Workshop Schedule

Saturday
9:00 - 10:00
10:00 - 12:00
12:00 - 1:30
1:30 - 2:30
2:30 - 5:00

Monday
1:00 - 2:00

Wednesday
5:30 - 7:00

Workshop Introduction
Pattern Experiments in Groups
Break
Check In: Patterns & Pseudoscripts
Synchronous Collaborative Session


Closing Conversation with Guests


Outpost Office Public Lecture

Framing & Process

Drawing Afield is a one-day workshop exploring real-time networked creativity. Participants will work collaboratively to produce rich and complex digital drawings through generative, procedural, and deductive processes. The workshop will focus on techniques of algorithmic creativity and explore their continued influence on architecture and the arts.

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Part One - Pattern Experiments

Working in teams of two or three, you will translate an existing precedent pattern into a spreadsheet format. You should use the template spreadsheet provided, sized 100 X 100 square cells. Using techniques demonstrated, prepare a rasterized version of your precedent image. While you should be interested in replicating some pictorial effects, the composition will inevitably change in translation. Consider carefully elements of color, scale, and proportion. Pay particular attention to the embedded relationships in the original image. Close scrutiny of the patterns should reveal the logic or system behind the composition. Consider how the image might be created procedurally, with one discrete step following another. As you work, familiarize yourselves with methods of image manipulation that are expedient and precise in Google Sheets. You can test techniques in the workshop sandbox.

In Google Sheets, if you select an area of a composition and then drag the small box in lower right, you can stretch the pattern and repeat it in the horizontal or vertical directions. You can stretch a single pixel or large regions. Another interesting manipulation is cutting and dragging. Begin by selecting an area, then grab the dashed border with the hand symbol. You should be able to easily move the selected area and drag it to a new location. Finally, copy and "paste special" will allow you to transpose (swap columns and rows) to "rotate" areas of the image.


Part Two - Collaborative Session

Working in your same teams, you will work to manipulate the other five compositions produced by your colleagues. The process will follow the schedule below, with each team proceeding through compositions in alphabetical order. Each team will have 30 minutes to open, manipulate and save a version of the composition. All your manipulations to the compositions should be consistent and based on a set of predetermined rules. The trick is to develop a ruleset that is consistent, but produces different effects based on the initial drawing.

You should develop a "pseudoscript" or a set of written rules that explain in natural language the rules and steps of your process.

For example:

1. Open a composition
2. Select 25% of the rows using random numbers.
3. Shift all selected rows 12 columns over
4. Save the composition

The rules are at your discretion. Forms of manipulation include redaction of areas, inversion of colors, shifting rows or columns, stretching patterns, transposing areas, etc. The level of manipulation is completely at your discretion, but the process must be able to be complete in 30 minutes or less. Since you have two or more members of your team, you might even think about performing processes back-to-back. Whatever you decide for the process, keep in mind that each composition will be transformed five different times. You should select a process that alters a given image, but allows traces of previous work to appear.  

When you have completed your work, navigate to File>Version History and give the version a unique name using your group name.

Some helpful links: https://www.random.org and https://onlinemathtools.com/

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Composition Assignments

Group A - Kawano
Group B - Molnar
Group C - Kovacs
Group D - Halley
Group E - Winiarski
Group F - Franke

Composition Links

Composition A
Composition B
Composition C
Composition D
Composition E
Composition F

Each team should add their Psuedo-script to the shared document here.

Team A
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

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Composition B
Composition C
Composition D
Composition E
Composition F

Team B
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

-
Composition C
Composition D
Composition E
Composition F
Composition A

Team C
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

-
Composition D
Composition E
Composition F
Composition A
Composition B

Team D
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

-
Composition E
Composition F
Composition A
Composition B
Composition C

Team E
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

-
Composition F
Composition A
Composition B
Composition C
Composition D

Team F
2:30 - 3:00
3:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:00

-
Composition A
Composition B
Composition C
Composition D
Composition E

Drawing Afield Intro

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