Art in Silico

Best in Show: 

Chloe McCarthy for "Computational Sona-Kolam With Rainbow Loops"

"This computer-generated design is the first example produced in a computational and theoretical study of traditional African and Indian art in Dr. Robert Schneider’s discrete mathematics research group. In Central Africa there are diagrammatic designs called sona, usually drawn in sand by storytellers, which are composed of geometrically-arranged dots enclosed within winding loops. Produced by a simple algorithm, sona represent visually-gorgeous patterns of high complexity. Unfortunately, in the modern era the ancient sona art form has all but disappeared, with few if any practitioners. In South India, a very similar style of algorithmic art called kolam are drawn each morning using rice flour in front of almost every dwelling, traditionally created by women as an act of religious devotion. Kolam are ubiquitous in South India, an ever-evolving art form.

Viewing sona and kolam as mathematical objects, in our research group we wish to understand their combinatorial, number-theoretic, and knot-theoretic properties. We also wish to produce software to generate sona and kolam to produce beautiful imagery, and to produce numerous examples so that we may study their properties. This piece is our first step to understanding sona, by computationally generating rectangular cases of the diagrams. A graphical grid of a particular size is generated, and we store the location of every "contact point" (we limit our loops to moving through these contact points). Then, the loops are drawn as demonstrated through the contact points. Already, we obtained two results: 1) The GCD of the count of rows and columns gives us the number of unique loops in the diagram. 2) Starting at the top-most, left-most contact point, each distinct loop starts at the contact point immediately to the right of the previous loop. With these results, we can force certain behaviors and patterns from the diagrams; in this case, our setup forces 7 distinct loops, and colors them according to the rainbow." 

Most Innovative: 

Evan Lucas, "Emails from Dean Lovecraft" 

"A language model was trained on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, as well as several years of emails from the MTU Dean of Students. This is an interactive work where users can supply a subject line and the model will generate an email inspired both by real Dean emails and the work of legendary horror author H. P. Lovecraft."

Most Creative: 

Scott Kuhl, "Film Streaks" 

"Film Streaks are 2D images created from popular films using a simple algorithm. These images provide a glimpse into the color schemes, take length, camera movements and other aspects of the films. Each image is created by selecting a column of pixels and extracting that column from every frame. All of the columns are then placed side-by-side to create a long "streak" which can be read like a book from left to right and top to bottom. In the images, long takes of a stationary scene with little movement appear as long horizontal lines. Occasionally, when the camera pans across a scene slowly, images from the film may be visible. Text scrolling up in the credits appear as diagonal lines."

Honorable Mention:

Yogendra Kanchapu, "4000AD: A Portrait of Houghton"

"4000 AD: A Portrait of Houghton, Michigan is a digital artwork created using Midjourney, a powerful computational tool. The piece envisions a future version of Houghton, Michigan, with advanced technological advancements and a thriving community. Using midjourney the artist was able to generate a realistic depiction of the futuristic cityscape, complete with towering skyscrapers, bustling streets, and state-of-the-art transportation systems. The piece showcases the incredible potential of computational tools in art, as well as the power of imagination and creativity in envisioning a brighter future. By showcasing a future world that is both aspirational and attainable, "5000 AD" encourages viewers to consider the possibilities of what lies ahead and how technology can play a role in shaping a better tomorrow.: 

Honorable Mention:

Michael Elegah, "Visualization of a Partition Data Function"

"This computer-generated image is one of the first results in my study of partition zeta functions, in a number theory project with Dr. Cecile Piret and Dr. Robert Schneider. The Riemann zeta function is a central function in complex analysis, and is at the heart of the greatest open problem in number theory, the Riemann Hypothesis that conjectures a beautiful pattern for the roots of the function. In my MS work, I am studying a generalization of the zeta function discovered by Dr. Schneider, derived from integer partitions in combinatorics. With Dr. Piret, I used Mathematica software to make a 3-D plot of these partition zeta functions for the first time ever. Surprisingly, I observed even more beautiful patterns seem to exist with the distribution of the roots."