Code Abstractions

Gravitational Fields

by Joanzzie Lee

Description

Aimed at creating a different visual representation of gravity based on existing pictorial portrayals, gravitational fields are re-envisioned here to be visible to the naked eye. Dense celestial objects such as black holes and neutron stars have very large gravitational fields that give way to gravitational waves. In this project, gravitational fields are reimagined in a way that the speed-of-light undulations caused by the intense and energetic processes of celestial objects are now visible to us. Appearing as vigorous, extreme undulations and dramatic dips and surges, space-time curvature is no longer ‘rippling’. It is field of chaos, suspended here in eternal rotation.

This project is a response to a text titled 'The Holographic Universe Principle' by Jamie Trosper from 2013.

Follow this link to a fullscreen version of this project.

Bio

Joanzzie Lee is based in Singapore and is currently studying at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. She is interested in a wide range of subjects, including space-related events and ideas. For her final-year Diploma project and the 2020 Lasalle Show, she produced an art installation titled ‘If Hubble Could See It Like This’, inspired by the concepts of gravity and its related phenomena. 'Gravitational Fields' can be viewed as a continued exploration of this subject. Although she works mostly with traditional mediums, she has had a growing interest in digital media and hopes to explore more of this in future.

Concept

The concept behind this project is one that I’ve had a long-standing interest in, and I am glad I was able to explore it further with a different type of medium. It was also mostly driven by the making process and challenged what I understood about code and what I could achieve with it. The overall visual was also important, and I wanted to reflect what I thought the aesthetics of space and coding were to me, thus decided on a combination of green and black for my colour palette.

Thoughts

The process of this project was challenging, as it was my first time working with code. However, it was both a fun and enlightening process to finally try my hand at generative art. Understanding the code and which part executes what function was important for me, so that I was able to recreate and tweak the code with more confidence. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the outcome of my project.

Achievements

Through this module and project, understanding and executing the basics of coding is an achievement for me as I was approaching it with little to no knowledge of what generative art was. Doing random sketches, following tutorials, and rewriting code to understand and internalize it was a big help to me. It was rewarding when I understood even part of it, more so as it was a long and frustrating process. My interest in coding has gown and I hope to apply more of what I have learnt in future.

Future Work

I would like to include more interactive elements in this work, such that certain mouse movements trigger specific actions within the net. Another idea would be to include other objects into the sketch such as spheres and have it hover and interact with the net. I would also like to explore different modes of presentation and have a more detailed and improved 3D rendering the work. I think with more experience, practice and patience, these potentials can be realised.

p5js Sketches

Code Abstractions

2021