Aesthetic Computing
Dr. Paul Fishwick, Editor
MIT Press (2006)

Aesthetic Computing on Amazon.com

Dr. Paul Fishwick of the University of Florida asked me to contribute to Aesthetic Computing regarding the Encoding with prime factors series. The chapter, “Visually encoding numbers utilizing prime factors”, documents the development of the ideas behind the series.

This page shows full-color versions of a number of the figures from that chapter. In the case of photographs, the actual photograph is shown. Images that I created are shown as thumbnails which link to pages with more information about the image. The captions are as they appear in the chapter.

Some additional comments and links to related information are also included.

For more information about aesthetic computing, visit Dr. Fishwick’s web site on the subject.

Note: The illustrations below are from an earlier draft of the chapter and will be updated soon to correspond with the final published version. — KAH (1 January 2007)

Figure 1. A close-up photograph of a succulent.

Figure 2. A close-up photograph of the underside of a fern leaf.

Figure 3. 2002.1, a virtual three-dimensional construction by the author.

Figure 5. 960810.01.

Figure 6. 99.13.

The patterning on the surfaces of the discs in this image is based on interference between two simple grid-based base patterns. The patterns involved are part of my Truchet Series and are documented at the following:

http://www.kennethahuff.com/Works/WorkGroupThumbnails.php?g=Truchet

Figure 8. 2000.15a (left) and 2000.15b.

Figure 9. 2000.24.

This image has two companion images, 2000.25 (left) and 2000.26 (right).

As a direct predecessor to the Encoding with Prime Factors Series, I created a group of images in which the numbers of objects depicted were based on the first few prime numbers. Rather than a single object representing a specific number (as with the current series), a number of related objects represent a specific number. 2000.24, 2000.25, 2000.26 and the image pair, 2000.15a and 2000.15b, are all examples of this work. Additional examples can be found at the following URL:

http://www.kennethahuff.com/Works/WorkGroupThumbnails.php?g=PrimeNumbers

Figure 10. 2002.12a.

This image has a companion, 2002.12b.

Figure 11. 99.16.

Figure 15. EPF:2003:IV:A:99,961.

Figure 17. A close-up photograph of a plant leaf.

Figure 22. Image EPF:2003:V:A:997,141; an example of a sequential encoding scheme.