Substrate, Jared Tarbell

Made with Processing, this 2003 masterpiece by Tarbell highlights one of the powers of generative art and computation: the ability to convey complexity from simplicity.

A single growth rule based on perpendicular growth, from just a single line, manufactures intricate, urban-esque compositions. The simplicity of the rule in Tarbell’s Substrate helped to amplify the power of the new tool to creatives and still stands as a source of inspiration for artists. 2010s generative artist inconvergent wrote: “One of the first pieces of generative art I ever saw and took notice of was Tarbell’s Substrate. It’s a genius algorithm in all it’s simplicity.”

In Jason Bailey’s (Artnome) seminal text, “Why Love Generative Art?” he wrote of Tarbell and Substrate:

“For me, Tarbell’s work is the perfect generative art. It is the poster child for the duality of chaos and control, and has an intense level of visual complexity that slowly emerges from simplicity, making it feel more like it grew out of the soil than coming from algorithms.”