Blóm
Blóm is a generative art series that explores the tension between internal and external forces.
Blóm is composed of many particles that all have intent - they want to move a certain direction - but external forces push them around. Sometimes the particles continue on their desired journey, sometimes they are forced onto another path, and these wanderings, over time, compose images.
Released on the now-defunct platform gen.art, the series is long-form generative, meaning a piece is not created until someone purchases it. At that moment, a one-of-a-kind artwork is generated based on the unique signature of the buyer. Although I wrote the algorithm, no one, not even me, knows exactly what my algorithm will produce.
Above is the very first image that was minted. Minting is the process of a buyer purchasing a single piece of the series. When the transaction occurs, a unique token is passed to my algorithm which then creates the one-of-a-kind art.
Roughly 1000 pieces have been minted so far, and I'm very pleased to see the variety of the collection and the reaction from the community.
Here is a randomly selected sampling of images (you can refresh to see another set):
How was Blóm created?
The first iteration of Blóm was created for a generative artist trading card series released in 2015. At the time, javascript was not performant enough to render high-resolution images in the browser, so I used openframeworks to generate the 150 pieces of work that I eventually released as a limited print series.
With the advent of NFTs, generative art suddenly became quite popular, and I was eager to revisit the project with all the new ideas and learnings I've had in the past 6 years. Specifically, I focused on opportunities around color, perspective, and render methods.
Colors
The colors are either quilted or huey. Quilted indicates each particle has a color selected from a list of preset color families. Huey means a random hue is chosen, and each particle's color can be modulated towards another hue over the course of the drawing.
Huey
The huey color theme selects a random hue and modulates the color over time.
Monochromatic
Sometimes the Huey theme will have a very small threshold of color variation, creating a monochrome image.
Quilted
The quilted color theme assigns random colors to each particle from a collection of predefined sets.
Perspectives
In addition to lots of color variation, Blóms can also be drawn from different perspectives.
Traditional
The classic Blóm.
Fluidity
Fluidity is similar to Traditional, but the Blóm is drawn with the lines going out from the center instead of around the center.
Mountain
Mountains are Blóms that are drawn from the side. The center of a Blóm is the top of the image, and it grows down and out along the canvas.
Quarter Circle
Quarter circle is a Blóm zoomed in on the bottom right quadrant.
Innvortis
Innvortis is a zoomed in Blóm, as if you are looking closely at it.
Render Methods
The final component of creating variation within the collection is the employment of render methods, which change how each particle's path is drawn.
Triangles
Drawing triangles between particles and their neighbors yields visually interesting results.
Outlines
Shapes can be outlined, and the outline thickness can either be variable or static.
Swirls
Particles can be drawn in a continuous line, creating pleasant-looking lines that appear hand-drawn.
Skips
Particles can be occasionally not drawn, creating negative space in the rendering.
Mirror
When the forces on a Blóm prevent it from filling the canvas, the Blóm is repeated in a circle around the original shape.
Even more Blóms!
Reactions
Blóm has received amazing feedback from the community, particularly on twitter and the gen.art discord. Thank you to everyone who has supported the project, shared it, and even made it their profile pic!
Technical Details
Blóm is written in javascript with zero dependencies, meaning as long as the etherium blockchain is running the work will be available. It's probably the first project I've ever worked on that would still operate even if Amazon went down.
I'd like one too please
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