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numbat
AliaK, 2022on fxhash
Platforms
fxhash
Description

specture:::numbat

generative numbats (pointy lines) searching for termites (Langton's ants scaled down, on other planes) to eat on the blockchain. chaos ensues

:::

the numbat is a marsupial that is extinct in my state of NSW, Australia, and is endangered in other parts of the country. it is effectively an ant-eater (also known as Noombat, Walpurti, Banded Ant-eater), obsessed with termites, so much so, they reset their body clock to wake when the termites are active during the day, and live in hollow trees/logs of the Eucalypt woodlands. they have long tongues and pointy snouts and strong paws to dig out termites in their 'galleries' — shallow tunnels and pathways between termite mounds.

:::

this work uses morphogenetic algorithms/methods to represent the key behaviours and characteristics of the species once they've been uploaded to the blockchain, rather than a realistic representation:

  • Langton's Ant algorithm to represent the termites and their galleries — code is based on Daniel Shiffman / The Coding Train's Langton's Ant example code (MIT licence), then modified, and scaled

  • elongated physical characteristics for the numbats — pointy lines to represent their snouts and long thin tongues

  • multiple planes, thickness & colour of lines influenced by Iakov Georgievich Chernikhov (1889–1951), to free [architecture] from the ground and create a new order

  • this is a 3D WEBGL work — the 3D text blocks ('hash' as text) are usually found on a hidden plane represent the environment of the blockchain

  • this work continues the specture series - putting endangered/extinct/imaginary species onto the blockchain

WEBGL previews & fullscreen mode may differ from the main work