This generative artwork explores the tension between precision and failure within visual systems. It is composed of grids whose intervals are subtly shifted using noise functions and simple trigonometric transformations, producing a structure that feels both systematic and unstable. The work belongs to an ongoing series of experiments focusing on the low-level features of images — an ontological investigation into shapes and patterns that emerge at the edges of representation, where devices strain against their own limitations. These are the thresholds where sensors and screens begin to fail, giving rise to unexpected artifacts: moiré effects, drifting interference patterns and other visual anomalies. At the same time, the work evokes the logic of weaving: its strict grid, repetitive structures, and interlacing rhythms recall the aesthetics of square weaves within textiles, which can be seen as precursors to pixel-based representations. In this sense, the piece draws a line between ancient material practices and digital image-making, revealing how both rely on the ordered entanglement of discrete units — whether threads or pixels — to construct complex surfaces and patterns.

Within the image, two distinct generative logics intertwine: one based on a bitwise XOR operation combined with a modulo test, producing raw, almost primitive repetitions across the texture; the other built from a curated ruleset of elementary 1D cellular automata, whose infinite capacity for variation continues to fascinate me. These contrasting systems — one mechanical and discrete, the other organic and evolving — are layered and entangled through soft noise functions and balanced against a set of carefully selected colour palettes.

Sliders:

[-1-] - Colors

[-2-] - Grid Resolution

[-3-] - Granular Grid Distortion

[-4-] - Cellular Automata / XOR Threshold

[-5-] - Cellular Automata Rulesets (less effective if slider 4 is too high)

The positions of the sliders are controlling filter band intervals, oscillator frequencies and other sonic parameters. Press ‘s’ to save current image, touch / click to turn movements and audio on or off