Held: Friday, 10 April 2015

Back to Outline 38 - Vectors. On to Outline 40 - On Two-Dimensional Design.

Summary

We consider Scheme's random procedure, how one might use that procedure in writing simple simulations, and how the procedure can be used to generate "unpredictable" images.

Related Pages

• Reading: Random Drawing
• Lab: Random Drawing
• Morning EBoard 39 (Source a.m. 39)
• Afternoon EBoard 39 (Source p.m. 39)

Overview

• Random art.
• Why use randomness.
• The random procedure.
• Simulation.

Administrivia

• Continue Partners!
• Given where I found Corn Nuts, I may never bring food again.
• Review session Monday at 7pm.
• It's nearly prereg time. Think about taking 161 in the fall!
• A friendly reminder: If you miss class, you do have an obligation to send me a note.

Upcoming Work

• Lab writeup: Exercise 4 http://bit.ly/151-2015S-lab39
• Readings for Monday: Elements and Principles of Two-Dimensional Design and About the Project

Extra Credit Opportunities

Academic

• CS Table Friday: Design for User Empowerment http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/march-april-2015/design-for-user-empowerment
• CS Extras next Thursday: Nora Bressette Buccino on her summer REU (Android and Robots!)
• CS Table next Friday: TBD.

Peer Support (Morning Section)

• Track and Field at Drake on Friday and Saturday. Watch the Javelin throw Friday at 3:45 and see Grinnell's own MVC Most Valuable Player of the Week. Sorry, no live targets.
• KY's radio show, "We Think We're Funny", 9-10pm Mondays.
• Julia's radio show, "The Hot Box". Wednesday night/Thursday morning 1:00-2:00 a.m.
• Host an admitted student this coming Sunday night (or the following Sunday night)! Contact JMU for info.
• ISO Show, Saturday night 7-9 pm at Harris. Many live performances.
• More things to be announced next week!

Peer Support (Afternoon Section)

• Wednesday at 4:30. Psychology Alumni Job Talk Series, Alum '##, a Senior Research Analyst from ACT.
• Womens Tennis Sunday at 3pm against Central.
• ISO Show, Saturday night 7-9 pm at Harris. Many live performances.
• Host an admitted student this coming Sunday night (or the following Sunday night)! Contact JMU for info.
• More things to be announced next week!

Miscellaneous

• Town hall April 23, noon or 7:30 pm, "How we have conversations."

Other Good Things (no extra credit)

• Student research seminar this week.

Randomized Images - The Theory

• Non-mainstream art philosophy: The images that come from random processes (or from nature) can be as interesting as the images that come from artists who intentionally plan the canvas.
• One important movement: Dada. (Early 20th century; also a reaction to facism and industrialization and ...)
  • An example: Tristan Tzara's "How to make a Dadaist Poem"
• Disclaimer: After creation by random processes, some filtering of good from bad often happens.
• Disclaimer: Many of the random processes still include some artistic intention.
  • Jackson Pollock's painting style provides an interesting combination of intent and randomness.
• Modernized/computational suggestion:
  • Randomized processes can provide inspiration
  • The ability to constrain some aspects of the process can provide a new mechanism for creation.

The random Procedure

• Scheme helps us by providing a (random n) procedure.
• n must be a positive integer.
• random returns an integer between 0 and n-1, inclusive.

Randomized Images - Practice

• Many of the procedures we've written or used have numeric parameters.
• Those parameters can be generated "randomly".
• Many of the procedures we've written take one of a restricted number of inputs (e.g., there are only so many brushes).
• Those inputs can also be selected "randomly".
• Demo: Randomizing the brush

Other Uses of Randomness

• We often use randomness in simulating unpredictable events, such as the rolling of an unbiased die.
• More requently, such randomness is used in larger-scale simulations.
• We'll stick with images, though.

Lab

• Do the lab