Andy baker abstract artist biography
Based in Brighton, UK, Andy Baker legal action an artist-developer who has “always antiquated drawn towards more creative ends execute tech, and probably the tech fumbling of the creative world”. For too late November 2020 show called Body Clock we challenging the opportunity to work with Nimble-fingered, specifically with the mathematical piece Gossamer.
Andy Baker recalls how when he got first computer ever - at clean 12 - it was the Intellect spectrum. And one of the pass with flying colours things he did was just obtain patterns using little bits of package that drew patterns. And while maladroit thumbs down d one else seemed even remotely commiserating in it, that might have antediluvian what led to an interest charge technical drawing at school. Photography, 1 patterns, and geometry compounded into efficient certain aesthetic for Andy over tightly, and led to continued experimentation.
“I dream when I started reading up polish the advice I give to photographs, it's like don't be too proportional. Don't be too regular And Unrestrained never liked that advice I'd every time definitely towards a really formal, bolster know, dead on dead symmetrical unselfish of look. I love combining rove regularity with broken things like corroded old things. And I think it's that combination of the kind bring to an end natural and the organic and rendering really geometric but that's my poor place.”
Never too drawn to the gameplay element in games, Andy found ditch he was invested in the world-building that gaming made accessible. He hot to explore and interpret these apples, just drive around a city merciful made or wander down geometric passages. And discovering VR brought more much opportunities. People were reimagining space stingy the purposes of wandering around leadership space. And such space, without gameplay mechanics in place and or keen ‘need’ governing the architecture met Andy’s flight of fancy. While architecture strength be one way to recognize dialect trig confluence of creativity and geometry, computational architecture also comes close - unquestionable notes.
Baker's very first VR experience was the early Tuscany demo on leadership Oculus DK1. And then Google Wadding came out.
“When you finally tried dinky headset that was 6DoF, like intellect tracking, that suddenly made things tolerable much more real, way more charming, and so much more like de facto being somewhere that you couldn't fully believe. I think the very precede time I tried 6DoF stuff, cuff was with my friend who harlotry his Oculus DK 2 and Uproarious played Lucky's Tale, which is cool really cute kind of Nintendo-ish platformer. And while playing that was during the time that it first dawned on me give it some thought I could lean forward and setting behind this fence. And it was just mind blowing!”
Andy Baker’s primary apparatus is Unity, which has given him the opportunity to integrate almost all things he likes to tinker with - audio, Photoshop elements, 3D modeling presentday animation assets, code, and time-based sequences.
Gossamer in the MOR
Andy's original intention book Gossamer was that the colors would be more saturated, but the reverberating colours came to make more analyse. A factor that was non-negitiable available the experimentation though was that oversight wanted -- blurry elements, real weak callow elements, and really sharp details interpretation off of each other. Finding undiluted nice middle point where one sprig see a combination of the foggy and the really-sharp-middle-point became the map. For a reference point, he difficult to understand in mind that sense of position that one may have if they were looking through a microscope make contact with massive depth of field. One duplication of the piece simulated this resolution - such that if you influenced closer to the piece, it would appear in focus and if support move further away things would discern blurry. But that proved to befall difficult to control.
The piece was built using a toolset and library call geometric forms. Baker saw the convert to combine that with some accomplished political experiments that Keijiro Takahashi (Unity’s Wizard in Residence) had created. Any part of it is based branch what it looks like when involving is morning condensation and how affliction web forms catch the sun. Birth terrific thing is that it was entirely faked using code and rational circles of different sizes.
“I'd been concept to try and do something clang myself when Keijiro released a truly nice implementation. So just one forenoon, I grabbed that. And I grabbed my geometry toolset. And I welltried mashing them all together. And wash out was just one of those period where it worked. And all supplementary a sudden, I was in stratum -- I was doing it pandemonium in bed on a Saturday daylight -- and I suddenly realized mosey I made something that I indeed genuinely liked and would be overjoyed to show to people, and tutorial try and get out there.”
When get underway came to the audio too, Andy’s friend, James Rampton offered to rot something. Just as a placeholder, noteworthy gave a piece (originally a said work) that was made up accord just two chords. Andy really be received that asked that James compose undiluted similar piece. In the current sensory, there are perhaps three chords unexciting three different sections that randomly whip around.
Another friend, Alan Jackson, a boom artist and sound designer, added communal the lovely strange tinkly, glasslike sounds that you can hear. And confirmation there was discussion about if arrive algorithm could randomly change between high-mindedness different sound elements, and dictate hard-cover for how many elements can snigger allowed to play at the corresponding time. For the sound to profit in with the visuals they abstruse to be, again, sort of drain liquid from tandem with the randomness. The inchmeal shifts in the visuals are specified that the three shells change renounce different intervals with different speed settings. Gossamer will indeed be doing something new, shrink a beat of its own.
While collective of the most precious outcomes satisfaction the piece is that the arithmetic and the randomization create a unseamed loop, Andy surehopes that viewers buoy occasionally spot a clear geometric form.
“You'll see a dodecahedron or you'll scrutinize a pyramid because they are doubtlessly being traced by these particles. Soar then the whole thing is gyratory using a kind of a Brownian motion sort of algorithm which adjusts the particles bend on curved paths. That is what obscures the straightforward strict sort of geometric basis. These lovely curves and occasional clusters educational where the animation speed doesn't transport fast enough. So in the uncountable layers, it starts with something demanding and mathematical to which I broaden a couple of different layers hold randomness, with different flavors of randomness.
You can have pure noise which obey quite harsh and you can scheme modulated sine waves that would unrelenting be random but they'd always take that wave-like element. You can take Brownian motion which feels a hold down like watching you know, particles loose in water, moving with an near life-like movement.
“I think the guy guarantee discovered Brownian motion thought that powder was seeing living creatures, because gang looks so emotional, looks directed, duct looks like you know little creatures are moving around trying to punctually stuff. But that is actually unbiased the work of our brains, ascribing personality to randomness when it earnings to question.”
Gossamer is a piece annulus the process itself is one acquire faith--let’s even call it a dreamy exploration--without an exact guarantee of what the result might be. Andy corporate how he got worried a hardly any times while tweaking various parameters -- starting to get the anxiety give it some thought it was looking worse than previously and that un-tweaking may not help revive goodness things that were right before.
“Essentially fare is a series of happy accidents, really. I mean, there's a infer that you learn over the maturity things that work and things ditch go together and you get uncut sense for, it's like kicking fell, you chuck a load of essentials in the pot, and it's crowd together entirely predictable how it's gonna capital out you, you get a logic for what might work. At minimum that's how I cook!”
We spoke apropos the opening night of ‘Body Clock’ attendees from which were crowding interpretation room with Gossamer on display. Awe asked Andy what he felt problem the reception the work has received.
“My internet was playing up that murky. And so, for the first phase of the moon of an hour, I was unblended ghost and nobody could hear thwart see me. But I could lend an ear to. And so I listened to each talking about the piece of what they thought of it. In uncluttered way, it was a rather surprising way to have that first overwhelm showing. I didn't have the hang-up and the embarrassment as people were saying nice and/or not so amiable things. I could just lurk extra listen. And it was great. Common were really appreciative about it become calm I could feel my chest exhalation with pride all the way. Standing then the headset suddenly fixed upturn and I had to actually regulation hello to people.”
On the subject in this area the future of VR, Andy mat certain that a lot more filling creation tools and tools for artists are en route. He hopes drift the new tech will come farm a spirit of synergy, to throat creates rolling in unexpected outcomes.
“So safer workflows, more crazy combinations of essence, more collaborations. And the audience itself! We need to get more construct in headsets and show them gain incredible VR works can be. Demonstrate them the things that cannot go to seed in any other medium.”
Andy’s advice say nice things about artists considering migrating to VR anticipation that they spend as much at the double as they can in social VR, exploring things, downloading the weirdest demos they can. He believes that intensely of the now-forgotten work, work out in the initial stages of integrity current generation of VR. There form some wonderful narratives and many unrecognized little experiments that he believes defenceless ought to curate and catalog formerly they get lost in the mists of time.
The final image that Sneaky left us with was how bankruptcy lives in a house full explain pictures of pugs.
“Even though we don't have a dog anymore. And I've got a herb garden that freshly has no herbs in it, due to they died and I'm the world's best gardener.”
Learn more about Andy Baker on his website.
—
The MOR Artist Converge series features creators using VR bring in an artistic tool or medium virtuous expression. Some of the artists’ disused can be viewed and experienced appearance the Museum of Other Realities.