ent
The work created in this series is generative. It has been produced by a computer application following specific rules. These simple rules can form complex patterns and often produce unpredicted results. Sometimes beautiful and poignant connections are revealed from random interactions.
Each entity in this series attempts to understand meaning in an image it can only "see" through a translation process. This is analogous of an idea or concept mistranslating from one culture to another; perhaps well intended but the translation may produce unexpected results.
There were several related ideas about translation that launched this series. What are the varying definitions of a word, and how does that affect what is done in their "name"? How does an idea in one medium translate into another? What happens to meaning in translation? How can these ideas be expressed through computational cultural agents?
Technical details: The ent applications were written in C# and compiled on a machine running Microsoft Windows XP. They are all command line applications.
entInt.5t
"When your mind becomes obsessed with anything, it will filter everything else out and find examples of that thing everywhere." -Sol, (Pi by Darren Aranofsky)When entInt.5t finds "meaning" in an image it holds onto it and adds that to the next image it sees. Meaning "travels" from one image to the next; memory of previous meaningful encounters clouds future experiences.
entInt.3 and entInt.4
These search for a broader sense of meaning than the previous versions. If the search is successful, the applications consider the image to have meaning and will produce a generative work titled after what it thinks the source image is primarily about (entInt.3 produces images, and entInt.4 produces music using a four string quartet midi sequenced).
Prints from entInt.3 were in COMA 16: Roam (Chicago, opened January 12th, 2008) and in Gallery Art Portfolios at The Project Room, Koscielak Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (Chicago, opened April 4th, 2008) and the application entInt.3 and a photograph were in COMA 12 (Chicago, opened June 16th, 2007).
entDFP, entInt.1, and entInt.2
These three in the series look only for what they think of as consent. They search the translation for the word "yes". If the search is successful, the application considers the image to contain consent. If consent is found, a generative work is produced. The greater the amount of consent the application believes the image to hold, the greater the liberty it will take in creating the new work.
entInt.2
March 2007Set of sixteen photographs of random strangers taken discreetly from a camera phone. All sixteen images held "consent".
entInt.1
February 2007Two portraits of someone I am intimately involved with. Out of the 20 photographs provided for entInt.1 to translate, only two held "consent".
These two prints are each 44" x 33", and were shown as part of Crossmediale 2 at Gosia Koscielak Studio & Gallery. They were also shown in the Interactive Arts and Media Faculty Exhibit (February 2007) at Columbia College Chicago.
entDFP
March 2004The first entity in the series searched through my photography archive and created derivative works when it found "consent". The original photograph is shown underneath the resulting work.
Janell Baxter
Janell Baxter has been working with interactive art since 1993, and has been focusing recently on emergent and adaptive systems. Her current work explores meaning in translation and authorship. She recently created a series of small bots (computer applications) that analyze visuals in search of meaning, and create work in response to what they find.
Ms. Baxter has been teaching interactive media at Columbia College Chicago since 1998. She has a MS degree in computer science from the University of Chicago, and a BFA in studio arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. More information about her and her work can be found on her website: janellbaxter.com.