Leonardo Solaas: Dreamlines

Leonardo Solaas: Dreamlines

Argentinian generative artist Leonardo Solaas has created a dreamy, painterly work in his Dreamlines. The user inputs one or more keywords as input, which set the piece off on a a Google image search. The resulting sequence of images are then used as the basis for an animated drawing, morphing and changing over time.

The drawing process itself is done by a swarm of particles, who navigate the image as though it were a virtual terrain. Formulas translate pixel values into instructions for particle movement, making them relatives of finite state machines. The results are surprisingly subtle, the quality of the stroke ranging from hairy to spiky, curvy etc.

The interim state when one image is replaced by another is the most interesting, as one image is erased and one can clearly see the lines drawn by the particles. Obviously, depending on the search the resulting drawing can be recognizable as a filtered image or not at all. One tip is to input your own name or a well-known brand name. The right-hand image shown above is a re-drawing of an image used for an interview on Artificial.dk. Since the original contains limited colors and sharply defined shapes, much of the form and color is retained.

Quote from the artist:

Dreamlines was shown at Transmediale.06 and recently won the IBM New Media Art award at the 19th Stuttgarter Filmwinter.