**NOTE: This project has audio, click on the live view to start.**

*l.o* (pronounced el-dot-oh) is a series of audiovisual vignettes exploring a process at the heart of generative art and ambient music: creating complex forms by repeating and transforming a simple input. Inspired by starling murmurations, the repetition of a line, dot, or ring forms a flock of flickering particles rippling across the canvas. Interconnected audio and visual patterns create a mesmerizing display of echoes and modulations. As the sound expands and contracts, so do the areas of visual density, revealing ephemeral shapes and structures. Sounds become visible. Visuals become audible.

Within the sonic component, filters and echoes manipulate a sustained chord until subtle melodies and rhythmic structures appear, resulting in a hypnotic and evolving soundscape unfolding from an elementary source. The signal path relies solely on bespoke code built using Web Audio, including an implementation of an early computer music algorithm called *Karplus-Strong* which utilizes tuned delay lines to simulate the physics of stringed instruments. The audio effect design is also inspired by the magical warmth of vintage analog equipment like tape loop echo units. This analog quality found its way into the visual style: the low frame rate gives the project a hand animated feel reminiscent of stop motion.

On our last album, [Still](https://silentseason.bandcamp.com/album/still), we questioned the repetitive experience of pedestrian life, attempting to invoke wonder in the constantly evolving nature of our world, even in moments of perceived stillness. *l.o* expands this line of inquiry, inviting the audience to appreciate the compounding complexity surfacing from a succession of small shifts within a fixed pattern. As the series builds, various directions of color, shape, tone and tempo are unveiled.

Alongside works like *Flux* by Owen Moore, or *montreal friend scale* by Amon Tobin, the project explores core questions about the audiovisual medium: can it be more than visuals in the service of sound, or sound in the service of visuals? How can the synthesis of the two media create a richer whole? While the sound of *Flux* reacts to visual data, and *montreal friend scale* is a literal visual representation of a sonic concept, *l.o* features a two-way dialogue between sound and visuals. The two are interconnected through 9 different paths, including a key relationship where filter frequency modulates flock density (more details available in the [AV section](https://l.o.night-sea.com/#av) of the project’s website). This audiovisual conversation offers a unique encounter between generative visual art and abstract electronic music, two vibrant spaces that share a common thread.

Key controls are available to explore the different components building the final sound:

- Press ‘0’ to turn off all effects and hear the initial sustained chord
- Press ‘1’ to toggle back on / off the amplitude modulation (can sound subtle in certain outputs)
- Press ‘2’ to toggle back on / off the filtering effects
- Press ‘3’ to toggle back on / off the echo based effects
- Press ‘Space’ to pause / resume the piece

After pressing ‘0’, pressing successively ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ will bring the piece back to the original audio setup.

The Curated Collection includes projects that have been selected by Art Blocks’ Curation Board for their world-class innovation, technical rigor, and aesthetic beauty.

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This collection comprises projects screened and selected by Art Blocks and embodies our standards for artistic creativity, conceptual rigor, and technical achievement.

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This is the place where we tinker. What lives here is free of theme or architecture but the one common strand is that these projects all grant us delight.

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The Art Blocks × Pace collection includes boundary-pushing generative projects by select Pace artists developed in partnership with Pace Verso.

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Through an exhibition program that extends across galleries globally, Art Blocks × Bright Moments showcases and launches the work of acclaimed natively generative artists.

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