Core themes

Liminalia explores the delicate balance between randomness and structure, weaving together life's moments and transitions through an abstract visual language. The artwork highlights the interplay of significant events, serendipitous encounters, and personal growth while embracing the beauty of imperfection and transformation. By engaging with the mysteries of art, science, and nature, Liminalia encourages viewers to reflect on the interconnectedness of human experiences and cherish the ever-evolving tapestry of life.

In Part 1, I'll explain some of the motivation and inspiration and introduce the creative process of Liminalia.

In Part 2, I'll detail the algorithm's parameters and features in more detail to provide a better understanding of the artwork. I hope this will be helpful to anyone interested in learning more about the making of the collection.

Part 1 - Motivation & Concept

Origin and Exploration

The inspiration for Liminalia emerged from my personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by profound changes that impacted us all, bringing about both positive and negative transformations. One of the more positive experiences I encountered during this time was the disappearance of the relentless rush hour in my city.

The streets transformed, taking on a calmer, more tranquil atmosphere. This shift in the urban environment inspired me to appreciate my surroundings' smaller, often overlooked details as people began to walk more, and the world seemed to move slower.

While delving into the topic, I discovered Carlo Rovelli's book, "The Reality is Not What it Seems," which led me to reflect on the relationship between order, randomness, and our perception of time as it relates to colour, form, and space. The concept of liminality – the transitional phase connecting the past and the future – became increasingly intriguing.

Techniques and Aesthetics

In Liminalia, I aimed to visually represent the liminal space as a realm of transition and transformation using various techniques, such as layering colours and picture planes. This created a multidimensional and immersive experience that captures the elusive in-between where change occurs.

The interplay of colours and layers conveys liminality's fleeting nature, while intricate details encourage reflection on life's impermanent, interconnected aspects. The composition fosters tranquillity, inviting exploration of personal perceptions of reality and connections to the world. Liminalia embodies the liminal space, evoking serenity and an awareness of interconnectedness and ephemerality.

Ultimately, I invite viewers to explore their connections with the world around them, fostering contemplation, reflection, and appreciation for the transformative potential of liminality.

Let's delve deeper into the creation and explore the project's many aspects.

Brainstorming the Vision for Liminalia

The initial brainstorming process for Liminalia was driven by a desire to visually capture the concept of liminality and the transformative power of in-between spaces. It began with extensive research into different techniques and mediums that could convey the complexity and depth of the liminal experience, such as layering of colours and picture planes and exploring the interplay between order and randomness.

As I delved deeper into the concept, I started sketching ideas, experimenting with different visual elements, such as textures, shapes, and colours, and playing with negative space. I wanted to create a visual representation that evoked the feeling of being in-between, of existing in the space of transformation and change.

Throughout the creative process, I drew inspiration from various sources, including the works of abstract expressionist painters like Mark Rothko and Helen Frankenthaler. Their use of colour and texture in creating an immersive experience influenced my approach to layering and composition.

I also drew on the writings of philosophers like Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who reflected on the relationship between perception, time, and space. Their insights deepened my understanding of the liminality concept and helped me develop a visual language that reflected its transience and impermanence.

In summary, the artistic journey behind Liminalia involved exploration, learning, and discovery. Using various techniques, I focused on layering, negative space, and the balance between order and randomness to portray the transformative nature of liminal spaces. This creative experimentation allowed me to capture the spirit of liminality and evoke its impact on our perception of time, space, and change.

Process and Iterations

Composition

At the heart of Liminalia lies a collection of thousands of rectangles with random widths, heights, and locations based on a Pareto distribution.

Initially, the composition was a random layering of rectangles that lacked structure.

To strike a balance between randomness and order, the canvas was divided into horizontal and vertical sections, which provided coherence while allowing the rectangles to maintain a sense of fluidity and movement.

After conducting further experiments, I ultimately found that using a limited number of subdivisions in my work resulted in more impressive and visually appealing outcomes.

Simplifying my approach helped me achieve greater clarity and precision, ultimately leading to a more polished final product.

Symbols and metaphors

The composition uses various metaphors in each section to represent transitions related to time, nature, or personal growth, contributing to a larger narrative of interconnectedness between all moments of life. For example, the liminal space between day and night symbolizes the fluidity of time, while the change of tides represents the ebb and flow of the natural world. Similarly, the liminal space between childhood and adulthood and transitioning from one career to another symbolizes personal growth and transformation.

To enhance the composition, larger rectangles were added to represent significant life events, each holding varying degrees of importance to individuals.

The different shapes and colours conveyed the emotions and meanings of each event, with larger, bold, and bright rectangles representing moments of triumph and celebration, while smaller, more subdued rectangles evoked a sense of quiet reflection and introspection.

Serendipity and the unexpected events

Randomly generated rectangles were introduced to represent the brief encounters, serendipitous moments, and unexpected events that shape our lives. Varying in size and impact from minor instances to significant experiences, these rectangles add depth to the composition and highlight the unpredictability of life.

By presenting the rectangles at different planes, the artwork portrays events and memories that occur at distinct phases of our existence, reflecting how experiences gradually fade over time as we age or as more prominent occurrences occur.

The randomly generated rectangles extend across different underlying colour fields to emphasise the interconnectedness of various life moments. The rectangle's position or location is utilized to derive the colour value from the corresponding colour field beneath.

This approach results in rectangles bridging and connecting diverse areas of the canvas, creating a complex and visually engaging representation of the interwoven nature of our experiences and memories.

Capturing the Fluidity of Transformation

I believe that our intrinsic appreciation for natural surfaces and organic processes, such as erosion, ageing, and patina formation, deeply connects us with the ever-changing beauty found in nature. With Liminalia, my aim was to capture these transformational experiences through an abstract visual language created by employing a range of techniques, including brushes, filters, and displacement effects.

This approach gives the artwork an organic feel that works effectively at different scales. By evoking the sense of reclaimed, weathered, and aged elements, I tried to emphasize the charm of imperfection and convey a sense of history and depth.

Furthermore, I incorporated a displacement filter in the composition, representing the superposition effect and the concept of elements existing in two different locations simultaneously, inspired by Rovelli's exploration of quantum mechanics. This addition not only enriches the visual complexity of the piece but also engages you in a thought-provoking dialogue between art, science, and the mysteries of the natural world.

Liminalia provides a compelling metaphor for the ever-shifting nature of human existence through its dynamic and natural visual language. I wanted the composition to highlight the interconnectedness of every moment, from transient experiences to momentous milestones, and to encourage viewers to appreciate their significance in our personal narratives. By focusing on the transformative power of nature and life, the artwork hopefully inspires us to cherish the beauty in every stage and the delicate balance between order and chaos.

Colour Palettes

The colour palettes used in Liminalia are a crucial element in the artwork that enhances the project's themes and transports the viewer into the liminal experience. The collection features 18 palettes, comprising six primary colours and up to four additional secondary colours.

In order to capture the project's themes and ensure the perfect palette, I utilized palette templates created with p5.js to experiment with various colour combinations and refine the final selection. This method enabled me to easily make adjustments in the online editor, resulting in a visually striking and thematically consistent final product.

Colour inspirations

Given that individuals have different perceptions of time, I sought inspiration from various events and phenomena that are fundamental to our understanding and perception of time.

Some palettes are inspired by vignettes, capturing a specific moment in time, like "By the Fireplace" and "The Blue Room". Other palettes, like "Solstice", "Summertime", and "Tides", reflect the source of our perception of time, capturing the essence of time itself. Nature-inspired palettes like "Hummingbird" celebrate the beat of life and the vibrancy of the natural world, while "Belle Epoque", "Velvet and Trims", and "Silky Way" evoke different cultures and flavours.

Meanwhile, palettes like "Nostalgia" and "Transience" reflect a more elusive nature and feature vintage tones that create a sense of veiled awareness or look back on fading memories.

Similarly, the concept of time is closely linked to "The Mill". As a central part of the community, mills shaped people's daily routines and marked the passing of time through the sounds and movements of their machinery.

"Schrödinger's Cat" is designed to convey the mysterious and elusive nature of reality at the quantum level, as explored in the famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics. By combining deep browns, icy blues, and whites, the palette creates a vivid representation of the flux and ambiguity inherent in quantum reality, which often lies beyond our everyday experience.

I aimed to create a visually compelling composition that authentically conveys the essence of liminality. Using a dynamic interplay between stability and transformation, old and new, and time and evolution, I hope to showcase this concept's complexity and highlight the ever-changing nature of the human experience. Through a natural and fluid visual language, I aim to invite viewers to contemplate and appreciate the complexity of the liminal experience.

Part 2 - Parameters

At the point when I was prepared to publish the project and write about its making-of process, the fx(params) system was launched. I viewed this as an opportunity for potential collectors to influence the final work more. Although it required some code modifications, it was worthwhile as it gave me a new level of creative flexibility and offered you greater engagement.

Core features

Liminalia's generation system utilizes a set of seven key parameters that collaborate to encapsulate the essence of the liminal experience. These parameters encompass colour palette, composition, subdivision, style, orientation, quantum of rectangles, and gravity. The visibility of the impact on the final artwork can vary significantly based on the chosen configurations, particularly when considering the intricate relationship among style, orientation, quantum of rectangles, and gravity.

Colour Palette

The colour palette parameter offers a wide range of options to explore, with 18 palettes available. Each palette is designed to convey a specific mood or theme, and the colour choices are carefully curated to evoke those specific feelings. By leveraging the palette parameter, you can experiment with different colour themes and find the perfect palette to complement the composition and evoke your desired mood.

Composition

The subdivision parameter allows you to choose from four options: horizontal, vertical, horizontal-vertical, and vertical-horizontal. These options greatly impact the overall aesthetics of the final artwork and can create different perceptions of order, chaos, or intricacy.

The horizontal and vertical options are self-explanatory, as they subdivide the canvas horizontally or vertically. The horizontal-vertical and vertical-horizontal options create a mixed subdivision pattern, where the canvas is first subdivided in one direction (e.g., horizontally). Then the largest area is subdivided perpendicularly (e.g., vertically). This creates a more complex and intricate composition.

Subdivisions

The subdivision parameter adjusts the number of subdivisions in the artwork, greatly impacting the overall complexity and level of detail. Increasing the number of subdivisions creates a more intricate and detailed design, while decreasing the number creates a simpler design. You can choose from two to five partitions. By adjusting the subdivision parameter, you can fine-tune the level of detail in the artwork and create the desired visual effect.

For example, if a mixed composition option is chosen with three subdivisions, the largest area further subdivided in the perpendicular direction will also be partitioned into three subdivisions.

Style

The style parameter provides a variety of visual styles inspired by scientific concepts and theories and named after prominent scientists such as "Planck", "Minkowski", "Schwarzschild", "Wheeler", "Lorentz", and "Alcubierre". Each style generates rectangles with different ratios of width to height, ranging from very small sizes with a ratio of 1:2 to very elongated sizes with ratios of up to 1:500.

The Planck style generates very small rectangles, resulting in a less dense overall composition. This is because smaller rectangles cover less of the underlying layout, allowing more negative space to show through. In contrast, styles like Schwarzschild and Wheeler feature larger rectangles resulting in a denser composition with less negative space.

The Lorentz and Alcubierre styles have very extreme ratios between the width and height of the rectangles. The Lorentz style features elongated rectangles with a ratio of 1:100, resulting in a thin, woven appearance that creates a sense of movement and flow. In contrast, the Alcubierre style features very elongated rectangles with a ratio of 1:500, resulting in a tightly intertwined pattern to create depth and complexity.

Orientation

The orientations parameter allows users to customize the rotation and direction of the shapes. This parameter significantly impacts artwork generated with more elongated rectangles, such as those in the Lorentz and Alcubierre styles. Users can choose from "Skyward" (vertical), "Seaward" (horizontal), or "Skynet" (both) orientations depending on the selected style to create the desired visual effect.

Quantum

This parameter adjusts the number of random rectangles that make up the artwork. More rectangles lead to a more complex design, while fewer rectangles result in a simpler and more ordered design.

This parameter can have a significant impact on certain styles. For instance, combining fewer rectangles with the Planck style would produce an artwork with a highly ordered appearance, as the underlying colour fields would be more visible and clearly defined.

In contrast, using more rectangles would create more intricate detail. However, in styles such as Wheeler, Lorentz, and Alcubierre, using a very high number of rectangles has a smaller impact, as the desired result and style can be achieved with fewer rectangles.

The rectangles are grouped into six range categories for the feature generation based on their number. These categories are as follows:

In the Blink of an Eye: 5000 – 25,000 rectangles

Moments in Time: 25,000 – 50,000 rectangles

Days Gone By: 50,000 – 75,000 rectangles

Fading Memories: 75,000 – 100,000 rectangles

Echoes of the Past: 100,000 – 125,000 rectangles

A Lifetime Ago: 125,000 – 150,000 rectangles

Gravity

The gravity parameter empowers users to modify the size of the shapes in their artwork, significantly influencing creations featuring larger rectangles, such as those found in the Wheeler or Alcubierre styles. Users can opt for "Reduction", "Boost", or "Neutral", with the latter being the default setting that harmonizes best with other parameters.

The gravity parameter's impact can vary in visibility depending on the combination with other parameters, such as orientation. It can also overlap with the style parameter, leading to resemblances in the resulting designs. For instance, when gravity is reduced using the "Wheeler" style, the artwork may closely resemble the "Schwarzschild" style. The most striking effects occur when combining "Boost" with "Alcubierre" or "Reduction" with "Planck", as these pairings represent both ends of the spectrum.

Adjusting the gravity parameter in the "Planck" style by reducing the size of the rectangles will make the already small shapes even more subtle and barely visible while increasing the gravity in the "Alcubierre" style will create highly elongated shapes that evoke the sensation of motion blur.

Crafting Your Personal Story

By introducing the params functionality, I wanted to give everyone interested in the collection the power to create artwork that truly reflects their unique perspective and experiences. This personalized level of engagement has made the project even more captivating and meaningful for me, and I hope it does the same for you. My greatest hope is that your piece becomes more than just a beautiful creation but a treasured and unique representation of your story.

Some parameters that are not accessible

While the params functionality allows for a high level of personalization, some parameters are not accessible. It is worth noting, however, that some of these parameters may have little impact on the final output depending on the chosen key parameters. Nevertheless, including them may confuse users and make personalization more difficult. Therefore, to maintain simplicity and user-friendliness, the decision was made to exclude them.

I also believe that adding more parameters overall does not necessarily improve personalization.

Instead, balancing personalization and randomness allows for a truly unique piece of art that captures the collection's essence. By selecting and combining accessible parameters, the artwork reflects the core concepts of the collection, including serendipity, chance, and unexpected events. The result is a personalized piece of art that tells the collector's unique story while embodying the collection's spirit.

A few things to consider when using params

The parameter controls allow you to direct the final output of the artwork, though not with complete precision. They provide a means of exploring the various corners of the algorithm and steering the output towards different visual characteristics or aesthetics.

For instance, each available colour palette consists of six primary colours and up to four secondary colours. When minting, a unique colour from the palette is randomly assigned to each main colour field partition. If you select fewer subdivisions, the resulting colours may not match the preview due to the random assignment process. Conversely, selecting more subdivisions will apply the full range of colours in the palette, resulting in a wider variety of colours.

It's important to remember that each minting is unique due to the randomized colour assignment process and additional parameters so the final output will depend on the assigned hash key at the time of minting.

Examples

Print

The Liminalia project is intended for print to provide viewers with an immersive and detailed experience of the artwork. The collection is best viewed at a larger size to fully appreciate the intricate language, dynamic interplay of themes, and rich colour palettes. By printing the artworks at a high resolution, viewers can fully immerse themselves in the liminal experience and appreciate each piece's fine details and nuances.

A Personal Journey

My passion lies at the intersection of art and architecture, where I am drawn to the creative possibilities of combining visual aesthetics with practical functions. Specifically, I am fascinated by how architecture can shape human interaction with the environment and how art can provoke new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

As an architect, I have extensive experience using computational design tools to integrate many design technologies into large-scale development projects. However, my artistic practice allows me to explore the interplay of colour, form, and space more abstractly and experimentally.

As an artist, I utilize my architectural training and technical expertise to create compositions that engage the viewer on multiple levels, using data, algorithms and digital tools to push the boundaries of what's possible.

My unique perspective as someone with colour blindness informs my approach to art and design, enabling me to create pieces that celebrate the diversity of our experiences and emotions.

In addition to my artistic endeavours, I am passionate about data-driven design and have explored cutting-edge technologies such as AI, ML, GIS, Big Data Analytics, and VR to create innovative and sustainable solutions in architecture.

As a member of a London-based network that explores the intersection of art and technology, I am committed to pushing the boundaries of what is possible and inspiring new ways of thinking about art & design.