A simulation of me sketching 100 variations of the same idea. My focus and attention to detail wane with each successive drawing as boredom, frustration, and feelings of inevitability begin to sink in. By the end I find myself repeatedly asking: What's the point of it all?

Pointers

Mind Maze is a contemplative and meditative experience, a wandering above an ever changing labyrinth, a cryptic message scrolling endlessly. Mind Maze explores the relationship between mindset and worldview, drawing parallels between communication and mental health, especially in these troubled times.

With strong references to the labyrinth metaphor, but also borders, cities and calligraphy, Mind Maze plays with shapes, colors and movements to create an infinite space reflecting our need to explore and find answers, but also the endless expanse of our doubts, and the barriers constituted by our language and our cultural constructions.

As often in my work, this piece is inspired by the hypnotizing movements of nature, trying to make an organic feeling emerge from cold geometry shapes. A reflection on how a host of independent, autonomous, different elements can come together to form a whole, a new coherent entity.

Mind Maze is also my genesis piece on the Etherum blockchain, which means it’s my first NFT project offered on this blockchain. It’s written in Javascript using the ThreeJs library. It makes extensive use of GPU instancing, via custom shaders, to be able to draw and animate all the shapes in an optimized way. 

- Move your mouse to interact
- Press “s” key to save a high-resolution still (5760x3240px)

Mind Maze

__*Implications*__ explores the symmetry of a chaotic system in motion. Each output contains a selection of geometric shapes that slide, twist, and resize over time. Their intersections divide the canvas into two regions, each with its own set of rules for generating mathematical textures. As predictable geometry and chaotic automata intersect and evolve, a variety of organic and artificial patterns emerge. Gradually, the colors and rules shift, and new forms appear. Through a series of carefully reflected changes, symmetry persists.

Each animation is constructed from large virtual pixels. By varying their scale, spacing, and alignment a variety of patterns are generated — ranging from a pixel art aesthetic to one with softer, larger-scale structures. Where does a tiny pixel end, and the emergent whole it’s a part of begin?

Building on the foundation laid in __*mono no aware*__ and __*Zoologic*__, __*Implications*__ continues the work of making the beautiful complexity of cellular automata visible and accessible. New techniques for optimization, color generation, and constraint selection -- along with simplifications to features and interactive controls -- place focus squarely on an endless and compelling animated experience.

__*Implications*__ is a meditative work best experienced over the course of at least a few minutes. Put on some music, full-screen the live view, and enjoy the show! What sorts of symmetry do you see? What sorts of shapes and textures are there, and how do they move? For viewers who would like to customize the detail level, frame rate, and other aspects of the viewing experience, press **[H]** to open a menu describing the available keyboard controls.

Implications

*Erratic : irregular in performance, behaviour, or attitude; inconsistent and unpredictable*

One’s harmony with the world can become severed while experiencing stress. Feeling lost or confused within a clouded mind, struggling to call upon a creative muse, defending your self-worth against creeping doubts, and projecting flashes of anger towards others. This torrent of bubbling turmoil can sustain by fixating on the moments of chaos, past, and present. Continuing to feed the storm in this way ultimately will lead to burdensome strife and a ravaged mind.

As a nascent artist working to hone my artistic abilities and establish myself within a historical art movement, I have often experienced stress along my journey. This collection captures these internal struggles as fragmented waves of colour arranged across a spectrum of relative calms, chaotic bursts, and winding paths. Each piece reflects a unique sense of uncertainty.

My intent for Erratic was to challenge myself to create a purist’s form of generative art, wherein a set of randomized values are shaped to be used directly as inputs into an instruction path that is consistent in execution and does not use branching conditionals as a means of achieving variety in composition, colour or form. By actively rejecting predetermined features in favour of shaping a domain that is acted upon consistently, I felt I could achieve occurrences of uniquely identifiable emergent design that I otherwise may not have discovered. The work begins with a euclidean coordinate space intended to render a smoothed half-torus which is then randomly mutated through progressive iterations of translations, rotations, polar reflections, slices, twists, and distortions. This pattern of operations produces a nearly infinite set, shaped only by the defined input ranges, from which each piece will be minted. Any knowledge of the instantiated values before viewing could not lead to any reasonable prediction of what will be rendered.

Erratic

“𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚞𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚎𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚜𝚢𝚖𝚋𝚘𝚕𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚜 𝚊 𝚋𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚌 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎, 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚞𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚢𝚖𝚋𝚘𝚕. 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚜, 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎, 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜.”

'Automatism' is inspired by the practice of artists where they are given a writing implement and a blank surface, and they go freestyle, almost mindlessly filling up the space with whatever comes to their minds and out of their hands. I've often wondered where a machine's mind and "hand" would wander given the same opportunity.

This project explores the age-old computer art phenomenon of inviting the viewer to actively participate in the interpretation of the visual output. The way "Sharp-E" draws the strokes is through a mix of various movements — irregular curves, straight lines, sudden changes in direction — in a classic random walk algorithm, while avoiding overlaps with previously drawn strokes. There are no pre-programmed forms per se, but nevertheless it can be common for the viewer to perceive images, symbols, meaning in the generated output.

So where does your mind wander? What forms, symbols, and meaning do you see?

Controls:
• 'D' toggles pausing/drawing or continues space-filling after the first stop (if available)
• 'R' reassembles the piece (This automatically happens every minute)
• 'S' saves the output

Art Blocks Presents

Automatism #265

Yazid

About Automatism #265

Yazid

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