Artist Jonathan McCabe: Creating at the Intersection of the Natural World and Scientific Theory

Australia-based artist Jonathan McCabe follows a unique code-based process to create vibrant, generative animations infused with pattern formations and geometric shapes found in the natural world. For pieces like his Vcsinet_1—currently on display at the immersive 8K lobby screen inside the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles—McCabe implements algorithms first developed by Alan Turing and finds inspiration in scientific theory and biological development. StandardVision recently spoke to McCabe to learn more about his unique approach to generative art:

SV: Your pieces fall under the category of generative and code-based digital art, but how might you describe your work to someone who is not familiar with it?

JM: I do describe my work as generative art, where the artist sets up a system that produces the artwork, rather than directly making the artwork. Theoretically, the artist is a system made of the person, the computer and the code, in that all the parts are necessary to make the art. There is a developmental loop where I observe the output of the computer running the code, make changes to the code and see how that affects the result.

SV: A lot of your work focuses on theories of natural pattern formation and their application to art and design. Could you further explain these concepts as they relate to your work, and why they are of particular interest to you?

JM: Some of my inspiration is seeing examples of structure and pattern in the natural world, which according to scientific theories are due to processes which can be described and emulated. One theory which I am particularly fond of is due to Alan Turing in 1953, where he describes a process based on the creation and destruction of soluble substances which diffuse and react to form stable patterns of stripes or dots, as seen in the coats of, for example, zebras. Some of my work has involved taking this process and elaborating it by having it run at different sizes simultaneously and having interaction between the sub-processes. 

SV: The process of creating generative art is quite unique. Can you explain your particular approach, and how you came to work in this way?

JM: My approach developed from a more general interest in computers and what they could do. I had been an avid science fiction reader, and computers and robots had a large presence in the stories. 

When micro computers came on the scene in the early 1980s I loved to potter around with them, and learned to write some simple programs in BASIC. I obtained a pen plotter and had the computer make drawings in the style of "string art". 

I later became interested in "cellular automata" and the patterns they could make. I often observed stripes and dots and found that in an accidental way the cellular automata were acting like reaction-diffusion systems, which are similar, and this lead to the interest in Turing patterns.

SV: Are there any recurring aesthetic elements in your work that determine your satisfaction with a piece, and if so why are they important to you?

JM: One notable element in my work is multi-scalarity, where there is structure at sizes from the large to the small. This is influenced by the idea of fractals. In a way I have fractalized Turing patterns by combining large and small ones.

 My colors tend to be over saturated in a way common in computer art. I have found it useful working on projects with designers who have specified color palettes, getting a sense of what a more controlled approach to color can achieve.

I love reflection and rotation symmetries and often add them to my systems.

SV: Do you have any thoughts on the developments within or the future of generative art, particularly as it relates to a post-COVID19 world?

JM: I feel that my sort of generative art is actually very old fashioned, mainly relying on concepts and techniques from mid last century. 

 I'm seeing a lot of machine learning deep neural network kind of stuff appearing, and I'm not sure if I think it's some kind of breakthrough or just a machine for hashing pre-existing images together.

They say that COVID has accelerated the reliance on screens, what with the working from home and all those Zoom meetings, this might increase the scope for screen based generative art.

SV: Any exciting current or upcoming projects for 2021?

JM: I have been enjoying making videos with musicians (an example is here). I'd like to explore how I can make the visuals more responsive to help express the character of the music.

An excerpt of McCabe’s generative animation Vcsinet_1 is currently on display on the immersive 8K lobby screen at the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. You can learn more about McCabe and his work by visiting his website.