Cargo

Kim Asendorf

1000 unique artworks

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Cargo is a series of abstract paintings created with animated pixels that are constantly moving without ever repeating. It is painting new patterns on the fly in between macro and micro compositions with a duality of different rhythms and continuous synchronicity. The focus is alternately drawn to detail, then distracted by movement elsewhere and caught up in the overall picture. This rhythm turns the visual complexity into an active experience.

ASDF: “My work should offer individual ways of interpretation, or even allow one to find some self in it. It wants to inspire some thoughts about dynamics and systemics and also just mesmerize the audience, capture them in a little fantasy, or just for a brief moment in a state of satisfaction.”

Cargo is the latest work in Kim Asendorf’s ongoing work series of pixel pattern animations. Starting with monogrid in 2021, and Sabotage in 2022, both highly conceptual series, therefore visually very raw and unimaginable. Asendorf discovered various interesting details in these works, which eventually became fundamental in his artistic expression.

Cargo is a real time WebGL software written in JavaScript and GLSL. At its core is a flip-flop render buffer, also known as feedback buffer. That means the animation is alternately rendered in two different frame buffers. This technique allows the usage of the previous frame of the animation as an asset in the current rendering, which allows for a series of reactive animation strategies.

An initial image with variable structures and patterns is rendered and subsequently loaded into the frame buffer. A fragment shader is used to apply a set of animation algorithms that make the pixel move and a set of reset algorithms that constantly try to recreate the initial image. The final animation happens in selected containers and is always a combination of two algorithms, one from each set. By regularly animating and partially resetting the pixels, a wide range of movement patterns appear.

Cargo is a responsive and pixel exact artwork and it will fill the screen on any display size, thus changing the total amount of used pixels accordingly. This results in the fact that the detail level in the artwork is changing depending on the dimensions. The overall structure is consistently stretching the x and y axis independently. Single containers scale along the dimensions and offer more pixels to render the patterns at a larger representation compared to a smaller representation. This behavior leads to a brilliance, perfect pixels, a crisp rendering with nothing like compression artifacts.

This software includes the simplex noise JavaScript implementation by Jonas Wagner and the cellular noise GLSL code by Stefan Gustavson.

RELEASE DATE

29 Mar 2023

LIBRARY

js@n/a

DISPLAY NOTES

Cargo is a responsive real-time animation optimized for public display on OLED screens or LED walls. It relies on a modern GPU to run smoothly with 60 frames per second. It has been tested with multiple computers, operating systems and browsers, but nonetheless it can not be guaranteed that the software will work in specific setups.

RELEASE DETAILS

1000 works released on 29 Mar 2023

CHARITABLE GIVING

20% of all proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

PROJECT ID

0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069-426

CONTRACT

Etherscan

426000554

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kim Asendorf

b. 1981 Bremen, Germany Lives and works in Germany

Kim Asendorf, a German visual artist, employs a fusion of experimental and conceptual strategies to craft abstract animations, images, and sculptures. Using automation and algorithms, Asendorf engineers digital native aesthetics, forging an immersive artistic experience.

Kim Asendorf is a recipient of an MFA degree from the Kunsthochschule K...

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Kim Asendorf