processing   may, 2004   j.tarbell

250 x 250 pixels 42 circles   500 x 500 pixels 100 circles

The Intersection Momentary is a fun visualization defining the relationships between objects with Casey Reas, William Ngan, and Robert Hodgin. Commissioned for display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Casey suggests we write programs to visualize the same simple instructions: A surface filled with 100 medium to small sized circles. Each circle has a different size and direction, but moves at the same slow rate. Display: A. The instantaneous intersections of the circles. B. The aggregate intersections of the circles. 0000 Casey Reas 0001 Robert Hodgin 0002 William Ngan 0003 Jared Tarbell We were not allowed to see each other's programs until the end. In this way we found many surprises of similarities and dissimilarities between our implementations.

0000 bright white lights highlight intersections between circles 0001 small particles travel the perimeters of each circle

The circles in this interpretation begin with a radius of 1 pixel and slowly increase to some arbitrary size (10-50 pixels). Circles are drawn with small moving points along the perimeter. The intersections are rendered as glowing orbs. The twinkling effect of the intersections was unintentional, but once discovered, emphasized with an irregular drawing technique. Glowing orbs are rendered ONLY when a perimeter point moves past the intersection point.

1000 a glow has been added to emphasize the particles that travel each circle's perimeter

5000 the aggregate intersections of 100 circles

The Intersection Aggregate is my implementation of part B of Casey's instructions.