Gravity 16
Released 3rd of March 2022 on Artblocks.io
Edition: 1 of 1 of 1024
View the full collection
Gravity 16 is about movement, transformation and exploration. It’s about different stages of thought. From the birth of an idea, to starting a journey, a growing mind, to getting lost and suddenly finding back, seeing the light, succeeding and finally fading away.
Gravity is the most versatile and complete collection so far, containing 14 different themes and four palettes combined into 1024 artworks released on Artblocks the 24th of September, 2021.
The level of understanding
The concept could be summarised in a creative method I’ve developed over the years. It’s an idea on how to handle a creative process: the main concept is that we all have an upper level of what we can understand (the line in the sketch below) — below the line is what we understand. Above is the unknown.
Let’s follow a creative process: we start with an abstract idea or a problem to solve — this is the beginning of your journey to solve the problem or concretise the idea. We explore different solutions, and the more we dig in, the more complex it gets, and suddenly we pass our level of understanding. We are now lost.
What happens when we cross the line? It might feel uncomfortable, we could get anxious, a crippling feeling starts to arise. Now it’s important to not panic — this is the designed space for creativity and we need to loose control. This is the most important phase and we should embrace it: we levelled up to the stage where our mind expands and we discover new ideas.
Eureka! Sometimes all your thoughts melt together into a mind-blowing idea, and it’s all downhill from now; your thoughts start to get clearer, you can see a brightening, you’re successfully balancing your level of understanding, you are in a flow where time and space collapse and you are as one with your neurons in your brain. Finally you order and structure your work into a logical system. You reached the end!
When you cross the line and challenge yourself your mind is growing and you mature for every iteration. We’re moving the line upwards. If you don’t cross the line you are not challenging your mind, your brain will start aging and the line will slowly fall downwards.
Our heritage gives us a starting point. As parents and friends, the best we could do is to raise the bar for humanity by teaching each other new things, continue growing and let future generations inherit a higher starting point.
The fourteen themes
Each theme in the collection is named after the phases mentioned above. The fourteen themes are The Beginning, Journey, Exploration, Lost, Discover, Mindblowing, Brightening, Flowing, Logic, Growing, Maturity, Aging, Heritage and the End.
The Beginning
The birth of an idea, the first neural connections.
Journey
To find the path from A to B.
Exploration
Exploring new unknown ideas.
Lost
To go beyond your level of understanding and lose control.
Discover
Discover new territories.
Mindblowing
Eureka! When thoughts come together and explode into a new idea.
Brightening
To see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Flowing
To balance your level of understanding.
Logic
Connect your thoughts into a logical concept.
Growing
Challenge your limitations and let your mind grow.
Maturity
A continuous learning ending up in a well connected brain.
Heritage
Where we come from and what we give back to the generations to come.
Aging
To stagnate in thought.
The End
To forget and finally fade away — limited to two editions, black and white.
Palettes
There are five palettes: Paper palette (Bright mode), Screen palette (Dark mode), Silk screen palette (Color mode), Gradient palette (a gradient colored background), and Monochrome palette (black and white).
Paper palette
With a bright background and a rich color range, the paper palette uses a subtractive color mode to draw the colors. This palette carries 11 of the themes and works perfectly for printing.
Screen palette
13 of the themes use the dark palette, that generates colors through an additive color mode. It’s the preferred palette for screen.
Silk screen palette
Silkscreen printing is a traditional technique used for centuries, where a mesh is used to transfer ink to a canvas. The Silkscreen Palette uses a single contrasting color to draw the motif, and you will find 11 of the themes using it.
Gradient Palette
Similar to the Silkscreen Palette, the Gradient one plays with increased or decreased intensity of color on the background. You will find 11 themes with this palette.
Monochrome palette
Finally, there is a black and white palette: this is the only one containing all 14 themes. You can find only 14 artworks for either black or white in total.
Hue
On top of the palettes there is also a gliding hue value making colors slightly off, a subtle difference between the artworks to reflect natural shiftings and imperfection.
The algorithm
The algorithm was first created in December 2020 and since then it as been refined several times — 16 to be precise (and therefore the Collection name, Gravity 16). Each version of it, since the very first working one (Gravity 12), builds up from the previous one and slowly evolves through new parameters and tweaks. So far there’s been a release for each version, from 12 to 16.
Gravity 16 is equipped with an exponential gravity parameter which opens up for many new themes. It is also optimized to be able to draw faster and create finer details. The code in total is about 4000 characters, about one page of text. The core is about 1000 characters and the rest is for the definition of themes and palettes. It is written in Javascript and using the library p5.js. You can read more about the algorithm in my previous article Gravity 12.
Thank you Art blocks, thanks to the fantastic community and thank you for taking the time reading this article. You all mean a lot to me.
Jimmy Herdberg
20th of October 2021
