Art for Science?s Sake
(Issue 5, posted April 4, 1997)

from Genetic Movies Generation 687
? John Mount

Blossoming out of genetic algorithms, these images and movies generated by John Mount at Carnegie Mellon University owe their inspiration to William Riley's Interactive Genetic Art website. Both sites showcase mathematically derived abstract images, presented in an interactive format that tallies viewers' votes as a means of generating more images. Mount takes the idea further with both movies and a server-push slideshow.

Science for Art?s Sake

Soomerschon
from The Tulip Book of P. Cos, 1637
(click on image to view close-up)

The Tulip Book of P. Cos, a 17th-century book of botanical prints, documents the tulip craze in Holland that drove bulb prices to spectacular levels. Driven by the rapid rise of cultivated varieties such as the flame-patterned "Broken tulips" (which were later found to have been caused by a viral infection), prices soared up to over 4000 guilders. The Cos catalogue is unique both for the quality of its gouaches, and its record of prices and weights for the various bulbs. Its virtual incarnation on the web is courtesy of Agralin, a web server devoted to agricultural information in The Netherlands.

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