Kumano (Emergent Structures 1)

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"Kumano (Emergent Structures 1)" is a collection of generative works that emulate analog effects from painting, printmaking, and textile design. It is the first generative collection in a continuing series called Emergent Structures.

The title of this collection is borrowed from Kumano-zome (熊野染め), a traditional Japanese craft of resist-dyed fabric that creates beautiful analog interference patterns (moiré). These textiles, often rendered in tones of indigo dye, date back at least two hundred years, and yet they can feel magically modern.

The primary structure of "Kumano" is a mesh of overlapping angled lines that function just like the hand-printed lines in Kumano-zome textiles.

My background is in abstract painting, and one of my goals for this collection was to create an abstract "painting space" and develop a painterly visual language, and then treat the outputs like I would treat a running series of paintings; exploring and working through all the ideas, within certain constraints, trying to exhaust every possibility.

I wanted the outputs to look like they were created by hand, with soft edges and manual imperfections. Colors are deliberately "mis-registered" and shapes/lines are subtly askew. The "Viscosity" feature turns emergent moiré patterns into flattened, solid forms, and renders them as if they were painted with watercolors, or stamped with bleeding inks.


The composition of each piece is mostly determined by five main components:

1. Layers of repeating lines at various angles and spacing, which often overlap and interact to create complex moiré patterns (Kumano Layers)

2. A "Horizon" section that creates a foreground space and a horizon line, bringing the piece into a painterly landscape space

3. Bold caution stripes of various color, thickness, opacity, and orientation

4. Floating "Satellite" shapes that sometimes appear, evoking moons or man-made objects hovering in space

5. A special mix of "Viscosity" and "Erosion" that makes the paint bleed, congeal, and dissolve in unpredictable ways


The overarching color story of each piece is determined by a few interrelated palettes:

- Ten possible Background Colors
- Eight possible palettes for the layered lines (Kumano Palette)
- Eight possible colors of Caution Stripes
- Six possible colors for the Horizon/Foreground layer

When applied in combination and then run through the Viscosity and/or Erosion filters, the breadth of color possibilities is enormous, but always remains connected and coherent.


The algorithm's compositional structure also shows extreme variety, from highly complex to super clean, minimal, and subtle. Everything in the artwork is generated directly from the p5.js script; no external inputs, filters, or images are used.


These pieces are best viewed at large scale in order to appreciate the fine details and nuance. To save a high-res version, just type "S" on your keyboard and a high-res PNG will be generated and downloaded. This can take some time, so please be patient while it renders in the background. In most browsers the high-res output will be 5000 x 6250px (31+ megapixels).