T E C T O N I C A

"In the boundless loneliness of space, strangeness abounds."
T E C T O N I C A logs

Standing here are the digital engrams of a spacefaring civilization, the final remnants of the Universe's vast computer, a layered stratum of glitched, galaxy-sized digital memory banks. These calcified data deposits have accumulated over eons, forming physical tectons that span light-years of space. They offer a glimpse into the fundamental building blocks employed by a forgotten alien civilization which encoded its entire culture as digital data in physical form. While the specifications for this stellar machine have been lost to time, its fractured components continue to perform computations, seemingly trapped in an eternal loop. We can observe the inner workings of this enigmatic structure, but its true meaning remains forever silent, its message encrypted.

T E C T O N I C A serves as an artistic exploration of this fictional world and its algorithm-driven deep-space geology. Collectors can reserve their iteration by minting a ticket and use the params interface to choose their seed number and triptych part. Generator uses a WYSIWYG principle to derive a PRNG seed from the wallet address and the chosen seed number. There are 1000 seeds available for each wallet. You can explore seeds using a separate seed explorer here:

https://protocell-labs.github.io/tectonica-seed-explorer/

T E C T O N I C A is written in JavaScript using Three.js library for displaying instantiated 3D geometry and in-browser rendering (see LICENSE file for the list of all dependencies). We recommend using Chromium browser on desktop with a newer generation GPU card and enabled hardware acceleration to get the full functionality (like key controls). Please ensure that the token functions correctly on your device before minting.

Use click (touch) to explode / unexplode the structure, click hold (touch hold) to set new explosion center (also E + click), P for pause / unpause palette cycle, B to change background color, S to download loader animation, G for gif capture, and numbers 1-5 to export progressively higher resolution of the artwork as a png image. Available URL parameters are listed in the browser console.

We paid tribute to artists and personalities who inspire our work by naming color palettes after them. To support other fellow artists on their creative journeys, we have left T E C T O N I C A code open (unminified and unobfuscated) and available in a public repository on GitHub. We believe that supporting open tools is a mission every generative artist should partake in.

Created in 2024 by {protocell:labs}