The original interview:

https://www.la-macula.com/es/entrevistas/artesania-del-codigo-daniel-julia/ (spanish)

https://www.la-macula.com/entrevistes/artesania-del-codi-daniel-julia/ (catalan)

Daniel Julià is a Telecommunications engineer, research diploma in audiovisual communication, co-founder of Pimpampum and lecturer at several universities. Both his study and his kitchen are like a laboratory. Of Swedish origin and living in Badalona, he experiments with ingredients and methods from different parts of the world with his own harvest. He matches data with time, code, space and images.

1/ What appeals to you about generating images through code and data?

It is something that has always fascinated me. Once you have the knowledge and tools to play with code to generate images, the possibilities are endless and creativity knows no bounds.

It's something I've actually been doing for over 20 years. Already in the 90s I was doing "experiments" with the programming tools that were available at that time.

Sometimes randomness surprises the creator himself with things he didn't expect and that can be visually very attractive.

Even in 1999 I received an honorable mention at the Ars Electronica festival, the most prestigious in the world in this field, in the net-art category for REaCT, a generative and interactive work that drew rectangles in harmonious shapes.

I also remember at that time doing a generative "game of life" for a project, with other colleagues, on the work of Joan Miró, which generated Miró's paintings from his forms. This happened when I was at the UPF as a researcher and at the same time I was a professor of the master's degree in Digital Arts. I have always followed with great attention all that is electronic art and especially generative art.

Since then I have continued to do things and collaborate with other artists such as Antoni Abad, with whom I still collaborate today, programming pieces that can also be considered generative and I think very advanced for the time, such as Zexe.

Realizing that you can have people from all over the world interested in your works is very motivating.

Then, with Anna Fuster, in our company Pimpampum, also for more than 15 years, we have done artistic and generative projects that can be seen on our website.

A basic component of generative art is randomness ("random"), it's what allows each "variation" of a work to be totally different and unique. And that's what makes it fascinating, because sometimes this randomness surprises the creator himself with things he didn't expect and that can be visually very attractive.

2/ Tell us a little about where it comes from and what Swedishforest is, the project you have in hand.

Projects like this often arise from an idea that develops in an unexpected way. This one started with the idea of making a generative image in svg (vector) format and representing a landscape, in the form of an illustration.

I immediately chose the Scandinavian forests as landscapes, because I have a lot of affection for them and they are the ones I know the most. The first challenge was trying to draw a blueberry plant using javascript and this svg format. From there the ball got bigger and bigger.

By adding many of these plants I already had the beginning of a landscape, but it was necessary to add other species of plants, trees, rocks, mountains, the sky, etc. Things end up getting complicated and I've been doing crafts for many weeks now. The code is getting longer and longer.

I think it's code craftsmanship in the sense that I don't use any image resources or references. Everything is drawn from scratch. Only with lines and polygons. It's like drawing it with a pencil, but with the ease with which the code can replicate the drawings at high speed and with the variations provided by randomness.

3/ Of all the experimental projects you have done, which one did you enjoy the most?

I have really enjoyed all the projects, otherwise I wouldn't do them. In fact, I don't get any economic benefit from the vast majority.

But I think a turning point for me was just a year ago, at the end of 2021, when I discovered the fxhash platform (where I have an account), which is precisely created so that artists can publish their generative works. This platform makes it easy for artists to “upload” their projects and for collectors, or generally interested people, to obtain them in the form of NFTs and experiment with variations of the work.

There are very interesting works and it has become a point of reference in generative art.

Seeing that you can have people from all over the world interested in your works is very motivating. Perhaps the most outstanding project I published on this platform is “string art generator”.

4/ What are you working on right now?

Well, I'm still working on this project, the forest, because the details never end and you need to spend a lot of time to be satisfied with all the (infinite) variations that can come out. The screenshots you see are still #wip (Work In Progress), but I hope to be able to finish it this November.

Someone said that code projects never end, because you always find things to improve, and it's true. They end when you decide. In this case I have made the decision that it will be finished when I like more than 95% of the variations that appear randomly.

At the same time I am also thinking about new generative projects for the future.

In the short term the next project will surely be something much more abstract. This is an idea I have from a very simple concept that I don't know where it will take me. I'll get back to working with pixels. I will let the topic of drawing in code (in svg) rest for a season, although I will surely return to it, as I see a lot of possibilities.

5/ What future plans do you have?

In the artistic field, I am thinking of other generative projects, because it is something I never plan to stop doing.

Code projects never end.

There are two topics that I will certainly touch on in the medium term, which are artificial intelligence algorithms and the generation of 3D images.

I hope to be able to make things that people enjoy while enjoying doing it myself.

Thank you very much, Daniel!

2 november 2022