Inspired by classic, mind-bending mid century cartoons, Haywire Café uses distorted patterns and dramatic shadows to create a surreal, nostalgic vibe. 

Haywire Café endeavors to honor the masters of animation whose works were so deeply influential to me. This series combines sleek retro-futuristic elements with fluid, organic forms and bold colors to transport the viewer to a world where the laws of cartoon physics prevail. 

The series is animated by default, but requires a desktop browser for best performance. Click to toggle the animation on or off.

Haywire Café 

Rituals combines generative music and generative artwork to create 1000 unique windows into a singular parametric universe. The music and art are crafted to infinitely evolve, giving collectors a subtly new experience upon each viewing. If left running, a single Ritual will continue generating music and art without repeating for ~9 million years. We invite you to hold space for yourself and enjoy a moment of mindful stillness. The first 200 were minted in real life at Bright Moments in Venice, CA, USA in September 2021.

Best experienced on modern equipment. Click to start.

Artwork by Aaron Penne (@aaronpenne), music by Boreta (@boreta), music system produced by Counterpoint (ctpt.co).

Rituals - Venice

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

Cushions brings together image processing and generative art techniques. The latter provides the geometric structure, and the former creates the organic shapes. Every single pixel and its connectedness to other pixels are explicitly considered. Inspiration for the palettes ranges from digital illustrations and pastels to a nod to renowned artists and different ethnicities. The organic shapes and the textures within symbolize the beauty in our individual oddities. Some pieces evoke the semblance of fantastical dreams in starry nights. Some of the comfort and familiarity of home. Some of nostalgia and long-lost friends. Some of reasonable and grounded perspectives. Some of sparks, some of style, some of strength, and some of passion. Some of candy. Some of pop art. Some of modern interior design. And some of traditional Indian cushions, known as Takiya.

Cushions

Paths is an animated journey across various subterranean and aboveground environments. To fully experience the project, you need to see it in high resolution with a capable GPU. Make sure that your browser uses your dedicated graphics card if any, and that you get a good frame rate. Control keys: 1-4 (change speed), 9 (fill aspect ratio), 0 (original aspect ratio), space-bar (play/pause)

Art Blocks Presents

Paths #393

Darien Brito

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Jess Hewitt

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Jason Ting

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Devi Parikh

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