*Arcadia* is a homage to the fridge-worthy landscape art of our youth. Childhood techniques of creating art are re-imagined by the scribbles of a nostalgic, computer-assisted mind.

**Spacebar**: Skip animation and load final image (useful when rendering in high resolutions)
**Up arrow**: Speed scribbles up (default speed is the highest)
**Down arrow**: Slow scribbles down

Arcadia

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A skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original. They are used widely in architecture, product design, and perhaps most familiarly in user interfaces. Think: desktop icons like trash cans or notepads. SKEUOMORPHS is a meditation on this digital tradition. 

SKEUOMORPHS picks up where RASTER left off as an another exploration of the materiality of pixels and rasterized imagery. Here the study of pixels narrows in on the shallow depth of on-screen interfaces and the play of low-res figure-ground effects. Moments of skeuomorphism where the 2-dimensional plane of the screen becomes slightly 3-dimensional through beveling or drop-shadows are extracted and used as abstract painterly details. These elements that are typically used to make computation and interfaces more familiar become unfamiliar on the canvas, suggesting the possibility of an aesthetic between abstraction and realism.

SKEUOMORPHS employs recurring themes and techniques from my art practice: limited color palettes, low-res chunky pixels, dithering, and physics simulation. It uses a specific kind of dithering called R-sequence dither developed by Martin Roberts. Like traditional Bayer matrix-based dithering, this technique produces a patterned image akin to retro video games and early computer screens. In this project, the R-dither pattern results in a woven textile-like texture, which recalls the long relationship between computing and weaving. The canvas negotiates two scales simultaneously: that of the dithered pixel (rendered at 1/1024th of the canvas height) and the simulated particle that acts as a brush stroke (rendered at 1/256th of the canvas height). The two resolutions work together to produce a cohesive texture that is neither pretending to be a retrograde screen nor an analog material but something in between. Similar to RASTER, the goal is to investigate new avenues for digital aesthetics that rely on a combination of historical techniques and innovative practices.

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Press 's' to grab a still frame.

Collectors will be eligible to receive a signed archival giclée print of their mint.

SKEUOMORPHS

The 1980's and 1990's as an iterative dream, computer-aided RAD designs. Essentially, an expanded iterative Memphis/Neo-Memphis style project meant to emulate the free-flowing and fun spirit of the movement in tight compositions that surprise with each combination and position generation.

autoRAD

A study in composition using simple shapes and layout rules. When repetitive patterns fail, and the symmetry isn't quite right, the images are strangely evocative. Somewhere between art deco, pop art, and sci-fi.

Eccentrics

Gravity Grid is heavily inspired by Go, a 2,500 year old board game. The game of Go is played on a 19x19 grid, which is how every Gravity Grid invocation begins. A psychedelic "gameboard" is drawn and pulled apart by gravity, as if slowly orbiting a black hole in space. Each Gravity Grid starts at a different stage of this process. Don't forget to click and hold - you *might* find an additional effect.

Art Blocks Presents

Arcadia #48

Zachariah Watson

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SKEUOMORPHS

itsgalo

autoRAD

sgt_slaughtermelon & Tartaria Archivist

Eccentrics

Radix

Gravity Grid

Eliya Stein

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Company

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