"Seadragons" is a generative catalogue of imaginary sea creatures from Syngnathidae family. Each seadragon belongs to one of the real Weedy, Leafy or Ribboned species, while the patterns and the small leaf-like appendages are an artistic interpretation. The dragons are rendered in real-time allowing you to watch them slowly drifting in the water or moving your mouse to nudge them slightly.

This project is a continuation of my long term fascination with using code to recreate forms and patterns occurring in nature. By using a range of non-photorealistic rendering techniques I strive to document those explorations as if they were actual sketches, posters or biological illustrations of the encountered specimens. Algorithmic variations of their patterns, sizes, colors, poses, complexity and surrounding seaweed present in each artwork are only a minor drop compared to the diversity observed in natural environments. 

15% of profits will be donated to oceana.org for protecting and restoring the world’s oceans on a global scale. Another 10% will be donated to givewell.org.




Seadragons

I feel like an imposter. Pseudo-anonymous as *ippsketch* while maintaining an engineering career and family life. I live on the edge of two worlds, immersed in self-doubt. Leaning into each space, I bring a part of each world with me, but wonder if what I bring is enough. I question my identity while learning to embrace it. Art, after all, is made by ordinary people. And I wonder, does anyone really know what they're doing?

*Imposter Syndrome* is an expression of my seeming dual existence and my feelings of not being enough in many aspects of life. But I do not mean for this to be entirely prescriptive to the work and often see other interpretations and meanings myself, such as anytime I straddle the edge of something new, when I'm on the fence and making a decision between two directions of my life, or if I consider the shadow or light I cast in the spaces and people around me. These pieces move me differently from day-to-day.

This work leans into minimalism. As trends in generative art push toward the visually complex and highly technical, I find my current focus on simple composition and compelling structure. I'm also drawn to broken symmetry, which echos my dual artist/engineer life and is also what I consider to be a visual representation of generative art - design and order on the one hand, random variation within constraint on the other.

Color palettes echo those used in *Bent*. Simple and bold colors with stark black and white support. Pieces are rendered in a default poster size (3:4), but are also adaptive to screen size so that they can fit any display. The work can be interacted with by pressing the number keys 1, 2, 3, 4 to see the steps of construction.

Imposter Syndrome

INTRODUCTION

Voyager 1 and 2 have been launched in 1977. They are the farthest man crafted objects from Earth. It will take tens to hundreds thousands years for them to reach other stars and planetary systems despite a velocity of 17km/s... 
The on-board camera, mysteriously, sends back images of the remote planets and their moons...

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dylan Thomas (Do not go gentle into that good night)

ARTWORK DESCRIPTION

The artwork represents a planet and its moons. There is an important variety of planet/moons types, different perspectives (far or near the planet and moons), different space environments (stars, Milky Way, star clusters,  comet, eclipse, Einstein cross and ring, Magellanic Clouds...). A very rare Gravitational Wave affecting space properties can occur. Usually Monochromatic, there is a variation with the addition of one color. In "live view" use the interaction possibilities to explore a given planetary system...

TECHNICAL DETAILS

In the same way photons hit the CCD camera, tiny squares hit the canvas.
The algorithm is minimalist : pick a random position in the canvas and decide if a monochromatic tiny square has to be drawn or not (rarely, squares can be drawn in 2 colors). The light parts are drawn only through the absence of drawing. The whole complexity resides in the decision to draw or not to draw. Mathematical functions are underneath each decision, like space and time are underneath all of our world. 


INTERACTIONS

You can interact with keyboard commands or through URL parameters.
- press S : to save the current image in png
- press 2, 3... 9 (URL, add DP=2) : change resolution. Increase the value step by step. Can be very long to draw, but it's worth it for printing. Very High Resolution can be achieved. The file is saved automatically when finished.
- press L (URL, add liveMode=true) : to discover different views of your planetary system (images will be drawn one after the other, with the same parameters for the main planet and the space environment).
- press F (URL, add fitToScreen=true) : to adapt the artwork to any screen size (artwork is changed but parameters remain the same)
- press M (URL, add monoChromatic=true) : to force the artwork to be monochromatic
- press G (URL, add GW=false) : to remove the gravitational wave effect
- URL, add offset=<Number>, to offset the image production (same planet parameters and space environment)
- URL, add grainy=true, to change the size of the grain (useful for displays to speed up the creation process)

URL Parameters are added to the end of a URL after a ‘?’ symbol, and multiple parameters can be included when separated by the ‘&’ symbol.
You can combine "?liveMode=true&fitToScreen=true&grainy=true" in the URL for display purpose (TV, Art show...). 
Combining liveMode and DP for resolution allows you to save all the images produced.


EXTERNAL LICENSE

Voyager is built with p5js and a simplex noise library under MIT license: simplex-noise.js.


DISRUPTED STAR

I am a French astrophysicist (PhD) working in high energy astrophysics.
My artist name is related to an astrophysical event in which a star, a pretty common object in the Universe,  comes too close to a Super Massive Black Hole (SMBH), is torn apart and finally tidally disrupted...
The Generative Art plays the role of the SMBH that has changed my life in many ways in the past years...

Voyager

Simple rules - complex patterns. An exploration of abstract variation through generative symbols.

Hieroglyphs

Drifting apart as the little islands that we are, you may ask yourself
_What is bigger - the inner space or the outer?_

This project was inspired by the multitudes we keep within us. The harsh shadows and the combination of pure 2d rendering with a 3d effect mimic feelings of separation from the rest of the world. Their undetermined scale reflects the seemingly unlimited depths of consciousness.

_The Inner World_ starts its rendering from one or more circular cores representing the centers of our personalities. Each of these cores spawns various thoughts and emotions, flowing as tendrils through the scene, making connections among themselves or reaching for the outside. Their movement ranges from straight and orderly to (seemingly) chaotic, sometimes twisting the clean underlying personality center into a completely different shape. Two rendering styles (illustrative and shaded) with palettes ranging from cool, gloomy and serious to cheerful or dramatic reflect the variety of predispositions.

While waiting for the rendering to complete, look at the focus animation highlighting the circular cores of your piece. You're invited to spend this time pondering how everything you know, everything you have or will ever experience, and even the most majestic sights from stars to microbes fit into the space between your ears.

Art Blocks Presents

Seadragons

Marcin Ignac

About Seadragons

Marcin Ignac

Algorithmic edition of 1000

Additional details

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