System Worksheet · Computationally Yours

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What a system is

A generative system is a set of rules that makes work you could not have drawn one piece at a time, all of it recognisably in one language.

1

Inputs

What comes in: data, a drawing, a text, time, or nothing at all.

2

Rules

The steps, in order. This is where the identity's position lives.

3

Parameters

The dials: values you can change without changing the rules.

4

Chance

Controlled randomness from a seed, so any result can be made again.

5

Outputs

Many works, each saved with the seed and settings that made it.

The rules come from the manifesto. If a rule has no reason in the identity's position, question it.
You can explain every line. Codex can write the code with you, but at Critique 2 you explain each rule in your own words, without the screen.
Image generation is not a system. Prompting an AI image model, on its own, doesn't count. Your rules have to do the work.

A

Metaphor to rules

Day 6. Start from the metaphor you kept in the identity worksheet (Part H) and the lines you marked in the manifesto (Part E).

The metaphorIn one sentence, as you'd say it to a stranger.

The process, plainlyWhat actually happens, step by step, with no code words. "A grid is laid over the land; each cell is filled according to…"

Manifesto lines that must become rulesCopy them from the manifesto worksheet, Part E.

B

The diagram

Day 6, due by 3:30. Fill the five boxes here, then draw the diagram by hand on A3, boxes and arrows, and photograph it to diagram/system.jpg.

InputsWhat the system reads. If it's data, name the source and the columns you need.

RulesNumbered steps in plain language, in the order they run. Five to ten steps is usual.

ParametersThe values you'll want to change. You'll fill the full table on Day 8.

ChanceWhere randomness enters, and where it is not allowed to. Every random choice comes from the seed.

OutputsWhat one output is: an image, a set of lines, a form. Its size and format, for now.

C

Technique

Days 6–7, during the clinics. Choose the technique that best carries the rules. Mark one, or two if they work together. Each is explained, with a live sketch, in Computational techniques.

Noise and flow fieldsSmooth variation, currents, drift, terrain. Recursion and L-systemsGrowth, branching, self-similar division. Agents and simulationMany small actors following local rules. Cellular automataA grid where each cell changes by its neighbours. Data as materialReal records from the condition drive the form. Geometry and tilingGrids, packing, subdivision, pattern.

Why this technique, for this identityNot "it looks good". What does the technique do that matches what the identity believes?

How you'll avoid the defaultEvery technique has a look that comes from its tutorials. Say what you'll change so the result belongs to the identity, not the tutorial.

D

Architecture

Day 7. Codex as collaborator: ask for a plan before any code. Paste your Parts A and B where marked.

I'm building a generative art system. Here is what it must do:

[paste Parts A and B]

Before writing any code, propose an architecture:
- the files and what each one is for,
- every parameter in a single config, with a sensible default and range,
- one seeded random number generator used for every random choice,
- an export that saves each output with its seed and parameters in the filename,
- a way to make many outputs in one run.

Explain how each of my rules maps to the code. Keep it small enough that I can read and explain all of it. Wait for my go-ahead before you write code.

Same seed, same work

seed 41822 + params.json
→ the identical output, every time

Name every file by what made it

outputs/digital/
  007_seed-41822_cell-10_deficit-1.5.svg

What Codex proposedThe files and the main pieces, in a few lines.

What you changed, and whyThis is the first entry in your authorship log.

First runDay 7, due by 3:30: the system runs and exports. Record the first seed that worked.

E

Parameter table

Day 8, due by 3:30. Every dial in the system, with the identity's reason for it. This table goes in your README.

Parameter	What it controls	Range	The identity's reason

Eight rows here. If you have more parameters than that, you may have too many; if fewer than three, the system may not vary enough.

F

Twenty variations

Day 8. Twenty Variations of Myself. Run twenty seeds or settings into outputs/digital. How far can the system change and still be this identity?

Where it stays itselfThe ranges in which every output is still recognisably the identity's.

Where it breaksThe edge: the setting at which it stops being the identity, or starts looking generic.

The three strongestFilename and seed for each, and one line on why.

G

Codex as critic

Day 9. Ask Codex to judge the outputs against the manifesto, then decide for yourself what to keep.

Here is my identity's manifesto:

[paste manifesto version 2]

Here are my system's rules and parameter table:

[paste Parts B and E]

I've attached [describe or share] my twenty outputs. Act as a critic, not a collaborator:
- Which outputs carry the manifesto most clearly, and which least? Why?
- What looks like the default of the technique rather than the identity?
- Which rule is doing the most work, and which could be removed?
Don't suggest new features. Don't rewrite my voice.

Codex suggestedThe points worth recording.

You keptAnd what you'll change because of it.

You rejected, and whyThe identity's reason, not taste. This is the heart of the authorship log.

Three promising directionsDue by 3:30 on Day 9, with your peer group's review in fours.

H

Toward a material

Day 10. After Critique 2, choose your pathway. One medium is enough; no one has to make all three.

A2 pen plotlines, SVG, one plotter Resin objecta mesh, small and precise Archival printraster, colour, 300 PPI

Why this material carries the rulesWhat does the material do that the screen can't? How does it serve the identity's position?

What the system must output for itSVG paths, a watertight mesh, or a high-resolution TIFF. Note what has to change in the code.

The one-page production plan is due by 3:30 on Day 10. Machine slots are booked from Day 11; see Machines.

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Ready for Critique 2

Critique 2 asks: Does the system speak in the identity's voice, or could anyone's rules have made this?

I can explain every rule without looking at the code. At least one rule comes directly from the manifesto. Every parameter lives in one config, with a range and a reason. The same seed and parameters reproduce the same output. Twenty outputs are in outputs/digital, each named with its seed. Someone who knows the technique would see the identity, not the tutorial. No AI image generation stands in for the system. The authorship log records what Codex suggested, what I kept and what I rejected.

Bring: the running system, 20 outputs, the parameter table, the authorship log, and the week's log on one A4 sheet.

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A worked example

Anjana Rao's system, from the identity and manifesto examples. Abridged.

The deficit survey

Example

Metaphor

The survey grid as a sieve: each cell keeps the water that should be there.

Inputs

Annual rainfall for Bengaluru, 1990–2024 (CSV). One tank's boundary, traced from an old survey sheet as a polygon.

Rules

Lay a survey grid over the tank boundary.
For each year, take the deficit: the long-run mean minus that year's rainfall.
Give each year one row of horizontal lines across the tank bed.
Draw each row heavier as the deficit grows; years with surplus are drawn faintest.
Stop every line at the boundary. Nothing is drawn outside what was measured.
Write the year and the data source in the margin beside each row.

Parameters

Name	Controls	Range	Reason
`cell`	grid size	5–20 m	the scale a surveyor would walk
`deficit_scale`	pen passes per 100 mm of deficit	0.5–3	absence drawn heavier than presence
`jitter`	line wobble	0–0.4 mm	a hand, not a machine
`years`	first and last year	1990–2024	the span of the records

Chance

Only the jitter is random, from the seed. The data is never randomised: "no water I have not measured."

Technique

Data as material, on a geometric grid. Avoids the default by refusing colour and gradients.

Material

A2 pen plot. The pen's repeated passes make the deficit physical: heavier years are literally more ink.

Write the rules