Generative Art vs L-system Graphics
ジェネラティブアート / L-systemグラフィックス
Generative Art comes from Digital Art and L-system Graphics from Computational Expression. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Generative Art
A way of working in which the maker writes only the rule and the randomness, leaving the drawing to the machine. As in Nees's plotter work, the result is shown as several variants born of one rule.
L-system Graphics
L-system graphics rewrite symbol strings in parallel and interpret them as drawing, turning a few rules into recursively growing plants, trees, mycelia and ornaments.
| Generative Art | L-system Graphics | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1965- | 1968– |
| Family | Digital Art | Computational Expression |
| Kind | Technique | Technique |
| Cues | One simple element repeated to fill the field / Variants of a single rule shown side by side / Repetition drifting in angle and position / A density and precision no hand could reach | Branches repeating one angle rule from a trunk / Self-similar detail increasing by generation / Leaves or flowers attached regularly at tips and joints / A growth grammar that survives controlled randomness |
| Best used for | Letting a machine make identifiers or one-off tickets that must all differ · Exhibitions or works where designing the rule is what is on show | Modeling plant growth in education, visualization and generative motion · Making reproducible branching patterns and ornament from a small rule set |
| Type | Letters handled as coordinates and repetitions with the face itself fixed | Set rules and generation numbers in monospace outside the generated form. |
| Composition | Seed and random range set, outputs laid side by side to inspect the spread | Anchor one root and plan how each generation expands into the available field. |
| Material | Lines assumed at a plotter's constant weight, tone made by overlap density | Define symbols, productions, angle, line length and stack operations, updating all symbols in parallel per generation. |
| Caution | A random range set too wide widens the gap between good and bad results and leaves a pile of output instead of a work. | Mirroring branch photography is not an L-system. Preserve the production rules that generate each generation. |