Becoming a Data Artist: Using Data to Create Art
Computers and art have always been major facets of my life. For the most part, these interests remained separate, besides the occasional use of editing software. However, that separation between computers and art quickly changed about five years ago when I stumbled upon a Processing script called ASDFPixelsort. ASDFPixelSort, as the name suggests, is a script that isolated either the row or column pixels of an input image and sorts the pixels based on the criteria of your choosing. The result is often an abstract yet beautiful piece of art. About a year after stumbling upon pixel sorting and other methods of “glitching” my photography, I put on an art show that explored the relationship between art, computers, and programming. Four years after putting on this show, my interest in the overlap between art and computers has only grown.
Most recently, I have been especially interested in using computers to process data to create art. My initial research in this art space began by looking at how audio data can be used to make audio-reactive art. My inspiration for such audio-reactive art was mostly the result of two artists, Kristina Karpysheva and Aleksandr Letsius, who work under the alias 404.zero. 404.zero is known for their use of audio to create experimental art that reacts to music. Being inspired by their work, I naturally began trying to understand their process. In trying to understand their process I discovered they heavily rely on a program called Touch Designer. Using Touch Designer one can process audio data and transform that information into reactive visualizations. Taking inspiration from 404.zero’s work, I learned to use Touch Designer and python to create my own audio-reactive art. For my first project, I created a sphere with random noise mapped to its surface that was then height mapped based on the low-frequency areas of music. A clip of that project can be found below.
Having explored how audio data can be used for art creation, I am now curious as to how other forms of data can be used to create art. I am especially interested in the practice of using raw datasets to produce art. One artist that has been at the center of my research is Refik Anadol. Anadol is known for creating what he calls “data sculptures” by using raw data and machine learning algorithms. To me, Anadol is the perfect representation of the overlap between being a data scientist and an artist.
“We have so much data, but we’re leaving so much of it behind us. I want to know how we can make meaning from that. I use data to make images that help people imagine a whole new world.” — Refik Anadol
In my favorite work titled, “Melting Memories”, Anadol gathered data on the memories of various participants using an electroencephalogram to record electrical brain activity. Data was then cleaned and scaled using a dimensional algorithm, and finally, height maps were used for the visual representation of the data. The result is a sculpture that transforms numeric data into a striking visualization of memories.
Taking inspiration from Anadol, I am excited to begin learning how to use raw data and machine learning to create art. Moving forward in my data art journey, my next project will involve using weather data to make my own data-reactive sculptures. To do so, I will likely continue to make use of the capabilities I have become familiar with in Touch Designer along with my knowledge of python, data processing, and machine learning algorithms.
I am excited about the future of data art. Data art is still in its infancy and, as people become more data curious and additional resources become available, we will continue to see this art form grow. I am curious to see how creatives will use the vast amounts of publicly available data in their art going forward.
