Para Bellum(*) is about the conflict of emotion and gut instinct versus logic and reason. 
Emotions are portrayed by color fields; logic is illustrated by words.
These two forces are fighting for dominance over the canvas.

Under the hood, ​​Para Bellum utilizes a thin language engine that was trained by reading dozens of books about rebellion and anarchy to generate (mostly) non-existent English phrases. An on-chain embedded font is used to render the familiar, readable letter shapes against the abstract fuzzy color fields.

(*) Para Bellum is half of the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. If you want peace, prepare for war.

Para Bellum 

Each Construction Token is unique and contains a randomized seed that determines the composition of the artwork. This includes the number, orientation, and placement of rectangles, as well as the color selections. Most tokens are monochromatic, with occasional light or dark variants. In some cases, the script will produce a token using complementary colors.

Construction Token

Translucent color bubbles playfully mix and morph to create organic and ephemeral blobby forms. [Shortcuts] spacebar: pause/resume, s: save screenshot, 1→5: high→low resolution. If needed, please adjust resolution or window size for optimal performance.

Bubble Blobby

Ways of knowing...
Ways of seeing…

I can trace the origin of *Pre-Process* back to a Saturday afternoon in 2003 when I was sketching—first on paper, and then with code. I began by drawing circles, then connecting their center points, and then placing the circles in motion as coded animation. At that time, I was focused on *ideas* and not *images*—specifically, on dynamic systems and the ways a set of elements relate to each other within an imagined environment. I was working through questions about how to experience these systems and what might be an ideal (or interesting) way to engage with them. 

The ideas and code from this session later became the core of much of my subsequent work: including the foundation for the *Process* series of software, prints, and installations and the more recent *Process Compendium* works. *Pre-Process* pulls these origin points back into focus, develops them with what I’ve learned in the intervening years, and puts them on the blockchain to be archived. I consider the project a Rosetta Stone for my practice. It asks fundamental questions about the relationships between process and end result, including: Where is the aesthetic focus of a generative system? Is it deep within the code or within the picture the system creates?

Ultimately, *Pre-Process* emphasizes experiencing the origin of the system and then transitioning with it as it seeks, but never finds, equilibrium. The system is built around Element 1, the first that I created for the *Process* series:

*Element 1: Form 1 + Behavior 1 + Behavior 2 + Behavior 3 + Behavior 4
Form 1: Circle
Behavior 1: Move in a straight line
Behavior 2: Constrain to surface
Behavior 3: Change direction while touching another Element
Behavior 4: Move away from an overlapping Element*

*Pre-Process* is the origin of a long journey that I’m still on. It continues to ask essential questions and to encourage me to explore possibilities. Through it, I came to realize that I was ultimately more a picture-maker than a conceptual artist, or, the way I like to think about it,  I’m a “conceptual artist” with a small ‘c.’ I want the energy to be with the system (the ideas) *and* the surface (the picture) in equal measure. More directly, the work exists *between* the instructions, the performance and interpretation of the instructions, and the resulting images.

Pre-Process

The universe in which we exist is an ever changing ebb and flow of energies that coalesce into observable patterns of repetition and harmony. By practicing mindfulness one can observe their part in this universal flux and achieve a powerful sense of connection to the whole.

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