**Blind Spots** is a series of abstract intimate portraits that distill human existence into two elements, the hidden essence of consciousness and the tangible shell of personality.

These elements are represented in the form of a glass sculpture. The first element within the sculpture, akin to a black hole, is a shape that defines itself through the surrounding characteristics it draws in. This halo of characteristics, like a beautifully radiant glass cover, symbolizes the constructed personality. Casting light on these black shapes, shielded by the identities they exhibit, the algorithm invites us to question our perceptions of those we encounter. How deeply do we truly know the people in our lives? It challenges us to consider if changing the perspective could alter our perception of them, while also offering the opportunity to simulate such a change with the help of animation. Perhaps the nature of our identities is as varied as the angles from which they are viewed?

Blind Spots serves as a depiction of my mental journey, transforming abstract thought patterns into a solidified artifact in the medium of generative art. The narrative is inspired by the diverse ways in which we perceive each other, a theme born from countless personal encounters. From a technical standpoint, it steps into uncharted territory for me, being the first artwork to emphasize high-resolution printing capabilities while maintaining real-time animation, a central element in my artwork. It is also my first on-chain project, prompting a restructure of the previous workflows.

Visually inspired by *Iittala - Kaleidoscope* exhibition, which displayed a mesmerizing interplay of glass sculptures and light, Blind Spots features a gradient backdrop punctuated by black shapes that undulate under the influence of a transmission shader, mimicking the iridescent shimmer of pearls. The geometry of the glass cover is crafted through the algorithmic movement of two curves revolving around each other. To produce high-resolution images suitable for printing, a bucket rendering technique with overscan was developed.

Articulated through two elements within each portrait, Blind Spots presents a visual metaphor for a human. This duality also echoes our presence on social media — carefully crafted showcases projecting a polished persona while concealing the authentic self. Together, the elements form a unique character from every point of view.

## Controls
- [ click ] - toggle animation
- [ s ] - save the current frame as an image

## URL parameters (see display notes)
- [ ?animate ] - animation on by default
- [ ?fill ] - responsive version to fill the browse
- [ ?width=x ] - render image with x width
- [ ?print ] - enable high-resolution mode (eg. ?print&width=10000)
- [ ?grainSamples=x ] - between 1 - 10
- [ ?refractSamples=x ] - between 1 - 5

Blind Spots

Drawing inspiration from the intricacies of nature and the physics theories that model it, "Fluiroso" (derived from "Fluidos Ruidosos") delves into the mesmerizing depths of Fluid Dynamics. This is achieved by implementing an accelerated solver for the Navier–Stokes partial differential equations.

Initial density and velocity are placed leveraging Perlin noise, and a selection of up to ten random velocity sources are positioned throughout the area. Augmented by other parameters such as boundary conditions and viscosity, the algorithm embarks on a dynamic journey tracing the solver's outputs over time. 

The resulting animation renders a delicate dance of brush strokes where the fluid becomes painter. The culmination is a repertoire of abstract pieces that evoke movement and invite viewers to discern emerging shapes and silhouettes.

Once the animation pauses to spotlight the artwork, viewers can engage with the piece and press 'p' to restart the movement. While many pieces continually evolve, others settle into a graceful equilibrium.

Fluiroso

Immaterial is a long form generative series exploring synthetic biology and botany through a combination of algorithms inspired by natural systems, such as recursion, growth, fluidity and fractal-noise. Originally influenced by the underlying structure of fungi gills, the series explores a wide range of formations and life forms, referencing possible futures where digital and organic systems merge. Through an interplay of 3D- and 2D-aesthetics, each iteration of the series generates a unique tapestry of shades and shapes aimed at creating space for interpretation, rather then directly mimicking the natural world.

Although each individual output of the algorithm ends up as an (almost) static composition, the motion leading up to this point is integral to the concept and experience of the artwork. Like in nature, simple rules define how the complexity of organic material unfold from a set of initial conditions. In this series the viewer is exposed to the process of how a seed grows into a fully fledged organism, revealing the underlying rule-based structure of both natural and digital systems.

_Immaterial is best displayed on vertically oriented screens. To ensure optimal performance, please view the artwork in a modern browser (preferably chrome) on a computer with a decent graphics card._

Keys
[space] - Pause animation
[s] - Download image
[w] - View wireframe

Immaterial

*🔈 Click anywhere to start the soundtrack 🔈*


***Race Condition*** is a racing game where you're flying through space at rapid speeds and see colors and shapes swoosh by. 


The game-objective is straightforward: you accelerate and try and stay on the road, if you miss a jump or a turn, you crash! The script determines the properties of your spaceship, acceleration, handling and max speed, as well as the map layout, including difficulty, color composition, and available power ups.


Once the series has been fully minted, a highscore of all the mints will be created on [racecondition.art](https://racecondition.art). The winners in each category will be awarded an additional Race Condition Winner NFT. The categories include but are not limited to fastest spaceship, most difficult level, easiest level, worst acceleration, and worst max speed.


In *Race Condition*, the winners are not determined by your driving skills, but by something outside of your control, the properties and features of your mint. Is your level more difficult than the others? Is your spaceship faster? Whether you are a winner in one of the categories is not really up to you, so enjoy the ride and race without pressure! 

**The Controls**
⬆️ or **W** to accelerate
⬇️ or **S** to decelerate (and cancel Nitro)
⬅️ or **A** to drive left
➡️ or **D** to drive right
**Space** to jump
**N** to activate Nitro
**M** or ⬇️ **S** to stop Nitro
**ESC** to open settings

Shortly after loading, the spaceship will start to race the map by itself in *self-driving mode*, where it can't crash. As soon as you press a key on your keyboard, it switches to *driving mode*.

**The Levels**
Race Condition has 21 different map generating algorithms, each with their own set of challenges and difficulty rating. The algorithms take into account the playability in combination with the difficulty and try to strike a good balance between the two. Each mint gets a difficulty rating and that determines which map pool is used for the creation of the level. The easy ones requires next to zero effort whereas the hard ones require a lot of skill in driving. The Easy Medium Hard means that it can select map algorithms from the complete pool.

**The Music**
The music is generated by first selecting a scale from a set of 14 predefined ones, combined with two oscillators / synth configurations, and spread across an imaginary step-sequencer, where the hash determines which steps should be activated or not, how long the sequencer should be, what BPM it should be, and when it step into the next phase of the step-sequencer, which results in some very nice chip-tune repetitive tracks. 

**Notes**
On mobile, the spaceship accelerates automatically and you turn left/right by tilting your device. You need to grant permission for this to work, if you decline, the spaceship will drive by itself in *self-driving mode*.

Art Blocks Presents

Race Condition #0

Jonas Lund

Art

Company

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