Conditional Design

3 links:

• • Conditional Drawing, Conditional Painting and Conditional Design Manifesto (p. 6);
  • Vitruvian Paint Machine;
  • Conditional Design Manifesto on the website

It’s interensting to find that, in one sentence, “The process is the product”, according to what they say in their introduction. The designers and artist especially care about “time, relationship and change”. How to explain it? In my personal point of view, as time goes on, works are made according to one or more specific relationships with different variables, but the variables and relationships would change as time goes on. 

In the past, the first step of designing for me is finish the basic project in my mind. Then, try everything and all ways to make what I have imagined appear on canvas. However, the method of designers disscussed in our text is laying down the regulation first. Their final pattern on the canvas is only a carrier of their process which is the real product for those designers. So, my works have already been decided basically before I start drawing them down. But the works of designers discussed in our text have so many possibilities since only the rules of precess are definite and there are still a lot of variables, which means no one would know the work’s final version untill it is done. Their works have randomness.

I also tried to devise my rules. It’s much harder than I thought so I want to refer to the artists’ rules. Here are my rules:

• Black——straight line. Rotate 90 degrees clockwise at the proper time;
• Green——vortex;
• Blue——curve. But don’t cross any lines;
• Red——triangle. Each triangle has to share an edge with the previous triangle;

Since I’m working in library, change to next color when people pass behind me. 

Here’s my work: 

I have never thought about how it could be because there are so many random factors. But also because of that, I’m very curious about how could it be. It’s random when black line turns 90°, when someone pass by, how red triangles, blue curves and green vortexes go. There’s one thing especially unexpected: I tried to fill the space in the middle of this canvas but I failed. Before knowing it, the space is sealed. I can’t use blue curve to reach there, which is the most flexible among different patterns. I can use other colors too but I think it could hardly reach there before next person pass by.