#andy lomas

New Post has been published on https://videopress.newonline.help/2020/12/24/cellularforms-hd-x-ray-version/

CellularForms HD (X-Ray version)

This is an updated version of my earlier Cellular Forms animation (https://vimeo.com/82989945), including music by Max Cooper.

This X-Ray version uses exactly the same simulation data as Cellular Forms HD (https://vimeo.com/93056665), but renders them using a density accumulation map. Effectively a digital X-Ray through the structures. This reveals internal structures in the forms not apparent in the renders that only show the extenal surface.

The animations use digital simulation of a simplified biological model of morphogenesis, with three-dimensional structures generated out of interconnected particles to represent cells.

Each form starts with a initial spherical cluster of cells which is incrementally developed over time by adding iterative layers of complexity to the structure. The aim is to create forms emergently: exploring generic similarities between many different shapes in nature rather than emulating any particular organism, revealing universal archetypal forms that can come from growth-like processes rather than top-down externally engineered design.

Cell division is controlled by accumulated nutrient levels. When the level in a cell exceeds a given threshold the cell divides, and various parameters control how both the parent and daughter cells re-connect to their immediate neighbours. New nutrient can be created by photons in cells hit by incident light rays. Nutrient can also be allowed to flow to adjacent cells. The simulation process is repeated over thousands of iterations and millions of particles, with each of the final structures comprising over fifty million cells.

For more information about Cellular Forms: http://www.andylomas.com http://andylomas.com/extra/andylomas_paper_cellular_forms_aisb50.pdf

New Post has been published on https://videopress.newonline.help/2020/11/12/cellular-forms-hd/

Cellular Forms HD

This is an updated version of my earlier Cellular Forms animation (https://vimeo.com/82989945), including music by Max Cooper, and exhibited at the Ars Electronica Festival and the Bridges 2014 conference of maths and art.

The animations use digital simulation of a simplified biological model of morphogenesis, with three-dimensional structures generated out of interconnected particles to represent cells.

Each form starts with a initial spherical cluster of cells which is incrementally developed over time by adding iterative layers of complexity to the structure. The aim is to create forms emergently: exploring generic similarities between many different shapes in nature rather than emulating any particular organism, revealing universal archetypal forms that can come from growth-like processes rather than top-down externally engineered design.

Cell division is controlled by accumulated nutrient levels. When the level in a cell exceeds a given threshold the cell divides, and various parameters control how both the parent and daughter cells re-connect to their immediate neighbours. New nutrient can be created by photons in cells hit by incident light rays. Nutrient can also be allowed to flow to adjacent cells. The simulation process is repeated over thousands of iterations and millions of particles, with each of the final structures comprising over fifty million cells.

For more information my work and Cellular Forms: Website: http://www.andylomas.com Mailing list: http://eepurl.com/by__dH Paper: http://andylomas.com/extra/andylomas_paper_cellular_forms_aisb50.pdf

New Post has been published on https://videopress.newonline.help/2020/11/11/max-cooper-chromos-official-video-by-andy-lomas/

Max Cooper - Chromos (official video by Andy Lomas)

From the Chromos EP – released 26 May 2017 [MESH] Stream/Buy ‘Chromos’ https://MaxCooper.lnk.to/Chromos Subscribe to YouTube: https://MaxCooper.lnk.to/Subscribe Follow on Spotify: https://MaxCooper.lnk.to/FollowOnSpotify Video by Andy Lomas

“This project began with a chat to a scientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, Mikhail Spivakov. His work is related to my old area of research, and he had the idea that maybe I could use some of their data to create a piece of music. So I travelled up to Cambridge to meet him and the rest of his lab group, and their collaborators, to talk about what they are doing there, and think about how it could translate to a music/visual project. We decided to focus on their research on chromosomal conformation capture, which experimentally detects points of contact between chromosomes (long strings of DNA), and then employs computational models of folding, to predict how the chromosomes are packaged up in a complex tangled bundle of strings. This process of simulated folding to create our best guess of real chromosome structure is a beautiful process, so this beauty became the focus of the project.

Luckily for us, Andy Lomas was interested in getting involved, and being the genius he is, he built an interface from scratch for mapping the raw data into the Unreal gaming engine, which could be used for creating video sequences, as well as a VR experience. Once we had the ideas and video aesthetic is was just a matter of me figuring out how to make the music fit. The raw data wouldn’t map well explicitly to music, given music is of a very particular form, and raw data not suited to this form just yields indiscernible noise. So I set about two techniques for musical representation of the video and ideas, one based on live instrumentation, the other based on generative computational approaches.

Chromos is the first of these two pieces, using live instrumentation, and accompanied with the simplest visual form of the project showing a single chromosomal aggregation process. We wanted to show the data is this unadulterated form, so you can see the real science in action, and the real chromosome structure, along with glowing red appearing to show where genes are most highly activated. It’s a glimpse into the complexity and form of one of the most important molecular structures in all of life. So musically I wanted to try and capture some of this grandeur, along with the complex messiness involved, which still yields a coherent, functional outcome (the living being it codes for and creates!). To try and achieve this I turned to one of my favourite instruments, the sansula, and I played lots of tempo-free melodies, which I layered, to mimic the complexity, and then used to define the underlying chord sequence as the coherent centre and function. I decided to keep it free of percussion and other elements, to focus on the beauty and peace of the visual process. I just added a classic wash of real Roland RE201 spring reverb and some work on the widening and pyscho-acoustic space with some simulated binaural effects.

The second piece in this project is ‘Coils of Living Synthesis'”

– Max Cooper

Follow Max Cooper: https://www.facebook.com/maxcoopermax https://www.instagram.com/maxcoopermax Tweets by maxcoopermax

"The ugly as well as the beautiful. The simple as well as the complex. I'm choosing forms I like by aesthetic criteria: survival of the intriguing rather than survival of the fittest."

Paper-Thin opens its final show of the season now! Cellular Form 18 0011 0003 is an artificial organism generated from the mathematics of Andy Lomas. It's mind blowing stuff.