Percolator
Percolator is a set of algorithms that create an artistic composition of images, based on what's in the news today. In short, three things take place once the code is run:
Harvest news from the internet: using the Google library for NodeBox, a number of news sites are visited (CNN, BBC, Fox News, Google News, ABC News, MSNBC, CBSNews, Yahoo! News, Wired News, USA TODAY) and summarised with an extension of the Keywords library for NodeBox.
Harvest corresponding images: a number of images are drawn from the Photobjects library, based on the keyword summary of today's news.
Collate the images: a composition is then assembled from these images using the PhotoBot library for NodeBox. This algorithm knows things about contrast and harmony, and typically applies rotation, scaling, overlay blends, hue blends, and gradient masks.
So, basically, the computer creates a contemporary piece of design without any human involvement. As to why I'm doing all of this, you can read the full article on artificial creativity on the Replica website.
The very first try, based on the following keywords:
iraq, campaign, sign, partner, election.
The next day yielded the following keywords:
campaign, iraq, sign, partner, surprise, magazine, visit, sunday, president, house.
In the future, Percolator should gain the ability to perfect his visual style, likely by asking user feedback on the work it created. You can read the full details on this in the learning learning article on the Replica website.
Right now I'm just improving Percolator by hand, some minor adjustments already improve the artisitc quality (hem, read: crypticality) of its compositions:
It's Toulouse again!
Boy oh boy, the pathos! The hubris!
Created by Tom De Smedt