Prismatic explores color, refraction, and interaction. Every invocation is presented as a still image, but responds to keystrokes with transformations. Start with the arrow keys. Please note: This project is not presented with any features or traits. While features were used in the algorithm in order to introduce variation, each invocation of Prismatic is intended to be experienced as a piece of a whole. The project itself is the prism, each mint is a moment captured as we pass through it.

Prismatic

“Phototaxis” is a simulated environment populated by simple machines. After Valentino Braitenberg’s 1984 book “Vehicles,” there are four kinds of machines with different wiring and behaviors: Explorers, Aggressors, Lovers, and Cowards. Each line charts the history of one machine’s movement. The core of this code was the foundation for my MicroImage series of works dating back to 2001. I’ve worked on it in fits and starts since then, and in 2021 it was further developed for Art Blocks. Press ‘P’ to play/pause, ‘B’ for the big bang, ‘1’–’5’ to change the magnification, and ‘L’ to reveal the lights’ locations.

Phototaxis

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.

Through Curved Air

_Somewhere in a galaxy far away, a multidimensional being is looking at this clock and thinking about the impermanence of existence and the infinity of the universe. This art is endless and deterministic._ 

**Use full screen for total immersion.**

Controls: 

- Click/tap or use keys 1 to 9 to switch speed. 
- s = toggle starts. 
- t = toggle hyperspace. 
- Space = pause.

Alien Clock

**VOXΞL** is a real-time, interactive 3D generative art project. Each iteration is a collage of shapes, colors and animations laid out in a voxel grid of various size and complexity. The visuals are rendered on every frame allowing smooth animation and the ability to rotate the camera around the 3D scene by dragging and zooming by scrolling. This creates a more immersive feel, gives the viewer control over the artwork and leverages what makes Artblocks unique by generating all the outputs entirely through code running live in the browser.

In all my work, I seek to blur the lines between the digital and the physical world by making 3D digital sculptures that feel (and look) like they could live in the physical world. That’s why with all my artworks I provide a way to visualize each interaction through Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality interfaces.

In this project I tried to utilize all the technical skills I acquired over the years and used a combination of 3D objects composition, custom grid layout, GLSL shaders, perlin noise and custom post processing all powered by ThreeJS.

The features give a wide variety of outputs and rarity while retaining a common visual language throughout the collection.

---

## Controls
Click and drag to rotate the camera around the artwork.
Scroll to zoom the camera in and out.

---

## To View in AR
Go to [jeanvascript.com/voxel/xr/](https://www.jeanvascript.com/voxel/xr/) on a WebAR compatible browser like Google Chrome on Android and [XRViewer](https://labs.mozilla.org/projects/webxr-viewer/) on iOS and click the "AR" button.

## To View in VR
Go to [jeanvascript.com/voxel/xr/](https://www.jeanvascript.com/voxel/xr/) on an WebVR compatible browser and device like the Meta Quest browser on Quest 2 and click the "VR" button.

Art Blocks Presents

Prismatic

Eliya Stein

About Prismatic

Eliya Stein

Algorithmic edition of 218

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Phototaxis

Casey REAS

Through Curved Air

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Alien Clock

Shvembldr

VOXΞL

JEANVASCRIPT

Art

Company

Learn

Art Blocks Presents

Prismatic

Eliya Stein

About Prismatic

Eliya Stein

Algorithmic edition of 218

Additional details

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Through Curved Air

Jacob Gold

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Shvembldr

VOXΞL

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Learn

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