Fergus Ray Murray
Artists
Fergus Ray Murray
Freelance artist and programmer
Edinburgh, Scotland
Statement
I have been creating mathematical graphics since I first learned to program on a ZX Spectrum, and animating them ever since computers have been up to the task. My language of choice these days is Processing. Most of my animations and stills are based on trigonometric functions and waves.
Artworks
Vortical
18" x 18"
Digital print on canvas
2008
Complex curves on a supertoroid; or, if you like, glowing traces as we circle around a rotating torus.
x=majorRadius*cos(roundward)*(1-cos (holeward)));
y=majorRadius*cos(dunkward)*sin(holeward)+minorRadius*sin(roundward)*sin(dunkward)*(1-cos(holeward)));
Kenneth and the Waves
19" x 17" x 6"
Interactive computer animation with wooden/mixed-media control box
2010
A collection of interactive animations based on interacting waves and sinusoidal functions.
A control box featuring six sliders, five buttons and two switches allows the audience to control the visualisations. One pair of sliders controls amplitude; one controls wavelength; one controls speed. The buttons switch between the different animations, while the switches control features of the visualisation. The animations will appear on a screen, or projected on a wall.
Sinusoidia shows two sine waves, the difference between them, and their superposition.
Zoobie is a membrane of glowing points, distorted by two waves passing through at right-angles to each other.
Trochor is based on a rotary harmonograph - the line traced out by the sum of the motion of two damped pendulums swinging in circles.
Rosaly adds another pendulum, and removes the damping.
Yinyo shows the superposition of two gradated spirals as they spin.