San Base

Admittedly, this installment is not what most would consider a proper Seed from Hell; that is, dark and wicked. However, occasionally an Artist will come along that not only blows your mind, they alter your concepts of what you thought was possible.

Which brings us to San Base. Until tonight, I'd never even heard of the man, nor his art, or his Dynamic Painting software. That has all changed now, and I'll never forget the initial experience of what I saw. Perhaps for some, it will be mildly interesting, for others, somewhat fascinating; but me? well I'm blown away, pure and simple. The embedded player here, for some reason, starts on mute, so be sure and click the volume up on it:



His static pictures are quite interesting, but what really catches my attention is the moving images he's created. Here's the thing that really intrigues me about this Art: it is never, ever the same. This is a product of Sans programming and creativity, not just a computer generating some kind of set parameters. Once you have seen the moving image, you will never see it again, unless it has been recorded. It does not "loop" or regenerate. It is ever-changing, like a living thing in itself.



San Base was born in Russia, but has resided in Canada since the mid 1990's. At the age of 12, he was accepted into a Fine Arts school, which he attended until time for higher education. By this point however, he'd discovered a love, and talent, for mathematics. He then had to decide between one of the most prominent art schools in Russia (Surikov Academy of Fine Arts), or attend a Technical University and study applied science to become a cybernetics engineer. He chose science, but continuously painted when time permitted.

Over time he developed the concept of Dynamic Painting by combining his artistic talents with a distinguished background in programming. He calls it a generative art which uses the very latest in computer technology and algorithms. While computer-generated, -assisted art is nothing new, this particular form requires a great deal of skill and artistic talent to produce. Generating textures and imagery as large as 100Mpixel, with every tiny digital brush stroke and intricate nuance crystal clear makes it quite unique.

On his website, he goes into much greater detail about the creative process and the software/video card required to generate the work, even offering it for sale to others--for a very reasonable price I might add, considering it's potential and generating power. He also generously offers a gallery of literally 1,000 pictures, for free personal downloads.

The ever-growing and amazing deviantART website also features two of the videos I've featured here, and in DivX format (highly recommended for the best quality). His YouTube channel has several, but they are not very good quality, picture-wise, which is not surprising with YouTube.