Digital art plays a significant role in the Innovation Centre, as the aim is to create artwork that is both innovative and unique. The approach should enable anyone to develop their own individual work based on their interests and skills. A key aspect is that creating artwork should be fun and the journey be as important and the finished work. I generally combine Photography, Fractal Graphics, Digital Editing and AI. However, I also include coding and robotics to the more complex work.
I’ve included examples in 5 categories:
Fractals – Complex fractal images
Fractal Art – Art that incorporates fractals or uses them as styles
Photo Art – Art based on photographs
Digital and AI Art – Art that uses AI and Digital Editing to combine elements
Never Ending Story – Art that is used to tell a continuous set of stories
Breath of you is an image that illustrates were the journey in creating an image takes unexpected turns by combining many different skills.
The lower part of the image was created predominantly using AI and Digital Editors.
The top section started life as a simple robotics exercise that Dylan (aged 10) and I did. We built a simple robot that did paint pouring by pouring multi-coloured paint onto a rotating disc. The EV3 robot was controlled from a Scratch program that we designed. Scratch Link was used to provide the connection between Scratch and the robot.
The resulting image went through multiple iterations of Digital Editing and AI to eventually create the image of Aria.
The next step was to build a monitor to capture my breath using one of the latest Arduino computers and a simple Air Quality monitor. The result was a list of 3 Air Quality numbers. This list was converted into a list of colours.
A program was then written to create the swirling pattern between the images of Aria. The colours changed throughout the pattern in line with the list. The latest P5.js programming language was used.
A different Air Quality Monitor that ran on a Microbit was programmed. It was taken to a beautiful location on Southport Sand Dunes and readings taken. These readings were used to modify the picture. The picture now contained colour modifications based on my breath and the breath of the dunes.
The next step was to Digitally Edit the images to pull everything together.
Once the image was completed, the final stages of the project was to create a simple animation of Aria, surrounded by the swirling mist. This was created using Processing.
Finally Copilot was used to develop a story around Aria, an AI, who brought a dying planet back to life by using her own breath to breathe new life into it. Chat GPT was used to create a poem.
The environmental readings from the Sand Dunes were used to investigate the quality of the air in our surrounding area.
Many of my images are simpler than this but most use a combination of photography, fractal graphics, AI and Digital Editing. A number of the more complex ones also use coding and robotics.
Southport Innovation Centre 