"Invisibles" is a collection of generative art that takes you on a journey through fantastical cities and unreal architecture. Infused with a sense of imagination and wonder, aspires to be a visual joy and dream-like in its heart.

Inspired by the novel "The Invisible Cities" (Italo Calvino), a book with algorithmic qualities, this work incorporates several themes and concepts, from exploring new ideas, lands, and cultures to the interplay between reality and fiction. Like the book's exploration of Venice, the pieces in "Invisibles" are rooted in the essence of Hong Kong, a city the creator called home for nine years.

Each piece in this series captures the spirit of a different city, creating a beautiful and intricate mosaic of shapes, and patterns. The detailed engravings of architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries influenced its visual style while exploring the conceptual connection between engravings and code as a generation source.

This collection is plottable and aims to transcend the digital realm becoming tangible as an added dimension to the artwork beyond digital printing. Bringing the generative drawing into the physical world while turning plotting into the equivalent of 21st-century engraving.

"s" saves a PNG file with the current screen size.
"h" generates a HD 4K PNG
"v" generates a SVG file (ideal for plotting)

Invisibles

Quilted landscapes in homage to the desert. 51% of the minting sales proceeds from Patchwork Saguaros will be donated to the Nancy Rockland-Miller Scholarship fund, held by The Kent State University Foundation. To learn more, please check out my introduction blog post for the project: https://bit.ly/3tGPVd3

Patchwork Saguaros

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

**SCRIBBLINES** are a tribute to countless drawings that are being created every day during monotonous meetings and are forever lost in trash.

Almost everybody has experienced doodling (or scribbling) at some point in our lives to keep our brains active. The mental state of doodling is between awareness and daydreaming and is known to often inspire creative ideas. Studies have shown that this idle scribbling actually plays a significant part in helping a person concentrate and focus. 

There are many types of idle scribbles - *real world objects (e.g. houses, hearts), people, faces, squiggles, boxes and cubes, ladders and stairs, spider webs, triangles, swirls*, among others. "Scribblines" has always been my favorite idle drawing.  At the core of each piece is a pivot line, created by a random algorithm. This pivot line defines the shape of the entire art piece. Every additional line traces around the pivot line. Computer generated lines allow for perfecting what is never possible in the “pen and paper world” and thus make this, somewhat obsessive, exercise compelling to the perfectionist’s eye. All these become the basics for the Scribblines features.

**Precision**. Even with great effort it is hard to follow the outlines precisely. In scribblines, the lines precision varies from inaccurate (to simulate hand shaking micro movements) to robotically perfect precision.
**Determination**. In a real world environment it is unlikely to find enough time or perseverance to fill in the whole paper surface and finish these drawings. Due to this I chose most of the generated Scribblines to fill the whole screen. However some pieces are set to be finished as a 'bulk' shapes and not fill in the whole piece.
**Paper**. The backgrounds imitate typical types of paper in lighter or darker colour. There are few special 'sticky note' papers in the algorithm as well.
**Pen**. The most variability is produced by opening all possible pen options. Pen thickness can vary from "Rollerball - Ultra Fine" to "Marker - Extra Bold". The most variability is provided by variable line widths in one piece. Random line feature chooses from several line width possibilities for each single line. Thickening or thinning line features creates beautiful shapes with a fade-in or fade-out effect. A similar effect is achieved also by varying line color in some of the pieces.

Scribblines

Tens of thousands of particles are traversing the force field, leaving a trail in their path. The sum of their trails reveals the face of the eldritch horror hidden in a token hash. Some look like smoke, some look like tentacle-mouthed elder gods. What do YOU see there?

"Summoning Ritual" is an exploration of generating emergent pareidolia-inducing shapes using particles, symmetry, and a set of force fields. 5142 bytes of javascript is just enough to summon visions of ethereal beings.

Requires a WebGL-enabled browser. Renders in real-time. Speed and quality depend heavily on the canvas size (the particle size and count are functions of the canvas size). Keys l(ow),m(edium) and h(igh) switch rendering quality. Keys 1-5 control the rendering speed.

Any similarity to actual deities, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Art Blocks Presents

Summoning Ritual #43

PZS

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