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One Million Minds' intention
is to create 1 million unique abstract portraits or 'Mindscapes'
in 1000 days as a form of mass art participation, providing
an original art experience that is both virtual and in
the real world.
As an artist and painter for over 20
years, Tamor Kriwaczek converted his enthusiasm for
computer programming into creating the software at the
heart of One Million Minds, to generate his own form
of abstract art based on his interpretation of answers
given to a series of questions posed on this website.
Gaining the feel for the code, what you can and can't
do, the different decisions to take, all find exact
parallels with the act of painting he is so familiar
with.
At every step while making a painting, the artist takes
decisions about what to do next based on the original
idea, and the painting done up to that point. The same
is true with One Million Minds. As the image is created
different layers are drawn depending on the original interpretation
of the answers given and what layers have already been
put down, creating an image totally unique to that person.
The idea of machines creating art is not a new one but
has always fallen short in reality due to the misconception
that the only way to get a machine (or computer) to create
art is to program it to be a human being first. This is
obviously the Holy Grail for computer scientists and engineers
but is in fact irrelevent to the creation of art as a
uniquely human experience.
Tamor Kriwaczek turned this round simply
to use the computer as an automated tool, like an automatic
paintbrush with batteries, so that once having told the
computer how to interpret a set of answers and what to
draw with the results, the computer can get on with it
on its own.
The writing of such a program opens up the possibility
of unparalleled creation, enabling the generation of thousands
or millions of images, all unique to their subject, all
interpreted by the artist through the medium of numbers.
And due to its automated nature, art can be created for
free for anyone who answer the questions as the overheads
and materials are minimal, making it a truly egalitarian
form of art creation. |
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