Taha Shaikh

Statement

My goal is to give meaning to data and logic structures through creative visualization and art. Through the portrayal of complex logic structures, interesting patterns and conclusions can be drawn through careful interpretation and analysis. After struggling with understanding truth tables and logic functions, I found that visualizing each true and false value as a colored pixel helped me digest the material much better; the "quilts" produced through this process held fascinating secrets. I find joy in transforming rows upon rows of numbers and data points into something with beauty and personality.

Artworks

In this piece, each column represents a unique permutation of logic gates and each row represents a unique permutation of truth values; when the truth values are plugged into the logic gate, the output (true, false, or undecided) is converted into a colored pixel (green, red, and gray respectively). This "quilt", at first glance, appears disorderly and scattered; as the viewer begins to deconstruct the intricacies within, the various patterns hidden in the quilt begin to materialize and the pixels gain an identity. Designed and generated using Mathematica.

This is a larger quilt, representing 870,912 different logic structures and truth values. Interesting patterns can be observed in the red "band" in the middle third of the piece. This stripe illustrates where the "false" values are entered into the logic gates and their effect on the outcome of each structure as the viewer moves horizontally from the left. The various green patterns at the top of the piece resemble, to me, vines and leaves in a jungle, giving the piece a somewhat "tropical" theme. Designed and created using Mathematica.