Computer-generated Clean Energy Haiku

Peyto Lake


Here is what the three lines of haiku overlaid on the painting of Peyto Lake mean:

1. The production of cement is said to be responsible for some six percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Is there a way to have cement production absorb more carbon dioxide than it emits, acting as a vehicle for carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS
2. Environmental regulations may force development of new technology which will provide a competitive advantage by:

• reducing pollution
• improving  health
• overcoming problems inherent in the adaptation of green technology – problems such as:
• nuclear waste
• intermittent or bad timing of renewable (eg solar) input
• wind turbine noise pollution and higher costs

     3. Using the garbage: re-purposing, re-using or recycling (or the more recent up-cycling) materials which would be otherwise thrown out. ‘using’ garbage rather than just putting it somewhere is an environmental concept finally catching on across all sectors.

For the background illustrations (called haiga) to my computer-generated haiku, I have stylized some of my Canadian landscape paintings. 

On the road again

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Atacama desert

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The Atacama Desert in Chile is another South American location on 'the road less traveled' that I read about in the Globe & Mail and posted paintings of on August 26 and September 2.

When I first found the images this painting is based on I thought the mountain was very much like a Chilean volcano (Osorno) that I computer-painted in 2003. But when I compared the finished painting of the volcano in the desert to Orsorno, I realized that, apart from a similar near-symmetry and being in the same country, the two have nothing in common. 

The Atacama desert is just over 100,000 sq. kilometers of virtually uninhabited, vegetation-free, stony terrain, salares (salt lakes), sand and felsic lava. The Puerto Varas region, on the other hand is a popular tourist destination, has a wonderful climate, Lianquihue – the second largest lake in Chile, other lakes which really are "the colour of the lakes in Banff National Park in Canada!" as our guide on a Holland America shore excursion had promised, and rose gardens as far as the eye can see. 

Virtual Paintout in Utah

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Mossy Cave Trailhead

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in the state of Utah this month.  This painting shows one of the trailheads that line the roads that take you through Bryce Canyon National Park in the south-central part of the state. 

If you have a look at the link to this location in Streetview  you will notice you can’t actually see the water in the creek from the road – I’ll admit I added that detail after looking at the Google Earth view of this location. 

On the road less travelled again

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Colca Canyon

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

This canyon in southern Peru was also mentioned in the Globe & Mail article about lesser-known, but spectacular, sights in South America. 

More than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States, the canyon supports an impressive agricultural base laid out on hundreds of pre-Incan stepped terraces.

Colca Canyon reminded me of other paintings of the terraces found throughout this part of the Andes that I've written about – the Incan Salt Pans at Salineras de Maras  and the agricultural complex at Moray. 

Taking the road less traveled

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To a place less real

watercolour, crayon and Photoshop™

©2015 Charlene Brown

Last week I read an article in the Travel Section of the Globe & Mail about fascinating (and, in my opinion, very paintable) places that most of us have never heard of.

They were all in South America, and this is one of them – Potosi, Bolivia. ‘To a place less real’ is the result of running a more realistic painting of Potosi, with which I wasn’t entirely delighted, through my favourite Photoshop filter.  

I’ve sometimes wondered why the special effects capabilities of Photoshop are referred to as ‘Filters’... Maybe it’s because you can use them to filter out the parts of a picture you don’t like.

Elegant Clean Energy Haiku II

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In my first post on Elegant Clean Energy Haiku, I mentioned a plan to program a computer to write and illustrate haiku in a manner I hoped would be reminiscent of Norman McLaren of the National Film board of Canada…

Getting a computer to write haiku (well, a haiku-like non sequitur) is fairly straightforward. (Should you be wondering, Wikipedia defines ‘non sequitur’ as a logical fallacy where a stated conclusion is not supported by its premise and therefore the conclusion is arbitrary.)

Persuading my computer to produce an abstract illustration of the lines of haiku as it prints them, however, is a part of the project I haven't even started. When I figure that out, I’ll post an outline of the methodology. Meanwhile, here is a haiku example, overlaid on a computer-abstracted version of the painting of the Opabin Plateau I wrote about last week. I’ll explain the objective of these verses in my next ‘haiku’ post.

A ‘how to invent stuff’ non sequitur

Watercolour and Photoshop™

©2015 Charlene Brown

According to Leon Zolbrod, in his book, Haiku Painting, haiku illustration, or haiga, transcends the world of haiku poetry, revealing new insights that the poem alone, despite the inimitable expressiveness of Japanese calligraphy, cannot express. From the beginning of haiku development in the 17^th century, poet and haiga artist alike endeavored to eliminate every superfluous element and to attain an austere beauty, akin to that of abstract art, associated with the discipline of Zen and its emphasis on purity and simplicity.

Soaring out of sight again

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The other side of the mountain

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

Last May, I posted a painting of Lake Louise that didn’t include the top of the glacier above it.  

I hadn’t tried this before even though I’ve always thought the ‘topless’ effect evokes the precipitous nature of a mountain most forcefully, in Group of Seven Paintings for example. And I thought at the time that I’d probably try more paintings of mountains soaring out of sight.

This view from the Opabin Plateau includes the even more precipitous south face of the continental divide above Lake Louise – in my opinion among the most paintable string of mountains anywhere.  

Virtual Paintout on the Monterey Peninsula

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Golf cart crossing on 17 Mile Dr.

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is on the Monterey Peninsula in California this month.  I’ve certainly heard of Monterey, and was quite surprised when my first foray on Google Streetview was kind of dull.  

My daughter, who has been there, overheard my comment that it was quite nice but not particularly interesting, and suggested I try ‘something’-mile drive along the coast... it’s spectacular! And she was right. Click here to see the Streetview of this part of 17 Mile Drive.