*The mind moves at the speed of dreams.
Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!
I like to think of my brain as a hand,
palm of my soul, fragile nerve bundle.
I think about my brain as I hold my heart
in both hands — a private thing, a pulsing secret.
It fills my palms and bones with heat.
The world is full of heartbeat.
I am trying to hold it all together...*
    &nbsp; -- &nbsp;Excerpt from *STILL MOVING*, by Technelegy

**NOTE: To fully experience *STILL MOVING*, please open in LIVE VIEW and enable your webcam for motion tracking.**

The first project of its kind, *STILL MOVING* is an interactive poem about humanity’s visceral engagement with the virtual – written and published via the blockchain as a token word performance, and embodied by each collector as a uniquely intimate, personalized interpretation. In this epic on-chain ode to the relationship of bodies and machines, literal and figurative wordplay activates the liminal space between text and reader, extending the two-dimensional screen/page into a somatic, material realm where language moves us in every sense of that phrase – up, down, sideways, forwards, backwards, and in otherwise inexpressible directions – urging us to reclaim our dynamism and intuitive physicality in an age of technological acceleration, bodily inertia, and rote gestures.

A collaboration between Nathaniel Stern and Sasha Stiles – rooted in Stiles’ AI-powered verse and Stern’s career in digital, interactive, and networked art – *STILL MOVING* is an ars poetica about what it means to be a human body facing a machine: a showdown, a form of worship, a distraction, a mirror gaze, an other, an alter, an alter. After we bend to our technologies, do we spring back into shape, or assume new forms? Where does input end, and output begin? As we continue to think, work, and play faster than ever while rooted in place, it is still possible to be moved – *really* moved?

*STILL MOVING* also embodies the future of web3 literature, in which the book – read-only – evolves into a read-write-interact experience, and authors begin to adopt such tools as webcams and NFTs in their writerly arsenal. In each unique edition of *STILL MOVING*, camera-based motion tracking (data confined to your local machine only) facilitates a play-full and meaning-full interface between the reader’s physical self and language on screen. Human forms and gestures shape machine expression, and vice versa, cybernetic serendipity inspires poetic association. Make a move, and be moved… Stand still, and instill meaning…

Palettes pair paper, charcoal, and pencil colorings – emblematic of the stationery/stationary – with neon and electric highlights that nod to computational restlessness. Preview images feature lines from the core poem, potent standalone phrases, or rare, gestural graphics and images, caught somewhere between language and illustration, expression and wordless apprehension. 


**FUNCTIONS**

*Click inside the interaction area if any of the function keys below are not working.*

*Space Bar* to toggle Play/Pause the interaction and animation

*'d'* Downloads the current image at the screen/browser resolution

*Up/Down arrows* increase/decrease camera sensitivity by 5
(for use in high and low light situations;
0-150, default is 90; higher numbers = more text)

*Top two keyboard rows (numbers 1 thru 0 and letters q thru p)* also birth semi-mapped text

*'c'* toggles Camera use (if present and on) between keyboard only or both

*'v'* Views/hides the Verse (your poetry / your iteration’s text)

*'f'* toggles Full screen (Live View only)

*'s'* downloads / Saves the entire AI poem to the hard drive

Still Moving

This project is a visual representation of realities that are out of phase. Interference patterns, colorful echoes, and emerging secrets are explored. Mathematical functions produce constant motion, but rarely, a peaceful scene resolves within the chaos. Click or press any key to pause. *Photosensitive seizure warning: These artworks contain flashing colors and moving patterns.

phase

# Neural Sediments

## “Before objectivity, there was truth to nature; after the advent of objectivity came trained judgment”

Lorraine Daston, Peter Galison

Improving my decision-making process is how I would sum up my lifelong quest. Understanding yourself and the unlimited variables and actors surrounding us daily requires a radical yet utopian pursuit of objectivity.

A prerequisite to an objective observation is identifying and eliminating cognitive and observational biases.

My obsession with objectivity started as a sociology student; while studying epistemology of science and pondering the works of Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Popper.

This quest never left me and has been a cornerstone of my artistic practice for 25 years.

“The map is not the territory” is a mainstream expression highlighting a potentially oversimplified version of reality. In this series called Neural Sediments, inspired by the works of Alberto Burri, František Kupka, and Swiss topography, I highlight the complexity of our brains and some of their biases.

Looking at one Neural Sediment will deliver you a first broad impression; however, looking at it for a longer time will yield a never-ending and much more nuanced and delicate observation. Like Alberto Burri’s Cracks series, some things not obvious to the eye become real over time. Each Neural Sediment opens itself to the viewer in a unique way. The more you look at it, the more you can decipher it. 

Like Swiss alpine glacier sediments, this material appears only after a certain amount of time and a decent amount of gravity. Burri used a special technique to envision time with cracked canvas; František Kupka, in his Katedrála painting, opens the fourth dimension by looking at the vertical lines of the glass window.

In the Neural Sediments series, I used both as an inspiration to push the viewer’s eye to search for more details and a deeper perspective.

Choosing color palettes for a long-form generative art collection is as demanding as solving technical algorithmic challenges. 

The color palettes I create result from a process I've built into my practice over time. Each palette comes from my own algorithmic selection trained on classical masterpieces.

After this first selection, each set of colors used in a Neural Sediment is re-arranged to be linked with endangered ecosystems such as dark blue waters, peach salmons, rare botanic species, or volcanos.

Like Josef Albers, who highlighted the instability and deceptiveness of colors, my color sets are here to reinforce the question of objectivity in the art world and life in general.

Looking at its overall structure, each Neural Sediment evokes a brutalist architecture. 

Prioritizing function over form, each Neural Sediment aims to be used as a tool to rediscover oneself, free from the cognitive constraints we put on ourselves and the world around us.

PS: From a technical point of view, Neural Sediments require some heavy calculations, considering the very large number of intersections to compute prior to rendering.

PPS: Pressing the letter “i” on your keyboard will generate a high resolution export for a large scale and print friendly format.

Neural Sediments

The Caretaker awakes. After a millennia of slumber it must again usher its minions into the expanse. It must sustain. It must replenish. So it guides its horde out to the stars, visiting countless worlds to restart the cycle. For an eternity the cycle has repeated, minding and tending this garden of worlds. Now it is time for the garden to give back. This event has come to be known as *The Harvest*.

*The Harvest* depicts worlds that exist in eternal symbiosis with the Caretaker. We witness the spectacle of monumental chromatic beams as they impact the surface of these beautiful, alien bodies. The Caretaker assigns different constellations to each planet, giving rise to unique combinations of beams as they extract the much needed nectar. This project has been inspired by a life-long fascination for science fiction and space exploration. Aiming to capture a moment of awe, the beams reach to their origin, emulating a cathedral-like atmosphere in the vein of Hugh Ferriss, while borrowing inspiration from Micheal Whelan’s landscapes. All in the effort of capturing a sense of how small we are in relation to the cosmos.

*The Harvest* is built on p5js, and takes advantage of its 3d api. With the orthogonal view enabled, the algorithm uses volumetric rectangular units to create the stylised illusion of alien landscapes. Each beam has a position, color, reach and yield that is calculated and procedurally drawn over time.

The Harvest

There are an almost infinite number of ways to wrap a string around a set of pegs. On the surface it may seem like a simple concept but prepare to be surprised and delighted at the variety of combinations the algorithm can produce. Each output from 'Ringers' is derived from a unique transaction hash and generated in Javascript in the browser. Feature variations include peg count, sizing, layout, wrap orientation, and a few colorful flourishes for good measure.

Art Blocks Curated

Still Moving #3

Nathaniel Stern and Sasha Stiles

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