Some 40 years ago I became fascinated by the digital organic models of William Latham. Latham's current work is focused on art meets virtual reality, something he calls Mutator VR, and is utterly seductive. He describes Mutator VR as "applying machine learning to generate and shape VR worlds". When I heard him give a TED talk, two things struck me. First, his grace and humility. Second, his description of his process as rule-driven and engineered, whereas I have always worked by tossing the rule book out and following where the work leads me. It is not dissimilar to discussions I am having now with an engineer friend about A.I. music: he wants to start with a model and teach the machine brain to expand on it; I try to take the machine brain as far out and wild as I can, to see what it is capable of and what its native language is, and then slowly rein it in. I suspect that the engineer and I will meet somewhere in the middle.
Previous Winners of GIRAFFE'S SITE OF THE MONTH:
Guggenheim Collection Museum (May, 2017) New York Times 25 Top Songs Times". (April, 2017) Sick Lullaby Lullaby, output by the Vinyl Factory and created by UNKLE and Keaton Henson.(April, 2017) Richard Greaves, chaotic architecture Greaves. (March, 2017) Lucas Zimmerman Zimmerman (February, 2017) Yinka Shonibare Shonibare. (January, 2017) "Poignant Art of the Posthumous Portrait" Museum. (January, 2017) Rushad Eggleston Eggleston (December, 2016) Magnetic Magnetic (November, 2016) Marvin Lipovsky Lipovsky (October, 2016) Morten Lauridsen Lauridsen (September, 2016) Niki de Saint Phalle Phalle.(August, 2016) Digital Video by Method Design animation (July, 2016) "The Sound of Ikebana: Four Seasons" Seasons (July, 2016) Seymour Chwast book (June, 2016) Richard Falk on Daniel Berrigan Berrigan (June, 2016) No More War War (June, 2016) Conscious Sleep Sleep, 2016". (May, 2016) Woman transformed into 3D printed mesh mesh (March and April, 2016) Aequora, Vincent Callebaut Architectures Aequora (February, 2016) "The Hunting Ground", Lady Gaga Gaga,(February, 2016) Satellite images of Planet Earth images (February, 2016) "The Trauma of Painting", Alberto Burri Burri (January, 2016) Kouhei Nakama, Changing the Human video (January, 2016) Amniosya Architects firm (December, 2015) Uruguayan Sculptor Pablo Atchugarry atchugarry (November, 2015) Keiichi Tanaami tanaami (November, 2015) Picasso's sculpture sculpture. (October, 2015) Tara Donovan Donovan(October, 2015) Three Scientists on 3D Printing TED (September, 2015) Justin Bieber and the Making of a Song Tube (September, 2015) Nicholas Kristof Kristof (August, 2015) Tony Cragg's Sculpture Cragg (July, 2015) Sculptor Doris Salcedo Salcedo (July, 2015) Sacred Traditions of the Himalayas Himalayas (June, 2015) European Space Agency space photos Agency (May, 2015) Monad Studio's Sonic Environments Monad (April, 2015) Sarah Lucas Lucas (April, 2015) Lincoln Center Glass installation Center (March, 2015) Schiele and Savile at the Kunsthaus Museum (February, 2015) Euromold Conference Conference. (January, 2015) Page the Magazine page (December, 2014) Basketry: "Uncontained Excitement" basketry(November, 2014) Strandebeests strandebeests (October, 2014) Throwing the Wave Wave (September, 2014) Watching Ceramics being Made form (September, 2014) Avital Sheffer Sheffer(August,2014) Cocky Eek eek (June, 2014) "Nowness: Mine All Mine" nowness (May, 2014) Sarah Lucas Lucas (April, 2014) Joseph Wright of Derby Wright (March, 2014) The Poetry of Pascale Petit Petit (February, 2014) Cosmic Spider Spider (February, 2014) "Sensory Stimulation", Ryoichi Kurokawa Korokawa(January, 2014) Letters from Prison Tolokonnikova (December, 2013) Ten Tough Women Artists News(December, 2013) Ann Weber sculpture Weber (November, 2013) Morten Lobner Espersen Espersen (October, 2013) "Windswept", kinetic facade windswept (August/September, 2013) Peter Reiss photography Reiss(July, 2013) Oscillate Vimeo (June, 2013) Oscillate Artists' self-portraits (May, 2013) Web portraits Whitaker's Self Portrait, tongue in cheek (May, 2013) 
Ron Mueck's hyper-realistic sculptures (April, 2013) hyper-realistic Patricia Piccinini's superreal sculptures (April, 2013) Piccinini Panemoticon (March, 2013) panemoticon What is Missing? (February, 2013) Missing Earth as Art eBook (January, 2013) Tommy Ingberg Ingberg (December, 2012) Sarah Sze Sze (November, 2012) Jacob Hashimoto's installations Hashimoto (August, 2012) Anthony Howe's kinetic sculptures Howe (July, 2012) Teppei Kaneuji Kaneuji (June, 2012) Wayne Thibaud Thibaud (May, 2012) Beth Cavener Stichter Stichter (April, 2012) Paul Friedlander Friedlander (March, 2012) Katy Makkai katymakkai (February, 2012) Academic Earth academicearth (January, 2012) Jim Campbell, LED Imagery engineer (December, 2011) Alexander McQueen's Runway Shows metmuseum (November, 2011) Elizabeth Turk's Marble Sculptures Turk's (October, 2011) Google's Art Project Project (September, 2011) Bali Reef Divers Divers (August, 2011) Master Drawings in London Drawings (July, 2011) Janet Echelman's Ted Talk Echelman (July, 2011) Alexander McQueen at the Met McQueen (June, 2011) NanoArt NanoArt (May, 2011) William Latham Latham (April, 2011) Yad Vashem YadVashem (February, 2011) Benjamin Badock badock (January, 2011) "It Gets Better - Love, Pixar" Pixar" (December, 2010) Sunflowers http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/room1.shtm (November, 2010) Murakami at Versailles http://www.chateauversailles.fr/news-/events/expositions/murakami-versailles-en (October, 2010) Elene Usdin Usdin (September, 2010) David Altmejd altmejd. (August, 2010). Paper Art paper. (July, 2010). The Oil Disaster in Photos disaster and oil. (June, 2010) Picasso's Guernica in 3D guernica(shut down by the Picasso estate).(May, 2010) Art that was Once Alive Alive. (May, 2010) Atelier Van Lieshout Lieshout (April 2010) "Get Out" http://www.getout-lefilm.com/extrait.html (March, 2010) Biotech Art http://www.slate.com/id/2168469/fr/rss/ (February, 2010) Luke Jerram's Viral Scuptures http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/6151478/Artist-Luke-Jerrams-viral-sculptures-trap-bacteria-and-viruses-like-Swine-Flu-HIV-and-E-coli-in-glass.html?image=1 (January, 2010) Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/maharaja/the-exhibition (December,2009) "Infernal Landscapes" of Lu Guang http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/showcase-65/?ref=global-home (November, 2009) Brian Dettmer's Old Books and Obsolete Maps http://www.ktfineart.com/artists/brian_dettmer/?project_id=181 (October, 2009) Obscura Digital http://obscuradigital.com/work/demoreels/#/showreel (September, 2009) Julie Heffernan http://www.cclarkgallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=41&Count=0" (August, 2009) Jason Hackenweth balloons http://www.jasonhackenwerth.com/ (July, 2009) Robert Buelteman http://www.buelteman.com/home.html (June, 2009) Erik Parker http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/03/22/arts/20090322-KINO_index.htm (May, 2009) Roman Verostko http://www.verostko.com/archive/rocktown.html (April, 2009) "Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries" Libraries (March, 2009) Hendrik Kerstens photographs his daughter http://lightmylife.blogsome.com/2008/04/18/hendrik-kerstens/(February, 2009) Tara Donovan http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1860690,00.html" (January, 2009) Mounir Fatmi http://www.mounirfatmi.com/2installation/babelhouse.html (December, 2008) U-Ram Choe's kinetic traces of evolution http://www.bitforms.com/u-ram-choe-gallery.html (November, 2008) Santiago Calatrava, "Sculpture into Architecture" http://www.calatrava.com/main.htm (October, 2008) Jeremy Mayer's Typewriter Sculptures http://jeremymayer.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=18688&Akey=23SVCF6T (September, 2008). Rick Smolan tells us the Story of a Little Girl http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/rick_smolan_tells_the_story_of_a_girl.html (August, 2008) "The Danish Poet" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTef0HWbW_M(July, 2008) "One Nation, Under God and Overlooked: The State of Being Atheist" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU&feature=related(June, 2008) "The Lost Generation" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA(May, 2008) "My Stroke of Insight" http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229(April, 2008) "Hollywood for Ugly People" http://tinkin.com/washugly.html(March, 2008) "Nothing To Do", by Ann Jones http://blog.theirc.org/2008/01/21/nothing-to-do-ann-jones-in-liberia/(February 2008) "The Age of Rembrandt" http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/16/arts/20070918_REMBRANDT_SLIDESHOW_index.html (February 2008) Haute Couture in Paris http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/video/2008/jan/18/paris.haute.couture.2008(February 2008) The work of David Altmejd http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/david-altmejd-sculptor-and-artist-extraordinaire/art. Interview with him:http://www.akrylic.com/articles/17/1/David-Altmejd-21st-Century-Werewolf-Aesthetics/C-International-Contemporary-Art-No-82-Summer-2004.html (January, 2008) Life Inside the Cell http://www.flixxy.com/biology-nano-visualization-cell-life.htm (December, 2007) Photosynth http://labs.live.com/photosynth/default.html (December, 2007) Dove Onslaught http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaH4y6ZjSfE (November, 2007) Dr. Randy Pausch http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07262/818671-85.stm (October, 2007) Purple Hearts http://www.jenbekman.com/artists/nina_berman (September, 2007) "Hand Jobs the Arts" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eCxwvu1rP0 (September, 2007) Animator vs. Animation http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf (July/August, 2007) CNet design innovations: http://news.com.com/2300-1008_3-6177995.html?tag=ne.gall.rbcs (June, 2007) http://news.com.com/2300-1042_3-6178425.html?tag=ne.gall.rbcs (June, 2007) http://newscri.be/link/236698 (June, 2007) Barbara Weissberger http://barbaraweissberger.net/collagedrawings.html (May, 2007) Neurozapping http://www.lisboa20.pt/lx20/proj/neurozapping/.(April, 2007) Tom Chambers http://www.tomrchambers.com/dapjs.html (April, 2007) Ernest Neto http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/neto.html (March, 2007) Susan Ressler: "At Owner's Risk" http://www.rushcreekgallery.com/susan-ressler/index.html (February, 2007) Stephen Wilson http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/rome_documentary1.aspx"(January, 2007) Deborah Barrett http://www.jackfischergallery.com/deborah_barrett/(December, 2006) Rendering Jellyfish http://graphics.stanford.edu/~kayvonf/cs348b/jellies/(December, 2006) Joseph Nechvatal, the american jesus tOrture series http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/jesus/JesusTortureSeries.htm(November, 2006) The Art of DeTouch http://detouch.org/de-touch/med.php(October, 2006) Information Aesthetics http://infosthetics.com/archives/2005/08/email_mountain.html(October, 2006) The Videogame Art of Kathleen Ruiz http://arts.rpi.edu/reiz/stunt/The%20CHAMBERS.htm(September, 2006) The Mars Patent http://www.mars-patent.org/ (September, 2006) Dana Schutz http://www.saatchi-gallery.com.uk/artists/artpages/schutz_Face_Eater.htm (August, 2006) 10 Ways, from Getty Images http://interact10ways.com/usa/less_rain.asp" (July, 2006) El Circo http://vispo.com/uribe/2000/circo/index.html"(June, 2006) Andy Dick's Screening Circle http://artcontext.org/act/05/screeningCircle(May, 2006) Zoe Zimmerman - Elements of Containment http://www.photoeye.com/Gallery/forms/index.cfm?image=1&id=37510&imagePosition=1&Door=1&Portfolio=Portfolio2&Gallery=1&Page=(April, 2006) Cara Bearer - The Book Project: or Words, Paper, and Shapes http://www.photoeye.com/Gallery/forms/index.cfm?image=1&id=190091&imagePosition=1&Door=2&Portfolio=Portfolio1&Gallery=2(April, 2006) Magdalena Taber - The Muses http://www.transartmt.biz/muses.htm(April, 2006) Ingres at the Louvre http://mini-site.louvre.fr/ingres/flash_en.html(April, 2006) Experimental Superstrings http://www.lorrainewalsh.com(March, 2006) Anna Ulrich's Photography http://www.annaulrich.com/PORTFOLIO(March, 2006) Amanita: Samorost http://www.samorost2.net/samorost1(February, 2006) Ben Fry: Distellamap http://benfry.com/distellamap/(February, 2006) The ASCII Unreal http://www.unrealart.co.uk(February, 2006) Art After Science - Op for Pop http://www.artafterscience.com/op_for_pop/index.htm"(January, 2006) Art After Science - Gears for Sound http://www.artafterscience.com/gears_for_sound/index.htm"(January, 2006) Art After Science - Minimal Interaction http://www.artafterscience.com/minimal_interaction/index.htm"(January, 2006) The Bot Shop http://www.space.com/php/stf/botshop.html (December, 2005) The Shape of Whale Songs http://www.asci.org/artikel732.html (November, 2005) Be Your Own Designer http://www.leoburnett.ca (November, 2005) Aaron as Screensaver http://www.kurzweilcyberart.com (October, 2005) Take Me Back to the Fifties http://oldbluewebdesigns.com/TakeMeBackToTheFifties.htm (September, 2005) Remembering Netscape: The Birth of the Web http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,1081456-1,00.html (August, 2005) (Unfortunately this excellent article is no longer available online.) Zoomquilt http://www.eviltree.de/zoomquilt/zoom.htm (August, 2005) Kenneth Huff's Organic Constructions http://www.kennethahuff.com/Works" (July, 2005) Archimedes at the Walters Art Museum http://www.thewalters.org/archimedes/frame.html (July, 2005) Michael Takeo McGruder http://www.takeo.org (June, 2005) Zoacodes http://www.nervepool.net (May, 2005) Shirin Neshat http://www.iranian.com/Arts/Dec97/Neshat (April, 2005) Ashes and Snow http://www.ashesandsnow.com (March, 2005) Walker Art Center Billboards http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=1070 (March, 2005) Museum of Computer Art http://moca.virtual.museum/donnie2005/gallery/galleryindex.htm (February, 2005) Matthew Ritchie http://www.newplace.projects.sfmoma.org/mockUp1204 (January, 2005) Imagination Cubed http://www.imaginationcubed.com (December, 2004) Pentagram http://www.pentagram.com (December, 2004) Create a silkscreen online http://www.warhol.org (November, 2004) Nechvatal's robotic assisted acrylics http://www.nechvatal.net (November, 2004) Inconvenient Evidence: Iraqui Prison Photographs from Abu Ghraib http://www.icp.org/exhibitions/abu_ghraib/index.html (October, 2004) Touch and Temperature: Art in the Age of Cybernetic Totality http://www.bitforms.com/summer (September, 2004) Gear That Gives http://www.gearthatgives.com (August, 2004) Scorecard - check your neighborhood air, water, and soil quality http://www.scorecard.org (July, 2004) Explore Mars http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04097_mars_web.html (June, 2004)
Make prints at MOMA http://www.moma.org/whatisaprint/ (May, 2004) Giver of Names http://www.artinteractive.org/shows (May, 2004 An audio-visual tour of the Brooklyn Museum http://www.nytimes.com/packages/heml/arts/20040416_MUSEUM-AUDIOSS/index.html (May, 2004) Visual Composer http://www.typorganism.com/visualcomposer/visualcomposer.html(April, 2004) Errata/Erratum http://www.moca.org/museum/digital_gallery/pmiller/opener.html(April, 2004) Phonemer http://class.sva.edu/~eric/phonemes/phoneme.html(April, 2004) "Pool" (Experimenta Media Arts) http://www.experimenta.org/gallery/pool/pool_experimenta.html" (March, 2004) Meet the Composer http://www.meetthecomposer.org" (March, 2004) The Decline of Fashion Photography http://slate.msn.com/features/010510_fashion-slide-show/01.htm(February, 2004) Eyetap http://www.eyetap.org(February, 2004) "North-South-East-West" http://www.graham.gs/news/index2_start.html(January, 2004) Donor's Choice http://www.donorschoose.org/(December, 2003) British Libray - Turning the page on the Web http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation.html(December, 2003) Poetry as Animated Typography http://vispo.com/uribe/index.html(November, 2003) Egyptian Galleries http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/galleries/egyptian.html(October, 2003) Interviews with New York's Graffitti Artists http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/003638.html(October, 2003) Au Fond du Fleuve http://www.turbulence.org/Works/lefevre/index.htm(September, 2003) Contemporary Foibles as seen by Banksy http://www.banksy.co.uk(August, 2003) Clown Generator (no longer online) http://www.scottsmind.com/evil_clown.php(August, 2003) Amorphoscapes http://www.amorphoscapes.com(July, 2003) Complex City (no longer online) http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/gessler/167-2001/complexcity.htm"(June, 2003) Lots of Robots http://www.lotsofrobots.com(May, 2003) "Paper Sky" http://www.moai.it/centro/gab.html(April, 2003) The NEAT Comet http://216.120.96.70/news/modules.php?set_albumName=sol&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=slideshow.php"> (March, 2003) The Digital Photography of Karin Kuhlmann http://www.internationaldigitalart.com/guests/Art40/art40.html (March, 2003) VanGogh and Gaugin http://www.vangoghgauguin.com (February, 2003) Eric Myer's Photography (no longer online) http://www.ericmyer.com/stereotypes (January, 2003) NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod (December, 2002) Archive of Free Online University Courses http://www.dspace.org(December, 2002) MIT's course offerings, free http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html (November, 2002) Scientific Photography at RIT http://www.rit.edu/~photo/iis.html (November, 2002) Anticipation http://www.nadin.ws/archives/978 (October, 2002) Message on a Satellite http://www.keo.org(October, 2002) Columnist Mark Fiore http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/archive (September, 2002) Natural Car Alarms (no longer online) http://www.sculpture-center.org/pe_ce_des1.html (August, 2002) Meadowsweet Dairy http://www.meadowsweet-dairy.com(July, 2002) Bitforms http://www.bitforms.com(June, 2002) Andy Fould's Portfolio (no longer online) http://www.foulds2000.freeserve.com/uk(May, 2002) The Photography of Karl Grimes http://www.karlgrimes.net (April, 2002) International Space Station http://www.turbulence.org/Works/iss (March, 2002) The Miniature Earth (no longer online) http://www.luccaco.com/terra/terra.htm (March, 2002)(No longer online) Scrap Pile http://www.scrap-pile.org (February, 2002) Levitated http://www.levitated.net (January, 2002) Body Art http://www.amonline.net.au/bodyart (December, 2001) The Ink Spots http://www.group-harmony.com/ink_lbls.htm (November, 2001) Sodaplay http://www.sodaplay.com (October,2001) E Pluribus Unum http://www.ylem.org/artists/jpallas/EPU/EPU.HTM (September,2001) Avotaynu http://www.avotaynu.com/postcards (August,2001) Thunderbaby http://www.thunderbaby.com (July,2001) Virtual Fish Tank http://www.virtualfishtank.com (June, 2001) Superbad http://www.superbad.com (May, 2001) Bitstreams, at the Whitney Museum http://www.whitney.org/bitstreams (April, 2001) Roman Verostko's Epigenetic Art http://verostko.com(March, 2001) Is Anyone There? (Steve Wilson) http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~swilson/art/isany/isany.des.html (February, 2001) The Total Museum of Contemporary Art: Web Project 8 http://www.totalmuseum.org/webproject8.html(January, 2001) Paradise Now (no longer online) http://www.geneart.org/pn-home.htm (December, 2000) Lissajous Figures http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/!history/Java/index.html (November, 2000) "Sperm: The New Digital Art" http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,38454.00.html (October, 2000) Turbulence, espcially "Empty Velocity" by Eng and "Here and Now" by Crawford http://www.turbulence.org (September, 2000) Amy Young's Interactive Installations http://www.ylem.org/artists/ayoungs/index.html (August, 2000) The Jewish Museum http://www.jewishmuseum.org (July, 2000) Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles http://www.lauswd.k12.ca.us/janm/main.htm (June, 2000) Walker Art Center http://www.walkerart.org(May, 2000) Noise (no longer online) http://www.kettlesyard.com.uk/noise/ (April, 2000) Eye4U Active Media http://www.eye4u.com/home/index.html(March, 2000) Judy Garfin Gallery (no longer online) http://www.judygarfin.com/gallery.html(February, 2000) The Font Foundry http://www.fontfoundry.com (January, 2000) Snarg Web Fun http://www.snarg.net(December, 1999) The Hunger Site http://www.thehungersite.com(November, 1999) eToy (October, 1999 - no longer on line) French k.i.s.s. http://www.afrenchkiss.com(September, 1999) 1200 Years of Italian Sculpture (August, 1999) http://www.thais.it/scultura International Sculpture Center (July, 1999) http://www.sculpture.org from Spain: the art of German Bandera(June, 1999) http://apex-es.com/art/bandera/home.htm Digital Landfill (May, 1999) http://www.potatoland.org/landfill Russian Art(April, 1999) http://www.stria.ca/Brochetain/permanent.html Hitachi NanoExplorations (March,1999) No longer online A Healthy Heart: Women's Fitness and Sports (February, 1999) http://www.phys.com American Treasures in the Library of Congress(January, 1999) http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tr00.html Web Museum(December, 1998) http://sunsite.unc.edu/louvre Hubble Heritage Project (November, 1998) http://heritage.stsci.edu
