page_title: Algorithmic art
section_title: Types
hierarchical_section_title: Algorithmic art / Algorists / Types
caption_attribution_description: English: Morphogenic digital art solo exhibition by Andy Lomas at Watermans Arts Centre, west London, England, 2016.
context_page_description: Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called algorists.
context_section_description: Cellular automata can be used to generate artistic patterns with an appearance of randomness, or to modify images such as photographs by applying a transformation such as the stepping stone rule (to give an impressionist style) repeatedly until the desired artistic effect is achieved. Their use has also been explored in music.
  Fractal art consists of varieties of computer-generated fractals with colouring chosen to give an attractive effect. Especially in the western world, it is not drawn or painted by hand. It is usually created indirectly with the assistance of fractal-generating software, iterating through three phases: setting parameters of appropriate fractal software; executing the possibly lengthy calculation; and evaluating the product. In some cases, other graphics programs are used to further modify the images produced. This is called post-processing. Non-fractal imagery may also be integrated into the artwork.
  Genetic or evolutionary art makes use of genetic algorithms to develop images iteratively, selecting at each "generation" according to a rule defined by the artist.
  Algorithmic art is not only produced by computers. Wendy Chun explains:
  Software is unique in its status as metaphor for metaphor itself. As A universal imitator/machine, it encapsulates a logic of general substitutability ; a logic of ordering and creative, animating disordering. Joseph Weizenbaum has argued that computers have become metaphors for "effective procedures," that is, for anything that can be solved in a prescribed number of steps, such as gene expression and clerical work.
  The American artist, Jack Ox, has used algorithms to produce paintings that are visualizations of music without using a computer. Two examples are visual performances of extant scores, such as Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony and Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. Later, she and her collaborator, Dave Britton, created the 21st Century Virtual Color Organ that does use computer coding and algorithms.
  Since 1996 there have been ambigram generators that auto generate ambigrams
caption: Morphogenetic Creations, a computer-generated digital art exhibition using programmed algorithms by Andy Lomas, at the Watermans Arts Centre, west London, 2016
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