A love letter to the beautiful hash behind the art. ⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑ (づ￣ ³￣)づ *:･ﾟ✧ 0x... ✧ﾟ･: *

Dear Hash,

What lies between everything else? A reflexion on scale, shapes, the infinitely small and the infinitely big.

Void

*NOTE: The first 46 minters (tokens #1-46) will receive The Rising Edition physical collection as a gift. Please see the end of the project description to learn more about this unique box set.*

As the temperature reads 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), the hottest on record in the spot where I stand, my shoes are melting into the asphalt and my vision is blurred. I wonder how we got here from those rainy springs and where we will go. The heat’s visible haze makes me doubt the possibility of future Augusts spent outdoors. It is in this haze that *chaos comes with the summer haze* takes form. 

My inspiration is from both beauty and fear - the beauty of the land, the water, the flowers, the beauty of paint and code, the beauty of humanity – the fear of panic and mob mentalities, the fear of incongruity and environmental collapse, the fear of humankind. It is from the obsessiveness, visual overload, content overload, and our aching yet hopeful eyes as we stare towards the horizon.

*chaos comes with the summer haze* is specifically aligned with my art practice, which for decades has attempted to address technology, climate change, human irrationality and human rights, while being unencumbered by limitations of medium. Whether it is dragging paintings in the ocean, writing a new constitution, or encoding this Project, all have the same goal - creating impressions that are pleasing while acting as guideposts or warnings. Here, I’ve ratcheted up the intensity of everything. The breadth of coloration, brushstrokes and variety of possible outputs push dramatically in a way only possible through the generative process. Many times, I feel the code taking over the composition with the intent of heightening the chaos itself, perhaps adding an exclamation point to the warning therein.

Visually, it is symptomatic of both human and earthly chaos. The earthly ‘gestalts’ are the seas rising and the clouds gathering. The ‘meltdowns’ are the human brushstrokes that feel panicked, despite being controlled. They are haphazard, geometric and duplicative. They obscure reality. The handpicked colors touch the rainbow of possibilities, but are affected by that summer haze. The ‘shadow frequency’ demonstrates content overload, duplication and machine learning, all creating further feelings of distress.  There are layers and layers of possibilities – of coffee stains, of visual heat, of faces, of ideas, of dimensional portals, of the future...

*The Rising Edition* 

The first 46 minters (tokens #1-46) will receive *The Rising Edition* physical collection as a gift, which includes:

* A unique print of the minter’s piece, printed on archival Hahnemühle German etching paper, mounted on 16” x 12” (40.6 cm x 30.5 cm) varnished maple board, signed and titled on verso. 

* A sculpture featuring a porcelain blanketed rock - discovered, shaped and fired by the Artist. 

* A limited edition hardcover, linen wrapped visual compendium chronicling the conceptual theory and production of the work, signed and numbered.

Please visit the Project’s website for images of the Rising Edition and further details on the Project.

*Controls*

p - for a high resolution (6000 x 7200 pixels) printable version 
s - to save the image as a png file

chaos comes with the summer haze

CELLS was initially inspired by the very particular shape of neurons. I then gave free rein to my creativity and explored many of the aspects of these shapes (size, branches, form, colors, style, position, addition of elements, effects, and other surprises) to allow CELLS to generate a large number of very different variations. All parameters are set based on the unique transaction hash.

Cells

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 #34

Jacob Gold

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