As part of the Art Blocks x Pace Gallery partnership, I was offered a contract opportunity to work with Loie Hollowell to develop the code that would adapt elements from her Split Orbs paintings into a long-form generative collection. Having the chance to work with such an esteemed artist was an honor and an excellent learning opportunity, both to familiarize myself with the traditional art market as well as to push my technical and creative skills under her direction. The final artwork was ultimately rendered via a custom GLSL shader I developed for WebGL. The project was produced and managed by Digital Practice Art, and collectively we released a collection that resonates with collectors.

During a particularly frustrating period when I found myself immersed in client work under conditions that fragmented my attention, leaving me with a lack of clarity, my life felt chaotic and imbalanced. It was during these challenging times that my urge to create took over, leading me to explore a disruptive algorithm. By distorting, twisting, shredding, and fracturing a typical domain space from various overlapping perspectives, my algorithm transforms a simple render of a 3D torus in space into fragmented chaos. I allowed the algorithm to breathe, intervening only when absolutely necessary to ensure its functionality as a long-form generative release. This marked my first venture into rejecting the expectation of segmented outputs to produce easily identifiable features. Ultimately, this decision deepened my understanding of the fundamental qualities of generative art and stands as one of the works I am most proud of.

Conceptually, this project began with a desire to creatively interpret quantum field theory by illustrating it as a series of energy fields that interfere constructively or destructively under observation, yielding the colorful flows seen in the artwork. As the project progressed, an ethereal quality emerged that reminded me of experiences I have had while practicing meditation. Although I am not spiritual, I do feel an energetic connection to the world in these moments and felt compelled to share what I experienced in this collection.There are many ways one can practice meditation; using audio as an aid is a popular method. Soothing music, the rustling sounds of nature, the chimes of singing bowls, or low octave chants are among the many popular auditory aids. Elements common to all include a mix of constant tones, pleasing chords, overlapping octaves, and subtle variations over time. I drew inspiration from this when crafting the synthesized overlapping drones of audio.Interconnection is an important motif behind Flux, and thus I directly connected the visuals and audio by analyzing the rendered visuals to feed parameters directly into the waveform partials used in synthesizing audio. Additionally, each individual work in Flux is a representation of parameters in an infinite system; one set of parameters can seamlessly flow from one to another. Experience this in Flux Connected, linked below.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments and medical professionals globally endeavored tirelessly to safeguard lives, mitigate the spread of infection, and advance the development of a safe and effective vaccine. Despite these efforts, we observed an alarming rise in misinformation promoting anti-science rhetoric and conspiracies. Even more concerning was the politicization that ensued, as masses of individuals became disillusioned. Personally, I was disheartened, especially when confronting family members who succumbed to these easily digestible falsehoods.Unable to sway minds, I turned to humor as a coping mechanism. Upon uncovering a fascinating pattern, I decided to present it humorously as Quarantine, constructing a mock story featuring an unnamed scientist who stumbles upon a new disease that requires classification. Each element of the artwork was carefully labeled to weave a narrative.

Eight months after experiencing a layoff and facing the setback of a failed startup attempt, I found myself burnt out and in need of introspection. I desired a career path where I could channel my creative energy while ideally maintaining my independence. Fortunately, fate intervened, and through a colleague, I stumbled upon Art Blocks, where I encountered the captivating world of generative art being created and sold.With a modest understanding of blockchain and a recent fascination with generative art, I decided to experiment and see where it could lead. Thus, I embarked on a journey to learn P5, understand the mechanics of on-chain art, and develop an idea. Spaghettification emerged as a relatively straightforward concept, featuring wiggly tentacles, pulsating shapes, and a simple color scheme. Drawing inspiration from the scientific phenomenon of matter entering a black hole, the project took shape. To my astonishment, upon release, it sold out within minutes! This stroke of incredible luck marked the true inception of my art career.

My first generative artwork collection. Professionally, I had been working as a developer and technology supervisor, supporting artistic workflows in large production studios. I have always had a creative flair and yearned to explore it in my career, but the available positions and work conditions were not appealing. While delving into self-study of the Go programming language and learning about backend service development, I stumbled upon a drawing library.Nothing extravagant, just rendering simple primitives (squares, circles, triangles) in a variety of colors on a canvas. Playing with it, I found my creative spark had been ignited. Soon after, I began incorporating my own photography and introducing random variations to the shapes. I had discovered generative art as a medium, and I was hooked!