The Process

To develop my data art, I begin by extracting data from personal sources, such as mobile phones, DNA, web logs, activity logs, health monitors, government or company data. 

These data are loaded into a database where I perform various statistical analyses in order to get a sense of the data, their size, averages, variances, minimum and maximum values, etc.  Next, I perform data mining to discover patterns in the data.  Some of the data mining is very simple, just a small extension of the statistics.  In contrast, some of the data mining involves inventing complex pattern recognition algorithms.  The resulting patterns are used as parameters for algorithms in visualization software. 

These mined data are read into a graphics processing language.  First, the data are read into some simple algorithms just to get an idea of what the data look like graphically.  More complex algorithms are developed as the data create colors, shapes, screen locations, and camera angles.  I do program graphical shapes and animation, but ultimately, the work is driven by the data of human life.  The final step in the programming is to create a movie from the individual video frames. 

I add an audio component to complement and create further forms for the animation.  Sometimes I create sound patterns to augment the visual patterns.  Other times I use music from collaborators. 

Some of my work uses the video as final assembly and some of it relies heavily on video effects that can be done in software such as After Effects and Final Cut Pro.  I am not dogmatic about this.  I do not care what the percentage is.  It is all about what I need to do to first, communicate the sentience of the data, and two, create an aesthetic that fits my vision.  I try to not get tied up in the purist view.  I am all about using a computer to enhance my own and my viewer’s aesthetic.  As we approach The Singularity, I do not make the machine/human distinctions that other artists do. 

The work naturally appeals to intrepid collectors as well as cutting-edge technologists who are ready to leave their aesthetic mark on contemporary culture.  My artwork cuts a new path in data driven, computational, and generative art at the intersection of the human and the machine.