This paper presents a generative approach to creating dynamic 3D cursive calligraphy by integrating motion and bio-data captured by EEG and EMG sensors with particle systems driven by vector fields. The artwork created through this method metaphorically and visually represents a calligrapher’s energy, inspired by the traditional concept of qi . The authors use the term bio-ink to describe the visualization technique of this digital sculpture, which uses bio-data as parameters to control the flow and dynamism of the particles. Utilizing Unreal Engine 5, the authors create a dynamic 3D artwork that inspires further investigation into the therapeutic benefits of calligraphy highlights the potential use of biofeedback in skill development, and paves the way for combining traditional arts with artists’ life-data.

The authors investigate Chinese shanshui (literally, “mountain and water”), ink paintings of the natural landscape, through an interactive art installation entitled Shanshui Journey . By examining shanshui’s philosophy, multiple moving perspectives, and creation and appreciation practices, the work emphasizes motion in nature, memories, and interactive appreciation. These concepts are realized in a digitized room, where each participant’s motion is captured as a line “sketch” and transformed into an ink painting via a custom neural network. Generated paintings are displayed in real time alongside previous works, collectively termed Shanshui Memories , mimicking handscroll interaction. The authors’ approach to shanshui aims to reproduce the Chinese literati art experience, and to raise awareness of this cultural heritage.

This article presents a human-machine design approach to the artistic and metaphorical representation of the traditional weaving scenes featured on Yunjin brocade as interactive moiré patterns accompanied by Nanjing Baiju performance. After extracting the basic elements of the eye-shaped moiré patterns, the authors systematically recomposed them to mimic the weaving process. They then wrote an algorithm to generate moiré patterns that respond dynamically to the unique sounds weavers make while weaving, symbolizing the gazes and eye contacts among the weavers. This became an interactive sonic installation, Sweating Weaving Room , which represents the rhythmic machine sounds, the Nanjing Baiju, and the hard labor and harmonious work hidden behind the glamorous brocade.

This article presents a general framework for programmed automatic generation of artistic fonts. By parameterizing various font attributes, such as color and aspect ratio, the authors are able to generate artistically styled fonts in almost unlimited variations to suit any type of design requirement. The authors demonstrate their experiments on generating fonts in an abstract style similar to Kandinsky's, built on a collection of the artist's styled patterns. The approach generates fonts composed of vector strokes and is thus highly scalable, limited only by the computer hardware.

This article reports on a recent study that examines the effect of white space on perception of Chinese paintings. The authors investigate whether white space in Chinese paintings is not simply a blank background space but rather meaningful for aesthetic perception. Applying a computational saliency model to analyze the influence of white space on viewers’ visual information processing, the authors conducted an eye-tracking experiment. As a case study, they analyzed paintings by a well-known artist, Wu Guanzhong, and collected users’ subjective aesthetic ratings. Their results show that white space is not just a silent background: It is intentionally designed to convey certain information and has a significant effect on viewers’ aesthetic experience.

This article proposes the application of shape grammar to the automatic generation of logo designs based on artists’ logo creation knowledge and visual structures of logos. The authors propose a set of rules to encode the design knowledge and enable automatic generation. They then present an experiment that was conducted to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach.

ABSTRACT The authors present a programmed experiment to automatically generate art in the style of Kandinsky during his Bauhaus years. The program the authors developed analyzes the artist’s paintings based on his art theories and the authors’ own understanding and observations of his artworks. The authors describe the generation process in detail and share and discuss sample generated images styled according to four of Kandinsky’s paintings. By pseudorandomizing various parameters, the program is able to make each styled image it generates unique. The authors’ approach is highly scalable, limited only by the memory space set in the programming language Processing, which is used for the generation. Potential impacts of the authors’ approach are also discussed.

ABSTRACT This article discusses how visual arts and computer technology could complement and assist each other in new and emerging interdisciplinary areas known as computational aesthetics and aesthetic computing. The authors present examples of computational aesthetics that demonstrate that modern computer technology can generate aesthetic forms of visual art. Several levels of complexity in computerized abstract paintings are discussed and explored. The authors recently experimented with encoding computational rules to automatically generate a particular style of abstract painting in an attempt to explore one of the levels. The preliminary results of this research are presented. A more systematic and grammar-based approach is discussed as a potential future direction of work.