese characters, instead of a random set up. This shows a more advanced development of the script • Exploring the possibility of Chinese characters in representing a topographic, natural element • Scaling is not applied in this script, it focuses more on the understanding of Graph Mapper in character allocation and Curl Noise control

Graph mapper: Domain end 9

Scale Domain: 0.6 to 0.3 Curl Noise Scale: 0.006 Domain: Domain end 5 Data: Graph mapper

Dimension 300 x 300 mm

Domain: 3 to 1 30%

Image Sampler Melbourne

60%

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up

Curve(s) Image Sampler Divide surface: 20 Image sampler:

Graph mapper: Domain end 9

Preview

Scale Domain: 0.8 to 0.3 Curl Noise Scale: 0.006 Domain: Domain end 5 Data: Graph mapper

• Learning point: Image sampler to determine the distribution of the Chinese characters, instead of a random set up. This shows a more advanced development of the script • Exploring the possibility of Chinese characters in representing a natural element on a material base, which is the physical features of painting and ink • Scaling is not applied in this script, it focuses more on the understanding of Graph Mapper in character allocation and Curl Noise control Trial 1: • Movement: -7 to 3 • Rotation: -3 to 5

Dimension 300 x 300 mm

Trial 2: • Scale: 1.3 • Movement: -7 to 3 • Rotation: -3 to 5

Domain: 3.5 to 1 30%

Image Sampler Ink

60%

90%

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Painting with Robots

Theme 4

Melbourne Topographic Map

Points of Exploration

1. Applying the learning from the previous explorations into the final set of paintings 2. Attractors to scale and rotate the Chinese characters 3. Scale and rotation to improve the quality and texture of the painting, to capture the most of the nature reference 4. Image Sampler to distribute the multiple characters based on colour values, to capture the most of the nature reference 5. Curl Noise to further develop the abstraction of the overall painting, combining imperfection (human) & accuracy (robot)

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Painting with Robots

Diagram

Basic character distribution resulted from the Image Sampler input

Contour lines of Melbourne CBD as curve attractors that adjust the characters’ scale and direction

Digital data transferred to be painted by the Universal Robot

Curl Noise applied to create an organic effect

of Logic

Theme 4

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Painting with Robots

Process

of Image Manipulation Melbourne Topographic Map

1. Contour lines of Victoria 2. Topographic map showing the ground elevatios or heights 3. Topographic map edited in Photoshop into a black and white image, focusing on the Melbourne CBD area to obtain data of colour values

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Painting with Robots

Grasshopper Set-Up

• Movement: -7 to 3 • Rotation: -10 to 6

Curve(s)

B1

Image Sampler Divide surface: 30 Image sampler:

B2 Graph mapper: Domain start 8

Preview Scale with Curve Attractors Domain: 0.6 to 0.3

Rotate with Curve Attractors Domain: 44.8 to -35.2

Curl Noise

• Learning point: Pushing the development to discover further possibilities of how Chinese character can be translated into a painting derived from the references found in nature: Topography • The outcome represents a collaboration between manual and digital, where these characteristics are shown through the generative process while preserving the organic language of brush, ink, and handicraft.

• Painting seems abstract if seen from a close proximity, but becomes more legible if seen from afar • Image Sampler - character distribution; contour lines - scale and rotation, enhancing the colour contrast (Performs differences in topography); Curl Noise - shape manipulation, biotic gesture

B3

Dimension 900 x 900 mm

Scale: 0.025 Domain: 2 to 6

Part 1

Melbourne Topographic Map

Part 3

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Painting with Robots

Robot Diagrams

B1

B2

B3

{ 30%

60%

90%

30%

60%

90%

30%

60%

90%

{ { Melbourne Topographic Map

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Painting with Robots

Robot Diagrams • Movement: -5 to 5 • Rotation: -10 to 6 • Movement: -8 to 5 • Rotation: -10 to 6

Melbourne Topographic Map