DIVERGENCE Divergence, a never-ending abstract motion work, reacts to audio and touch inputs. Dive into stacks of deterministic layers to explore emerging patterns, and fine-tune the audio reactivity to your preferences.
You may wish to use the controls to wander within Divergence until the aesthetic feels right to you, or complements your audio input. Navigating the art in this way gives a tangible window into my artistic process. My aesthetic is influenced by the music I listen to as I code. I enjoy experimenting and looking for the art in the algorithm. This can mean playing with overarching ideas, but also making many small changes until I find consistent visual appeal over a range of outputs.
Divergence exhibits animations changing over time in expanding, textural layers. It elaborates on concepts I’ve developed in previous works: my approach to color in phase; linear motion in Parade; interlacing lines and expansion/contraction in Kaleidoscope; and the noise textures of Sift. Newly explored is continuous animation with touch and audio inputs, which affect the viewing position in time and space.
A common quip in the Art Blocks community is that motion art has a penalty. Many enjoy a final product that is printable to frame at home. As technology advances, I believe it is equally important to create work that can only exist on a screen, and is unique to digital art. Larger displays are catching up to the artistic space and becoming more accessible, but I also want my work to be approachable immediately. Keeping the code lean and performant allows it to run well on a range of screen sizes and processor powers, from mobile devices to multi-story displays. There has been discussion that a body of motion work takes a long time to sift through, as it needs to be viewed live. In consideration of this, I made Divergence immersive, rather than a static experience. I want the extra time spent with it to be fun and entertaining.
Usage: Navigate left/right to traverse the timeline; navigate up/down to travel through the layers and expand/contract the patterns. Please see “Display Notes” for further instructions (user input, audio reactivity, url parameters). Accessibility is important to me, so Divergence accepts inputs from touch, keyboard, mouse, and gaming controllers with an analog stick.
*Photosensitive seizure warning: These artworks contain flashing colors and moving patterns.
Library
tone@14.8.15
Display Notes
Modes: Standard and Audio Reactive
PAUSE ACTION: click / tap / press space bar or a gamepad button 1 time.
VIEW OR CHANGE MODES: After performing the pause action, 3 squares will briefly appear at the bottom of the screen, indicating the current mode
three empty squares = Standard mode three filled squares = Audio Reactive mode
To change modes, fill or unfill the squares by performing the pause action 3 times. When the squares fade away, performing the pause action will resume the motion.
CONTROLS:
Standard Mode
To go forward or backward along the timeline:
Mouse: Click and drag left and right Mobile: Press and drag left and right Keyboard: Press and hold right / left arrow or D / A key Gamepad (Analog stick required): hold left or right on either stick
To expand and contract the patterns:
Mouse: Click and drag up and down Mobile: Press and drag up and down Keyboard: Press and hold up / down arrow or W / S key Gamepad (Analog stick required): hold up or down on either stick
Audio Reactive Mode
*Note: Due to some browser limitations on auto-playing audio, you might need to pause and then resume in order for audio reactivity to function properly. I have tested this on mobile Chrome, Firefox, Safari and desktop Firefox and Chrome with success - some version(s) of desktop Safari may work, but I'm not sure which specific versions.
In order to give the browser permission to access the microphone, view Divergence in "live view", accessible from the piece's Art Blocks page or via a link starting with "https://generator.artblocks.io"
For best results with Audio Reactive Mode, I would suggest installing a virtual microphone or using some kind of loopback that routes playback audio from your device into its microphone. This allows for the cleanest audio data. Using a standard microphone that is picking up ambient audio works too, but the results may be more erratic. I’ve included the following sensitivity controls to account for some irregularities in responsiveness.
To increase or decrease audio sensitivity:
Mouse: Click and drag up and down Mobile: Press and drag up and down Keyboard: Press and hold up / down arrow or W / S key Gamepad (Analog stick required): hold up or down on either stick
A vertical bar will appear on the left indicating how much or how little sensitivity is being applied. Move the bar upwards for more sensitivity and lower for less. After a brief moment after interactions stop, the sensitivity bar will fade out.
Additional Information
You can launch the piece with three auxiliary states via url parameters - Audio Reactive Mode, disable the flourish, and hide the ui
Audio Reactive Mode (?reactive=true) has that mode engaged at all times. Pausing and adjusting sensitivity is still possible but you cannot affect timeline position or texture state (expansion / contraction)
Disable flourish (?flourish=false) prevents the piece from entering a flourish mode every 3 minutes where it does a short automated interaction to show off the piece. Note: Flourish is automatically disabled when Audio Reactive Mode is enabled, whether manually or via the url parameter.
Hide the UI (?hideui=true) prevents pause action from activating the UI. This includes hiding the amplitude adjustment bar. This parameter is usable in the other two states (&hideui=true, for example ?reactive=true&hideui=true) and could be useful if the piece is being performed live and the performer/DJ does not want to see the amplitude bar during adjustments.
Activate them by appending the associated key=value pair to the end of the url.
Example: http://…/1234?reactive=true enables Audio Reactive Mode
Creative Credits
Special thanks to Katie Bednar for artistic critique and copywriting!
Charitable Giving
10% of primary sales of Divergence will go directly to my Endaoment Donor Advised Fund. I will continue to support local small charities in my community, including the food bank and an art center for people with disabilities.
Artist Website
https://twitter.com/LorenBednar
Project ID
0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069-432
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