ftp.sunet.sepub/pictures/2014.11.ftp.sunet.se-pictures.tar/ftp.sunet.se/pub/pictures/art/Stephen.Whealton/whealton.explain

Text File | 1993-07-02 | 11KB | 320 lines

This is some explanatory text for the art work of Mr. Stephen Allen Whealton.

A biography was published some time ago for this gentleman.

The files will be sent out as axes.gif, concentr.gif, etc.

Axes.txt


    This image makes use of a canvas-like texture that I very much enjoy.
Again, I cannot remember much about how it was made.
    But to achieve this much symmetry left-and-right as well as up-and-
down is not easy!  Far easier would be complete symmetry.

CONCENTR.TXT

    There are many images like this one, featuring squares and diamonds.
Most are made by beginning the scan in the very center of the screen. The
cursor moves one step to the right (say) and one step up; then two to the
left and two down.  Next is three to the right and three up; then four to
left and four down.
    The program keeps track of all this.  At all times the x-location
and y-location are also known.  Perhaps there is also another variable
that keeps track of the total number of steps taken in the program so far.
    These three variables are entered into a formula which determines
the color.

CROSS1.txt

    This image gives a completely symmetrical image both up-and-down
and left-and-right. This can be easily achieved by using numbers from
some negative limit to a positive limit; say from -320 to +320 left to
right and from -240 to +240 up and down.  Take the absolute value of
the above numbers, and you've got your symmetry.
    Then of course for the actual setting, you'll have to add 320 to
the left-right numbers, and 240 to the up-down numbers.
    This is the simplest of the highly satisfying patterns of sym-
metry easily programmed.  Various operators preserve signs in various ways,
so you have to keep that in mind when trying create mirrored images.
    This image is the exact inverse of cross2.gif, with a tiny bit of
touching up after the fact.


CROSS2.txt

    This image gives a completely symmetrical image both up-and-down
and left-and-right. This can be easily achieved by using numbers from
some negative limit to a positive limit; say from -320 to +320 left to
right and from -240 to +240 up and down.  Take the absolute value of
the above numbers, and you've got your symmetry.
    Then of course for the actual setting, you'll have to add 320 to
the left-right numbers, and 240 to the up-down numbers.
    This is the simplest of the highly satisfying patterns of sym-
metry easily programmed.  Various operators preserve signs in various ways,
so you have to keep that in mind when trying create mirrored images.
    This image is the inverse of cross1.gif, with a tiny bit of touch-
ing up, after the fact.


DIAMOND.txt

    This is another favorite image - the precise method of mathematical
construction now forgotten.    I think there are sine-like waves operating
horizontally at the top and bottom; and vertically on the left and right.
    Where they converge in the middle, the bright, bluish diamond shape
results.

FRAME.txt

    Another spirally-scanned image (See Concentr.txt).

    In this one, as in many of the others on this disc; a particular
pattern is set going for a brief number of cycles, and then a basic para-
meter is changed.  Then it continues from there.
    In these cases, the parameter is the number of different colors
permitted in the band in question.  It is easy to specify this, for the
color-number itself is created by finding the remainder when some large
integer is divided by a given number.
    Change the given divisor, and you change everything.
    Each of the concentric bands in this picture represents a dif-
ferent divisor.  Generally, the numbers start high and then they go down
to two; whereupon they reverse themselves and climb back upwards.
    Thus in the very center there are many colors.  Moving outwards in
concentric bands, the colors get fewer and fewer until there's a band with
only one color, often black.
    Then still further outwards, there are more and more colors again.
GALAXY.txt

    Another canvasback image. This one has a horizontal axis, but no
vertical one.
    Then in the center there's a node that suggests to me the center
of a galaxy.


HORIZON.txt

    Still another image using the canvas texture.

    Sine waves move from left to right, and their meetings at the
equator create the image.


MALTESE.GIF

    This particular image is my favorite out of a large series that I
collectively think of as rugs or plaids.

    They are made by creating several nested loops; dividing the num-
ber of horizontal and vertical pixels into factors.

    This one and many others features a screen 625 pixels wide and 343
pixels high.

    This allows four loops of five for the horizontal variables, for
five to the fourth power is 625.

    Vertically, we have three loops of seven, for seven cubed is 343.

    Once the 7 loops are in place, the 7 index variables can be va-
riously added, multiplied, anded, xored, etc., etc., to create the color.


MOSAIC.txt

    This image looks very different from Maltese.gif, but the math is
closely kin.

    But here, the result has a strong suggestion of christian imagery.

    Temple.gif is a close cousin.


PARQUET.txt

    Another member of the rugs and plaids family; this time showing a
recurring shape that often appears in the 625 x 343 family of images.
    See Maltese.gif; mosaic.gif; temple.gif...


ROSETTE.txt

    This is a member of a very new family of images, making use of the
"generalized balanced ternary" system for indexing hexagons as developed by
Lucas and Gibson. (If anyone knows where Dean Lucas and/or Laurie Gibson
are today, PLEASE let me know!!)
    This way of indexing space is very exciting to me.  It subdivides
the plane into thousands of hexagons, and labels them in a hierarchical way.

    What I do then is to take each hexagon, and its label, and classify
each label according to the pattern of recurrences of the digits.
    For five-digit labels (indexing a rosette of 16,807 hexagons), there
might be one color for the labels such as "00000" or "44444" which are all
of the same digit.
    Another color for "00001" or "55455" which are four of one digit
and one of another.  Still another for "64532" or "30146" where all 5 of
the digits are different.
    With five digits and seven possible symbols, there are several dis-
tinctly different categories of patterns.
    Each category gets its own color.


SAWDC.txt

    This image could be entitled "Staggered Crosses."


    Like "Sawdc2.gif", it was made by creating a square image, and then
repeating it over and over.

    The particular pattern of staggered squares used here is a reflec-
tion of patterns of rectangles used regularly in the printed fabric indus-
try.  A vertical row of repeated rectangles is followed by an identical
row just to the right; but now the edges of each rectangle touch the mid-
points of the sides of the rectangles in the adjacent row.
    The result is a repeat of images, yet they do not look too regular
or four-square.

SAWDC2.txt

    Like "Sawdc1.gif", this image was made by creating a small, square
image and then repeating it over and over in staggered vertical rows.

    This basic pattern is modeled after the repetition-method favored
by the printed fabric industry, but there, rectangles with unequal sides
are used to avoid too much feeling of regularity or four-square repetive-
ness.

SAWDC3.txt

    This is one of a large family of spirally-scanned images, made by
creating concentric bands of related imagery.
    Each pair of adjacent bands features a different number of colors.
Typically there are many colors in the center of the image and along the
left and right edges, but in between the colors-per-band at first become
fewer and then grow larger again.


SAWDC4.GIF

    This image features an array of rectangles that present some ele-
ments of a related family of pictures, but not quite in the right order.

    It is perhaps just barely possible to look at this image and see
what is going on.

    But when the math operates, it is very different - it just comes
out this way!



SAWDC5.txt

    This is another spiral image, with the precise textures created by
playing with the sum and the difference between horizontal and vertical
values.

    Using sum and difference as the variables in the color equation
tends to produce textures that run vertically and horizontally, rather
than diagonally.

    So because horizontal and vertical imagery seems more natural than
diagonal imagery, this method of sum and difference is used a lot.


SAWDC6.txt

    Like "Sawdc5.gif", this image uses a spiral scan and also sums and
differences.

    But the rather hyperbolic patterns of concentric colored lines in
this image are created by multiplying the numbers together, rather than by
adding or subtracting or anding or xoring, etc.


SAWDC7.txt

    This image might be called "A Tangle of glowing guywires at night"

    Sometimes it doesn't pay to think too much about what you're doing
or what you've done.

    What I recall about this image was that the math was all screwed
up!

    I was straining to create a much more orderly, sedate image; but
something or other got fouled up and this tangle was the result.

    Before I chucked it, I saved it for future moments when I felt like
reproducing a tangled mess.


SAWDC8.txt

    This feathery, soft, diamondine pattern was created spirally.


SAWDC9.txt

    This pattern is created by using H. S. M. Coxeter's "Frieze Pattern
of Integers."

    The symmetry pattern shown here is like that of a pair of feet as
they leave footprints in the sand.



SAWDC11.txt

    This pattern was created using generalized bananced ternary math,
and the indexing of the plane by hexagons.

    Each individual hexagon has its own index, consisting of the di-
gits "0" through "6" in words of length, say, five to eight.

    Colors are chosen by classifying each word according to its pat-
tern of identical and different digits.

    The little arabesques were added after the fact.


SAWDC12.txt

    This picture is created by indexing the plane hierarchically, and
then analyzing each index according to the pattern of different and iden-
tical digits.

    Thus it is related to the GBT patterns of hexagonal patterns, as
in "Sawdc11.gif"

TEMPLE.txt

    This image is like Mosaic.gif, a member of the rugs and plaids
family of images created by dividing 625 pixels horizontally into 4
nested loops of five members each; and 343 pixels vertically into 3
nested loops of seven members each.

    Five to the fourth  by  seven cubed.


TORNADO.txt

    Another favorite family of images, this basic design with horizon-
tal lines dominating the image and a sort of an x-motif tornadoing its way
through the middle has many variants.

    Again, precise details of the math have faded into the darkness of
forgetfulness.


WOOLLY.txt

    This image is very like Concentr.gif, with its textures "woollied-
up."
    It was created by spiral scan, and there was some method used to
fluff up the imagery and texture, mathematically.
    When something goes wrong and the picture is a lot woollier or
fluffier than I want, then of course I have to try to fix it.  But also, I
am apt to remember what made it woolly in the first place, and use that
again someday.