Life Forms of Colors Arte Digital

Press Kit

Unique Properties

This animation breaks down an image into pixels, reconstructing and transforming them repeatedly. The pixels emerge like cells, moving and forming new shapes and colors, embodying the Japanese concepts of "Kasane (layering)" and "Zurashi (shifting)." This reflects how living beings shape the world, either by choice or by following the flow. The ever-changing forms symbolize human transformation and the cycle of life and death.

Dimensions & Packaging

LED screen 4m × 4m, 10 minutes 30 seconds

Tags

Generative Art, Coding

Production Technology

This work was created entirely in a programming language called Processing.
It is made up of multiple animations that change from one shape to the next, linked together.

Design Challenge

The most difficult and exciting part was figuring out how to connect all of the different shapes through coding.
It was impossible to create all of the animations in one document, so I divided the whole thing into four scenes, created the animation, and connected them using video editing software.

Research

This design research explores an animation technique that uses coding to break down and reconstruct pixels.
Through this process, the artist began to feel as if the pixels symbolized the workings of humans and the world. The pixels are like cells, but at the same time, they also seem like the individual people that make up the world. This created a sense of moving between the micro and macro worlds.
Through the use of digital technology, this research offers new methods of visual expression in art, business and society, and suggests the possibility of redefining cultural value.

Inspiration

The impetus for creating this work began when the artist, a printmaker, wanted to create a landscape print, and wondered whether it would be possible to achieve color separation through coding. This was the beginning of an attempt to incorporate the physical acts of producing a multi-color woodblock print - "color separation of the print," "overprinting, " and "rolling the paper" - into code, and it developed into the more abstract idea of ​​"creating a three-dimensional print."

Project Duration

This work was exhibited as part of the CCBT x Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions 2024 "Poems in Code: Generative Art Today and Programming Generated Moving Image" project held in Tokyo in February 2024.

Operation Flow

This work is an animation that depicts the process of pixels being broken down and reconstructed. As you watch, the pixels move and transform, creating new shapes. The changes in the pixels symbolize the potential for people to transform in various ways, and this diversity and fluidity is expressed throughout the work.

Image Credits

Image #1: Photographer Ryuichi Maruo, Life-forms of colors, 2024, Photo courtesy Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT].
Image #2: Photographer Ryuichi Maruo, Life-forms of colors, 2024, Photo courtesy Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT].
Video Credits: Photographer Ryuichi Maruo, Life-forms of colors, 2024, Video courtesy Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT].