*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.

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Arcadia

Wabi-sabi, an ancient Japanese aesthetic sense, refers to finding beauty in imperfect and lonely things.
Life is irrational and ephemeral. 
Peace and happiness are illusory, built on a fragile balance. 
Wabi-sabi is an immersion of the quality of loneliness within ourselves that accepts various nuances to be beautiful, through a sophisticated lens.
This work attempts to store the compelling concept of Wabi-sabi on the blockchain as the code dynamically generates brushstrokes based on motifs of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy)

Wabi-sabi begins with a deliberate movement in which an ink-soaked brush is plopped down onto the paper, causing the ink to splatter.
Thereafter, a unique algorithm assists in drawing brushstrokes. 
The various forms that emerge from the balance of lines that are straight or curved, regular or irregular, strong or slight, complex or delicate, with varying speeds analogize a person’s will through the brushstrokes. The bleeding, scratching, and splattering of ink lend the modelling even more complexity. Wabi-sabi does not impose precision in creating Shodo strokes. You may notice how the colors always bleed in the same direction, which is impossible to generate in our physical reality. This is because even if the brush is impregnated with multiple hues of ink, the bristles rotate as the brushstrokes are drawn. It may also generate three-dimensional patterns, a feature that is absent in physical practice, offering the impression of depth, as if brushstrokes were drawn arbitrarily in space. This is achieved by controlling the focus.

A key feature of each artwork is that it can be edited. A piece of art is usually completed by the artist and presented to the viewer. I intended to make this work as imperfect as the concept of Wabi-sabi, which can be infinitely edited by the viewer. This is impossible with conventional NFTs, with generated image data uploaded to a server. Such is the luxury in art created with on-chain generative art by code.

For each composition, the blank space as the foreground and background is a conscious and elemental choice in this work.
Wabi-sabi is to accept the lacking. Some artworks can have much of the space as blank, which may seem odd but is consistent with the narrative. Digitally native art often takes full advantage of the computing power to lay out complex patterns across the entire canvas. Wabi-sabi is minimal as a contemporary take on that trend. Through the bleeding and scratching of ink in each brushstroke along with the blank space represented in this work, we welcome imperfection. Conceptually, contrasts between movement and stillness, strength and weakness, audacity and delicacy, complexity and simplicity, vividness and fadedness reveal a melancholic beauty.

The search for beauty through imitation and slight modification, and the exploration of the techniques used to create traditional or innovative shapes, is akin to the training in Shodo. 
Simply said, you cannot do it well the first time. The Japanese word for Shodo ("do") means "road". It is by travelling down the long road involving hours of training and exploration, that the sensitive concept of Wabi-sabi may be understood.

The underlying intention is to facilitate partaking in the process of the artist's exploration. The viewer is the artist and the artist is the viewer, sharing a sense of camaraderie that lives forever on the blockchain

[NOTE]
-Move the mouse over the left edge of the canvas and press the Edit button. 
-To edit, press the ‘S’ key
-To save the image press the ‘R’ key.
-To redraw, modern hardware and browser hardware acceleration is recommended. The Chrome browser on a desktop with a high-end GPU is optimal. On iOS, the best experience is available on iOS 12 or later.

Wabi Sabi

Center pivot irrigation is a mainstay of the American farm. Like giant inkjet printers, they have painted verdant circles onto landscapes since the 1950s. The artists of this piece grew up in America’s breadbasket near the birthplace of the center pivot, surrounded by the nostalgia of the Family Farm. These were years of innocence – free from concerns of water shortages, chemical leaching, and economic controversy. The tension between childhood times and today’s environmental reality is a canvas for re-envisioning center pivots: they are fundamentally giant drawing machines. What happens when water is rationed? …when they are free to draw? …when they behave unexpectedly? Your token serves as the instructions for these machines—instructions that either constrain or liberate the machine to paint fantastical scenes.

Watch the project teaser video, learn more about the rationale, and see example mints at https://centerpivot.art/

Additional controls interact with each other and have varying impacts during different periods of the animation. Experiment to create and save a new variation of your mint!
'Arrow up' increases evaporation
'Arrow down' decreases evaporation
'Arrow right' increases overspray
'Arrow left' decreases overspray
'.' begins sunset; neon colors emerge depending on when initiated
'/' shows pivot mechanisms only
's' saves screenshot

Center Pivot

Hyper Drive is based on the mathematics of recursion. Scale symmetry is used to create patterns that repeat at ever-smaller intervals, creating the illusion of infinite depth and complexity.

The rule for the recursive loop is incredibly simple. A box is drawn, then a snapshot of the full canvas is resized to cover the boundary. As this process is repeated, small variations in position create endless fractals.

This project is an experimental cross-chain collection, with a fully-generative A-side published via Art Blocks on Ethereum and an AI-based image composition B-side published via fxhash on Tezos. The artwork symbolizes the great divides we must cross, the connections we make along the way, and the disconnections we feel. We move through the world as the world moves through us.

Hyper Drive: A-Side

This algorithm features a generative pattern created after subtracting two small numbers using the sum to place circles. All colors, positions, and color patterns are based off Ethereum blockchain data.

Art Blocks Presents

Arcadia #208

Zachariah Watson

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Wabi Sabi

Kazuhiro Tanimoto

Center Pivot

Craig Hughes & Eric Hughes

Hyper Drive: A-Side

Ryan Bell

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Ruben Alexander

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