IFS-drawings

software, 100 70 x 100 cm sized digital inkjet prints
2001, Budapest

About IFS

How IFS-drawings were made?

How IFS-drawings was made?

The drawings was made by an algorithm. This algorithm is not complex (depends on viewpoint), and not my invention. The description of the algorithm is available in publications.

Here is enough to know, the algorithm makes the IFS-drawings by a code. The code is a couple of numbers, not few, but not very much. (The codes of the 100 drawings is about 50 kB, this data can play table-tennis even in a usual floppy disk.) The numbers determine the drawings. A code produces always the same drawing.

Mathematically proven, that every image has its own code. (This method used as image compressor). Theoretically the software can render any image. So long an algorithm was discussed. The first step of the incarnation of an algorithm usually is a software. The relationship between algorithm and software is like lightning and an electric razor. Software still is an abstract thing, makes invisible changes inside of a box. These quantum-level changes already can be displayed on a screen. In fact a file is the electronic original of the drawing. The last step of the incarnation is a huge ink-jet printer producing a graphic sheet.

How IFS-code was made?

The point is, how to get the right code. A code determines a drawing, but the elements of the code (the numbers) are not equivalent with the elements or properties of the drawings. There is no way to change a part of a drawing, or a specific property. Some times a serious change in the code leaves the drawing the same, and sometimes a single digit dramatically changes the drawing.

The simplest is the random method. The code is composed from random-numbers. The method's advantage: it is very simple, the disadvantage, the drawings can not be changed anyway. If the drawings are only random, the whole thing could not go further than a screen saver. The hand-written code produces the same result.

I looked for a simple and visual way. As most of the computer-users I did not want to know anything about numbers, but like to see what I am doing. I founded a simple genetic algorithm. Its description is complex, but anybody can understand seeing it working. I call the algorithm 'genetic' (it has no common with neural networks), because it based on two entity, 'Parent' and 'Child'. First I produce a random IFS-code. This is the code of the 'parent-image'. The parent produces 12 'child-images' slightly modifying its own code. (The value of modification (deviation) can be regulated by a scrollbar in the software.) In the window of the software the 'child-images' are around of the 'parent-image'.

By a single mouse-click one of the 'child' can be selected (which is nearest to the target). The selected image becomes the 'parent' of the next generation. I used this method to make the codes of the 100 drawings.

This method against its simplicity was very useful, but it is just the beginning. The evolutive code-generation has really exciting possibilities.

Art-theory

There are many (art)theoretical question about the IFS-drawings. For instance, 'Really am I the creator of them', or 'Are they artworks anyway', or 'How many angel can be hold on a pin-point?' As far as I am concerned. Not long ago, somebody wrote about me, what I make is empty niceness and elegancy, and what is more, it is not funny at all. The author just wanted to insult me, but accidentally she had right.

This way, we finished the hardest theoretical questions. The good choice to consider them as drawings.