Hyunseung Ro


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Botanical Sitting


Hyunseung Ro, 2024
35mm film, p5.js, cinema 4d, touch designer 



Just as a flower, merely existing, is beautiful in itself, so too is the beauty inherent in a human.

- From Daniel Jaeha Lee, a friend from a highschool

Project Description:


The way to measure the value of an individual differs in modern society. The digits of payment, number of awards won, or price of their creative work; humans are valued based on the results of their choices and efforts. But we are something more than those numbers and results. In fact, it is impossible to transparently reflect individuals through those numerical concepts; each one of us is already precious solely by our biologically coded attitude: continuously adapting towards an unpredictable environment.

Even though it happens every day, adaptation is a great gift and a massive strength that our species has. Humans have undergone numerous stages of natural selection and genetic evolution. Unless unpredictable variables—such as natural disasters, pandemics, or war—intervenes, it was human’s enduring will to live and remarkable adaptability that spurred their evolutionary changes.

I believe this is also true for flowers. While there is a significant functional difference between humans and botanical organisms, both share a high degree of adaptability that has led to a drastic DNA evolution. Whether it is a minute gap between a concrete building or devastated land due to a great conflict between nations, flowers bloom. A flower’s shape, color, and character are the representation of its habitat, which is the same as humans; I perceived the connection between two different species peaks when humans are sitting still.

Excluding sleep, sitting is the most time-consuming state in human life, and since not much free movement happens, I projected this still state onto a flower, even imagining humans becoming a flower. By replacing the place where humans should be sitting with a flower in a vase, “Botanical Sitting” emphasizes the connection between humans and flowers from the perspective of their unique inherent characteristics and conveys seizing a day is undoubtedly as beautiful as a flower.

Work Process

  1. Took photos of empty chairs
  2. P5.js to create a blue print of flower that went through evolution based on the different places.
  3. Use Cinema 4D to composite the flower with the image
  4. Touch Designer to create oil painting style.

Inspiration:

Claude Monet - Woman with a Parasol (1875)
Claude Monet - Flowers in a Vase (1882)

Photography:


I have explored New York and taken photos of empty chairs. Based on the atmosphere or setting, I have grouped these images into sets of four.



P5.JS


Started with code we worked on during the class. The original code used parent and fitness attributes to create a new generation of flowers based on previous genetic information. I added a feature to generate flowers influenced by their environment.



Updated and edited p5 sketch to read HSB color data from the image and set up boundaries for Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. To prevent the boundaries from becoming too wide, images are blurred during the initial setup.

Each generation step is initiated by a designated button at this stage. The following is the output at the fourth generation.


To simplify the code and generate only one flower after the processes, the first edit was to create a dedicated function for repetitive code. Additionally, the code was modified to reduce the population by half with every new generation.


Since the method for getting the color range boundary didn't work as expected, I've changed the approach to read the dominant boundaries from the image. I used chat gpt to develop this code. The code generates a histogram based on the H, S, B channels and calculates the frequency for each color data value in the image. It then creates a boundary by removing values with a frequency below 25%.



With the code, the final flower, after undergoing four generations, reflects the steps and environmental changes it has experienced.

P5.JS Result



3D Modeling


Developing 3D flower model based on the p5.js sketch. Used Cinema 4D with redshift renderer to mimic the lighting of the photo and come up with flower texture



Flower Close Up




Background for Oil painting style:

Oil painting’s unique nostalgia and the power to transform scenery into a fantastical atmosphere are the reasons why I always admired oil paint masters like Claude Monet, particularly from the impressionist era. Impressionism was centered around embracing modernity and a desire to create works that reflected the world in which they lived. The idea of “Botanical Sitting” aligned with Monet’s era, reflecting human change.


Touch Designer


Using touch designer to achieve oil painting effect



During the Computational Image Deconstruction class, I began a process to simulate an oil painting look using multiple Noise TOP and Displace TOP. Initially, the project used a random audio file to generate values that affected the Noise TOP. This created a random jiggle effect, which somewhat resembled an oil painting.





Since an audio file controlled the parameters, it was challenging to fully control the values. Therefore, I switched to having the image itself control the randomness. This change not only made the image more closely resemble an oil painting but also mirrored the authentic painting process, where the brush strokes and texture reflect reality.


Further Implementation

  • Print each items on a different paper to create a puzzle.
    • flowers on a transparent paper
    • Vase on a glossy paper
    • environment on a matte paper

  • 3D printing the modeled flower or creating a fake flower + instead of compositing, photographing it as a set.