Monokai is the working name of Wimer Hazenberg, a Dutch artist working at the intersection of code and design.,Trained in photography and holding a master's in Artificial Intelligence, he learned to program at an early age and has been fascinated by how computers can produce aesthetically interesting work.He creates code-based work he classifies as algorithmic art, distinguished from AI-generated art by his direct, deliberate control over the algorithm.
In 2006 he created the Monokai color scheme for code editors, which has been used by millions of developers worldwide.Later, he turned to algorithmic art, a term he prefers over generative art, since the word 'generative' has become closely associated with AI image generators built on trained models and text prompts. He defines algorithmic art as art “created by an autonomous system executing an algorithm, where the artist carefully designs the boundaries of its computational space”.Using a pen plotter, an AxiDraw V3/A3 he set up to run wirelessly via a Raspberry Pi in 2021, he physically draws his SVG-based algorithmic works on paper.
In A Notion Is Formed and its companion This Could Have Been Your World, he used the audio frequencies of recorded spoken stories to distort procedurally generated abstract forms and terrains, exploring how communication between people shapes the world around them. Both works are rendered in SVG, a resolution-independent format suited to plotting.,In Sliced in Time, thirty-two rotating slices of a mathematical 3D shape are drawn by a custom renderer and deliberately rendered with imperfect lines.One of his pieces exists nested inside a work by the artist Piter Pasma.He has released collections including Fire Card and, on fxhash, Draad.,In 2025 his work appeared in the exhibitions “NFTJapan” at Tokyo Tower in Minato City and “Art Golden GAI” at Saison Daikanyama in Shibuya, Tokyo.
