In the context of the exhibition at Mexico with Bright Moments, when I began to think about my project, I was inspired by the creative prompt for the event and the concept of afterlife in particular. But I began to have doubts that I cannot adequately deal with the concept of afterlife in Mexican culture; that it would feel like an appropriation. Even disrespectfull somehow by an outsider of that culture.

Instead, I decided to do something that deals with this theme in a more indirect, less culturally specific way. While I was preparing a show in London, I picked up a few books that approach this topic from a science-fiction perspective. One of them was Solaris. Rereading Stanislaw Lem’s novel, I tried to keep the images of Tarkovsky’s movie out of my head so I could really see the story in a new light.

The book is essentially about the choices you make in life and the consequences they carry. It's about Kris Kelvin, a psichologist who travels to the planet Solaris, which he has been studying for years. The planet is almost entirely covered by a large ocean, which is revealed to be a single, planet-encompassing entity – a strange, non-human intelligence that confronts you with everything you think, believe and do. After years of no asnwers, a group of scientists decide to radiate it to explore the reasons of that behaviour, which ends up altering its form and character. In order to gather more information, Kris is sent there. There, he will confront himself with his deepest torments and monsters. He meets Hari, his dead wife. And with her presence, his own ocean of regrets and secret dreams emerge without mercy.

For me, there is something profoundly poetic in this confrontation. There are probably as many interpreations of this novel as readers, but for me it is essentially about the multiple lives we have within a single life. All the trajectories that we could have taken, branching off into a variety of possible lives. Are we our acts or our thoughts? I mean, we constantly deal with our past and regrets, with our secrets loves, with our secret hates, dreams and hypothetical lives. And it all happens in the present. So, irretrievably we are all these persons at the same time. We are all these lives together.

After going several times over the book, I broke it up into episodes and I began to sketch scenes with the code. The different sketches are not directly representational, however; they allude to scenes. It feels personally like the next step in my personal exploration of narratives in generative art. My goal is definitely not to represent literally the story with code; rather, I want to create an algorithm capable of expressing the central themes of the narrative in a condensed form. It's a sequential base of rules, a growing form based on a common element: a base (a platform), from which different elements grow and navigate through Solaris. I find certainly powerful the idea of exploring the whole context of an algorithm, preparing the viewer for an introduction, conflict, climax and denouement of the system.

  – Text based on my conversation with Malte Rauch.

Scene

ToSolaris

**Blind Spots** is a series of abstract intimate portraits that distill human existence into two elements, the hidden essence of consciousness and the tangible shell of personality.

These elements are represented in the form of a glass sculpture. The first element within the sculpture, akin to a black hole, is a shape that defines itself through the surrounding characteristics it draws in. This halo of characteristics, like a beautifully radiant glass cover, symbolizes the constructed personality. Casting light on these black shapes, shielded by the identities they exhibit, the algorithm invites us to question our perceptions of those we encounter. How deeply do we truly know the people in our lives? It challenges us to consider if changing the perspective could alter our perception of them, while also offering the opportunity to simulate such a change with the help of animation. Perhaps the nature of our identities is as varied as the angles from which they are viewed?

Blind Spots serves as a depiction of my mental journey, transforming abstract thought patterns into a solidified artifact in the medium of generative art. The narrative is inspired by the diverse ways in which we perceive each other, a theme born from countless personal encounters. From a technical standpoint, it steps into uncharted territory for me, being the first artwork to emphasize high-resolution printing capabilities while maintaining real-time animation, a central element in my artwork. It is also my first on-chain project, prompting a restructure of the previous workflows.

Visually inspired by *Iittala - Kaleidoscope* exhibition, which displayed a mesmerizing interplay of glass sculptures and light, Blind Spots features a gradient backdrop punctuated by black shapes that undulate under the influence of a transmission shader, mimicking the iridescent shimmer of pearls. The geometry of the glass cover is crafted through the algorithmic movement of two curves revolving around each other. To produce high-resolution images suitable for printing, a bucket rendering technique with overscan was developed.

Articulated through two elements within each portrait, Blind Spots presents a visual metaphor for a human. This duality also echoes our presence on social media — carefully crafted showcases projecting a polished persona while concealing the authentic self. Together, the elements form a unique character from every point of view.

## Controls
- [ click ] - toggle animation
- [ s ] - save the current frame as an image

## URL parameters (see display notes)
- [ ?animate ] - animation on by default
- [ ?fill ] - responsive version to fill the browse
- [ ?width=x ] - render image with x width
- [ ?print ] - enable high-resolution mode (eg. ?print&width=10000)
- [ ?grainSamples=x ] - between 1 - 10
- [ ?refractSamples=x ] - between 1 - 5

Blind Spots

Drawing inspiration from the intricacies of nature and the physics theories that model it, "Fluiroso" (derived from "Fluidos Ruidosos") delves into the mesmerizing depths of Fluid Dynamics. This is achieved by implementing an accelerated solver for the Navier–Stokes partial differential equations.

Initial density and velocity are placed leveraging Perlin noise, and a selection of up to ten random velocity sources are positioned throughout the area. Augmented by other parameters such as boundary conditions and viscosity, the algorithm embarks on a dynamic journey tracing the solver's outputs over time. 

The resulting animation renders a delicate dance of brush strokes where the fluid becomes painter. The culmination is a repertoire of abstract pieces that evoke movement and invite viewers to discern emerging shapes and silhouettes.

Once the animation pauses to spotlight the artwork, viewers can engage with the piece and press 'p' to restart the movement. While many pieces continually evolve, others settle into a graceful equilibrium.

Fluiroso

Immaterial is a long form generative series exploring synthetic biology and botany through a combination of algorithms inspired by natural systems, such as recursion, growth, fluidity and fractal-noise. Originally influenced by the underlying structure of fungi gills, the series explores a wide range of formations and life forms, referencing possible futures where digital and organic systems merge. Through an interplay of 3D- and 2D-aesthetics, each iteration of the series generates a unique tapestry of shades and shapes aimed at creating space for interpretation, rather then directly mimicking the natural world.

Although each individual output of the algorithm ends up as an (almost) static composition, the motion leading up to this point is integral to the concept and experience of the artwork. Like in nature, simple rules define how the complexity of organic material unfold from a set of initial conditions. In this series the viewer is exposed to the process of how a seed grows into a fully fledged organism, revealing the underlying rule-based structure of both natural and digital systems.

_Immaterial is best displayed on vertically oriented screens. To ensure optimal performance, please view the artwork in a modern browser (preferably chrome) on a computer with a decent graphics card._

Keys
[space] - Pause animation
[s] - Download image
[w] - View wireframe

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Iskra Velitchkova

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