Nature and Algorithms
自然与算法
《自然与算法》
百日实践项目，电脑生成图像，收藏级数字微喷
2016
在三个月的时间里，刘唱每天从谷歌地图上随机截取一处地理坐标，或下载一张风景照片。她观察图像的纹理——山脉的褶皱、河流的蜿蜒、树影的斑驳——在脑海中寻找与之呼应的算法逻辑，再用编程生成一幅与自然图像视觉美感相近的电脑图像。
自然生成的风景与算法生成的图像被并置在一起。它们来自不同的世界，却拥有相似的视觉韵律。
刘唱将这一百天的实践视为双重致敬：既是对自然之美的礼赞，也是对技术之美的凝视。但并置本身亦是一个提问——当算法可以模拟自然的肌理，当机器可以生成让我们驻足凝视的“风景”，自然与人工智能之间的关系，正在被重新定义。
百日的重复练习也延续了艺术家对时间的思考。日复一日的生成与记录，让人想到河原温的《今日》系列——通过对当下日期的客观书写，丈量自身的存在与时间的本质。在这里，每一天的风景与算法，都是时间留下的证物。
展览：“程式之美”，否画廊，纽约，2016.10.22 – 2016.12.18
艺评摘录：“《自然与算法》将一百张随机风景照片与其算法抽象并置，暗示着自然深处潜伏着一套深层的设计图式。”——林梓，Artforum，2016
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艺术家自述：“程式是逻辑的，艺术是感性的。编程艺术将严格、冰冷和逻辑的过程，转化为非逻辑的、不可预测的、富有表现力的结果。我试图将两者结合在一起。”
Nature and Algorithm
100-Day Project, Computer-Generated Images, Archival Digital Prints
2016
For three months, Liu Chang randomly selected a geographic screenshot from Google Maps or downloaded a landscape photograph each day. She studied the textures—the folds of a mountain range, the meander of a river, the dappling of shadows—searching in her mind for an algorithmic logic that might echo what she saw. Then, through code, she generated an image whose visual language approximated the natural one.
The landscapes born of nature and those born of algorithm are presented side by side. They emerge from different worlds, yet share a similar visual rhythm.
Liu Chang regards this 100-day practice as a double homage: a reverence for the beauty of nature, and a contemplation of the beauty inherent in technology. But juxtaposition also poses a question. When algorithms can simulate the textures of the natural world, when machines can generate "landscapes" that hold our gaze—what, then, is the relationship between nature and artificial intelligence?
The daily ritual of generation and recording also continues the artist's meditation on time. The repetition calls to mind On Kawara's Today series—a simple, daily rendering of a date as a way to measure one's existence against the essence of time. Here, each day's landscape and its algorithmic counterpart become artifacts of time passed.
Exhibition: Code is Beautiful, Fou Gallery, New York, 2016.10.22 – 2016.12.18
Review Excerpt: "Nature and Algorithm pairs one hundred random landscape photos with their algorithmic abstractions, suggesting a deep design schematic afoot in nature." — Lin Zi, Artforum, 2016
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Artist Statement: "Code is logical, art is emotional. Coding art takes strict, cold, logical processes and converts them into illogical, unpredictable, and expressive results. I want to bring the two together."