Grass

This series from 2014 was constructed in Context Free Design Grammar. This is a programming language that utilizes short fragments of code to build simple graphics programs with pre-constructed algorithms. This particular program generates grass, weed or tree like forms. It utilizes a sequence of algorithms that mimic natural growth and branching in vegetation.

This application "draws" limbs and branches that are built from many squares stacked on each other. The result is a vector image that keeps a record of the number of black squares used to build the form. In this particular case over four hundred million.

I remain interested in the ways digital art can mimic traditional technique. The ways in which mathematical models reflect natural growth patterns as they do, for instance, in the Fibonacci sequence and in fractals. Here branching randomizations and extreme density of shapes exhibit patterns similar to grass forms drawn with graphite. However, the basic shape is just a black square — the simplest of images.

Gerald Cannon