*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

Cushions brings together image processing and generative art techniques. The latter provides the geometric structure, and the former creates the organic shapes. Every single pixel and its connectedness to other pixels are explicitly considered. Inspiration for the palettes ranges from digital illustrations and pastels to a nod to renowned artists and different ethnicities. The organic shapes and the textures within symbolize the beauty in our individual oddities. Some pieces evoke the semblance of fantastical dreams in starry nights. Some of the comfort and familiarity of home. Some of nostalgia and long-lost friends. Some of reasonable and grounded perspectives. Some of sparks, some of style, some of strength, and some of passion. Some of candy. Some of pop art. Some of modern interior design. And some of traditional Indian cushions, known as Takiya.

Cushions

The Swing protocol is a composition generator that is set to generate both bold and elegant compositions. It works on a 3×2 grid where 7 different lines and an empty shape are randomly placed on the grid on 2 layers. The background is divided into 3 rows or 2 columns that can be filled with 9 different colors or stripes with different coefficients. The paper and the margin can be filled with 6 different colors. The protocol is finely tuned so that the interaction between all the elements always delivers a swinging composition. Dutch auction starting at 2Ξ and decreasing every 5 minutes to 0.15Ξ (2 → 1 → 0.75 → 0.5 → 0.4 → 0.3 → 0.25 → 0.22 → 0.2 → 0.18 → 0.15). 25% of sales over 0.25 will be donated to Juste Ici, a non-profit organization in France, focused on making art accessible to everyone.

Swing

Last of the 70s Pops, gone but not quite dead 👻 nothing but black & white groovy patterns, perfect for colouring in. Some people say the spirits of the 70s haunt these, but that would be ridiculous! All Ξ from primary sales will be going to the Women Who Code non-profit organisation.

70s Pop Ghost Bonus Pack 👻

I feel like an imposter. Pseudo-anonymous as *ippsketch* while maintaining an engineering career and family life. I live on the edge of two worlds, immersed in self-doubt. Leaning into each space, I bring a part of each world with me, but wonder if what I bring is enough. I question my identity while learning to embrace it. Art, after all, is made by ordinary people. And I wonder, does anyone really know what they're doing?

*Imposter Syndrome* is an expression of my seeming dual existence and my feelings of not being enough in many aspects of life. But I do not mean for this to be entirely prescriptive to the work and often see other interpretations and meanings myself, such as anytime I straddle the edge of something new, when I'm on the fence and making a decision between two directions of my life, or if I consider the shadow or light I cast in the spaces and people around me. These pieces move me differently from day-to-day.

This work leans into minimalism. As trends in generative art push toward the visually complex and highly technical, I find my current focus on simple composition and compelling structure. I'm also drawn to broken symmetry, which echos my dual artist/engineer life and is also what I consider to be a visual representation of generative art - design and order on the one hand, random variation within constraint on the other.

Color palettes echo those used in *Bent*. Simple and bold colors with stark black and white support. Pieces are rendered in a default poster size (3:4), but are also adaptive to screen size so that they can fit any display. The work can be interacted with by pressing the number keys 1, 2, 3, 4 to see the steps of construction.

Art Blocks Presents

Arcadia #202

Zachariah Watson

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