“A particular order can be found in deepest space, in our oceans and forests, and in all living things, including ourselves – a unified code producing endless variation.  Gravity and cosmic winds shape star-forming nebulas into coral-like forms.  Flowers self-organize in radial symmetry with signals hidden from the human eye.  Stars are birthed, explode, collapse, and are reborn.  Invertebrates move on the tides of oceans, signaling with ever-changing bioluminescence.  Light bends time as events unfold in our own lives.” 

Cosmic Reef reflects on the ordered randomness in nature, capable of producing beauty and symmetry.  The individual works begin with a simple geometry that becomes more complex through composed dynamic layers, each born of a combination of human control and computational chance.  

Leo Villareal creates intricate sculptures that speak to the underlying rules and structures of systems for both gallery and public settings.  He is interested in exploring ways to express this through base units such as pixels and binary code.  Villareal is most known for two monumental public artworks: The Bay Lights, a site-specific light sculpture that occupies the entire western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and Illuminated River, a series of generative light sculptures installed on nine bridges over the River Thames in London.

CONTROLS:

“Z”: Journey along the Z-axis   

Cosmic Reef is graphics intensive & requires a WebGL2-enabled browser.


Cosmic Reef

LoVid’s signature video work mixes handmade analog synthesizers with digital tools in immersive Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) compositions that celebrate luminosity, chaos, relationships between craft and engineering, and connections between body and tech.
 
Tide Predictor, LoVid’s first onchain generative work, builds a bridge from video synthesizer patches to algorithmic code-derived imagery. This collection is formally and technically inspired by hardware-based image generation, and places experimental moving-image, circuit boards, and electrical signal-based video art at the conceptual roots of generative art.

Tide Predictor is a modular video synthesizer patch model, designed to reflect the analog spirit by working with three channels: RGB. Tide Predictor reimagines NTSC-encoded, oscillator driven electrical current based video synthesis while adding digital randomness/unpredictability, and transformations based on code, along with each mint’s unique content.
 
In the late 19th century, mechanical analog computers used rhythm and repetition to anticipate the rise and fall of water levels. In addition to “tides”, which are low frequency oscillations of the ocean, higher frequency changes or “waves” are frequently discussed in reference to both water and electrical signals. By working with looping - and explicitly addressing the period (=1/frequency) for each RGB color - Tide Predictor extends analogies between the flow of water and the flow of electricity.

LoVid’s Tide Predictor brings these relationships from the blockchain, through your screen, straight to your retina!

Tide Predictor

Elementals is inspired by physical printmaking techniques and early Bauhaus principles. It starts with a few basic coloured shapes and arranges them in varying frequencies, sizes, and positions based on a unique transaction hash. Multiple overlaid variable grids allow for myriad layouts and opportunities for colour interaction. The goal is to create pieces that feel both intentional in composition and part of the same family.

Elementals

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 ██▀███   ▄▄▄        ██████ ▄▄▄█████▓▓█████  ██▀███  
▓██ ▒ ██▒▒████▄    ▒██    ▒ ▓  ██▒ ▓▒▓█   ▀ ▓██ ▒ ██▒
▓██ ░▄█ ▒▒██  ▀█▄  ░ ▓██▄   ▒ ▓██░ ▒░▒███   ▓██ ░▄█ ▒
▒██▀▀█▄  ░██▄▄▄▄██   ▒   ██▒░ ▓██▓ ░ ▒▓█  ▄ ▒██▀▀█▄  
░██▓ ▒██▒ ▓█   ▓██▒▒██████▒▒  ▒██▒ ░ ░▒████▒░██▓ ▒██▒
░ ▒▓ ░▒▓░ ▒▒   ▓▒█░▒ ▒▓▒ ▒ ░  ▒ ░░   ░░ ▒░ ░░ ▒▓ ░▒▓░
  ░▒ ░ ▒░  ▒   ▒▒ ░░ ░▒  ░ ░    ░     ░ ░  ░  ░▒ ░ ▒░
                                              
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```

*Screens no longer only frame and display virtual spacetime. Connected together and surrounding us on all sides, their framings and displays have also opened, activated, and added another spatiotemporal dimension to the four in which all of us live.*
—Vivian Sobchack, *From Screen-Scape to Screen-Sphere: A Meditation in Medias Res*

An exploration of a technical concept I call "pixel overpainting."

Rasterized procedural brush strokes with low transparency slowly layer themselves over each other in a rhythmic loop until they achieve colorful equilibrium. They continue to overpaint themselves endlessly. The resulting color mixtures are then quantized and dithered to separate them into patches of pixels that recall the discrete materiality of the screen: a strictly digital variation on color field painting. The resulting texture is not a skeuomorphic grain but an overt reference to the universe of screens that surround us every day. Electric light arranged in a grid, fluttering and flickering everywhere all the time.

Please allow a few minutes for the colors to reach equilibrium.
For best results use Chrome browser with enabled webGL and hardware acceleration. Though it is encouraged to explore the subtleties in viewing the same pixels on different hardware and software to reflect on the subjectivity of contemporary computer graphics and the materiality of CPUs, GPUs, resolutions, pixel densities, browser APIs, and other medium-specific entropy.

Press '1', '2', '4', '8' to change pixel sizes.
Press 'p' or click canvas to pause/resume.
Press 's' to grab a still frame.
Press 'r' to re-paint.

Collectors will be eligible to receive a signed giclée print of a still frame of their mint as well as high-resolution looping media in GIF or lossless video format.
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```

RASTER

"Edifice" is a series of 976 massive, deteriorating structures built on strange terrain. It is an exploration of buildings being conceptualized, constructed, and eroded away under a wide variety of conditions. Edifice's outputs run the gamut between minimal and maximal, with some showing few large, static blocks of color, and others many small, highly textured and warped shapes. Each image is progressively constructed in front of the viewer's eyes. It is a system full of surprises that I'm excited to share with the world.

Art Blocks Curated

Cosmic Reef #903

Leo Villareal

About Cosmic Reef #903

Leo Villareal

904 of 1024

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Additional details

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