The Dawesome Digest #30
News from Brendan Dawes.
Flocks, Herds and Schools
Unique generative works paying homage to Craig W. Reynolds's 1987 flocking algorithm
Following on from the Certain Irregularities – and thank you to everyone who have bought an edition so far – I’ve now created another plotted generative work, this time paying homage to Craig Reynolds’s classic flocking algorithm.
Each work, plotted on an AxiDraw and driven by software written in Processing, generates a unique path using Reynolds’s algorithm whilst also avoiding the title type. I’m always fascinated to see what pattern will emerge when I hit go to generate each unique print.
These signed works are an edition of 100 on handmade cotton rag paper in either a white on black or a black on white edition.
Use this code at checkout for 10% off all PFU orders till the end of April: DAWESOMEDISCOUNT
Factory Reality: Post-realism in the 2020s
Brand new work in a show at Offline in New York
I’m thrilled to be part of a new show – Factory Reality: Post-realism in the 2020s – at the recently opened Offline gallery in the Bowery, New York, curated by An Loremi and Mika Bar-On Nesher.
I had the pleasure of having a sneak-peek of the gallery before it opened when I was in New York back in February and it’s a beautiful cavern-like space which opens up on to you after descending the staircase. I love that SuperRare has decided to open a physical gallery for digital art in these uncertain times.
My work – A Strange Intimacy – will be available on SuperRare when the show opens.
Featuring A.L. Bahta, Aleqth, Anna Condo, Botto, Claire Silver, Emi Kusano, Kevin James Neal, Robbie Barrat, Will Freudenheim and YWGI, the show opens on May 8th, 243 Bowery Street, New York, NY.
Nothing Can Ever Be The Same Art Prize Shortlist
Real-time generative work shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize
Every week I take a moment to look through my email junk mail folder. Despite how we’re constantly being told algorithms are getting smarter I often find important emails banished to the junk pile by my supposedly smart email software.
On this occasion I found an email from the Aesthetica Art Prize informing me that Nothing Can Ever Be The Same, the real-time generative work based on the archive of Brian Eno – a kind of experimental pre-cursor to the Eno documentary – had been shortlisted for the prize. Both myself and my fellow collaborator Gary Hustwit were thrilled.
This means the work will be on show alongside the other shortlisted works at York Art Gallery in the UK from the 18th September till January 2025. The plan is to run the work in real-time for five months straight – our longest version yet following the 168 hour long version at its original debut at the Venice Music Biennale in 2023.
Elsewhere
A few things I’ve bumped into…
Run large language models locally on your machine. Has a built in RESTful API so you can query it from other software.
“We tend to see it as “intelligence,” something magical or autonomous. But the true power of design lies in reframing AI — not as intelligence, but as material. As tool.” – Haiyan Zhang, AI as Design Material
Great post from Haiyan Zhang about reframing AI as a design material.
Hay fever sufferers, know your enemy: Scanning Electron Microscope pictures of grains of pollen. The Telegraph
Stunning images of the many different types of pollen seen through an electron microscope.
The best tea strainer I own. Drosselmeyer tea strainer
If you take tea seriously – and you should – this Swedish award winning strainer is the best out there.
Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain bring to life this extraordinary tale of ordinary madness. – Take Shelter
Absolutely loved this film from 2011 by Jeff Nichols. More prescient now than it ever was.
Upcoming
I’ll be speaking at Beyond Tellerrand in Düsseldorf on the 5th May and Thinking Digital in Newcastle between 14th and 15th May about all things generative art.
I’m currently working on a new large-format publication as part of the ongoing activities around 25 years of brendandawes.com. This one is a kind of retrospective of the work done in that time yet will show no images of the work but create new algorithmic and typographic forms from the data, combining procedural techniques with machine-made texts…
Thank you for letting me drop into your inbox. I’ll try and write more often. Promise.
Brendan.