CCLab midterm project
Generative visuals | Into the Explosion
Inspired by firework artist Cai Guo-Qiang
Elegy
Fireworks exploded over the Huangpu River in an ephemeral artwork called Elegy during the Ninth Wave art exhibition
https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ep387476?theme=movie&spm_id_from=333.337.0.0
Black Sea: Data Sculpture
Refik Anadol Studio
Los Angeles, CA, US / Yekateringburg, RUS
https://refikanadol.com/works/black-sea-data-sculpture/
The explosion is momentary. The beauty it creates is irreproducible as the sparks are in a state of constant change each time. And the fun thing is, when the explosion happens, it is always out there in the sky or in the distance, making it unable to observe it in a close way. What if we have an imaginary microscope? What would we see? It’s a thing that’s fascinating only by thinking about it. Billions of particles meet and part, reacting with the air, formatting fleeting beauty. The Perlin noise in coding might be a good way to interpret the explosion of fireworks, as they are both made up of tiny particles and shown in a random way.
The thinking process of inspired by one of the Chinese fireworks artists Cai Guo-Qiang, who is currently living and working in New York. Cai is famous for his gunpowder works around the world. He once lighted Florence’s sky with 50,000 fireworks that resemble flowers, and his sky ladder in fireworks has left a strong impression on people. What he believes is that he could paint with explosives. Specifically, I selected a scene from the explosion event for the opening of his Ninth Wave Exhibition in Shanghai in 2014 as my project inspiration. I would cite a paragraph from my diary from when I was watching it. “…The opening blast of the Ninth Wave was equally memorable. In the first chapter, elegy, the fire jumps and flickers in the gray smoke. Back in the twentieth century, when there were atomic bombs and countless wars tore apart, the black smoke rises upright and expands into a huge, natural slow-motion effect in the air, leaving enough time for people to be lost. Then billows of green rose, and myriads of confused stars glimmered briefly among them, blending green and black to reveal the reality and emptiness of outer space. ”The storytelling of his work is amazing, and it’s perfect for generative and interactive art.