Mixed Media in Evolutionary Art

Abstract

Mixed media in the real world involves the creation of works of art that creatively combine a variety of media on the canvas, for example, watercolour, acrylic paint, and photographs. We present an evolutionary art system that implements a digital version of mixed media. A genetic programming system uses a language that renders different digital effects on a canvas. Each rendered effect takes the form of an “art object”, and the tree defines a s et o fa rt o bjects that together comprise a final rendered image. Available effects include procedural images (textures), image filters, and bitmaps. A n art o bject is rendered onto the canvas via a pre-defined mask shape, which c an range from simple geometric shapes such as circles or squares, to com-plex paintbrush strokes and paint splatters. Fitness evaluation measures the pixel-by-pixel colour distance between a rendered canvas and an input target image, which acts as a compositional guide for rendered images. Various runs of the system have produced an interesting variety of stylized, mixed-effect results, often appearing as abstract “glitchy” interpretations of target images.