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Article Title

The Quest for the Gnarl

Abstract

The article describes some of the author’s own image-generating computer programs that he describes as “gnarly”. He began writing a simple spirograph program based off simple sine wave function called Spiro. Later transitioned into writing with C and better programs using more nonlinear feedback. Where Spiro is based on a simple sine wave function, Vine uses a nested sine function: the sine of the sine. The need for a more complicated computational approach lead to iteration and parallelism. Julgnarl uses Iteration and Calife uses parallelism. Calife shows one-dimensional cellular automata: spaces in which virtual computers are lined up like beads on a wire, all of them computing in parallel. The two methods combined created fractal shapes and pieces of shapes that resemble shapes as a whole. The programs use methods of artificial life to create and evolve new shapes on its own.

Preservation Process

Archived from http://switch.sjsu.edu/archive/nextswitch/switch_engine/front/front.php%3Fartc=213.html. Documentation of the preservation processes used for this collection is available at https://github.com/NickSzydlowski/switch. Metadata for this item was created and augmented by Brandon Ly, Spring 2022, Art 104

Original Article URL

http://switch.sjsu.edu/archive/switch/alife/rucker/rrintro.html

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