The Art of Nathan Selikoff » Faces of Chaos

Untiled Faces

nathan — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:21:41 +0000

Untiled Faces is an interactive sculpture that mixes a chaotic dynamical system with its “meta” representation, allowing the viewer to explore the somewhat unpredictable four-dimensional parameter space by moving a series of levers.

Untiled Faces by Nathan Selikoff. 13 1/2" x 15 3/4" x 20". Interactive Sculpture. 2011.

Untiled Faces (detail)

This work builds off both my Aesthetic Explorations and my Faces of Chaos series. With the former, I am exploring individual strange attractors—each image encodes four specific parameters. With the latter, I am exploring the space of all possibilities, and each image encodes a range of parameters in a “meta” view of the system.

Untiled Faces (detail)

Untiled Faces

The left-most pane of Untiled Faces shows a small representation of another artwork, Tiled Faces, with a small red square over one image of this 32×32 grid. As the left lever is moved, the red square moves, updating the x and y position, and simultaneously updating both the center and right-most panes.

The right pane shows the image from the left pane, zoomed in. The right-most lever moves a small red target within this image, updating another x and y position, and simultaneously updating the center pane.

Untiled Faces (detail)

The center pane shows a chaotic attractor, whose four coefficients are taken from the positions of the left and right levers. The center lever adjusts the virtual camera that is viewing this strange attractor.

Thus, all three images are linked, and in a somewhat mysterious way, show the relationship between a strange attractor and its Lyapunov exponent.

Untiled Faces at Process & Influence

Video

Component List

This artwork was prototyped in Processing, with the final version produced in openFrameworks running on Ubuntu.

Physical components:

Repurposed and partially dissected Dell Precision M50 laptop, circa 2003
Arduino Uno SMD version from Adafruit
3 RJ45 8-pin connectors and breakout boards from Sparkfun
3 arcade joysticks from Sparkfun
Ethernet patch cable and plugs
3/4″ hardwood plywood
1/4″ luan plywood
Screws, washers, and angle brackets
Case fan soldered to USB cable
Panel mount AC receptacle soldered to laptop power supply

Audio:

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=101268 (click)
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=38484 (static)
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=3638 (bleeps)
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=34141 (atmosphere)

Process Photos

Thanks to Mark Stock for some extra brain power and soldering help towards the end of this project!

Box Kites

nathan — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:22:30 +0000

Owl King and Chinese Warrior got a dip in water, tea, and coffee, were hung out to dry, and eventually became two box kites.

Owl King and Chinese Warrior Box Kites by Nathan Selikoff. 33" x 11" x 11". Japanese Rice Paper and Balsa. 2011.

Chinese Warrior Box Kite

Chinese Warrior Box Kite at Process and Influence

Here are some process images:

Faces of Chaos Category Description

nathan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:05:39 +0000

After working with the equations in my Strange Attractors series for a few years, I began to wonder if there was a way to capture the nature of the system, visually. In other words, what is going on here at a higher dimension, at the “meta” level? These questions birthed the Faces of Chaos series, which visualize the system using a unique mapping of the Lyapunov exponent to the image plane. At a more subconscious level, the images and titles I chose from the myriad of possibilities evoke an almost mythological aura, with archetypes such as “king” and “warrior” emerging from the chaos.

Owl King

nathan — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:59:53 +0000

Owl King by Nathan Selikoff. 2007. Dimensions variable. Open edition print.

What do you see? An owl, spider, space ship… something else? There is an incredible partnership between solid form and fine filigree-like structure in this artwork.

Owl King (detail) by Nathan Selikoff.

Mathematical Background

This artwork is a two-dimensional plot of the Lyapunov exponent of a chaotic dynamical system. The Lyapunov exponent is a measure of how chaotic the system is, and in this case, the system is a strange attractor with a four-dimensional phase space. Two of the dimensions are static, and the other two vary in the x and y directions of the image. A custom program renders four 16-bit grayscale images, which represent the different “components” of the spectrum of Lyapunov exponents. These images are combined in Photoshop using a pseudo-color technique to bring out subtle coloration in the final artwork.

Death Mask 1 & 2

nathan — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:58:03 +0000

Two artworks created from thousands of individual “faces” during my exploration of Lyapunov space. With gaping, leering mouths and fractured skull-like forms, these images evoke tribal customs surrounding death or spiritual forces.

Death Mask 1 by Nathan Selikoff. 2007. Dimensions variable. Open edition print.

Death Mask 2 by Nathan Selikoff. 2007. Dimensions variable. Open edition print.

The latest incarnation of these death masks finds them inserted, mirror-like, into oval Baroque-style frames:

Death Masks in Ikea Frames Previsualization

And here’s what they looked like in my solo exhibition, Process & Influence:

Death Mask 1 and 2, Untiled Faces at Process & Influence

Death Mask 1, Framed (closeup)