This project started back in February 2022.

As a kid, I was interested in cellular automata, and as an adult, I was fascinated by Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science book ("NKS"). When I was a student, as a relief from boredom during courses, I used to endlessly draw repetitive patterns in my notebook. Also, I was always very fond of repetitive patterns where the eye follows a pattern and gets eventually trapped. I remember being stunned by Vazarely's Bellatrix at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.

Thus, I initially wanted to play around 2D cellular automata, making it less regular, less stochastic, and much more chaotic.

I started with generating random evolution rules to decide whether a cell should be filled or not, very much like Conway's Game of Life. Then, I decided that "binary" cells (empty or not empty status) did not bring enough complexity. I designed each cell to be like a biological cell, defined by its DNA. New cells combine the DNA of surrounding cells, following random rules.

At last, I added mutations: whenever the DNA gets replicated, mutations can happen, leading - or not - to new characteristics.

For the rendering, I transformed DNA features into simple graphical properties, leading to very repetitive patterns. I removed all straight lines to give it a very artisanal, handmade look.

I also designed the rendering for printing. Laser or inkjet printing leads to perfect results: this is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I wanted the printing device itself to add its randomness and its imperfections: printing twice with the same result must just be impossible. Thus, the ideal printing device for Reverie is the risograph: it will add multiple random imperfections - alignment, filling, fuzzy borders, etc. The 14 possible colours of Reverie are ones regularly found in risographs.

The entire project took 22 months, with multiple long pauses.