© Copyright 1999 Signwave / Adrian Ward
Autoshop is the culmination of over a year's work on many autonomous,
A.I., generative and 'creative' studies. It brings together many important
aspects of research regarding creativity, perception, notions of value
and/or authenticity. As well as providing a central focal point for a
'generative' multi-media system, it is parodying interface design and
(both traditional and new media) software development.
Autoshop takes the clean-cut, productive interface of a well-known
commercial software product (Adobe® Photoshop® in case you hadn't
noticed) and imbues it with ideas of self-generative, autonomous,
(creative?) influence and activity. Autoshop is capable of being both a
tool for generating digital images under (variable) human control, and
a play-pen for artificial/digital lifeforms, A.I. bots, and pseudo-chaos
systems. The output is entertaining, startling and thoroughly
usable.
Other Software
A new piece of software, Signwave™ Auto-Illustrator,
is being developed for Win32 and MacOS platforms. Auto-Illustrator is a parody of
Adobe™ Illustrator, and works with vector-based graphics, making it more
ideal for professional design use. Currently a development pre-release version (0.1d)
is available for free download.
Further Reading
Users interested in reading more about the processes involved
in the creation of Signwave Autoshop should read
How I Drew One Of My Pictures
and The Authorship of Generative Art
and possibly take a look at generative.net.
There is now extensive documentation of the interface functionality
of Autoshop. Please be aware that this document totals about 400k in
size.
Please enjoy this software product. Your feedback would be greatly
appreciated, too: adrian@signwave.co.uk
Features
Loads common QuickTime image formats: PICT/TIFF/GIF/JPG etc
Saves PICT format files
Extensible plug-in system allows you to download new plugins and install them easily
New plugins will be made available from this web page
Examples of plugins: Instant New Media FX, Coolify, Zoom Blur, A.I. bot finger painting (and more)
Examples of tools: Scribbling tool, thick paint bucket, Cigarette lighter, Wrinkle tool, Bugs add/remove
Creative palettes: Sounds (listen to your pictures!), Colours (Your Mac's favourite colours?), Text and Scribbles.
'Easy-to-please' A.I. happy/sad face (see how the bot 'likes' your image at any moment)
Autopilot creativity. Let the chaos engine draw your picture for you!
And much more.
Downloading and installing
Signwave Autoshop is available currently for Macintosh computers
only. It ideally requires a fast PowerPC processor and plenty of memory.
The application requires a minimum of 16 Mb memory to run, suggesting
32 Mb as standard.
autoshop-100.img.sit.hqx v1.0.0 (Macintosh PPC) 2,163,689 bytes
autoshop-100.sit.sea v1.0.0 (Macintosh PPC) 2,344,334 bytes
There has been a lot of positive encouragement to develop a Win32 port of this software.
If you would
like to add your voice, please drop us a line.
Any new plugins you get should be copied into the Plug-Ins folder where your
application resides.
Copyright
Written by Adrian Ward. This software forms part of a project for the
Media Theoretical Frameworks module at MediaLab Arts, Plymouth University.
Not to be exchanged for money. This is parody software and must not be
distributed as commercial software.
Distribution
As this is parody software, it cannot, under any circumstances, be
distributed in exchange for money or cash alternatives. It is also software
which is developed for the use of the University of Plymouth, England.
The software remains the property of Adrian Ward, Signwave, and
the University of Plymouth at all times. However, permission to distribute
the software freely is granted to you by the author, provided all original
files are distributed along with the application in an unmodified form.
For press/media enquiries, please email adrian@signwave.co.uk.
Legal Notice
"Adobe" AND "Photoshop" ARE TRADEMARKS OF ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED. THIS SOFTWARE
IS NOT ENDORSED, RELATED TO, OR CERTIFIED BY ADOBE SYSTEMS INCORPORATED IN ANY WAY.
COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. NO DELIBERATE
INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT OR TRADEMARK RIGHTS IS INTENDED OR IMPLIED IN ANY WAY.
"Signwave" AND "Autoshop" ARE TRADEMARKS OF SIGNWAVE.
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