Generative Art vs Reaction–Diffusion
ジェネラティブアート / 反応拡散パターン
Generative Art comes from Digital Art and Reaction–Diffusion 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.
Reaction–Diffusion
Reaction-diffusion simulation lets substances react locally while spreading at different rates, self-organizing small disturbances into spots, stripes, mazes and coral-like patterns.
| Generative Art | Reaction–Diffusion | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1965- | 1952– |
| 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 | Round spots dividing at even distances / Continuous curving maze stripes / Coral or cellular boundaries branching from edges / Self-organized marks of nearly constant thickness |
| 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 | Explaining biological spot and stripe formation in research, education and exhibitions · Growing organic surface, motion and type patterns |
| Type | Letters handled as coordinates and repetitions with the face itself fixed | Place copy in low-density regions instead of eroding every letter with the pattern. |
| Composition | Seed and random range set, outputs laid side by side to inspect the spread | Show growth from a seed or boundary condition rather than freezing a uniform all-over print. |
| Material | Lines assumed at a plotter's constant weight, tone made by overlap density | Set reaction terms, diffusion rates, feed and kill rates, then iterate from a small perturbation. |
| 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. | A hand-drawn animal print is not reaction-diffusion. Time and parameter changes must remain visible in the pattern. |