Zen of Creativity Chapter 11

[Doshin]

Hello,
thanks for posting and for showing your fascinating works.
I am too, fascinated by the oceans and astronomy.

Anne, you're always working with so interesting natural materials that add another dimension.
All heavy elements have been forged in the stars.
I, made of stardust, like your glowing stardust pictures, made of dust that is made of stardust by Anne, who is made of living stardust, too.
Everything just formations of stardust... Indeed a mystery.

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

More stardust out here

Doshin
St

[Cooperix]

Thank you Kotei.

Yes to stardust, and so poetic a mystery.

Bowing to the mystery of it all.
Anne

~lahst~

[Kotei]

Here is my take on Prompt #11

No digital effects, just soap bubbles and light...
I recommend watching the 3 minute video in full-screen and HD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhXLWw_-TiY

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Cooperix]

What can I say? mesmerizing, enchanting, beautiful, worlds within worlds within worlds, mysterious, moving. And that's from soap bubbles and light.
Wow.

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

[Jishin]

I am back on my cat kick. I got extremely lucky this weekend. I went to the Forth Worth Zoo on Friday and it was empty. It was raining and cold. Cats apparently like to come out during the winter. Makes sense. This is the first time I truly got good shots of lions and tigers. I did not even know that they had a white tiger. Awesome.



Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Jishin]

Here is my take on Prompt #11

No digital effects, just soap bubbles and light...
I recommend watching the 3 minute video in full-screen and HD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhXLWw_-TiY

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

LSD trip. Awesome.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Jishin]

Zen of Creativity Chapter 11

Took this one too at the Fort Worth Zoo at 1/15th shutter speed (slow to make the water silky). I didn’t use a tripod so its not as sharp as it could be but it came out ok I think.



Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Kokuu]

Hi all

This is a very lovely chapter! Mystery seems to be the heart of both art and Zen practice. Rather than having preconceived notions, we open our whole selves up to the world and see what is there.

I remember my school art teacher saying to draw what you see rather than what is in your head, which is very much like Shikantaza. Throw away the concepts and sit directly with life!

The areas I seem to return to again and again in my writing are trees, the moon, rivers, rain and crows. All pretty well worn subject ares in haiku but each still has more mystery to give.

winter night
we each take turns
to be the moon


Lovely to have the Art Circle back. Thank you for your efforts, Anne and Meitou!

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Jishin]

Just like a cat sharpening claws. [emoji3]



Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Sekishi]

Hi all,

I think I've written about / posted output from my "pixelsorting" projects before, but "mystery" is what has kept me working on them on and off for most of my adult life.

The short version: I've written some cellular automata software that "sorts" the individual pixels in digital images based on the content of those pixels.

A very simple example:

FOR each pixel in an image:
IF the amount of blue in the pixel in the SE is more than this pixel
THEN swap this pixel with the one to the SW

There is a little bit of "formalism" in this for me in that the rules must adhere to these two principles:

1. The actions must be "non-destructive". E.g. pixels are only ever swapped with each other, never overwritten.
2. The rules and actions must be "local". E.g. they can only look at or swap with the 8 pixels that "touch" the current pixel (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, or NW).

One of the great mysteries about playing this type of thing for me is that emergent behaviors emerge from VERY simple rules. And they are dependent upon BOTH the rules themselves and the content of the image. Eg. a given rule might produce beautiful crystaline formations on one image, and literally do nothing on another image (for example, lots of blue or lots of high-contrast elements might activate a rule, while lots of red and low contrast might cause the rule to do nothing at all). So when I feed photos to the system, I never have ANY idea what it is going to produce.

Anyhow, I've been working on some new rules on and off this month, and thought I'd share the output of two of the new rules with some photos of the trees and mountain visible from our house:

- https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3rt4atj1r...final.png?dl=0
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/ozkjpu5bos...final.png?dl=0

Finally, for fun here are some older images that still resonate with me:

- https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ntkv0wghi...t-006.png?dl=0
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/i56a49e9mm...77-01.png?dl=0 <== A great example of the mystery -- the white blossoms on the tree turned into streaks of texture, but the sky and the bird are completely untouched
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/pg4xn586m2...44-02.png?dl=0
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm4tzlpy0i...t-024.png?dl=0

Gassho,
Sekishi #sat #sortedpixels

[Jinyo]

I am back on my cat kick. I got extremely lucky this weekend. I went to the Forth Worth Zoo on Friday and it was empty. It was raining and cold. Cats apparently like to come out during the winter. Makes sense. This is the first time I truly got good shots of lions and tigers. I did not even know that they had a white tiger. Awesome.



Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

Wonderful photos - thank you!

Have not read this chapter yet and need to read through this thread - thanks for setting the ball rolling again,

Gassho

Jinyo

[Cooperix]

Shekihsi,

No wonder you are the engineer!. I have not a clue, total mystery how you achieve those wild and beautiful images. Even with your explanation. I enjoy looking for the clues of the original image. Not always so obvious.

And Jishin, my next visit to FtW I will get my brother to take me to visit the cats at their zoo. As always stunning shots.

Kokuu, I've hoped you'd add a haiku to our thread. And a lovely one, to celebrate last week's cold night full moon.


So much mysterious creative energy here.

Gassho
Anne

~st~

[Jishin]

Very cool Sekishi.

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__

[Tai Shi]

Again Jishin, so happy to look at your excellent photography, the tiger, the waterfall, these so photographic skill as do all you have shared. Thank you.
Tai Shi
sat/lah
Gassho

[Jishin]

Thank you Tai Shi!

Gassho, Jishin, __/stlah\__