Jaeyong(Jay) Park
10.17.2021
Music 256A / CS476a, Stanford University
Ever since I came across NFTs(Nonfungible Tokens), I had the idea to build a generative art piece. To provide a brief explanation about NFTs, it is easy to think of them as digital collectibles/artworks. Principle 4.5 of Artful Design made me think about this idea once again: "Design things with a computer that would not be possible without." Since NFTs are digital, it seemed logical to take advantage of that nature. Instead of making a static art piece, I want to make sounds that transform slightly every time. For instance, one could take in changes in weather as input to match the mood of a song. One could also make more customizable songs that change according to an individual's breathing pattern. I believe that is one direction the future of art is headed and is one that aligns with Ge's philosophy that design should be unique to the medium.
Being generative alone does not suffice to make art artsy or innovative. Rather, it is about how we utilize the technology and tailor it to our needs. This line of thought is in sync with principle 4.10 of Artful Design: "Progammability is both blessing and a curse." This is especially so with generative art, since there is even more limited space for human intervention. It might be the case that generative technology becomes so advanced that it is easily usable for any layman and thus generative art holds no artistic value. Just because it is the case that generative art is not prevalent at the current time being does not make generative art more interesting.
Then, what could make generative art more interesting? If novelty alone is not enough, what could be the solution? As Ge highlights throughout Artful Design, it is the subjective experience that stems from the design that makes a design sublime. Going back to the case of generative art, the subjective experience could be boosted by tailoring specifically to one's taste in aesthetics as well as an interactive feature. To elaborate, an unique advantage of digital art is that it can take in inputs and update itself on the fly. This could be used to make one's unique artwork such that as time progresses, the artwork becomes more characteristic of the owner. And the owner can also specify what the artwork can take in as inputs, such as the tone in the language one uses with another person using natural language processing, so that the artwork would be a memoir of the relationship. The possibilities are endless, and it is up to the creator to make the right design choices.