Class 36: Randomized (Unpredictable) Drawing

Held:

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.

Preliminaries

Overview

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

Related Pages

• Eboard 36 (Source)

• Reading: Randomized Drawing

• Lab: Randomized Drawing

Updates

News / Etc.

• Continue partners
• Snacks!

Upcoming Work

• Lab writeup: TBD.
• Homework 7 is ready.
  • You can choose your own partners and work in groups of size 1, 2, or 3.
  • We will discuss the assignment at the end of class. (I had fun computer problems this morning.)
• Reading for Monday : Pairs and pair structures

Extra credit (Academic/Artistic)

• BAX reception today. (Or BAX at any time.)
• The Barber of Seville, Monday, 17 April 2017, 7:30 p.m., Herrick.

Extra credit (Peer)

• Baseball games Saturday at 1pm and 3:30 pm vs. Monmouth.
• Track and Field Saturday at Cornell at 11 am.
  Listen to the sound at the Friday Gardner concerts at 8-10pm
• Be amaazed at the trumpet playing at Harris on Saturday.
• Singers concert Saturday at 2pm in Sebring Lewis.
• Green living, Saturday, 1-4pm, Summer Street Park.
• Watch Pioneer weekend pitches. Some time on Sunday.
• Submit to (or attend) the Art House Arts Fest on April 22nd. They want visual art, performance art, musical talent, crafting skills, culinary arts etc. If anyone is interested in participating they can email our Art House member.

Extra credit (Misc)

• Krumm Prairie burn Friday night.

Other good things to do

• Women’s Tennis Saturday at 10:00 am

Friday PSA

• Enjoy the many events this weekend
• Make your own decisions
• Plan
• Take care of yourselves and those around you
• Be moderate

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