An audiovisual series that explores the paradoxical nature of our over-connected world.

We are objectively moving more and more into the digital world. Increasingly connected through technology, and while it’s undoubtedly clear there are a lot of advantages to our interconnected world, it also seems to feel more dystopian. Soon we may no longer be able to realize what is objectively real. As if the more connected we become; the deeper we explore the possibilities of technology; the further we move away from the lives right in front of us. When was the last time you took time to observe a leaf falling from a tree, carried on the wind? Watched a beautiful sunray coming through a window? Listened to a gentle piano tune for a while? It feels like the whole world is collectively forgetting to enjoy moments like these. (Dis)connected tries to emulate the sentiment of those moments, while contrasting it at the same time with a darker, nostalgic undertone.

(Dis)connected is a series that invites you to take your time to really appreciate each piece. The visual artwork has soft swaying analog cables on a breeze,  with a play on light in the background, as if days are going by. Cables, for decades now have been used to connect appliances, transmitting either electricity or data. The cables in (Dis)connected are clearly connected to something and leading somewhere, but we do not know to what or where. 

The long form generative auditory work complements the soft swaying of the cables. At times the generated soundtrack is soothing, nearly meditative, at other times it becomes slightly off-tune and the sine wave changes. Forcing the viewer into the disconnected sentiment. The entire piece purposely glitches at times, disturbing both the auditory and visual state. Asking you to take a look at your own reality both in the digital and the physical realm.

For color palettes works from both traditional and crypto-native artists resembling the sentiment of (Dis)connected were incorporated. You may recognize palettes utilized by Van Gogh, Rothko, Picasso, XCopy, Grant Yun and more. There are also a handful of custom palettes that aren't related to other artists.

One of the artist inspirations for the work was Ryan D. Anderson, who creates incredible moody animations often accompanied by piano music. Ryan really has mastered the duality of soothing animation and music in a usually quite dystopian or nostalgic world.

On a technical level, where (Dis)connected is really breaking new ground is in the melodies. Most generative art series working with sound use none or fairly simple music theory. The melodies in (Dis)connected are created by first selecting one of 60 different scales (a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch) and combining them with one of 16 different chord progressions (a chord progression is a succession of chords). Every beat, the chord is matched to the scale and during the beat musical notes that fit that chord can be played as well. The number of notes varies per beat, per melody and per piece. For each piece there is a generative main melody which is repeated throughout the piece and between each main melody a new custom melody is generated. In essence creating a musical piece that can play into infinity, together with the animation, and will continuously sound slightly different. It's also worth noting that the entire work is coded in vanilla JavaScript, meaning no external libraries were used.

Most browsers don't support the auto-playing of sound. Once your piece has loaded in tap, click or press any key to start your (Dis)connected piece. As the animation can be quite heavy there is an option to set a "hq" parameter in your URL (you do this by adding "index.html?hq=false" at the end of your live URL), especially on mobile or high DPR screens (e.g.: retina screens), it is recommended setting hq to false.

(Dis)connected

We were succeeding at creating a reflect of the old home place in our new land. We hoped we had not re-created our mistakes.

Utopia

'Systems Madness' is a collaborative project by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton that explores what happens when reason meets unreason. Inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the project uses AI tools to transform literary language into a library of visual tropes, a translation of emotional expression into code. Together Hart and Blanton reconstruct the pattern language of romantic era wallpapers using warm, off-primary colors, noises, gradients, blurrings, layerings, and apply different fractal formations, repeated irregularly, pushing beyond the human desire to create order out of chaos. 'Systems Madness' is a mesmerizing interactive artwork that extends ‘beyond the wallet’ into our domestic spaces.

Exhibition Description: ‘Systems Madness’ from Claudia Hart is a conceptual artwork that extends beyond the screen. Collectors can interact with the work minted on Art Blocks, and they can also access a set of instructions for how to install the artwork as an interactive floor-to-ceiling wallpaper at home or in a public exhibition.

Artist Statement:
"Together we framed a question - what happens when reason meets unreason? The response: the all too human desire to create order out of the chaos of this world; and identically - the truth - that too much order can actually drive you mad!"

More information at https://madness.systems

After the allowlisted fixed price sale ends, there will be an auction starting at 1pm ET with a starting price of 2 ETH, and decreasing over the span of 30 mins to a final resting price of .1 ETH

The artists will donate a percentage of profits from the sale of this collection to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Systems Madness

At the shoreline, waves wash over the sand, sorting and tumbling the grains into troughs and valleys. Each wash of water alters the microcosmic landscape in an infinitesimal loop. Inspired by the unfathomable mathematics of this natural phenomena, we invite you to plunge into the purity of movement and transformation through the medium of ones and zeros. The palette and pixels are regulated by an algorithm designed to mimic the textures, colours and gradients of the high tide beach, while the edition of 745 reflects the number of minutes in a full tidal cycle. Keyboard controls: P=pause, F=fast forward.

High Tide

🐺🐵🐶🐺🐱🦁🐯🦒🦊🐻🐰🐹🐭🐗🐷🐮🦝🐨🐼🐸
Rorschach meets Pareidolia.   Spirit Animal meets Mood Ring.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
What will be revealed about who you are --- who you become.
What do YOU see?

's' to re-render at print res
'f' to toggle force node positions
'v' to invert vertically
'd' to toggle progress bar

Art Blocks Presents

(Dis)connected #4

Tibout Shaik

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