This series is inspired by both net and glitch art.

It represents nostalgia from an era when the Internet was a mystical new space, where computer graphic cards had more limitations than what we know nowadays, where graphical user interfaces were beginning to shape as a result of a steep learning curve for command-line interfaces, and where artists started to test unfamiliar methods to make art.

It’s a juxtaposition of chaos and order. A disarray of colored geometric shapes, wrapped by orderly patterns, trying to find their place in a screenshot. Patterns depicting an intended path or miscalculation in a new domain. Infinite combination of rules within certain parameters creating distinct yet related architectural collages. A real-time static visual memory of what Web3 was in the now.

For interaction and animation please look at the display notes.

👾 ilithya (@ilithya_rocks) is a multidisciplinary artist from México, based in Hamburg, Germany. 
👾 Erin Wajufos (@erinwajufos) is a generative artist, projectionist and curator based in Brooklyn, New York.

Net Net Net

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

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.

Rituals combines generative music and generative artwork to create 1000 unique windows into a singular parametric universe. The music and art are crafted to infinitely evolve, giving collectors a subtly new experience upon each viewing. If left running, a single Ritual will continue generating music and art without repeating for ~9 million years. We invite you to hold space for yourself and enjoy a moment of mindful stillness. The first 200 were minted in real life at Bright Moments in Venice, CA, USA in September 2021.

Best experienced on modern equipment. Click to start.

Artwork by Aaron Penne (@aaronpenne), music by Boreta (@boreta), music system produced by Counterpoint (ctpt.co).

Rituals - Venice

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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