Flourish is the notebook of an algorithmic architect. 

This speculative fiction presents an alternative timeline for architectural ornamentation, drawing inspiration from the late 1800s and early 1900s. By referencing historical precedents, Flourish produces designs that exist between the past and present, striking a balance between tradition and innovation.

Flourish’s logic uses a linguistic structure that treats simple shapes like an alphabet and arranges geometry into phrases, establishing and dissolving symmetries. This logic is similar to a formal grammar system with rules that describe how words can be combined to form sentences. As a very simple example, a rule for the English language might be that a noun phrase can be followed by a verb phrase. So, a person dances, a cat sleeps, a bird sings. In the context of Flourish, pentagons can be subdivided into triangles, which can be enclosed by circles to create complex patterns. As geometry is combined and rearranged, the linguistic-like structure of the image changes, which also changes the next possible sets of geometric operations.

The palettes reflect various eras and mediums, invoking the feeling of aged archival drawings, woodblock prints, freshly inked illustrations, blueprints, and photocopies. The images resemble photographs of drawings rather than the drawings themselves, creating the impression of a carefully archived collection of artifacts that document a history just now coming into existence.

In my own history, I spent many years filling notebooks with abstract flowing drawings using very fine pens while studying painting and drawing. I would start by making one small curved mark, and then make thousands more while following the natural rhythm that my hand and wrist made. The density of marks and careful variations of spacing gave the drawings a meditative quality. Flourish's fine flowing lines draw from this meditative practice, imbuing each image with a sense of careful attention and intention.

The best architecture is a harmony of the natural and the constructed. And so the fine detailed marks are meant to feel natural, and to build up the constructed geometries with an emergent natural foundation.

Manipulating the arrangement of primary shapes to create complex patterns is a hallmark of both generative design and traditional architectural design. Flourish exists somewhere between this relationship. Rather than taking the historical path of contemporary parametric architecture, with its large sweeping forms and sci-fi aesthetics, Flourish creates an alternative history, a revivalist rebirth of the roaring twenties for the 2020s.

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Prints on archival paper will be made available at a later date.

A percentage of profits from the primary sale will be donated to the Native Animal Rescue of Santa Cruz County.

Flourish

*Daisies* is a generative doodling system that draws the daisy flower shapes over and over again. The daisy doodles, with this new medium, have been changed from unconsciously drawn by hand on the paper to randomly drawn by machine on the screen.

This project is also my personal reminder of my first time making art with code when I created a simple flower shape using a circle and ellipses. Now that shape has evolved and becomes the main subject of my first on-chain generative art.

Daisies

As the temperature reads 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), the hottest on record in the spot where I stand, my shoes are melting into the asphalt and my vision is blurred. I wonder how we got here from those rainy springs and where we will go. The heat’s visible haze makes me doubt the possibility of future Augusts spent outdoors. It is in this haze that *chaos comes with the summer haze* takes form. 

My inspiration is from both beauty and fear - the beauty of the land, the water, the flowers, the beauty of paint and code, the beauty of humanity – the fear of panic and mob mentalities, the fear of incongruity and environmental collapse, the fear of humankind. It is from the obsessiveness, visual overload, content overload, and our aching yet hopeful eyes as we stare towards the horizon.

*chaos comes with the summer haze* is specifically aligned with my art practice, which for decades has attempted to address technology, climate change, human irrationality and human rights, while being unencumbered by limitations of medium. Whether it is dragging paintings in the ocean, writing a new constitution, or encoding this Project, all have the same goal - creating impressions that are pleasing while acting as guideposts or warnings. Here, I’ve ratcheted up the intensity of everything. The breadth of coloration, brushstrokes and variety of possible outputs push dramatically in a way only possible through the generative process. Many times, I feel the code taking over the composition with the intent of heightening the chaos itself, perhaps adding an exclamation point to the warning therein.

Visually, it is symptomatic of both human and earthly chaos. The earthly ‘gestalts’ are the seas rising and the clouds gathering. The ‘meltdowns’ are the human brushstrokes that feel panicked, despite being controlled. They are haphazard, geometric and duplicative. They obscure reality. The handpicked colors touch the rainbow of possibilities, but are affected by that summer haze. The ‘shadow frequency’ demonstrates content overload, duplication and machine learning, all creating further feelings of distress.  There are layers and layers of possibilities – of coffee stains, of visual heat, of faces, of ideas, of dimensional portals, of the future...

*The Rising Edition* 

The first 46 minters (tokens #1-46) will receive *The Rising Edition* physical collection as a gift, which includes:

* A unique print of the minter’s piece, printed on archival Hahnemühle German etching paper, mounted on 16” x 12” (40.6 cm x 30.5 cm) varnished maple board, signed and titled on verso. 

* A sculpture featuring a porcelain blanketed rock - discovered, shaped and fired by the Artist. 

* A limited edition hardcover, linen wrapped visual compendium chronicling the conceptual theory and production of the work, signed and numbered.

Please visit the Project’s website for images of the Rising Edition and further details on the Project.

*Controls*

p - for a high resolution (6000 x 7200 pixels) printable version 
s - to save the image as a png file

chaos comes with the summer haze

Good Vibrations is a kind of philosophy from our culture. It's not just a graphic, or melody. It mentions our journey through all of our lives. Inspired by Minimalism and some works of Ligeti György Sándor and Steve Reich, Good Vibrations creates unique geometries by each unique transaction hash. "Everything in Life is Vibration" Albert Einstein's states. The universal law of nature states that everything has its vibration, and all vibrations will make their voice audible or inaudible. It’s all of our events in the totality of our life, from every dimension—and we cannot determine if they are good or bad, dark, or light.

Good Vibrations

This work is the product of a project to dwell undeletable souls on the blockchain. A system that generates human faces with different personalities and expressions from a minimum of code. After determining the personality from a hash, the face continues to change into various expressions. It is a living portrait, a fragment of minter's soul, forever adrift in the vast net.

Living organisms are coded by a sequence of the four bases in DNA, and a human DNA is composed of 3 billion base pairs. This is about 750 MB of information. And the difference in code between individual people is only 0.1%, or 750 KB. This slight difference creates all kinds of differences in appearance and physical functions. This is quite astonishing to our ordinary senses.

However, if we are surprised by this fact, we need to suspect our senses.

I was interested in these points and explored what are the elements by which people identify the faces and facial expressions of others, how little code can create personality and emotion, and conversely, to what extent can an observer identify personality and facial expressions. As a result, I succeeded in expressing the personalities, emotions, and complex feelings of various people with 14 KB of code.

We like to think of humans are supernatural and one-of-a-kind. This is a common background to the past, when many people favored the Ptolemaic theory.

However, this work leads us to suspect that we humans are only a program that can be coded.

Then, what is the essential difference between a code written in DNA and a code written in programming language? I believe the only difference is whether the execution space is real or digital space. Is it a prerequisite for the existence of the soul to operate an organic computer in real space? It is merely a medium.

This is not meant to be pessimistic, such as we are mere code, the soul does not exist and is an illusion, a mere electrical signal in the brain.

Rather, the soul, the function that makes us aware of our existence, makes us think, causes us to emotion, and makes us act, certainly dwells in the code.

I store this code on the blockchain, thereby spreading undeletable ghosts on the vast net forever.

In this work, the ghost is output on the net by minting. This act is part of the work. The personality of the ghost is also determined by the hash owned by the minter. In other words, the ghost output by you from the code on the blockchain is a fragment of your soul on the net.


[NOTES]

Press C to turn canvas on/off
Press S to save image

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