Bright Moments

_Desde Lejos_ is a series of generative digital paintings that explore the realms of memory and perception. Using nostalgia and pixels to create digital scenery, I revisit places and moments now part of my distant past. These fragmented landscapes are my interpretation of the prompt On-chain, Off-line for the Bright Moments Buenos Aires collection.


**Controls:**
X : Pause
Z : Play
D : Pause + Dither
S : Save current frame as PNG
Click and Drag : Add new particles 


**URL Parameters:**
?size=0 : Render at window resolution (default)
?size=1 : Render at 1920x1280px 
?size=2 : Render at 2400x1600px 
?size=3 : Render at 3000x2000px 
?size=4 : Render at 4500x3000px 
?size=5 : Render at 6000x4000px 

*Different resolutions might slightly affect the dithering patterns on the images.*


Thomas Noya, 2023

_

Desde Lejos #68

Souls from Gaia is a delve into the sublime. This piece intends to spread curiosity about the continuity between all living and non-living beings of the universe. It becomes from questioning and thin the veil between the worlds defined by modern Western culture as rigid and opposite concepts. A coming and going from tangible to ethereal, between live and death, invisible and visible, nature and technology, ocean and earth, chaos and logic.

Souls from Gaia #60

*BLINK* originally grew from our fascination with Baroque vanitas paintings, 17th century still life artworks filled with symbolic objects chosen to remind us of our mortality: hourglasses, skulls, burning candles, butterflies, bubbles. From this inspiration, we distilled the bubble as our object of fascination: the bubble as a symbol of both ephemerality and joy.  *BLINK* is in conversation with our other work, which often plays with time and scale. Here we display the bubble at a large scale, with background streams and fields that reference some of our most well-known examples from *The Book of Shaders*. The effect is the delicacy of a bubble shown at planetary scale.

The color and speed variation within this series are intentionally chosen to create a wide range of pieces. We are particularly interested in outliers and push the edges here, giving the code freedom to wander through a wide range of outcomes. Some pieces are calm and reflective, like the quiet surface of a pond, or a candles flame, while others evoke the energy of a city flying by.

We want to invite people experiencing *BLINK* into a moment of presence. Viewing the bubble at this scale is both planetary and fleeting: in ictu oculi  in the blink of an eye.

BLINK #69

KARNE #67

Flowers, yes, but not the likeness of any real flower: rather, flowery exaggerations, bouts of pure flowerness, overgrowths of shape and color, algorithmic fever dreams, delirium blooms.

Flowers, then, not as parts of plants, but as explosions of feeling. A turmoil of mixed emotions: something to do with life and happiness, to be sure, but also with madness and perhaps with death. 

Flowers not as placid representations of nature, but as artificial life forms from an era of machine hallucinations, information overflow and a degrading environment. Flowers for a time of inflamed passions and strangely distorted ideas of reality. Flowers for Argentina, flowers for the world.

Press
[s] to download capture
[2-9] to redraw and download capture at x times the original 900 x 1600 size
[f] for fullscreen
[SPACE] to pause/unpause animation

Delirium Blooms #76

Images that are born from the combination of primitive elements: points, lines, and intersected elemental geometries. #purevisibility

Subtraction, Reconfiguration #76

In 'Dolor Gravitacional' I explore the profound analogy between the universe's gravitational forcesboth creative and destructiveand the intense attractions in human relationships. These forces, powerful enough to warp planets and alter our very identities, reflect the delicate balance of creation, destruction, and the emotional contortions we undergo to fit into the world's reality. 

Through sweeping lines and bending forms in 'Dolor Gravitacional,' the oscillating patterns echo the internal human struggles, akin to celestial bodies responding to gravitational pulls. 

As viewers, we're drawn into a contemplative journey, recognizing the deep interplay between cosmic dynamics and our personal existential challenges, all within a universe marked by both chaos and serenity.

Dolor Gravitacional #61

Vrtigo Las Luces (Vertigo the Lights)  takes inspiration from long exposure photos I take in Buenos Aires. Its made with several particle systems following two simple attractor systems. These particle systems are modified and tuned to compose the final images. In a way, it aims to reflect the unpredictability, the spontaneity and speed of the city.

Vertigo Las Luces #76

l.o by Night Sea

**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 projects 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.

l.o #109

l.o #110

l.o #107

l.o #106

1 + 1 = 3 #82

I'm Feeling Lucky by Maya Man

*Im Feeling Lucky* focuses on the contemporary culture of astrology and how it prompts us to make sense of ourselves through its structures. Barthes calls astrology a confirmation of the real. There is comfort in the promise of realness over fantasy. Even if it"s influenced by randomness, confirmation bias gives way to some kind of feeling of faith.

The title of the collection comes from Googles Im Feeling Lucky button which initially embodied the energy of software and chance, but has evolved over the years in a way that parallels the fast-paced commercialization of the internet. 

I dont feel lucky anymore, but I want to Feel Lucky again


I"m Feeling Lucky #83

Plottables is a platform dedicated to pen plottable generative art.

Plottables

Stroomlijn holds a special place for me. While focused on creating a plottable project, I neglected my creative enjoyment. As a result, I ended up with many unfinished projects that were okay but didn't feel like something I could proudly call my own. Everything clicked when I released those limitations and pursued something I truly enjoyed, only transforming it into a plottable work after the visuals were how I wanted them to be.

My studio is cluttered with various test plots and different directions I initially had for this project. I took a lot of inspiration from artists like Mario Nigro and Peter Struycken, who use bold rectangular patterns in their work. I studied their art and learned how to create dark and thick shapes using just lines. Once I mastered that technique, I incorporated it into my own personal style, with Stroomlijn being the final result.

For this project, it's best to use Pigma Micron 05 fineliners when plotting. If you're plotting a white on black design, go for a white Sakura Gelly Roll 08 pen. When it comes to paper, choose Bristol Smooth for white background plots. Use Fabriano Black Black for black background plots. For the other options use smooth thick (160g+) paper in light grey or cream (Mi-Teintes for example).

To reduce the chance of mistakes, set your plotter settings to a slow speed. If you wish to experiment with a thinner pen, you can add ?density=$ to the URL of the live view. Replace $ with 2 or 3 to increase the amount of lines that are drawn. 1 is the default value. You can also use decimal numbers but those can result in different patterns. Press spacebar to download the new SVG file.

Stroomlijn #35

Jenim by Orr Kislev & Alona Rodeh

Initially worn by miners and cowboys, roughly half of the worlds population wears denim on a given day, and the range of styles isliterallyendless. A new pair of jeans might be acid bleached, sandblasted, stonewashed, or tie-dyed; it can have hand-sanded rips and tears, followed by visible mendings, patches, intentional paint stains, and more. In an epic attempt to crack the genetic code of denim, Jenim playfully but carefully observes and translates the warp and weft of denim into generative code, weaving unique iterations of irregular, distorted, or hyper-realistic textile crops.

Ironically, imitating aging, a pair of jeans produced today generates more pollution and labor than most average garments. In response, Jenims minted iterations go beyond wearables and into infinity. Each year that passes, the color might fade slightly; the rips might expand. Who knows what these artworks will look like ten or even fifty years from now?

Jenim #132

Our world is made up of near infinite examples of events that paradoxically represent both order and chaos. Chaos theorys most famous tenant, the Butterfly Effect, explains how imperceptible changes in initial conditions can lead to massive and unpredictable differences in outcomes: how a butterfly flapping its wings weeks earlier may lead to a hurricane taking a different course.

Wander positions Rhythm & the Machine at the paradox point, building a system that visually suggests both order and chaos, striking a different balance in each composition. Saturated color fields reminiscent of paint moving through water are seemingly randomly distorted and dragged across the canvas. All the while repeating colors and evenly spaced gestures point to an underlying ordered system.

Intuitively you would not expect repeating the same thing over and over would lead to disorder, yet this is exactly what you find with many systems, such as pseudo-random number generators that are foundational to algorithmic generative art.

Through a reduced system that elevates a few random elementsthe placement & size of colored geometric shapes, the direction & intensity of the gestureRhythm & the Machine introduces distortionary forces that Wander does not dictate nor completely control. Suddenly each cluster of colors takes on a life of its own, creating new forms we cannot predict.

Each work in the collection contains a second instruction layer, which maps how the original colored shapes are placed and then distorted. This instruction layer reminds us that chaos is in fact rooted in ordered systems. We can see the before and the after of the directional forces, how regular shapes became an abstracted color field. At the same time, the interactions are so complex and layered that trying to anticipate the future is a futile effort. We can try to understand but we cannot predict: a visual articulation of the butterfly effect. This insight is given added weight since the instruction layer is artificial and not a priori to the original digital work, where all of these functions happen simultaneously. The artist constructed it to provide the viewer this unique insight.

We see the moment of divergence, repeated not just in a single canvas but also across the collection. The wide range of possibilities alludes to infinitya concept impossible to fully comprehend but in this reduced visual language Wander shows us a piece of it and our minds are able to begin to explore the spread if not the edges.