The Quantum Collapses project is at the intersection of art, science, and technology. It is an ever-evolving, interactive journey in the Hilbert space, where quantum states live. The richness and mysteries of this space remind our unconscious mind.

25 years of passionate scientific research in the field of quantum optics led to this work as a tribute to the magic of quantum physics and the forthcoming quantum digital era.

Abstract expressionist paintings often depict imagined forms beyond the visible world. They emphasize free, spontaneous, and emotional expression of the artist, while Quantum Collapses aims to explore the unconscious mind and personal emotions of the viewer. During our artistic research, we found out the Hilbert space is populated by a variety of weird creatures, ghosts, landscapes... How they are perceived is purely a reflection of ourselves.

Each quantum superposition evolves in time, generating an unlimited flow of new shapes (no loop). You may interact with them in different ways, but doing so, according to the laws of quantum theory, will cause their collapse. Once you press [m], stay quiet if you don't wish to collapse them all. New artworks emerge from the interplay between the user, unitary evolution, and quantum randomness.

A LIVING ARTWORK
Quantum Collapses will undergo some evolutionary steps. At some point, all the outputs will display new animations on monthly basis. However, we believe in the power and beauty of memories and of history. It will always be possible to retrieve previous animations.

NOTES
The owners of the first 32 editions, minted after unpausing, can receive up to four additional signed prints of new images or grids of their edition chosen by them. Details can be found on the project website.

CONTROLS:
[mouse click]: Clicking on the shapes cause their collapse/reset
[mouse click]: Clicking on background toggles play/pause
[long press]: Hold mouse button down to reset all
[space] or [p]: Play/Pause
[i]: Reset all
[s]: Screenshot
[m]: Activates the microphone to enable interaction by sound

Quantum Collapses

Paths is an animated journey across various subterranean and aboveground environments. To fully experience the project, you need to see it in high resolution with a capable GPU. Make sure that your browser uses your dedicated graphics card if any, and that you get a good frame rate. Control keys: 1-4 (change speed), 9 (fill aspect ratio), 0 (original aspect ratio), space-bar (play/pause)

Paths

When thinking about community, we could observe the differences and things in common. There is a purpose for us to be together. It influences our behavior, identities, and choices. The diversity of shapes, colors, and combinations in this work is the metaphor for how we are connected and how these connections influence a complex web, which is represented here in this form that resembles a beehive. Bees have an enormous sense of community, a behavior essential for their survival. In this work, a single feature can radically alter the perception of form as a whole. The work contains eight possible shapes: random, stars, hexagons, triangles, arrows, trapezoids, diamonds, and flags. These shapes can be arranged following a random flow, rotating, or pointing to the center. Moreover, they can vary in size, spacing, and color. The color palettes correspond to edition groups. As a generative artwork, beauty arises from a mixture of all diversity. Charity: 25% of initial sales were donated to Lanchonete<>Lanchonete lanchonetelanchonete.com - promoting greater justice and social well-being for children and family members living nearby Providência, first Favela in Brazil.

Mathematics goes deeper than we are taught. The square roots of negative numbers point us towards the shallows of an abyss, as the simple number line expands into the complex plane. Stranger still, that plane is INHABITED, filled with microbe-like entities, among others, waiting to be reified by the right algorithmic invocation. Each work in this apeirographic series is at once a dynamic work of art and an interactive instrument of insight into some of the biomorphic inhabitants of the mathematical realm. Touch the centre to pause and resume the dynamic aspects of the Thereidoscope. Touch the top and bottom to zoom into and out of the biomorphs shown, and the sides to reset the zoom level. Every Thereidoscope is a work of generative fine art and a thoughtful example of slow art, aiming to intertwine the benefits of static and dynamic works, creating an ever-changing experience tempered by aesthetic cohesion that offers something new every time one looks, but without loudly demanding constant attention.  Being resolution, aspect ratio, and framerate independent, Thereidoscopes offer a visually consistent experience on different devices and screen sizes; but are intended to be experienced on large, high resolution displays as long-term/permanent installation pieces.

Thereidoscope

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.

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