Every year, Petaluma artist Jeffrey Ventrella composes an algorithmic animation for Earth Day. With the 50th anniversary of Earth Day upon us today, Ventrella offers this vibrant creation featuring music by Robby Elfman:
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“I think a lot about ecosystems, big and small,” says Ventrella. “I remember realizing that all ecosystems are deeply connected and that the largest ecosystem of all wraps around an entire sphere—it’s called Earth.”
Couple Ventrella’s eco meditations with his fascination with spherical geometry as well as some inspiration from the work of systems theorist and futurist Buckminster Fuller, and it’s (almost) easy to see how Ventrella arrived at his unique aesthetic.
“My only goal is to out-do myself each year — artistically and mathematically,” says Ventrella, who first began writing algorithms to animate geometry over a sphere in honor of Earth Day around the turn of the millennia. “I have found this to be a good way to balance my left and right brains, and to express my reverence for the planet.
Ventrella’s past Earth Day animations can be seen here http://www.ventrella.com/EarthDay
