Hank Guss
Artists
Statement
I am a Mathematics and Computer Science graduate from Oberlin College. For a few years I have been experimenting in ways of using programming languages (mostly Java) to render images that are appealing mathematically and aesthetically. In most of my work, I attempt to use abstract textures and fractals (all one or two dimensional graphics) to assign depth and three dimensionality to the otherwise flat plane of a computer screen.
Artworks
Contour Rings
30 x 30 cm
JDK
2017
This piece was created by blending three batches of simplex noise each (one for each colour channel) with a nonlinear radial gradient, and then taking sampled thresholds of this to create pseudo-rings that wrap around and through each other. I like in particular that when viewed from far away the curves combine to form nested regions that can be easily distinguished, while when examining the piece from close up it is difficult even to trace a single curve all the way around.
Fractaled Fractal
30 x 30 cm
JDK
2017
This piece began as a "Coral" image (from a previous project of mine) that was created by following a best first search through a field of random values (creating a fractal reminiscent of coral), starting from the region of a sin wave. Importantly, it was also constructed using toroidal wrapping. It was then passed through a program I wrote that uses a mapping to tile the original image smaller and smaller towards the center. The toroidal wrapping ensures that there are no seams in the tiling, allowing for a smooth fractal to emerge. The warped sin waves form nested spiky petals, while the original background colours feather out from between the petals.