Quantum.art auctioned 65 pieces of my artwork on May 4, 2022, in a collection that was titled Super User. The collection title is a reference to the system admins on linux computers that have complete power to create or remove anything, alluding to code art created in my stride as a generative artist. The collection featured many of my best & favorite works of generative art, which were all created as unique iteration outputs from algorithms I composed in the R Statistical Language (i.e., R code). The descriptions below provide some additional background information for each piece.

Medicine (10 iterations) uses Moiré patterns to create a shimmering gold surface composed of parallel lines and colors, with small circular flourishes. This was an homage to Gustav Klimt's staggering painting by the same title (as well as his painting of the goddess Hygeia), which was destroyed in a Nazi art horde and exists only in the form of black and white photographs now. Klimt's work pointed to mortality, which the most advanced medicine can only delay.

Icarus (10 iterations) uses a technique called ray-tracing, which expands lines outward until they collide with other objects. In this case, I used circle radii and image boundaries to define where the expansion would cease. The title is a reference to the Greek myth of Icarus, who made wings from wax then flew too close to the sun. Sun rays burst out like a cloud in the sky, hinting at the unforeseen dangers that may accompany our ingenuity and inventions.

Reverse Causation (5 iterations) is named after a time-travel reference, where something in the future causes something to happen in the past. This is an normally an illogical concept but it comes up in physics from time to time. The rippled surface was created through an iterative smoothing procedure applied to a grid of random numbers, which evens out the push and pull tension across cells and creates interesting distortions.

Daisy Chain (10 iterations) is named after a term for a series of wires rigged together, often haphazardly, that transmit electricity. Before there were lithium ion batteries catching on fire randomly, daisy chains were often to blame for electrical fires. This piece has an interesting history because it was first created during a live R coding session on the Vaden Art community discord with feedback from members on color selection.

What Dreams May Come (5 iterations) is a selection from Shakespeare's famous to be or not to be soliloquy in Hamlet: To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream - ay, there's the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. That is, Hamlet is contemplating mortality and the mystery of what comes next. The tunnel-like passage was inspired by one of my favorite contemporary non-generative artists, Tim Maxwell, whose gigantic tunnel-like compositions can fill your imagination with dread. 

Head in the Clouds (10 iterations) was an isometric perspective piece that was inspired by a contemporary generative artist (p4stoboy) who often creates abstract landscapes and cityscapes with rotated square bases. By using partly transparent column walls, the colors blended into interesting translucent cloud-like structures.