Giving Generative Art Its Due

Great article!

This is total nonsense though: "Virtually all contemporary AI artists credit Mordvintsev’s DeepDream as a primary source of inspiration for their interest in machine learning and art."

Poor fractals and fractal flames get ignored, even when generated with scripts. Sure, there's no "AI" (yet) behind fractals, but it is the most visually appealing of all simple-rule-based generative art IMO. Of course, my definition here of "generative art" is a bit broad. Then again, the idea of "art" in general has evolved under the guise of referring to end-works (works that don't do much if anything by way of utility). It went from meaning created by skill (the art of craftsmanship, requiring more unique motor skills / talent than typing at a keyboard) and created for beauty to simply meaning something that pleases something in some sensational way ("sensational" meaning "by means of the senses"). Thus, it's no surprise that computer-generated art is gaining traction, all the while we are in fact no longer creating Michael Angelos (for reasons beyond the scope of this comment)... unless you know where to look.

I'd never seen that Casey Reas reel before. How cool that those drawing "processes" formed the basis of the Processing environment ;)