Todd's Submission

Todd Hendricks History of Generative Art Assignment - Generative Concept

My Idea: "Eagle Builder"

So basicly my idea is a generative art thing that makes american flags but every time its a little different, like randomize but still look patriotic. I was thinking about this at work at Subway last night when i was closing and it hit me, like why dont more generative art just be normal stuff like flags and eagles insted of all them weird random dot pictures we looked at in class. Those confuse me honestly.

Here how the algorithm would go, basicly steps:

• Start with a canvas thats red white and blue, like a flag shape
• Use a random number generator (like the dice rolling stuff Tristan Tzara did, we learned that) to pick how many stars go on it, somewhere between 13 and 100
• Each star gets placed using some kind of noise function so they dont look too perfect, little bit of jitter so it looks hand stitched like real flags
• Add a variable for "eagle size" that scales up or down randomly every time you run it, sometimes eagle is huge sometimes small
• Recursion part: the stripes are made by a function that calls itself to keep drawing more stripes until it hits the edge of canvas, like how fractals keep repeating
• At the end add some bald eagles (clip art probly, i cant draw) placed using a random distribution so sometimes 1 eagle sometimes 5 eagles
• Program spits out a unique flag/eagle pic every single time you run it, no two the same, kind of like how them old computer artists did with punch cards and stuff except mine is actually gonna look cool and mean something instead of just lines

I think this is cool becasue it uses randomness and recursion like we learned about in class with that Vera Molnar lady and the Sol Lewitt guy with his instructions, but instead of abstract squares it makes something real people would actually want like a flag. Most generative art we looked at is kinda pointless if im honest, like why make random dots when you could make something with actual meaning behind it.

I didnt have time to actually code this up cause work schedule been crazy this week but if i did it would probly be in some simple program, maybe Scratch or something cause I dont really do the coding stuff good. Im more of a hands on guy, i learn better building stuff with my hands not staring at code all day.

Anyway thats my concept, Eagle Builder generative flag maker.

Professor Sylvia 's Feedback

Mr. Hendricks,

Your submission demonstrates, at minimum, a functional grasp of the terminological apparatus — randomness, noise, recursion, distribution — even where the conceptual apparatus beneath it remains undertheorized. You cite Tzara, Molnar, and LeWitt correctly, which places you ahead of the median. Hmmm.

I must note, however, the curious ideological slippage in your framing. You dismiss the "abstract squares" and "random dots" of your assigned readings as "pointless," proposing instead an algorithmically-generated procession of flags and eagles as something with "actual meaning." One might ask: meaning for whom? The flag is not a neutral signifier awaiting randomization — it is already saturated, already a site of contested nationalist iconography, and your algorithm, however jittered its stars, simply reproduces the symbol's authority rather than interrogating it. LeWitt's instructions were never "just lines." They were a refusal of authorial ego and market commodification — precisely the gesture your "Eagle Builder" reverses by producing an infinitely marketable, endlessly reproducible simulacrum of patriotism. Late-stage capitalism will thank you for the merchandising opportunity.

The algorithm itself is coherent in its logic, if modest in ambition. The recursive stripe function is the only element showing genuine procedural thought; the rest reads as decoration layered atop a predetermined ideological object.

The anecdote regarding Subway is not required coursework, though I confess a certain deadpan amusement at its inclusion.

No code was submitted, as none was written. I will not penalize absence twice, but I expect execution — in Scratch or otherwise — at the next submission.

Q.E.D.

P.S. Revolutionary form requires revolutionary content. Reconsider the eagle.

Todd's Email

Subject: About the feedback on Eagle Builder

Professor Sylvia,

Thanks for looking at my concept, I appreciate the detailed notes even tho some of it went over my head ngl. I read it like three times at work during my break.

I guess I dont really get what you mean about the flag not being neutral, like its just a flag, I wasnt trying to make some big statement I just thought it would look cool and be something people actually like instead of dots and squares. Didnt mean for it to be a whole political thing honestly, just wanted a cool project.

Also you said you expect execution next time in Scratch or something, I just want to make sure I understand, are we actually required to code it or is the written outline enough cause I really dont do good with computer stuff. I work better like building something with my hands, is there any way to do like a physical version instead, like actually cutting out stars and stripes to show the randomness? Might make more sense to me that way.

Let me know, trying to stay on top of this one since work schedule is nuts this week.

Thanks, Todd Hendricks

Professor Sylvia 's Reply

Subject: Re: About the feedback on Eagle Builder

Mr. Hendricks,

I will address your concerns in the order presented, as is my custom, and because sequence is the last vestige of control I retain over this correspondence.

On the matter of the flag's neutrality: the claim that "it's just a flag" is precisely the ideological operation I flagged (forgive me) in my notes. There is no such thing as "just a flag." A flag is a signifier par excellence — a condensation of nationalist affect, historical violence, and collective fantasy into a rectangle of cloth. That you selected it because it "would look cool" rather than to "make a statement" is not a defense; it is the symptom. Late-stage capitalism does not require you to intend ideology. It only requires you to find its symbols aesthetically pleasing and reproduce them uncritically. Hmmm. Q.E.D.

On execution: yes, you are required to produce a working generative system. The course is titled History of Generative Art, not History of Describing Generative Art to Someone Who Will Later Build It. A written outline is a hypothesis. A program is an experiment. I am, somewhat mercilessly, only interested in results.

That said — and here I will indulge your materialist instincts, which I do not entirely discourage, having once preferred a soldering iron to a seminar room myself — a physical, hand-executed version is acceptable, provided it demonstrates an actual generative process: a documented system of rules, a visible mechanism of chance or iteration, not simply forty-eight stars cut out by hand according to your own aesthetic whims. If randomness is your subject, show me the dice, the algorithm, the constraint. Otherwise you have made a craft project, not a generative one, and I will grade it accordingly.

Bring both the object and its underlying rule-set to our next meeting. I am not unsympathetic to your schedule, Mr. Hendricks, merely indifferent to its effect on deadlines.

Regards, Prof. Sylvia

P.S. "Didn't mean for it to be political" is, historically, the preface to every political image that mattered. P.P.S. Simulacra do not ask permission to signify.

Todd's Submission

Todd Hendricks History of Generative Art Assignment - Main Project

Ok so I actually did the code this time, took me forever cause I never really coded before and I had a closing shift like 4 times this week so I was doing this at like 1am after work. My buddy Dustin helped me a little with the javascript part cause he does computer stuff for his job, but the ideas all mine.

I kept the Eagle Builder idea pretty much the same even tho my professor said to "reconsider the eagle" lol. No offense but I dont really get why the flag thing is some big political statement, its just a flag, everybody likes flags, my grandpa flew one every day of his life and he wasnt "reproducing ideological authority" he was just proud of his country. I think sometimes people way overthink art. Anyway I didnt change the concept much becasue 1 I ran out of time and 2 I still think its a good idea.

What the program does:

• Makes a canvas that draws a flag shape, red white and blue stripes
• Stripes are drawn with a function that calls itself over and over till it fills up the canvas, thats the recursion part my professor said was the only good part lol so I made sure that still works
• Random number of stars between 13 and 100, computer picks different every time
• Each star gets a little random jitter so they aint perfectly lined up, looks more hand made
• Eagle size is random too, sometimes big sometimes small, I just drew the eagle out of basic shapes since I cant draw good and didnt know how to load a clip art picture in there, Dustin said that was more complicated then I had time for
• Button on the page that says "Generate" so you can click it and get a new random flag every time, that way its interactive for the audience like the assignment wanted

I added a button becasue the instructions said think about what input the user gets, so I figured a button where people can just keep clicking it till they get an eagle and star combo they like is pretty hands on, thats how I learn best anyway is clicking stuff and seeing what happens not reading a bunch of theory about it.

Here is the file, it all works in one html page like we were told, just open it in a browser and click the button.

So basicly thats it. Every time you hit generate the stripes build themself with the recursion function, then it throws stars on there with some jitter so they not perfect, then it adds anywhere from 1 to 5 eagles that are made outta basic shapes since I cant draw, and they come out different size everytime. I wanted to use a actual picture of a eagle but Dustin said getting a image file to load right woulda took more time then I had, and like I said work been crazy this week, I closed Tuesday Wensday and Friday so I really only had like one night to actually sit down and do this.

I know its not the most "revolutionary" art or whatever but I think its cool you can just keep clicking and get a brand new flag every time, kinda like opening a pack of cards, you dont know what your gonna get. Thats the generative part I guess. Anyways thats my project, hope the code runs ok I tested it like 10 times on my laptop and it worked everytime.

Professor Sylvia 's Feedback

Mr. Hendricks,

The code executes. I confirm this not as praise but as a baseline, the way one confirms a pulse. You have produced a functioning artifact, which places you technically in compliance with the assignment brief, and I will not pretend otherwise.

Let us address the recursion first, since it is the one element of this submission possessing actual procedural integrity. The stripe-drawing function is a clean, self-terminating act of generative logic — a small, correct machine. It does not know what it is building. This is, incidentally, the most honest moment in your entire project, since the function's innocence stands in stark contrast to everything it is subsequently conscripted to decorate.

Regarding the eagle: I asked you to reconsider it. You have, instead, multiplied it — between one and five times per click, each instance rendered in "basic shapes," which is a generous description of what is, structurally speaking, a brown ellipse with grievances. I want to be precise about what has happened here. You were offered an opportunity to interrogate a saturated nationalist signifier and you responded by making the signifier randomized, repeatable, and collectible — "like opening a pack of cards," as you yourself note, apparently without irony. This is not a rebuttal of my earlier critique. It is a confirmation of it. You have built, quite literally, a slot machine for patriotism. Late-stage capitalism does not simply thank you this time; it offers you a merchandising contract.

Your defense of the flag — that it is "just a flag," that your grandfather flew one "and wasnt reproducing ideological authority, he was just proud" — is a charming anecdote and a textbook instance of naturalized ideology mistaking itself for the absence of ideology. No symbol saturated with a century of state power, militarism, and manufactured consent is ever "just" anything. That you experience it as neutral is precisely the mechanism by which hegemony functions. I do not say this to wound you. I say it because you are, apparently, the only person in this classroom who still believes the flag is pre-political, and a classroom is where such beliefs are meant to be disturbed.

Technically: the jitter on the stars is a reasonable gesture toward handmade imperfection, though it imports a false warmth — "looks more hand made," in your words — into an object whose entire purpose is to feel inevitable and mass-produced. The tension between those two impulses is, unintentionally, the most interesting thing you have made, and you have not noticed it.

The interactivity — a button one clicks "till you get an eagle and star combo they like" — satisfies the letter of the input-control requirement while evacuating it of consequence. The user is given choice over nothing except aesthetic arrangement of a fixed ideological object. This is not participation. It is selection from a vending machine.

Hmmm.

I will grade what was submitted, not what was refused. The recursion function earns you a passing mark on procedural grounds alone. The conceptual content remains precisely where it was at the proposal stage, merely rendered now in pixels rather than prose, which is not growth so much as translation.

Q.E.D.

P.S. Your grandfather's sincerity is not in question. The ideological function of the symbol he loved is not, however, contingent on his sincerity, nor on yours.

P.P.S. Dustin's assistance with the JavaScript is noted and not penalized. His restraint in talking you out of importing clip art was, on balance, the most curatorially sound decision made in this entire project.