Introduction
Software packages that process data invariably require effective tools to display outcomes. While the priority of such packages is often to produce the charts and figures of academic research papers, there is some scope for artistic expression – if you can find it. A basic output mode of packages such as MATLAB is to represent a rectangular display space of arbitrary dimensions and where each ‘pixel’ in the display can be allocated a colour from a designated colour space. Thus a 30 by 30 space of 900 ‘pixels’ could be filled by specific colours based on the associated numeric value of each pixel. In this regard it is quite simple to allocate colours/tones of value 1 to 26 to represent the a to z alphabet.
A next stage is to map a series of text characters into the 30 x 30 array space. One option is to write the characters in a spiral like mode beginning at one corner of a rectangle and progressively filling the array space working towards the centre. The programming to achieve this is challenging though rewarding. This achieves a pattern of sorts though a more striking effect is to copy and add the pattern as a mirror image and repeat this process so that the final image contains four similar components. This generates a pleasing symmetrical pattern based on the spatial representation of the textual data. There can also be variations on this basic approach to perturb the ‘pure’ values of text representation.
This described method provides a means of representing text in a unique and revealing manner. Key parameters include the size of the rectangle and the length of the text string. Some examples are subsequently displayed. There is almost limitless scope to generate unique patterns.
Modes of Output
Some creativity is required to select output modes of such art. This is also perhaps another journey in innovation.
Examples
