Prismatic Thickets

Ira Greenberg1001/1001

'Prismatic Thickets' is a pure generative painting algorithm; it's not animated nor interactive, but does goes further than any related painting program I've written prior. I created a very large and affordable edition with the hope that collectors can freely explore the emergent potential of the algorithm.

The Burn (Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022, 12:05AM UTC):
96 hours after minting opens, all unminted tokens will be burned.

p -> screen capture


Background:
I thought it might be helpful to offer a little background as to why I'm so excited about 'Prismatic Thickets'.

I began my professional life as a painter; both my degrees are in painting (MFA '92, BFA '89). I got into computing immediately upon completing my MFA. At first, the digital work was to pay the bills (early digital design/illustration/production work.) Soon though, I grew pretty obsessed and started reading computing/software manuals cover-to-cover (yes, dork). At the same time, I was painting, primarily landscapes (plein air).

The plein air painting transitioned from landscapes, to trees, to just branches/leaves, which eventually led to abstract work based primarily on related natural patterns. I also began coding at this time (1994-95). One of my first creative programming projects was based on one of my painted patterned abstractions. I remember the first time I ran my program, saw the coded painting emerge and knew my life would never be the same. This led to an even deeper dive reading programming/math/CS theory textbooks (even bigger dork).

I quickly realized there were very few programming references for people like me. This eventually led to me writing 3 Processing books and building numerous university creative coding programs around the country. Though this period was exciting, there still remained a major disconnect for me. I hadn't really put my painting background together with my coding background. Obviously, we didn't have marketplaces like fx(hash) back then, to support generative artists. So I essentially took refuge in the ivory tower, creating a gazillion demos, courses, tutorials, workshops, etc.

The worldwide interest in NFT's, especially in the generative space with Art Blocks and fx(hash) has created a venue for creative coders I honestly never thought was possible. It's completely rejuvenated my passion for creative coding and helped me reconnect with some creative coding OG's and many wonderful new artists. So many of the projects I see on Art Blocks and fx(hash) bring me back to the early days and passionate excitement of discovering the generative power of creative coding.

Most of my NFT projects have been fairly dense physics-based experiments. Many of these leverage a codebase I've developed over decades, which I've been slowly porting from Java/P3, C++/OF to TypeScript/three.js. What I hadn't (re)explored was what got me excited about creative coding to begin with: generative painting.


Made with: TypeScript, three.js, PByte.js, Node

In memory of Robert Slutzky