This week I take a look at the work of Casey Reas.
Reas is another generative art producer. Work like the process Compendium, above, reveal how captivating generative art can be even without the inclusion of colour. Through mathematics alone, something familiar yet alien is produced, the ultimate recipe for capturing attention.
Reas reinforces for me that a simple approach can produce the most profound results.
Bullying is obviously an issue that reaches beyond fuel poverty, and there have been some great design initiatives aimed at reducing this (see Area 52's Social Bullets above). However, I was somewhat apprehensive about this direction again due to potential scope and impact.
Having considered it carefully, I felt that this direction would limit my project to one of awareness raising (i.e., attempting to make adults and / or children aware of the impact of anti-social behaviour surrounding fuel poverty). The outcomes of such a project would be difficult to gauge, if there were any at all. Whilst it seemed a noble-enough cause, I wanted my project to have a bigger, more obvious impact than this.
With bullying off the table, I turned my attention to social spaces. I wanted to know where, if at all, graphic design could help.
Ultimately, having considered the logistic, security, and safety angles that a project like this would present – as well as the need for extended collaboration with many sensitive societal stakeholders – I concluded that this direction would go beyond the possible scope of the current project. For this reason, I did not pursue this direction any further.
Figure 1: Casey Reas. 2010. Process Compendium. [generative art]. Available at: https://reas.com/compendium_a_p/ [accessed 16th August 2022]. Figure 2: Area 52. 2022. Social Bullets. [video still]. Available at: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2022/235327/social-bullets/ [accessed 18th August 2022].