[Marius Watz / mid-progress plotter sketch]
Visual complexity isn't an inherent characteristic of generative techniques - it's easy, if not very interesting, to make a generative process that turns out visually simple results. So to some extent it's an aesthetic choice, or a tendency that pursues a certain aesthetic or sensual reward. Susanne Jaschko has called this its "retinal" tendency. Computational generative techniques act as an enabler or amplifier for that tendency - they automate complexity to a certain extent, or reduce its cost. If generative art is a cultural organism, then the "retinal" charge of visual complexity is a kind of lure that attracts both artists and audiences to computational techniques. – Mitchell Whitelaw
The above quote is culled from of a fantastic conversation between Leonardo Solaas, Marius Watz, Mitchell Whitelaw and Jeremy Levine on the topic of generative art and process-based work in Digimag 57. Read and enjoy the entire roundtable/article here
