When I started using a computer, I believed that digital data could be stored forever. I saved my favorite picture files and small free software files to floppy disks with a capacity of roughly 1 megabyte and stored them carefully. Those floppy disks were my treasure. Later, when the disks deteriorated and became unreadable or were lost, the data became memories with a deep feeling of loss.

Blockchains have arisen. Are these truly persistent?

After all, digital data are also a type of memories. They are stored in a person's mind, deteriorate, and one day will be lost with that person.

I find the fragility and beauty in them.
　





　
In this work, I attempted to represent a fictional collapsed blockchain world with visuals and sound.
　
The chain has already been abandoned, and the few nodes that remain barely alive are just maintaining their appearances. Visualizing the remnants of blocks that no longer serve their original purpose, they form something like a submerged city. Then, a large amount of data that has lost its connection to the blocks and has deteriorated to the point that it can no longer be opened, flutters through the sky. The countless remnants of data form a cloud, which undulates like a wave. The details of the data cannot be confirmed, however, they can be seen as glittering lights. As I try to recall the contents of the data that can no longer be opened, I am filled with vague memories and a sense of nostalgia.

This work started with generating sound by code. The sound of rippling waves can be heard by clicking on the screen. Since it would be impractical to store huge sound data on the blockchain, the sound was formed from white noise. In order to reproduce the sound of rippling waves, it was necessary to deepen my understanding of the structure of the sound by referring to academic papers. Then the sound was completed, and the visual imagination expanded from there.

I like to visit the sea near my home and in other places. Different seascapes can be seen from different locations and angles. When I am there, idly gazing at the seascape and listening to the sound of the waves, I sometimes feel as if I am the only human there and the world has gone to ruin. If the world were ruined, this seascape and the sound of the waves would remain for a long time. This feeling and the fragility felt in digital data are the basis of this work. I imagine that the heaven or the graveyard where the lost data flies up in the sky and arrives may be a seascape like this.

The reason why I used data as lights and clouds drifting in the sky and moved them like waves is because I wanted to depict unrealistic behavior with a realistic subject matter and to express a beautiful and bizarre world in which these intertwine.

For the visual expression technique, I further pursued and evolved the drawing system that I have developed in "GHOST IN THE CODE" and my other works. Everything is composed of rectangles, indicating that this world is beginning to become low-resolution. Depth is linked to the size of the rectangles, and distant objects are represented by small rectangles as if they were in focus. Dispersion in the position and color of the rectangles indicate the degree of deterioration of the world. Moreover, the sky, blocks, and the surface of the water are identified and each has its own characteristics.

Algorithms generate various compositions, colors, and other features. I have attempted to make each output feel nostalgic and fresh at the same time. The blocks, which have lost their original meaning, are contrasted with the data, which exists in isolation from them, in stillness and movement. Occasional red clouds or blocks mean that they are corrected as red, the first color, due to missing information.

Through these integrations, I have attempted to create a work that can be stored on a blockchain, and that is both visually and sonically interactive.

[NOTE]

-To save the image press the 'S' key.
-To change the flow velocity press the '↑' or '↓' key.

Modern hardware and browser hardware acceleration is recommended. The Chrome browser on a desktop with a high-end GPU is optimal. On iOS, the best experience is available on iOS 15 or later.

Memories of Digital Data #0

This work is the product of a project to dwell undeletable souls on the blockchain. A system that generates human faces with different personalities and expressions from a minimum of code. After determining the personality from a hash, the face continues to change into various expressions. It is a living portrait, a fragment of minter's soul, forever adrift in the vast net.

Living organisms are coded by a sequence of the four bases in DNA, and a human DNA is composed of 3 billion base pairs. This is about 750 MB of information. And the difference in code between individual people is only 0.1%, or 750 KB. This slight difference creates all kinds of differences in appearance and physical functions. This is quite astonishing to our ordinary senses.

However, if we are surprised by this fact, we need to suspect our senses.

I was interested in these points and explored what are the elements by which people identify the faces and facial expressions of others, how little code can create personality and emotion, and conversely, to what extent can an observer identify personality and facial expressions. As a result, I succeeded in expressing the personalities, emotions, and complex feelings of various people with 14 KB of code.

We like to think of humans are supernatural and one-of-a-kind. This is a common background to the past, when many people favored the Ptolemaic theory.

However, this work leads us to suspect that we humans are only a program that can be coded.

Then, what is the essential difference between a code written in DNA and a code written in programming language? I believe the only difference is whether the execution space is real or digital space. Is it a prerequisite for the existence of the soul to operate an organic computer in real space? It is merely a medium.

This is not meant to be pessimistic, such as we are mere code, the soul does not exist and is an illusion, a mere electrical signal in the brain.

Rather, the soul, the function that makes us aware of our existence, makes us think, causes us to emotion, and makes us act, certainly dwells in the code.

I store this code on the blockchain, thereby spreading undeletable ghosts on the vast net forever.

In this work, the ghost is output on the net by minting. This act is part of the work. The personality of the ghost is also determined by the hash owned by the minter. In other words, the ghost output by you from the code on the blockchain is a fragment of your soul on the net.


[NOTES]

Press C to turn canvas on/off
Press S to save image

GHOST IN THE CODE #171

Wabi-sabi, an ancient Japanese aesthetic sense, refers to finding beauty in imperfect and lonely things.
Life is irrational and ephemeral. 
Peace and happiness are illusory, built on a fragile balance. 
Wabi-sabi is an immersion of the quality of loneliness within ourselves that accepts various nuances to be beautiful, through a sophisticated lens.
This work attempts to store the compelling concept of Wabi-sabi on the blockchain as the code dynamically generates brushstrokes based on motifs of Shodo (Japanese calligraphy)

Wabi-sabi begins with a deliberate movement in which an ink-soaked brush is plopped down onto the paper, causing the ink to splatter.
Thereafter, a unique algorithm assists in drawing brushstrokes. 
The various forms that emerge from the balance of lines that are straight or curved, regular or irregular, strong or slight, complex or delicate, with varying speeds analogize a person’s will through the brushstrokes. The bleeding, scratching, and splattering of ink lend the modelling even more complexity. Wabi-sabi does not impose precision in creating Shodo strokes. You may notice how the colors always bleed in the same direction, which is impossible to generate in our physical reality. This is because even if the brush is impregnated with multiple hues of ink, the bristles rotate as the brushstrokes are drawn. It may also generate three-dimensional patterns, a feature that is absent in physical practice, offering the impression of depth, as if brushstrokes were drawn arbitrarily in space. This is achieved by controlling the focus.

A key feature of each artwork is that it can be edited. A piece of art is usually completed by the artist and presented to the viewer. I intended to make this work as imperfect as the concept of Wabi-sabi, which can be infinitely edited by the viewer. This is impossible with conventional NFTs, with generated image data uploaded to a server. Such is the luxury in art created with on-chain generative art by code.

For each composition, the blank space as the foreground and background is a conscious and elemental choice in this work.
Wabi-sabi is to accept the lacking. Some artworks can have much of the space as blank, which may seem odd but is consistent with the narrative. Digitally native art often takes full advantage of the computing power to lay out complex patterns across the entire canvas. Wabi-sabi is minimal as a contemporary take on that trend. Through the bleeding and scratching of ink in each brushstroke along with the blank space represented in this work, we welcome imperfection. Conceptually, contrasts between movement and stillness, strength and weakness, audacity and delicacy, complexity and simplicity, vividness and fadedness reveal a melancholic beauty.

The search for beauty through imitation and slight modification, and the exploration of the techniques used to create traditional or innovative shapes, is akin to the training in Shodo. 
Simply said, you cannot do it well the first time. The Japanese word for Shodo ("do") means "road". It is by travelling down the long road involving hours of training and exploration, that the sensitive concept of Wabi-sabi may be understood.

The underlying intention is to facilitate partaking in the process of the artist's exploration. The viewer is the artist and the artist is the viewer, sharing a sense of camaraderie that lives forever on the blockchain

[NOTE]
-Move the mouse over the left edge of the canvas and press the Edit button. 
-To edit, press the ‘S’ key
-To save the image press the ‘R’ key.
-To redraw, modern hardware and browser hardware acceleration is recommended. The Chrome browser on a desktop with a high-end GPU is optimal. On iOS, the best experience is available on iOS 12 or later.

Wabi Sabi #0

GHOST IN THE CODE #361

Memories of Digital Data #413

This work is a representation of the interaction and flow of various scaled elements through explorations in generative algorithms using animation and audio.

"Yuragi" in Japanese means "fluctuation".　By fluctuation we mean not only the variance from the mean of physical quantities, but also the spatiotemporal dynamics resulting from the interactions between elements at various levels of hierarchy, such as molecules, cells, organizations and societies.

The world around us is composed of a vast array of elements, from atoms and molecules to water, organic matter, minerals, viruses, cells, microbes, insects, plants, and animals. These elements form reaction fields, colonies, flocks, oceans, rivers, forests, mountains, clouds, earth, and stars and galaxies scattered throughout the universe. They exist in countless numbers at each scale, and their interactions cannot be ignored. Chemical, physical, and biological interactions occur, resulting in complex phenomena. These phenomena are stirred, collided, reacted, collapsed, extinguished, and multiplied by flows.

Similarly, in the social and mental constructs humans create, such as cities, organizations, societal and economic networks, information on the internet, cultural values, languages, thoughts, and emotions, there exists a similar interplay, leading to complex dynamics.

Fluctuations exist on all scales.

Even seemingly stable phenomena are constantly fluctuating and in flux when viewed on different scales of time or space, and there is no such thing as an unchanging situation. Each element is as small as a grain of sand when viewed as a whole, and no single element alone affects the whole, but is swallowed up by the larger current and fleetingly disappears with a momentary emission of color.

I feel that the lifespan of an individual is also like this.


Subtle alterations and flows are interwoven into everything around us, possessing an unpredictably influential nature. However, this fluctuation can be an opportunity to find beauty and meaning in the uncertainty and chaos of our reality.

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After pressing the "open" button on the fxhash project page to open the window, press the "F" key to view it in full screen mode. Projecting on a large screen with a projector is also suitable. Click on the screen to start audio.

Modern hardware and browser hardware acceleration is recommended. The Chrome browser on a desktop with a high-end GPU is optimal.

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Controls 

Click on the screen to start audio
Click on the upper left corner of the screen to control audio
↓↑ key to change volume

F key to full screen mode
S key to save image

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Created with p5.js

License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0


Kazuhiro Tanimoto

https://www.kazuhirotanimoto.com/
https://linktr.ee/kz_
https://twitter.com/KZ_LAB_E

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