Simple rules - complex patterns. An exploration of abstract variation through generative symbols.

Hieroglyphs

Revisiting one of my first algorithms on the occasion of the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke. All artist proceeds from minting will be directed to *art meet science – Foundation Herbert W. Franke* to support the preservation of Herbert's legacy with ZKM Karlsruhe and technology education through RÜTGERS Foundation.

Rectangles (for Herbert)

﻿Abstraction is a complex abstract artwork created in several stages where each new element drawn takes into account the elements drawn in the previous stages.

Abstraction

A yearning. For places we haven't been or seen.
Seasons come, seasons go, and at times how the sun slants through those leaves on an autumn afternoon stays with us - we try to recollect that fleeting memory or imagination - an escape from the mundane. To places far away. 

Fernweh is a window to that space , spaces we yearn to see. And as in nature, lines are never too straight, colours are as bright as they come.  
Generative art that anyone can relate to - there's something for everyone in Fernweh.
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Why Fernweh?

Fernweh is an attempt to strike a balance between the Figurative Art genre, the Generative Art medium and NFTs. Generative Art usually has very measured lines, intricate designs and a very well executed, "clean" and “sterile” feel to it. Figurative Art on the other hand is oft full of “Happy Little Accidents” as the legendary Bob Ross would have said - a smudge here, a blob there - relatable and human.

Talking of humans, the most sold and easily relatable works of art, be it paintings or photographs, are figurative in nature and are of landscapes. With generative art, this is usually not common - there’s a tendency to lean towards the abstract - and yes, abstractness is beautiful, personally as an artist, I love it. That said, a lot many of us relate easily to figurative art than to the abstract. My personal theory is that humans are always looking for quick answers and the comfort of recognizable surroundings and figurative art gives it to us on a platter. 

Fernweh tries to create that perfectly imperfect mix. Figurative art through procedural generation. Palettes with enough contrast and colour to be the living room’s focal point, art that anyone can relate to - an NFT that, hopefully, will not need a lot of explanations but complex and beautiful enough to attribute value to. Oh, and with one additional render each to satiate that abstract lover in us.

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Features & Generation

Each season's palette is drawn from random combinations of nearly 100K handpicked outcomes for Petal, Leaf, Veins, Connectors,  Leaf boundaries, Bark perforations and the background.

The rendered output transitions through 3 phases - Abstract, Original and Etched images. This means that each mint has three different renders that change based on the Transition attribute. Some will change everyday, some in a couple, some in a week's time and so on!  

See below how to Interact with Fernweh in Live View mode (full-screen): 
- In full-screen mode, watch your trees render and grow into a grove.
- Click the mouse in live-view to toggle through the three renders (Abstract, Original and Etched). It may take a few seconds to toggle through the three rendered views.
- Undisturbed, the transition of the renders reverts to Phase Attribute values.
- Press the key - "S" - to download the render you want to save. 

Please note that the render is a bit resource intensive and may take from 1 min to 2.5 mins to render and load.

Digital Art Display Giveaway: 10 minting addresses will be randomly chosen to receive a Smart Digital Art Display and frame! Winners will be picked once the minting is complete (shipping costs will be borne by the artist).

Enjoy your three renders! 

Fernweh

How can intent be communicated when ideas are filtered through a pseudorandom number generator? Simply looking at the output does not make it clear whether a stroke is placed on the canvas because of a decision by the artist or by a roll of the dice. The artist’s hand is more present in the process than the result; they choose the algorithms, tune the parameters, and prune the features. As I experimented with my code, I held a particular idea in mind, but I was uncertain how it would finally manifest. I pursued a visual composition that made me feel a certain way, and the visuals I landed on communicate my feeling better than anything I can put into words. Through Curved Air is about the challenge of communication. Regardless of the medium, I can never be certain that the message I intend to send is the message that is received.

Through Curved Air takes inspiration from musical minimalism, where repetition is used to highlight changes in rhythm and harmony. Every output is created by repeatedly copying a single shape. Each copy only has meaning in relation to the other shapes nearby, and that meaning changes with the context around it. Delicate structures form and are subsequently obscured by further layers, and though they may be hidden, they still affect the perception of the final image. Clicking on the canvas will start or stop the looping mode, where the image is recreated in a slightly different way. New facets are exposed as the composition changes yet remains the same. Just as I spend my days trying to share my inner experience through my art, Through Curved Air uses each shape and each loop and each token hash to attempt to create a common feeling between myself and the viewer.

Through Curved Air also takes inspiration from the paintings of Joan Mitchell. I was drawn to her expressive strokes, vibrant colors, and use of negative space, all of which come together to give a more intense feeling of looking at a landscape than just looking at a painting of a landscape. Her energetic marks clearly communicate that there is a human being behind the art. The marks of generative works are often similarly representative of the underlying process, but instead of drawing focus to the artist behind the piece, they draw attention to the algorithm. To convey human emotion in the way I intended, I had to use a subtler algorithm.

The technical tools to convey this emotion are tools I have been consistently developing in my practice. I love making generative art because I can design a system where I understand how all the components work, but they can still come together to produce a result that surprises me. The algorithm behind the compositional variation in my earlier works Coquina and Primordial is one I continued to evolve, and it rests at the heart of Through Curved Air. In fact, I pushed it further than ever, using it to create the individual shapes that form the building block of each output. This emergent variation permeates the work and results in surprising images that more closely resemble paintings than anything I made previously. I believe the potential for surprise is key to conveying emotion through code. When the possibility space of the algorithm grows too large to understand, the mind wanders to the person behind the algorithm. Perhaps the human element is the struggle to understand, or the struggle to be understood.

Art Blocks Presents

Through Curved Air #3

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