Shan Shui in the World · 世间山水
Shan shui is a style of traditional Chinese landscape painting. As part of an M.F.A. thesis project, the artist SHI Weili has applied generative techniques to produce landscapes generated from arbitrary geographical locations. In the case of the pictured scroll, Manhattan is transubstantiated into an idyllic mountain scene.
There’s a lot going on here: it’s a very traditional art style, but generated computationally. Instead of being about a peaceful place far away, it translates the local place instead. The generation was technological, but the final scrolls were signed manually, with seals and red ink.
In the artist’s words, it “underscores the contrast between the artificial world and nature” and gives the audience a way to look inward and see the shan shui of their present place.
The generation was built with openFrameworks and data about the buildings of Manhattan.