Latin School of Chicago

Latin Magazine Winter 2019

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EZRA MILLER MAKES ART WITH CODE the visuals matched that," he said. What the audience sees is distinguishable images of the performer, but the software blends it, creating blurred and abstract images. "The audience gets to see an alternative version of [a performer] that is real time but controlled by someone off stage." A similar setup occurred at the Day for Night festival in December of 2016 in Houston, Texas, where Miller's live video was fed into his software and projected onto a 140-foot wall. "The video was of the stage, and it was almost audio reactive in the way the lights would change with the music, which changed the image and then changed my work," he said. One of Miller's most memorable projects had him attending the Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, in 2017. One room at the conference was dedicated to software-based artwork. Shown on a huge LED wall, Miller's piece was a simulation of birds flying and flocking in the sky. Actually composed of hundreds of black triangles, the flocks then morphed into graphs that displayed data, such as atmospheric CO2 concentration over time or world population over time. "It was a great experience to get to go to Silicon Valley and was one of my bigger solo installations," said Miller. He also enjoyed the intellectual process of trying to combine the flocking with data presentation. A self-taught coder who has never taken a traditional drawing or painting class, Miller's finished pieces often start with images that he takes on his iPhone or with his 35 mm camera using old-fashioned film. He especially enjoys taking pictures with film when he travels. "I always try to bring my camera with me. I'll use the prints in the future for colors or textures for moving generative works," he said. Two college classes that have come in handy? A photography class and an art history class, both of which may have aided Miller in refining his eye. To understand the process, Miller's code generates hundreds of images, one just slightly varied from the next. "The code is generating the output and isolates these stills, saving screenshots, if you will," he said. Miller cannot say why exactly he chooses one image over another. "It's intuitive. Some of it is what I think is beautiful or what is artistically interesting to me," he said. For collaborative works, Miller usually chooses 10 to 15 images or variations of images for his client, sometimes just to start a conversation about what the client likes or doesn't like. Miller also tries to keep an open mind. "I don't usually start out with a specific image in mind. The final work is a result of the process," he said. As a Latin student, Miller was always good at math. He took AP Calculus BC and AP physics his senior year. Ironically, the computer science program was beginning to take off just as he graduated. Computer science has since become a graduation requirement. Latin currently offers classes like Computer Science Principles, Honors Advanced Programming, Web Application Development, and Algorithms and Data Structures. However, he did take a digital imaging class and a photoshop class, as well as an independent study class with visual arts teacher Derek Haverland his junior year, where he learned to use code to make websites. " I don't usually start out with a specific image in mind. The final work is a result of the process." Ezra Miller setting up the screen for his software-based artwork at the Google I/O developer conference. Photo credit: @ezzzrrra via Instagram 32

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