seekers #19

Seekers is inspired by the view that is held by mathematical realism, that mathematical entities objectively exist independently of the human mind. Therefore, mathematical entities are not constructed by humans, but rather, are discovered by humans. This means, that also other intelligent beings would be able to discover the same entities.

In 'seekers', a set of complicated, computer-generated functions are used to render coloured spaces on a Cartesian plane. The mathematical space is being explored and discovered by a group of seekers, which hover and fly around within the layers of infinitely evolving shapes. The vicinity of a seeker also modifies the surrounding mathematical space, which means that the seekers will never reach the objective reality.

The generating functions are created using human-curated evolutionary algorithm following the idea demonstrated already in Karl Sims' paper 'Artificial Evolution for Computer Graphics' in 1991.

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Features 29 generative base functions, 15 palettes in various modes. Some palettes have a special 'dark mode', where the seekers also slightly illuminate the otherwise darkened space.

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Notes for viewer:

• The piece adapts to all screen sizes, although a fixed size can be defined by url parameters.

• The piece is preferably viewed full-screen. The resolution can be adjusted for best performance.

• The piece can be paused and high-resolution stills can be exported for printing.

• Video clips can be exported in webm format. For a high-resolution video, frames should be batch exported as PNG-sequence and rendered in a video editing software.

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Controls:

• Number keys from [1] to [8] adjust the resolution
• [space] pauses animation
• [s] exports a PNG with the current resolution
• [x] starts and stops recording of a webm clip (25mbps)
• [i] toggles display of frame number and resolution

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URL parameters:

• &width={WIDTH}&height={HEIGHT} explicitly sets the render resolution to {WIDTH}x{HEIGHT}. Resolution controls do not work when dimensions are explicitly set.

• &rec={start},{end} batch records frames starting from {start} and ending at {end}. Can also be used to record stills. For example, if you want a still export from frame 300 in resolution 5000x3000, you can start the piece with url parameters &width=5000&height=3000&rec=300,300

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License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Utilizes fxHash template by Karsten Schmidt
https://github.com/thi-ng/tpl-umbrella-fxhash
MIT License

Utilizes components from thi.ng umbrella by Karsten Schmidt
https://github.com/thi-ng/umbrella
Apache Software License 2.0