Aesthetic Recursion

When I went to the Seattle Art Museum, I saw some art on the walls, so I got out my phone and photographed the art. At home, I printed out the photos and put them up on my wall. And when I saw this art on the wall, I again felt compelled to get out my phone and photograph it. Then I printed out the photos and put them up on the wall, right below the previous art. And when I saw this new art on the wall, I got out my phone and photographed it, printed out the photos, and put them up on the wall, which I saw, so I got out my phone and photographed and printed out and put up on the wall which I photographed and printed and …

With every cycle, my collection expanded. The works seemed to be converging towards some sort of aesthetic ideal, and after only 12 cycles most of the pieces were showing great promise.

Doubtless, in this drive towards visual perfection, the entire planet would eventually have converted into nothing but pictures of pictures of pictures of … and so on, had I not run out of wall space. And good thing the recursive art generation algorithm I got stuck in this time was only linear. I’ve certainly learned my lesson.