A Society of Stickpeople

A Society of Stickpeople (captured, #31)

In 2004, I created a graphics program that simulated a population of stickmen and stickwomen through various iconic stages of life: birth, play, love, work, rest, travel, and death. The program is designed in such a way that the results are always unique. The balance of the population may favor women or men; depending on the birthrate, the population may explode or taper off; certain building sites may be full of workers while others remain untouched.

A Society of Stickpeople (captured, #33)

The prints are an attempt to capture the entire "evolution" of the society in one frame. Historically, chronophotography was one way that artists and scientists captured motion in this way. Pioneers such as Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey captured unique images of motion that were scientifically revealing as well as aesthetically pleasing. Marcel Duchamp captured time in a different way in his painting "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2."

A Society of Stickpeople (captured, #45)

I am continually fascinated by the diversity and complexity of the images that can come from a simple set of instructions given to a computer. This modern take on chronophotography is made possible by the unmatchable raw processing power of the computer, which I enjoy using as an artistic tool.

News & Updates

1-26-08

A Society of Stickpeople (captured, #31) was chosen as one of two winning artworks in The Digital ImageMaker 'The Image' Competition. Thanks to Wayne Cosshall for an excellent free competition that was a perfect fit for my artwork!

7-30-06

Missed the Art Sketch? Download the presentation below.

7-29-06

If you are in Boston for SIGGRAPH 2006 this week, check out A Society of Stickpeople (captured, #31) in the Art Gallery, and the companion Art Sketch that I will be giving on Sunday morning in the session The Art of Simulation, Evolution, and Distributed Systems

7-27-06

The companion Art Gallery Sketch that I will be presenting at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston was mentioned by the Art Gallery chair, Bonnie Mitchell, in an interview on Renderosity.com

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Technical Information

The original OpenGL program was crafted to simulate a population using finite state machines, using stickmen and stickwomen with simple animations to visually represent the unfolding dynamics of the population. Later, the program was changed to experiment with the idea of digital chronophotography, or a way to capture in one frame the essence of each particular simulated run. This was achieved by leaving the drawn image every frame rather than clearing it between frames. This technique, combined with a very low opacity in the drawn elements, allowed the image to slowly accumulate over the course of thousands of frames. At any point in time, a key could be pressed to save a high resolution version of the image at its current state of evolution.

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Resources

A companion Art Gallery Sketch presented at SIGGRAPH 2006 describing the techniques and inspiration for these images:

Click here to download the Art Sketch pdf
(642 KB, Adobe Reader required)

Click here to download the Art Sketch presentation
(2.78 MB, Microsoft Powerpoint required)

If you would like to try out the software that was used to create these images, email me at nselikoff@gmail.com

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