Timepiece is an exploration in objective and subjective time. Each Timepiece is a dynamic figure with different graphic and kinetic characteristics that give it a unique personality — from calm and subtle to fast and playful. The piece is a clock that runs in real-time, and the form is generated by the positions of the clock hands, which appear when clicked and reveal the underlying mechanics of the piece. The thumbnail of each piece reflects the time it was minted (in UTC). 

Timepiece

```
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
  ___ _  _____ _   _  ___  __  __  ___  ___ ___ _  _ ___ 
 / __| |/ / __| | | |/ _ \|  \/  |/ _ \| _ \ _ \ || / __|
 \__ \ ' <| _|| |_| | (_) | |\/| | (_) |   /  _/ __ \__ \
 |___/_|\_\___|\___/ \___/|_|  |_|\___/|_|_\_| |_||_|___/

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

```

A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original. They are used widely in architecture, product design, and perhaps most familiarly in user interfaces. Think: desktop icons like trash cans or notepads. SKEUOMORPHS is a meditation on this digital tradition. 

SKEUOMORPHS picks up where RASTER left off as an another exploration of the materiality of pixels and rasterized imagery. Here the study of pixels narrows in on the shallow depth of on-screen interfaces and the play of low-res figure-ground effects. Moments of skeuomorphism where the 2-dimensional plane of the screen becomes slightly 3-dimensional through beveling or drop-shadows are extracted and used as abstract painterly details. These elements that are typically used to make computation and interfaces more familiar become unfamiliar on the canvas, suggesting the possibility of an aesthetic between abstraction and realism.

SKEUOMORPHS employs recurring themes and techniques from my art practice: limited color palettes, low-res chunky pixels, dithering, and physics simulation. It uses a specific kind of dithering called R-sequence dither developed by Martin Roberts. Like traditional Bayer matrix-based dithering, this technique produces a patterned image akin to retro video games and early computer screens. In this project, the R-dither pattern results in a woven textile-like texture, which recalls the long relationship between computing and weaving. The canvas negotiates two scales simultaneously: that of the dithered pixel (rendered at 1/1024th of the canvas height) and the simulated particle that acts as a brush stroke (rendered at 1/256th of the canvas height). The two resolutions work together to produce a cohesive texture that is neither pretending to be a retrograde screen nor an analog material but something in between. Similar to RASTER, the goal is to investigate new avenues for digital aesthetics that rely on a combination of historical techniques and innovative practices.

Use mouse or touch controls to interact.
Press 's' to grab a still frame.

Collectors will be eligible to receive a signed archival giclée print of their mint.

SKEUOMORPHS

Renders Game is a note to myself on creativity.

I will often believe strongly in an idea, yet, once realised, and I'm confronted with the reality of the output, it leaves me unsatisfied.

So I take it apart, find a detail that I love, and grow something new from that tiny piece. It's a constant process of discovery. Eventually, I'll find a result that feels right — but only once it's staring back at me.

The name of this piece is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Orson Scott Card’s 1985 science fiction novel, *Ender’s Game*, as well as to the countless outputs I’ve produced during this creative process. In the book, Ender trains relentlessly. Only once he's completed his final exam (what he believes to be another simulation) does he discover that it was actually real — the final battle to save humanity.

In my own creative process, most of the steps along the path likewise feel like practise, with the satisfaction of achievement only revealing itself after the work stares back at me, complete.

This has been one of my longest running creative processes to date, having been re-written and re-conceived many times over.

It's worthy of the name.

## About

This piece treads a balance between the abstract and the literal.

The generative structure draws inspiration from cubism - procedurally generated curves of various complexity are grown, layered, intersected, and then broken into fragments of constantly shifting scale. 

Painting each fragment in turn reveals an abstraction of the original curves and lines, viewed through the algorithm's interpretation.

Each fragment is illustrated using prominent, simple lines - a nod to the literal. These are rendered using ink-like outlines and bold, loose colour application. It draws inspiration from contemporary ink illustration, balanced against the natural precision of digital tools. Not completely organic, yet not completely digital.

## Keys:

Number keys 1-4 - Debug views
Number key 5 - Re-render from seed
s - Download rendered image

Renders Game

Particles of light dance to create ephemeral forms that depict the formation of our celestial souls.

*Worlds Within* explores the aesthetics of the invisible as part of the artist’s ongoing research of light in motion. As various forces influence more than 500,000 particles in real time, a dynamic “stardust sculpture” emerges, each reflecting a spirit’s unique personality through forms such as swirling currents, dancing flames, glowing filaments, and neural pathways.

Building upon the use of organic form in *Bubble Blobby*, evocative color in *Glow*, and meditative motion in *Light Beams*, *Worlds Within* additionally simulates simple yet beautiful phenomena in the natural world like gravitation and chromatic aberration to reveal how hidden forces on the micro scale affect the whole in surprising ways.

*Worlds Within* is inspired by Cai Guo-Qiang's pyrotechnics, Thomas Wilfred's kinetic light art, and outer space phenomena. Drawing on these influences to create a unique visual aesthetic, *Worlds Within* gives the viewer a glimpse of the intangible: the stark black background disorients the viewer's perception of setting, scale, and dimension—much like James Turrell’s immersive light works—and draws attention to the center of the frame, where something mysterious and beautiful emerges.

#### Shortcuts
* **q:** toggle quality to lower resolution (default is high)
* **m:** toggle rendering mode to time-based rendering, some frames may be skipped (default is frame-based rendering, every frame is rendered)
* **mouse click + drag:** rotate view
* **spacebar:** pause/resume
* **s:** save screenshot

Note: requires a WebGL2-enabled browser and a decent GPU.

Worlds Within

Aithérios explores the notion of ethereality as seen through the transformation of our thoughts and memories.
Thoughts that emerge from our foggy inner state coalesce and become concrete by our minds. At the same time, memories that were once so tangible to us fade into the recesses before their eventual oblivion. Thoughts and memories share an intimacy within the labyrinth of the mind, sometimes they work together to cover ground beyond the horizon of what is understandable.


Art Blocks Presents

Timepiece #462

WAWAA

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