Firefox Code, Visualized as On-screen Abstract Art

You’ve seen the Disney version of going inside the computer and seeing what happens, via Tron. Adam Marks has created an interactive art piece that visualizes the functions of actual computer software; in the samples below, code operating in Firefox.

calltrace

At the center of the work is Valgrind, a Linux-based debugger and profiler. Call data is fed to a Mac running custom OpenGL code, to turn calls in the program into visuals. The results are glitchy and syncopated, and strangely musical; you can see them in the video. There’s source code available, if you want to dig through it. The idea is to turn the operations of subroutines in the code into something visual.

VJing with a memory leak? Now that would be truly great.

Thanks, Adam!

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Create Digital Music » This Week on Create Digital Motion

[...] The SIGGRAPH show last week in Boston was host to generative art in which, finally, computers really can dream of electric sheep; if that doesn’t strike your fancy, try using Firefox code to create eye candy instead. [...]

August 6, 2006 @ 10:52 pm

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Jaymis

That. Is. Freaking. Wonderful.

Kind of reminds me of the \”Hackers\” school of What Happens Inside A Computer. It just needs a big pulsing square to smash each function block into oblivion whenever it\’s cleared from memory.

August 3, 2006 @ 1:44 am
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