In 2022, as I was experiencing my first year as a father, I was often asking myself what impact I would have on my son, and how much my actions will be part of what will make him “him”. I started a slow introspection on the subject, and at the end of the year, I released “Foundations”, a series that focuses on the origins of our identity.

“Tout tracé” is the second act, and its direct continuity. 
In French, it means *“All mapped out”*, referring to the idea of an all planned future or *“a ready made path”.*

This series is the counterpoint of this vision. 

Life is full of surprises, good or bad, and each moment will have an impact on us, creating our set of experiences, many of them involuntary and embedded in our existence.
As humans, we are in constant evolution and therefore, on a quest of identity; of who we really are.
We are surrounded by expectations : from society, culture, religion, parents, friends, family… A list of rules that need to be followed and lived by; but, at the end of the day, I believe that only our choices matter.

Like “Foundations”, the composition of “Tout tracé” is grid based: full of boxes expected to be filled.
But this series is about growth, evolution, expression and re-definition. It’s about fighting against the structure in place, finding our own voice and re-shaping our reality.
It is finding its uniqueness and identity that will be revealed through the millions of lines drawing each artwork, technically signing the idea of “Tout tracé”, that comes with a double meaning: *“All drawn”*.


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- **Press ‘S’** to export a still image.
- **Press ‘H’** to open a new tab of the artwork in HD (A3 format).

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Opening one output in fullscreen or in live view will run an animation revealing the artwork.

Tout tracé

When thinking about community, we could observe the differences and things in common. There is a purpose for us to be together. It influences our behavior, identities, and choices. The diversity of shapes, colors, and combinations in this work is the metaphor for how we are connected and how these connections influence a complex web, which is represented here in this form that resembles a beehive. Bees have an enormous sense of community, a behavior essential for their survival. In this work, a single feature can radically alter the perception of form as a whole. The work contains eight possible shapes: random, stars, hexagons, triangles, arrows, trapezoids, diamonds, and flags. These shapes can be arranged following a random flow, rotating, or pointing to the center. Moreover, they can vary in size, spacing, and color. The color palettes correspond to edition groups. As a generative artwork, beauty arises from a mixture of all diversity. Charity: 25% of initial sales were donated to Lanchonete<>Lanchonete lanchonetelanchonete.com - promoting greater justice and social well-being for children and family members living nearby Providência, first Favela in Brazil.

A symphony of nothing but squares and triangles to create something beautiful.

Squares and Triangles

Departing from generative art’s focus on the size and variety of algorithmic outputs, Coalition contains just 36 geometric creations. Every mint is composed of unique combinations of line, shape, and color, making them artworks unto themselves. However, just as significant as the individual mints is the larger series of which they are each a part. When viewed collectively as a 6x6 grid, the 36 tokens make up a larger, single artwork, the titular Coalition. Patterns and palettes that exist across different tokens come together seamlessly in the Coalition, allowing users to recognize their mint as an indispensable element of the coherent whole.

By highlighting the inextricable relationship between the single set and its 36 components, Coalition suggests that storytelling must play a vital role in the future of generative art. The medium’s current emphasis on long-form algorithmic exploration has come at the expense of narrative craft. While long-form algorithmic exploration has produced groundbreaking artwork and will continue to do so, our project urges practitioners and collectors to consider generative art’s capabilities outside of replicating the look of analog media. Instead of attempting a mimesis of old modes of production, Coalition foregrounds the stories about human experience that emerge when artists free their code from the burden of replicating paint and paper. We ask, does the “art” in generative art refer to the algorithm, or the outputs?

To encourage artists and collectors to value storytelling and limitation in their NFTs, Coalition doubles as performance art. While the set is limited to 36 mints, a 37th is available for purchase. The collector who buys the final token will find only an error message. The algorithm self-destructs after mint #35. Read about why we chose to do this [here](https://medium.com/@generativeartworks/from-reservation-to-coalition-the-stories-that-generative-art-can-tell-d5466e7ba15b).

There can be no avant-garde because everything has been done.
—Pedro Friedeberg

Coalition

Mazinaw is about the timeless struggle to express our humanity and communicate the ineffable. The title derives from Mazinaabikinigan-zaaga'igan, an Algonquin word meaning “picture” or “writing”, alluding to the dual nature of pictographs. 

Inspired by my encounters with neolithic cave paintings in Europe and indigenous pictographs flanking Canadian lakes, Mazinaw hints at etchings, drawings, and anthropomorphic forms. While Mazinaw draws on expressionists from Wassily Kandinsky to Norman Lewis, it takes abstraction one step further: each piece is constructed by the artist indirectly, via a generative code, allowing the emergence of new undreamt-of forms.

The 19 palettes are inspired by the natural world, but their roles are sometimes twisted: cerulean blue strokes appear over an ochre canvas, and green flashes of light hop across a gray expanse. I invite the viewer to spend time with each piece, finding their own order from chaos. Signed fine-art archival inkjet prints will be available for owners at a modest cost.

Note: Mazinaw is best viewed in large format (full screen), or printed. Each piece has infinitely fine details, some of which will only be visible in print. Mazinaw renders seamlessly in any aspect ratio; adjust the window size and shape as desired, click on the frame, and type 'f'. 

Controls:

 s   -- save as png
 spacebar  -- pause/unpause
  f   -- toggle square / fit-to-screen aspect ratio
   1-6  -- set pixel density (default=2 on retina displays)
   +/-  -- increase/decrease pixel density
   n -- enable/disable night mode
   p -- enable/disable pastel mode

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Mazinaw #88

Eric De Giuli

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