**"Comprendre c'est transformer"** is the name of the [exhibition](https://www.oniris.art/exhibitions/51-vera-molnar-comprendre-c-est-transformer/) where Vera Molnar's work that I [re-coded](https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1857733) was featured. You can read all about that in a [previous article](blog/what-generative-art-means-to-me), but for now I want to linger on the exhibition's title for a bit. In case French isn't your strong point, it means "Understanding is transforming". Next to the work I selected itself, I was quite intrigued by this title as well. Just like her work, it is simple yet powerful. Food for thought... 

Thinking about how an understanding of something can indeed be transforming in many ways. New understandings about the world around us, give us new ways of moving through it. The way it's written up in French  also mildly implies causality. Understanding is needed in order to transform. But is that so? Maybe you can transform or change your world in such a way that you set yourself up for understanding it better later on? Or maybe they're two ends of the same stick and will inevitably create each other? What did it all really mean?

I had thought enough and had an idea. For a title, at least. **"Tranformer c'est comprendre"**. _"Brilliant"_, I said to myself, _"Now just the art and we're done"_. Great progress.

Jokes aside, naming the thing also gave me inspiration of what I wanted it to look like. To say a bit more about that, let me first pull up a screenshot of my re-coded version of the original real quick:

![comprendre c'est transformer re-coded](https://strapi.d17e.dev/uploads/2023_11_15_09_27_52_Comprendre_Cest_Transformer_0849_7b999c4039.png)

As you can see, there's three layers to the work. From let's say _busy_ at the bottom to _less busy_, almost serene at the top. Next to that, I also found the _grid_ like structure an important feature that I wanted to preserve somehow.

With those elements and a title turned up its head, I envisioned a set of lines neatly next to each other as if on a grid. Each of these lines would grow from the bottom to the top, transforming from _chaos_ into _harmony_. I tinkered around for a while and can here present you a still frame of the first iteration that gets us close to what I had in mind:

![2023-11-17_17-57-06_TransformerCestComprendre_0497.png](https://strapi.d17e.dev/uploads/2023_11_17_17_57_06_Transformer_Cest_Comprendre_0497_27c1cd7fd4.png)

For the code and the _wiggly_ version you can [visit the sketch on OpenProcessing](https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1986467). I also added some stills of this sketch to the [posts](/posts) section in case you don't want to stray too far.

As much as it comes close to what I envision, it's not exactly there. I feel the chaotic part at the bottom is not quite chaotic enough. I also think that the middle section could have more of its own character, now it's just there in between the two elements without much of its own story. Plenty of room for improvements I'd say. But for that I realized that I'll probably need a different approach of implementing this. But that's for another time.

If you want to find out what that will look like as soon as possible, then you should definitely pop your email in the little box below, and you'll be one of the first to find out. I promise! Until then, I thank you and wish you a wonderful day.

vera_molnar_answer_sideways.png

Re-coding Vera Molnar's work, together with the title of the exhibition where it was featured inspired me to re-think the work. This is the story of where that led me thus far.

A playful answer to Vera Molnar.

These days, when you hear 'generative art', it's easy to confuse the term with 'generative AI'. Especially as the latter seems to be all over the internet these days. Even though I find the applications being built on top of [generative AI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_artificial_intelligence), like [ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/) and [StableDiffusion](https://stability.ai/stable-diffusion/) quite impressive at the very least, that's not what I'm on about. A very interesting topic, but one for another time.

So then, what am I talking about? Well the _definition_ for generative art that I have in mind is a bit older and can be found on the [generative art wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art):

> _Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system._

A rather broad definition still, I agree. In fact, by this definition anything that comes out of [Dall-E](https://openai.com/dall-e-3) or [MidJourney](https://www.midjourney.com/) could also be considered generative art. Well, let's refine that definition a bit. See, for me the autonomous systems I'm interested in are rather specific. Not specific in what they could be or do, but specific in how they're built. I want to build automated systems that make art using code. And [robots](https://www.axidraw.com/), too.

Ever since I started my career as a developer, I've had my eye on that corner of the art world that was feeling the same excitement about technology as I did. Projects like [processing](https://processing.org/) made me giddy and people like [Casey Reas](https://reas.com/) or [John Maeda](https://maedastudio.com/) were my idols. Fast forward two decades and the world around _creative coding_ has only grown stronger. What better time than now to get off my cozy sideline bench and out there, I thought. So here I am. And thank you for being here with me.

So where does one start? As a writer's block translates very easily to a blank screen, for a while the answer was "you don't". Until I stumbled onto [OpenProcessing](https://openprocessing.org/). A community website built around [the web version of processing](https://p5js.org/), that allows you to save and display your sketches on their website and interact with other members. I got especially inspired when I discovered the [Recode/Rethink curation](https://openprocessing.org/curation/72108/). The concept behind that curation is that you recode another already existing work and maybe reinterpret it. I had my mission.

It didn't take long before I decide to re-code a work by [Vera Molnar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Moln%C3%A1r). She was one of the pioneers in the field so it seemed fitting that I'd also start there. One thing I also love about her work is the simplicity of a lot of the pieces. Simple yet powerful. The piece I ended up selecting was exhibited at the solo exhibition ["Comprendre c'est transformer](https://www.oniris.art/en/exhibitions/51-vera-molnar-comprendre-c-est-transformer/)". The specific work can be viewed on the right of [this picture](https://www.oniris.art/exhibitions/51/installation_shots/image1028/).

Another thing I like is the fact that the only colors are black and white. I feel like adding color to a work is a huge step and I don't feel confident in going there yet. There's still so much to explore yet before we start playing with that, I think. But we'll see. Never say never.

Anyways, without further ado, here's a still frame of the recoded version:

![2023-11-15_09-27-49_ComprendreCestTransformer_0771.png](https://strapi.d17e.dev/uploads/2023_11_15_09_27_49_Comprendre_Cest_Transformer_0771_dd232addd0.png)

As I mentioned earlier. Simple yet powerful. Not that complicated to implement but very interesting and teaching to do so. And a great way to meet my old friend [Perlin noise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise) again. That's a kind of _random number generator_ that generates _natural_ patterns and is the algorithm that provided the angles at which each set of lines is angled. If you want you can view [this and the source code](https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1857733) on OpenProcessing. Of course, here I'm not working on paper so... I had to make it wiggle, didn't I. That was the logical next step. And also something that perlin noise lends itself to beautifully.

Below is the embedded version of the sketch, but in case you can't see it here you can follow [this link](https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1857733).

\<iframe src="https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1857733/embed/?plusEmbedHash=074c1d27&userID=362930#sketch">\</iframe>

If you see the sketch above here, you can click/tap it to reseed the noise field.

vera_molnar_sideways.png

What is this generative art thing I'm talking about? In this article I try to describe what the term means to me and bring you along on how I re-coded a work from Vera Molnar's exhibition "Comprendre, c’est transformer".

What generative art means to me.

Just as for the title of the previous article, I again let myself be inspired by something I'd seen before. Only this time, I didn't really remember the title of the movie. So I did what anyone would these days. I went on the internet and searched. To my ignorant surprise I came to realize that "What is this place?" is quite a common phrase in movies. So if you thought of a movie reading the title, you are correct! That's exactly the reference I was trying to make. And maybe it's even featured in the little cut-up of people saying "What is this place?" in movies that I added here for your leisure. Just in case.

\<iframe height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vd48RvDBiP4?si=_CnidhU9mYiqlFuI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen>\</iframe>

And that brings us to the question. What actually is this place? First of all, I think it's better if we rephrase that question. It's served its purpose after all. The actual question I can say something about is "Why did I build this place?"

Well, there's actually several reasons. So, instead of trying to list them up let me take you through my thought process of how this place came to be.

Not so long ago I started freelancing. Or, as one could also say, I started a business. This business needed a name and I decided to go with '**d17e.dev**'. Where the _d17e_ part comes from you can read about [in another article I wrote](/blog/d17e-what-s-in-a-name), but for those who haven't, it's basically a short representation of my full name. I had owned the .com domain for a while already, so when I started this new venture there were all these new [funky top level domains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains#ICANN-era_generic_top-level_domains), among which the '.dev' and that just seemed perfect. I wasn't sure if the local bureaucracy would accept a name with the dot in it, but they did. And so, d17e.dev was born.

These days, a business needs some kind of online presence, maybe one or more social accounts, or maybe even an own site. But if you choose the company name to be something that looks like a web [URL](https://ittavern.com/url-explained-the-fundamentals/), or something that looks like something you'd type in a browser address bar, people are going to type that in a browser address bar. I mean, I would. So long story short, **I needed a website**. 

Luckily I'm in the software business. This 'software business' is pretty broad though and building websites like these hasn't exactly been a real part of my day to day job description. As in ever. However, I like what I do and 'web development' is one of the areas I've been keeping an eye on over the last decade or so. I had also already built a small portfolio site when I was changing jobs last, so I was confident enough that I'd pull it off. In fact, this was and is the perfect opportunity to **expand and explore** my skills.

Which brings us nicely to one of the big reasons I built this. To **learn hands-on** how it is to run an actual website. I approached this whole endeavor as if I was my own client. That really just means I wasn't allowing myself to cut corners. Aside from ending up with a website, I also saw this as an opportunity to explore infrastructure, hosting, CMS,... options that are out there today and at the end of the road having something set up in a way that I could easily reproduce this and possibly offer it as a service. And I wasn't the easiest client one could get, believe me. But I've learned a ton. And at that, it was even fun too.

Fun. That's a big driver for the choices I've been making in my life. I believe one should strive to have as much fun as possible, as long as that's not at someone else's expense of course. But I digress. I built this website, because it **was fun**. In fact, it still **is fun**. In the future you can expect this place to keep changing now and then. If you want to stay in the loop when I do, make sure to [leave your email](https://forms.d17e.dev/subscribe)! 

One of the elements that make this fun is the fact that I'm the only one working on this, so I've pretty much got **free reign**. I choose what technologies I use or features I implement. In a real-life work situation, this is generally not the case. In fact many times there's things you'd rather be working on. Just as with this project, there were things that weren't exactly fun. But that's part of the gig. The difference this time though, was that I was doing the less fun stuff because I chose to do it. And if I wanted to change my mind on something, I could do so. 

A bit earlier in this write-up I mentioned socials. With this new adventure I'm on, I feel like I can't escape the social platforms. Not that I'd try to escape them, I just want to be mindful of the time I spend across them. And I also wouldn't want any of those platforms be the _root_ of my _online identity_. Instead, this place now also plays the role of this root. Its **home base**. I can manage and organize my content here, on my own server and have [little robots](https://n8n.io/) do my social media bidding.

Lastly I want to point out that even though I'm talking about 'building my own website', I didn't exactly build all of this from scratch. I don't think there's a lot of software that's really written from scratch these days. We are all **standing on the shoulders of giants**. Some of the giants that are the core of this place are projects like [ChakraUI](https://github.com/chakra-ui/chakra-ui) and [NextJS](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/), which both actually build on top of ©Meta's [React](https://react.dev/). It's been an incredible time to see the development world evolve over my career that now almost spans two decades. Open source software was only an obscure idea that floated somewhere between academia and ideologists back when I started out. These days, if you don't share your code on [GitHub](https://github.com/), you're not cool. Kind of. I may have taken some liberties with that statement, but my point is that a lot has changed. And right now, it's a pretty amazing time to be in the 'software business'.

Of course, I _want_ to be cool. So you can find the [source code for this website](https://github.com/dxviie/d17e.dev) on GitHub. Not because I think this how I think each website should be built, no. Not at all. Just because **sharing is caring**. And maybe someday it will be useful to somebody. For example, when a large language model reproduces the obscure hack I implemented for the [blurhash](https://blurha.sh/) algorithm. Or not. Which is also ok. I did my best.

d17edev_site_screen_l.png

Find out why I decided to build this little corner on the internet and what you can expect to find here in the future.

What is this place?

I post mainly about my explorations into the world of **generative art**

Hi! I'm **David**.
Good to see you _here!_

Code is the bread and butter of my career but has also shaped the way I see and interact with the world in everyday life.

Check out my **[LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/d16de/)** to find out the details of my professional past.

Or stick around, scroll on, and discover what I'm working on now!

If that piqued your interest, make sure to drop your email address below and I'll keep you posted when I have something new to share.

Got a burning question you want to ask me? 
**[Get in touch!](https://forms.d17e.dev/contact)**

I write about things that make me **think**, **wonder** or **laugh**. Or all of those, all at once.

What is this place?
6 minute read

A playful answer to Vera Molnar.
3 minute read

What generative art means to me.
3 minute read

What is this place?
6 minute read

A playful answer to Vera Molnar.
3 minute read

What generative art means to me.
3 minute read

What is this place?
6 minute read

A playful answer to Vera Molnar.3 minute read

A playful answer to Vera Molnar.
3 minute read