A study in reduction based around several repeating elements. A unique hash string seeded within each token informs the composition of the work. Variables include the color of the background, the amount of times each of the elements are duplicated, the set distance between each duplicate, and the coordinates of each element. Each token is unique.

Elevated Deconstructions

Watercolor Dreams is an exploration in simulation, a meditation on traditional techniques in watercolor, and an ode to serendipity. Where will this curve end? When will this shade fade? How will the movement come alive? Sit back, relax, and watch the colors wash over the canvas.

Watercolor Dreams

Abstract typographic elements slide together to create new characters. In some compositions, a single character is featured. In others, characters string together to form words and sentences, which the algorithm shapes into often-familiar layouts.

The type designer Gerard Unger said “it is almost impossible to look and read at the same time”. Asemica invites you to look without the burden of legibility.

Created by Emily Edelman, Dima Ofman, and Andrew Badr. Command-S to download a vector file. Live token best viewed in Chrome.

Asemica

The contemporary moment is defined by the appearance of artificial systems that mimic intelligent behaviours with uncanny skill: bots that you can converse with, machines that can act as pets, and even the algorithms that recommend ads to you. At times they appear as strange beings; alive. To make sense of this phenomenon, we are forced to reconsider our notion of the living state beyond what we are familiar with on Earth. 

Calian is an infinitely zoomable and scrollable exploration of lifelike behaviour. It exhibits ambiguous natural-digital forms in a dynamic rendering. Species grow and compete; they get carried by the elements; they face boom, bust, and echo. 

What makes something alive? To go beyond recognition of terrestrial biology we need to delineate general principles and apply them to new intelligent systems. Calian uses the fruits of my research into the origin of life to create persistent, complex systems that we can experience and study (*). We can identify properties of living matter but these fall short of a satisfactory and succinct criterion. When does agency begin? Or identity? Calian asks you to ponder this as you wander through its ecosystems. 

Feel free to explore but be careful: although life is pervasive, living things are delicate. Your interactions affect the ecosystem, obliquely. 

Calian continues a thread of my work probing deep scientific questions with artistic means. It furthermore connects to my previous Artblocks projects Mazinaw and Glass through the theme of ambiguity: while Mazinaw suggested the hand of an unknown creator, and Glass visualized the intrinsic ambiguity of our quantum mechanical universe, Calian's amorphous forms bear characteristics both of familiar organic matter and digital technology. 

Interactive features allow you to explore each ecosystem, infinitely, both in depth and in scope. As you wander, the shader repopulates the world from its initial condition, while the physical laws governing the dynamics themselves evolve.

See Display Notes for Controls.

(*) For more on Calian's dynamics and its grounding in my research, see the Calian page on my website.

Calian

A collection of on-chain, generative cumulonimbus buddies. Created using vanilla javascript, each unique NimBud features random wires, colors, eyes, mouths, cloud bodies, and more. Each with their own personality.

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