Category: Digital Design of Nature

Glossary

Affine Transformation A mathematical function such as a translation, rotation, scaling, or shearing that transforms a line into a line or a plane into another plane. Using a trick, such functions, which are usually difficult to combine due to the nonlinear behavior of the translation, can be implemented with just one matrix multiplication: the number […]

Modeling a Tree

in the second modeling example, a small tree is to be created. The basis for this example is a tutorial by Andreas Kathky which can be found also on the Greenworks website. The tree consists of four tree components that are linked together, and therefore has three branching levels. Here the structured creation of the […]

Modeling a Flower

Although the rendering of trees requires a relatively small number of compo­nents, experience with the system is necessary. Thus, we suggest to first model a small flower. The final result was used for the interactive rendering of plants and can be seen in Fig. A.3. The description given here refers to the Xfrog Version 3.5, […]

SonoMorphis

SonoMorphis is an installation with genetic graphics and sound, developed by Torsten Belschner and one of the authors (Bernd Lintermann). A first version without sound was developed between 1995 and 1997[15], and extended to in­clude sound in 1998 in co-operation with the audio designer Torsten Belschner at the ZKM Karlsruhe. The goal was to develop […]

A-Volve

In A-Volve, the viewer interacts with an unusual medium for technical instal­lations: water. The visitor looks at a 180x 135 cm-large water basin that is, however, only filled with about some centimeters of water, and in which vi­sual continuation is projected from the bottom. In the basin there are different organic creatures that move with […]

Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau

While for Karl Sims evolutionary techniques are a means for obtaining com­plex, nonplannable visual results, for Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignon­neau the algorithmic creativity of evolution stands in the foreground. The vari­ety of organisms, which nature brought about in the course of evolution, serves as an indication of the creative potential for technically realized evolutionary […]