A study in composition using simple shapes and layout rules. When repetitive patterns fail, and the symmetry isn't quite right, the images are strangely evocative. Somewhere between art deco, pop art, and sci-fi.

Eccentrics

Many things in the world are perceptible but not visible. Some things we can only feel, but not understand. Some things touch us and move us deeply, but not physically. We can only confirm some things through experience.

Qi is believed to be part of everything that exists as a "life force" or "spiritual energy" that pervades the natural world. It cannot be seen, but in some paintings, the artist creates the flow of Qi to present a vivid world. Artists use Qi to show the presence of life in their artwork, and it’s also believed to be a metaphor for the energy that powers our body and spirit.

Metaphysics is a generative system to simulate an organic world, to make the audience feel the Qi. Every single object is gradually deformed, shifted, and rotated in an attempt to find a pattern in the chaos that describes the workings of the life force and constitutes a living entity. It is inspired by the fluent Tai Chi movement, Cloud Hand. It develops with organic rotations and movements, like practicing Tai Chi on the canvas which makes the generative system alive.

That movement composes this piece, and once we feel the invisible vital life force by the physics of the algorithm, could we say it is a process of metaphysics?

This project uses p5js.

Press [S] to download a high resolution jpeg.
Press [A] to see the slow animation.
Press [R] to download the animation.
Press [B] to switch border/borderless mode.

Metaphysics

Tropism is the phenomenon in which an organism's growth is influenced by environmental stimuli. Organisms of all shapes, sizes, and colors encounter varying amounts of external forces as they grow. These environmental stimuli are internalized, and the marks they leave end up being the defining characteristics of a life.

Tropism

Faceless is inspired by the refugee and immigrant experience. It pays homage to the individuals that have helped over 25 million refugees flee their homeland to find peace and safety elsewhere. Oftentimes, as was the case with my family, it takes the bravery and generosity of a community of individuals, some whose faces will never be known to you, to have the opportunity to reach true freedom and safety. Faceless aspires to share a story of displacement and resilience with the world, and, in turn, give back to the communities that help people in their most critical moments.

Focusing on 2D silhouettes, Faceless is inspired by the Bauhaus designs of the 1920s and illustrates raw human form in a reimagined, colorful, and familiar way. Each output includes faces that are uniquely mapped onto the canvas, meaning no two works will feature the exact same silhouette. Silhouettes are arranged, colored, scaled, and distorted to remind us of the diversity, beauty, and pain that can be found in each unique story.

Faceless

Initially worn by miners and cowboys, roughly half of the world’s population wears denim on a given day, and the range of styles is–literally–endless. A new pair of jeans might be acid bleached, sandblasted, stonewashed, or tie-dyed; it can have hand-sanded rips and tears, followed by visible mendings, patches, intentional paint stains, and more. In an epic attempt to crack the genetic code of denim, Jenim playfully but carefully observes and translates the warp and weft of denim into generative code, weaving unique iterations of irregular, distorted, or hyper-realistic textile crops.

Ironically, imitating aging, a pair of jeans produced today generates more pollution and labor than most average garments. In response, Jenim’s minted iterations go beyond wearables and into infinity. Each year that passes, the color might fade slightly; the rips might expand. Who knows what these artworks will look like ten or even fifty years from now?

Art Blocks Presents

Jenim #113

Orr Kislev & Alona Rodeh

More in Art Blocks Presents

Eccentrics

Radix

Metaphysics

Jinyao Lin

Tropism

Neel Shivdasani

Faceless

greatjones

Art

Company

Learn