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Gridcosm
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Encyclopedia
Gridcosm is a collaborative art project of the online art collective SITO
SITO
SITO is an online artist collective which began in January 1993, making it one of the oldest Internet-based art organizations. It was started by Ed Stastny and has been maintained by Stastny and a group of volunteers and supporters...

, in which artists from around the world contribute images to a compounding series of graphical squares. Each level of Gridcosm is made up of nine square images arranged into a 3-by-3 grid. The middle image is a one-third size version of the previous level. Artists add images around that center image until a new 3-by-3 grid is completed, then that level itself shrinks and becomes the "seed" for the next level. This process creates an ever expanding tunnel of images, the newest level a direct result of the previous level which is a result of the previous level... and so on.

To date, 300 artists have contributed more than 3400 levels (27000+ images) to the project.

Gridcosm origins

The Gridcosm was started March 30, 1997 by founder of SITO, Ed Stastny. The project built upon the ideas and experiences with previous SITO collaborative projects ("Synergy" projects), many of which were grid-based.

There have been many changes to the infrastructure of the Gridcosm since its 1997 inception.
  • Process of generating new level changed from manual to automatic after the first few levels
  • Software rewrite and move to database
    Database
    A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

    : mid-2000
  • After 8 years, the background color of the Gridcosm page is changed from black to white: July 2005
  • The ability for users to add "tags
    Tag (metadata)
    In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...

    " to current and past levels: April 2006


Grid poem

In addition to the images in the gridcosm, there is a text element as well. When submitting a square to the grid, the user adds a text fragment which becomes associated with that square. Before submitting the text, the user can preview any text that comes before or after. This allows the user to choose words or fragments of sentences, allowing them to "blend" the text of the poem if they choose. Hyperlinks can also be added to the submitted text, although this is infrequent.
  • An example of a completed grid poem: "When you find yourself plummeting, please jump right in clawwing the age haw if sis first time with the gimp, not as smooth as pshop and it goes like this, tirelessly toiling with trumpets and fanfare." - Level 2819 http://www.sito.org/cgi-bin/gridcosm/gridcosm?level=2819


Additionally, when a new level is created, there must be some "seed" of text for users to add on to. This text is created by an algorithim. In earlier levels of the Gridcosm this "seed" of text was not as random as it is now. Various phrases such as "groblin attack" and "this should have been something better" were often used.

Gridcosm Activity report

The details of the Gridcosm are captured with every piece added to the level and information about the work and the participants can be viewed using the Gridcosm Activity Report. A report can be viewed on the Gridcosm as a whole, with such information as the number of levels, the overall number of artists and much more.

There are also Individual artist reports which break down the contributions any given artist into categories such as number of pieces, average time between pieces, position popularity and much more.

Significant Gridcosm firsts


"Fly-through" animation

Since early in the project, there was discussion of creating an animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 of the levels of Gridcosm growing or shrinking, one after another. Eventually, Lenara Verle produced a high quality animation of the first 1000 levels of Gridcosm, which was scored with a soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 made by SITO artists. In 2005, this animation won an International Media Award http://www.goethe.de/ins/es/bar/acv/med/2005/de954475v.htm. A DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 of this animation will be released soon. http://www.sito.org/synergy/gridcosm/dvd.html

External links

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