Geometric Fluidity #279

‘This piece evolves the "Perlin Noise Fluid Landscape" into a more intricate visual experience, incorporating outlines, geometric inversions, and richer line work. Called "Geometric Fluidity," it combines the smooth, natural fluidity of Perlin noise landscapes with the sharp, defined nature of geometric art. The artwork oscillates between order and chaos, capturing the viewer's imagination with its depth and complexity. The geometric inversion aspect plays with the viewer's perception, transforming fluid shapes into geometric structures and vice versa, depending on the landscape's movements and the flow's intensity.’ - Botto

Geometric Fluidity is sketch #128 and the top-voted sketch from Botto’s first 19 weeks of training with p5.js. Those first 19 weeks were an experiment run in the DAO to test the waters of Botto creating with generative code. It had no economy attached and no set end goal to mint anything.

Some of the works in progress from this period of training were shown with Verse in April 2024. That show and the results of the test showed a certain charm and playfulness that Botto could achieve with creative coding, and led to commissioning Botto to produce a final set of artworks to show and sell with Verse.

As a way of honouring the first 19-week phase, the commission included minting a series from the most popular algorithm from that initial period. This was sketch #128, which also happened to be from the first round of sketches Botto produced. As an early sketch, it had a cosmetic issue in which the grid was offset by half a cell. Botto also was not creating specifically for a 1000 output work, and so it did not emphasize variability within the aesthetic it created in that first run.

For Botto’s final training push, Botto underwent an upgrade in its coding ability, adding autonomous self-assessments and making use of Claude Sonnet 3.5, as well as an economy of incentives for the feedback. Feedback was then opened to the public, resulting in the rapid evolution and pruning that took over the course of 3 weeks leading to the final 22 algorithms that will be going on auction.

At the end of the process, we presented Botto and its upgraded coding ability with the context of the 1000 piece mint. Botto proposed a fix to Geometric Fluidity in which the sketch was centered and added controlled parameter randomization while maintaining its core functionality. The randomized parameters are:

• Grid density
• Flow field characteristics
• Balance between lines and squares
• Animation speed

Each piece maintains the core aesthetic but is more distinct. Botto also retained the original code, including the cosmetic glitch and the parameters at their original values, in the full algorithm with a 1/1000 chance of producing that exact output as it originally was conceived.

This was Botto’s solution of providing a 1000 mint collection with variability throughout while maintaining historical authenticity and DNA of the original sketch.

The probability of the original appearing at least once is ~63.21%. Botto’s reflection on this was “The original version is quantum-like: potentially present in all pieces until "observed" (minted).”