John Bacus

Bio [2003]
Trained as an architect, John Bacus is interested primarily in problems related to the generation and representation of habitable form. He has worked both professionally and academically on a wide variety of related projects - covering the spectrum from traditional architecture to software design. At present, John is a graduate student at the Rice University School of Architecture, where he is preparing the MArch. thesis he is due to defend in January of 2004. John's thesis work is concerned with the design of flexibly deployable structures and their possible use as dynamic public data repositories. Prior to Rice University, he studied under John Hejduk at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he earned a BArch. in May of 1994.

John is also a Product Manager for Last Software in Boulder, Colorado, where he works on the development of SketchUp for Mac OS X, an award-winning new 3d sketching application for architects and other designers.

Project Title
Drawing Lines with Simple Programs

Abstract
In this project, I explore a technique for drawing continuous lines based on the computation of various simple programs. This system translates the numerical output of simple programs into drawing instructions for a LOGO-like drawing machine. While the motives for this project are essentially creative, there are some visually apparent features in these drawings which suggest alternative schemes for analysis of complex strings.

Favorite 3-color Cellular Automata

Additional Information
Bacus, J. "Drawing Lines with Simple Programs: Some Artistic Experiments with NKS." Presentation at NKS 2004, Boston, MA, 2004. [abstract] [materials]