Hans Dehlinger

Statement

For the work presented here, it is assumed, order of some sort is a contributing factor to aesthetic value. A magic square is known as the arrangement of n x n numbers, such that any column, row or diagonal adds up to the same number. Magic squares are often placed in the recreational corner of mathematics, but they offer interesting strategies to exploit mathematical order for algorithmically generated fine-art. A project, drawing on magic squares as algorithmic input for the generation of aesthetic events has been carried out in 2010 by artists and programmers at the Media Research Center of Sun-Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. In a joint effort, artists designed schemes for visual representations, and the programmers implemented them. The Center specializes in project oriented joint work between artists and programmers. In the presented work, we make use of the 4x4 magic square only. Each artist presents one scheme.

Artworks

same as for image H3-magic-square_4_15.01

Because of their mathematical properties, magic squares are highly ordered entities. It is our conjecture as artists, that this order will show if transformed into a visual representation. Instead of designing or constructing order for an image, we use the inherent order of magic squares as an engine for the construction of aesthetic events, and we focus on the design of the visualization schemes which generate the images representing those aesthetic events. A great number of such schemes is conceivable. For the example images on display, imagine a 4 x 4 magic square with integers 1 to 16 is rolled out as a linear string on the top and bottom rim of a canvas. Lines are then drawn from top to bottom, connecting 1 → 2, 2→3, 3→4, … , 15→16. The width, color-range and transparency of the connecting lines and the background color of the images are kept variable, and they are changed within controlled boundaries for each generative run.

same as for H3-magic-square_4_15.01