Writing Machine Collective Ed5
What you Read is not What we Write
文字機器創作集第五集
讀寫靈機：唧唧復唧唧
(2014)

Generative comic programme "Autocomic #1" was exhibited in the 5th edition of Writing Machine Collective in 2014.

Autocomic#1 remakes the artist’s daily six-panel comic strips, Gei Ger Gaak Gaak, published in local newspaper Ming Pao. The stories and the plots are computer-generated based on several simple “rules” and “formulas” commonly found in the comic strip format. All the source materials are extracted from a library of graphics and texts that is built from the artist’s previous works.
While comic production has been greatly enhanced by the advancement of hardware and software in recent years, very few artists and scholars are aware of the potential computer could bring from the perspective of generative art. Comics can be seen as a form of rule-driven art if we closely study its language and its relationship with the form. I believe, with the rich histories of generative theory in the field of literature and visual design, the implementation of such principles and creative practices could pose a challenge to the existing storytelling tradition and it could establish a new platform for the discussion of the evolution of comics’ language in the future.
autocomic＃1 is such an attempt to revise storytelling through rule-based algorithmic thinking. The process is based on an extensive study of comics’ unique language and basic elements such as image sequence, page layout, use of grid and theories of narrative. The creative process deploys images from the artist’s previous works which form the data set and library of , autocomic＃1, a writing/reading system.

《autocomic#1》是作者於《明報》連載作品《嘰嘰格格》的重新演譯。故事是根據這六格漫畫所常用的敍事格式與規則，由電腦程式衍生而創作。當中的圖像與文字都取自過往創作《嘰嘰格格》時所建立的資料庫。

「當電腦硬件和軟件正在不斷為漫畫藝術帶來革新的時候，很少藝術家及學者留意到電腦科技從「衍生藝術」的角度可以為漫畫帶來什麼可能性。如果細心分析漫畫語言及其表達形式的關係，從廣義在說，漫畫可以看成是一種由「規則驅動」(Rule-driven) 的藝術形式。建基於「衍生藝術」的理論於文學及設計等範疇的應用，我相信其創作原則及方法可以為傳統漫畫敍事的策略帶來很大的挑戰。同時，也為有關漫畫語言的發展建立了新的討論平台。」

Exhibition Info:

Writing Machine Collective Ed. 5
What you Read is not What we Write
Oct 2014
Connecting Space, Hong Kong

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