Charles Redmond

Professor of Mathematics and Computer Systems
Mercyhurst University
Erie, Pennsylvania

I am interested in Generative Art, especially that which involves recursion, and I have a special interest in the Context Free Art programming language. I have been a regular contributor to the Context Free Art gallery, and I have used the program and language as the basis for a course in mathematics and art for first-year university students. I also teach computer animation.

The Moon Through Feathers
The Moon Through Feathers
11 inches by 17 inches
Generated by code written in the Context Free Art language. No photo-editing software used.
2010

Every program written in the Context Free Art language may be considered to be a context free grammar for creating images. Thus, when one programs in this language, one is "inventing" grammars. Any image produced with such a grammar may be considered to be a legal sentence in the grammar. If randomness is introduced into the program, then there are many different legal sentences or images, and one is producing generative art.

In making "The Moon Through Feathers", I first created a "stamp", consisting of intersecting squares and circles, scaled and rotated recursively as their saturation is increased to produce the blues and the browns. I then continuously "stamped" the scene horizontally, scaling recursively as I proceeded.

Starry Pines
Starry Pines
16 inches X 16 inches
Generated by code written in the Context Free Art language. No photo-editing software used.
2011

Every program written in the Context Free Art language may be considered to be a context free grammar for creating images. Thus, when one programs in this language, one is "inventing" grammars. Any image produced with such a grammar may be considered to be a legal sentence in the grammar. If randomness is introduced into the program, then there are many different legal sentences or images, and one is producing generative art.

When I created Starry Pines, I was studying tree creation with Context Free Art while at the same time experimenting with a technique of mine for creating star clusters and galaxies. I put them together for this work, along with a recursive icy swirl added to the rules for the trees.