Empathy

When I started working on this piece, the question I asked myself was, 'What is the simplest thing that somebody can create in terms of representation, something that might be a response to the abundant apathy resulting from societal feedback loops?'

Lines, came to my mind. The simple act of drawing a bunch of lines, like Sol Lewitt's Wall Drawings or the iconic Joy division poster invoke something inside all of us. Amongst more recent generative works, there is Zancan's Bugged Forest, Nat's Eucalyptus & Sagebrush, Drey's White Mountain Winter amongst many more that use the power of lines to create something ethereal something intangible deep inside. The act of drawing lines is a comfort zone even a child is familiar with. So how does that translate to in the world of code? How can lines depict something like empathy?

And thus started my explorations using points and splines and arrays and textures to figure out how to go about drawing lines. A 1000 iterations late, I had scratched only the surface of this simple act of drawing lines. A line seems simple but it seldom is, it is a powerful tool running across in graphs used across the world in a diverse variety of forms and applications.

For this piece, I tried to bind them all to a certain aesthetic family and explore the nuances of drawing lines within its boundaries, rejecting styles that fell too far from the tree. Instead I tried to approach this piece with a layered perspective, similar to emotions, complex, diverse and multilayered. Having said that, I invite you all to pause for a moment. What emotion does this piece convey to you? Or do you find this piece to be more apathetic, than empathetic?

Key ingredients

• 5 noise types
• 3 canvas sizes
• 10 graphic styles for square format
• 5 graphic styles for the other two
• 9 color options

Keys

R - Restart Loading Animation
S - Save PNG (4096x4096|5400x3036|3036x5400)*
*Depending on iteration

Made with cables.gl
@jaalibandar 2023