Infinite Sunset is a generative work depicting the sun forever perched upon the horizon of a calmly shimmering seascape.
Full Description
A simple code base written in Processing for desktop to be displayed as a large projection exists also simultaneously as a website rendered with processing.js.
The piece retrieves images found by searching for the term "sunset" using the Google Search API. It then simply reduces them to a 1x16 pixel image which is then converted into an array of colors. Color palletes are randomly chosen from this pool. Reductionist geometry, many randomly adjusted straight lines and two ellipses, are colored using this palette information and given transparency to elicit the effect.
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2014
- Submitted to ArtBase: Friday Jun 6th, 2014
- Original Url: http://infinite-sunset.com/
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Work Credits:
- Joseph Gray, Artist
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Artist Statement
Infinite Sunset is a continuation of the piece Sunset, created after visiting Kauai and staring West into the Pacific quite a bit during sundown. It intentionally uses simple graphical elements to visually describe a sunset seascape ever changing in its sameness. The piece is meant to be viewed with various devices/contexts and is therefore a "responsive" composition. Aesthetically the piece pursues the reductionist purity of certain mid-century modernist perspectives but using the contemporary, generative, medium of code.
The work is meant to be viewed as a sort of digital replacement for the introspective act of watching the sun set, but allowing the perfect moment when the sun touches the horizon to be captured as long as the viewer holds their gaze. Because it's format is agnostic (other than requiring a screen) this simulacra can be made portable and reproduced repeatedly by the viewer who also becomes their own curator. Ideally the piece is meant to run continuously, projected at a large scale for long periods of time, in the palm of your hand on a mobile device or at work on the desktop when you're bored and/or stressed out.
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