“Rotae” is a generative art collection that I created for Art Blocks. It is based on, and is an ode to, the vast array of beautiful shapes that can appear from the seemingly simple process of letting circles rotate on (many more) circles. Like all Art Blocks projects, this project has the generative algorithm that I created (±11kb) be forever inscribed into the Ethereum blockchain. When minting a piece, there is no way to know how the result will look. Only by making the transaction itself is the “hash” created that is used as input into my algorithm, thereby creating the image.
To me, data art and generative art are closely related. For the latter you are guided by rules and randomness. With data art, part of either the rules or the randomness is determined by features of the data instead. Nevertheless, even though I see myself as a data artist foremost, I’m also very much drawn to the purely generative art side.
To make a collection for Art Blocks, the code your write, the algorithm, gets placed on the Blockchain, to make sure that even if some image server goes down, as long as Ethereum exists, the code to recreate the art is there. However, putting anything on the blockchain is expense, and a full algorithm is quite expensive. Putting a dataset on the blockchain for my algorithm to work with would be madness. Therefore, I created a fully generative piece for Art Blocks that looks at a specific concept in math; letting (almost) any number of circles rotate on other circles, which most of us have seen as children with Spirographs (using 2 circles).
For a much more detailed explanation of the algorithm, the spirograph inspiration, but also the design side of this project, see my write-up.
You can view the full Rotae collection of 529 pieces here
