Mike McMann

I have recently been awarded University Small Research Grant (USRG) award to assist in covering the costs of travel, lodging, and materials toward a research trip slated for next summer. I am currently investigating growth processes and emergence in the built environment, in particular, the correlation between urban growth and biological processes including Cellular Automata, Lindenmayer systems and Brownian motion. I create digital models of urban environments generated by programming that is based on these systems and from them derive videos, prints, and drawings for national and international exhibition. The research trip outlined below will allow me to collect photographs, video and drawings from the field as well as collect images and texts from archives to be used in the creation of these models and ultimately the artworks themselves. My department is excited about this work, and has thus far contributed funding for materials toward this endeavor.

I am an Assistant Professor of Art at Kansas State University, where I head up the Digital Arts area. My primary practice is in printmaking, drawing and digital art. My interests are many, including programming, computation, urban and labor histories, cellular automata, cartography, L-Systems, generative 3d modeling, and so on.

I work in both digital and analog processes. My tools include Maya, Vectorworks, CS4, Python, PHP, Large Format Printers, Steel, Rag Paper, Acid, Needles, Burins, Pencils and Ink.