I will be presenting a few of my recent Genetic Algorithm and Data Viz projects at CreateInTo in Toronto on October 30th. Location and ticket info can be found on the CreateInTo page here. The projects I’ll be talking about run the gamut from Genetic Algorithms, Data Visualization and Physical Installations. The connective thread between … Continue reading Presenting Genetic Algorithms, Data Viz and Physical Installations at CreateInTo on October 30
Visualizing $23 Billion in UN Agency Funding
Screencaps of a Work in Progress How much does the UN spend each year? Where does that money go? Who's spending it? Is it concentrated in a few countries or evenly spread around the world?? To answer some of these questions for myself, I started where I always start. With the data!! A quick search … Continue reading Visualizing $23 Billion in UN Agency Funding
Visualizing a Genetic Algorithm Attempting to Solve the Travelling Salesperson Problem
The Travelling Salesperson Problem is a famous problem in computer science. The gist of it is as follows: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city and returns to the origin city?" It is an NP-hard problem in combinatorial optimization, … Continue reading Visualizing a Genetic Algorithm Attempting to Solve the Travelling Salesperson Problem
The Limits of Small Multiples
What are the limits of small multiples? At what point do the charts lose their individual meaning and blend back into a single, collective image/pattern? This is a quick experiment using bar graphs with random values to test the visual limits of small multiples.
Prototyping in Processing to test an idea…
I'm working on an(other) idea inspired by a Sol LeWitt wall drawing. And, my favourite tool for this type of work is do the prototyping in Processing. This one is inspired by "Ifs Ands or Buts", 1973. LeWitt's drawing uses the simple instruction of "All ifs ands or buts connected by green lines". "Ifs Ands … Continue reading Prototyping in Processing to test an idea…
Recreating Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 146A in code
I put together some code and work-in-progress photos to document a project I finished a year ago. The project was to implement Sol LeWitt’s rules for his Wall Drawing 146A and draw it on a wall in my home office. The instructions are seemingly very simple. "All two-part combinations of blue arcs from corners and … Continue reading Recreating Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawing 146A in code
Processing Circles
Sometimes, five minutes is all you need to make something interesting. Output from Processing sketch. Evolving image from random placement of ellipses on a grid. Random shade of grey. The guts of how each circle is placed: PVector c = new PVector(); int rx = ceil(random(47)); int ry = ceil(random(47)); c.x = map(rx,1,47,0, width); c.y … Continue reading Processing Circles
“It had to be you…” Busking on Queen St W., Toronto
I don’t know who this person is but it is a real treat to hear his music wafting across Queen St traffic. This is a quick recording of him playing “It Had To Be You” on the guitar. https://soundcloud.com/sspboyd/it-had-to-be-you-busking-on-queen-st-in-toronto
Thank you Sea-Horse logo
There are some logos that resonate long after their companies have gone out of business. I saw one of those logos today in Dorset, Ontario on my drive home from the cottage. The Sea-Horse boat motor logo. Here’s a Google street view capture of it and a few other images of the logo in use. … Continue reading Thank you Sea-Horse logo
Learning Processing – Simple Text Parsing, Cleaning and Saving
This past Saturday, I spent the day teaching about 60 women the basics of programming using the Processing language. It was a lot of fun and a bit nerve wracking since it was my first time. Since that class I’ve been thinking that I could create a few code examples using Processing for some straightforward … Continue reading Learning Processing – Simple Text Parsing, Cleaning and Saving