User:Tom

Project (WORK IN PROGRESS)

I ran into a couple of Gifs that visualised how certain sorting algorithms worked. Normally I don’t understand algorithms, but these visualisations made it so easy and insightful to understand what is going on. Besides that I think it’s cool to see an algorithm at work like this, I also think it has some artistic value. You could call it glitch art (glitch art:——————)

It is a code creating a new kind of image by rearranging the original. This results in an image made anonymous. Or maybe more like a vague memory, where everything is still there but over time you start to forget what it looks like. This creates a new memory, a distorted version of the original.

What is Pixel Sorting?

Pixel Sorting is done with a program called Processing. It takes the pixels in a digital image and places them into a semblance of order. Pixel sorting was made popular by an artist of the name Kim Asendorf. He began sorting by developing a code in Processing.

Examples from artists/reddit

Experiment

CODE!

This is a modified version of the code written bij Kim Asendorf. It is written in Processing language, and requires a folder called ‘data’ in the same location as the .pde processing file.

PImage img;
PImage sorted;
int index = 0;

void setup() {
  size(800, 400);

  img = loadImage("afbeelding.jpg");
  sorted = createImage(img.width, img.height, RGB);
  sorted = img.get();
}

void draw() {
  println(frameRate);

  sorted.loadPixels();

  // Selection sort!
  for (int y = 0; y < sorted.height; y++) {

    float record = -1;
    int selectedPixel = index;

    for (int x = index; x < sorted.width; x++) {
      int loc = y * sorted.width + x;
      color pix = sorted.pixels[loc];
      float b = brightness(pix);
      if (b > record) {
        selectedPixel = loc;
        record = b;
      }
    }
    // Swap selectedPixel with i
    color temp = sorted.pixels[y * sorted.width + index];
    sorted.pixels[y * sorted.width + index] = sorted.pixels[selectedPixel];
    sorted.pixels[selectedPixel] = temp;
  }
  if (index < sorted.width -1) {
    index++;
  } else {
    save("sorted.jpg");
    frameRate(0);
  }

  sorted.updatePixels();

  background(0);
  image(img, 0, 0);
  image(sorted, 400, 0);
}

The code results in a pixel sorting visualisation:

GIF MAKEN