degenerative

degenerative explores the relationship between order and chaos.

Each work begins with 1,200 digital brushstrokes, computationally arranged to reconstruct one of 37 watercolor paintings selected from the work of Sally Ohlsen.

Every week, each painting enters a new deterministic state. Strokes shift in color, position, and shape. Across 52 weeks, the works move between recognition and abstraction. At the end of the year, the cycle begins again: the same transformation, in the same week, producing the same image, forever.

degenerative invites the viewer to return each week and witness something breaking down, becoming new, and remaining strangely dependable. Some outputs become almost entirely abstract. Others appear nearly untouched. Things do not need to remain perfect to remain worth witnessing.

Forever degenerating; forever dependable; forever targeting perfection; forever falling short.

Sally Ohlsen’s work spans decades. Her watercolors depict farms of the Pacific Northwest, rocky coastlines, boats, and scenes connected to moments in her life. Her faith is inseparable from the paintings: present in their light, their gentleness, and the patience of someone who has spent decades looking slowly at the world and sharing what she sees with the community around her.

ryley-o.eth reconstructed 37 of his Grandmother’s paintings stroke by stroke through a custom differentiable graphics system and gradient-based optimization. The resulting works bring her physical paintings into a deterministic, evolving, and fully on-chain form—preserving their subjects while allowing them to repeatedly approach, lose, and rediscover their original order.

---

Companion website: degenerative.ryley.studio

Companion iOS app: degenerative (apple app store)