Flying Machines is an iterative computer program made in Processing that generates endless variations on a wing form within a given set of parameters. The original structure of the wing is drawn from a Leonardo da Vinci flying machine sketch. By varying its proportions, curves, oscillations and structural density, the program can generate a range of forms from birds to bats, butterflies to pterodactyls, and man-made gliders to genetic mutants. The work is a reflection on human curiosity and its implications for art, science, nature and technology. The prints are archival ink on cotton rag, produced on a pen plotter.
Exhibitions
A Short-Lived Escape from Gravity, The Collaboratory at UC Santa Barbara (solo), 2018
Flying Machines, Patrajas Contemporary at Office Evolution Ogden, UT, (solo), 2018
Graphics from this series included in the poster for Creativity and Collaboration: Revisiting Cybernetic Serendipity, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 2018
Lectures
Rendering Matter: Encoded Objects, CNC Translations, and Embodied Information, UC Santa Barbra, (2018)
Collections
Represented in the Utah’s Alice Merril Horne State Art Collection, 2020
Selection donated to UMOCA’s 2018 Gala Auction
Flying Machines: Array
Flying Machines: Whorl
Flying Machines: Field
FFlying Machines, Small Field 2 
Flying Machines, Field 3 
Flying Machines, Field 1
Flying Machines: Mutants
Flying Machines, Mutants 2 
Flying Machines, Mutants 5 
Flying Machines, Mutants 3, detail
