A Map is a score for a new world...
 
Maps is a generative script stored on the blockchain. Each mint generates a unique svg using a seed hash.
 
The initial inspiration for Maps was the idea that graphic notation can create a variety of different outputs for music.
 
This led to using sprites, a form of graphic notation that gives a sense of how things move without being animated, as the layout to explore each world. 
 
Each Map uses variable colors and patterns to generate different environments. By mixing 10 different elements, new biomes are named ( i.e. scorched forest, dune ocean, etc… )
 
These environmental elements are represented by color ( HSL ). different base and accent environments were picked to be mixed and matched freely. 
 
Maybe an NFT can be an instruction for something non-digital, too… The different colors are also matched with pantone chips so that each SVG can be easily printed.
 
The method for generating the pattern is called dithering, which is both inherently as much a digital process ( i.e. bitmapping ) as it is a physical one ( i.e. halftone ). The script uses a modified Floyd–Steinberg dither algorithm to approximate the light between each pixel and create unique patterns.

Maps

Long drives can be seen as a monotonous chore, or a peaceful solace. "Sonoran Roadways" is a prompt to see the road as a conduit for joyous return to places we find special. The project continues my reflection on physical and significant spaces, which started with previous projects "Stipple Sunsets", "Patchwork Saguaros", and "Speckled Summits". 

In these three prior works, I looked to capture the essence of the "escape of the beach", the "home I grew up in" of the Sonoran desert, and the "home I find now" in the Rocky Mountains. "Sonoran Roadways" continues this arc, reflecting similar active appreciation of space and place found in the transition of travel.

The style and technique of "Sonoran Roadways" is homage to stencil-like qualities of silkscreen printmaking. As the grandson of two artists who worked in the mediums of printmaking, paper cutting, and quilt making, I strive to incorporate the qualities of these mediums into my stipple-based digital paintings.

Additional approaches are pulled from my abstract experimentation in "Dot Matrix Gradient Study" with distortion and "digital misprinting" applied to the stipple matrices, but with a return to a figurative form.

Palettes used in "Sonoran Roadways" are largely inspired by Arizona's scenic drives and fantastical multi-colored sunsets – peaceful and familiar to me. 

"Sonoran Roadways" is a call to appreciate the potentially mundane, and get lost in the imagination of the journey back to somewhere called home or the fantasy of an exploration to somewhere new.

Sonoran Roadways

ÂPEX ~ is a generative landscape art project responding to the conditions of the Anthropocene, where the lines between what is possible and what is only imagined are constantly shifting.  Simplified circles give way to hyperreal spaces. It is unclear if at any point they resemble a landscape that one could actually inhabit.

At what point do abstract shapes start to resemble believable environments? Each viewer may experience this work differently, depending on where they draw the line between realism and abstraction, natural form, reality and fantasy.

While landscape art is traditionally understood to represent natural forms, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between the natural and manufactured. When the code runs its course and a static picture emerges, a thin barrier seems to be crossed.

The work tests out the limits between reality and hyperrealism, between abstraction and surrealism, blurring distinctions between them.

Created by Ori Ben Shabat & Ronen Tanchum

APEX

I find the patterns which emerge from the herding of sheep and the murmuration of starlings an apt metaphor for our own journeys of searching for truth, beauty and love while we're here. These pieces are best viewed live to witness how the path of these digital creatures' lives paint their tiny planet. ***
I behold the sleeping planet ​| Plucked from the sky | Rolled around in my hands. | “My Word formed it.” | Time worn, | Life stained, | Soil rinsed and washed. | “Our story in repose.” | Love lost, | Wanderlust, | Loud surrender. | “It must have been painful.” | Placed in my collection, | Delicate and beautiful, | When viewed from this distance. | Selah. | I return my gaze to the heavens. *** 
25% of sales above resting price will be used to fund The Playability Initiative whose mission is to design free, fun video games and creative digital tools to kids with disabilities.

Beauty in the Hurting

Small grids, large grids, grids within grids, some colors, lots of colors, inward motion, outward motion. 🌹 The work is responsive, it will adapt to any screen size and resolution.

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