Random Walker
随机漫步者
《随机漫步者-墨》
交互装置，定制软件（Processing），摄像头，屏幕
“闪烁的存在”系列，2020
当参与者走入空间，屏幕前的摄像头便开始捕捉她的身影。屏幕上，一幅抽象肖像正缓慢浮现——彩色笔触如水墨般流动、滴落、交织，仿佛从画布里自然生长出来。
这部作品由艺术家刘唱使用Processing编写，核心算法名为“随机漫步者”。它模拟画笔的轨迹，却又不受控于任何预设的路径——每一笔都是一次即兴的漫步，在数字画布上留下痕迹。
肖像画是绘画史中最为古老的体裁之一，长久以来，画家与被画者之间始终存在着一种单向的观看与被观看。而在《随机漫步者-墨》中，观众不再是静止的模特，而是与算法共同创作的合作者。你可以静静站立，看自己的轮廓逐渐浮现；也可以移动、转身、离开——每一个动作都在改变笔触的走向，每一次中断都在生成新的图像。
时间，是这件作品的另一重维度。当你离开，屏幕上留下的痕迹会慢慢模糊、消散，很快被下一位参与者替代。没有一张肖像被永久保存，每一次观看都是一次无法复制的发生。
这便是刘唱所说的“时间的纹理”——那些转瞬即逝的轮廓，那些未曾被记录的瞬间，被算法捕捉下来，又任由它们消散。她说：
“时光流逝，不留痕迹。但艺术作品，让那些闪烁的存在被看见——即便只是刹那。”
Random Walker – Dripping
Interactive Installation, Custom Software (Processing), Camera, Screen
Flickering Existence Series, 2020
When a viewer enters the space, the camera begins to capture her presence in real time. On the screen, an abstract portrait slowly emerges—brushstrokes drip and flow like ink, as if growing organically from the canvas itself.
The work is powered by custom software written in Processing by artist Liu Chang, driven by an algorithm called the Random Walker. It mimics the gesture of a painter’s brush, yet follows no predetermined path. Each stroke is an improvised walk across the digital surface—unpredictable, unrepeatable.
Portraiture has long been a genre defined by the gaze: the painter looking, the sitter being looked at. In Random Walker – Dripping, that relationship shifts. The viewer is no longer a passive subject, but a co-creator. Stand still, and watch your likeness emerge. Move—walk away, turn around—and the strokes shift, the image transforms. Every action leaves its trace; every interruption gives birth to a new composition.
Time is another medium at play. When the viewer departs, the portrait slowly dissolves—its marks blurring, fading, soon to be overwritten by the next presence. No image is saved. No moment repeats.
This is what Liu Chang calls “the texture of time”—the fleeting contours of presence, caught and released by the machine. As she reflects:
“Time passes and leaves no mark. But art allows the flickering of existence to be seen—even if only for an instant.”
