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]

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GHOST IN THE CODE

Tentura - fundamental device of time and being.

The essence of the Tentura's work is that it breaks the connection between the body and soul of every living being under its influence.
The subject becomes bound to a global variable, which is calculated and controlled by the Tentura itself.
This is the work of Tentura, with the amendment that the object of its control is reality.

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Tentura

Maps for Grief explores the hyper-connected existence, filled with individuals who share common intents, ideals and feelings, but tend to live their sentiments in isolation. Its compositions oppose areas of fluid movement and immobility, revealing the structure of the piece itself: two interacting force fields that dictate the direction, as well as the strength – or absence – of movement.

On the keyboard: Press A to have the lines gently animate. Use the 1/2/3 keys to inspect the fields that make up each iteration.

Maps for grief

"Seadragons" is a generative catalogue of imaginary sea creatures from Syngnathidae family. Each seadragon belongs to one of the real Weedy, Leafy or Ribboned species, while the patterns and the small leaf-like appendages are an artistic interpretation. The dragons are rendered in real-time allowing you to watch them slowly drifting in the water or moving your mouse to nudge them slightly.

This project is a continuation of my long term fascination with using code to recreate forms and patterns occurring in nature. By using a range of non-photorealistic rendering techniques I strive to document those explorations as if they were actual sketches, posters or biological illustrations of the encountered specimens. Algorithmic variations of their patterns, sizes, colors, poses, complexity and surrounding seaweed present in each artwork are only a minor drop compared to the diversity observed in natural environments. 

15% of profits will be donated to oceana.org for protecting and restoring the world’s oceans on a global scale. Another 10% will be donated to givewell.org.




Seadragons

Primitive shapes generate complex and chaotic snapshots of a larger form, still images with a sense of rapid motion, going through repetitive sequencing of parametrized mathematical functions, rotations and placement of objects. Augmented Sequence is a project by Joonas Toivonen, building upon work on audiovisual installations and electronic music performances. The parameters for sequence attributes, shapes, lighting, materials and colors are driven by the hash of the minting transaction, producing unique and surprising results. 


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