I made a room for an artwork I didn't know how to release

100 Untitled Spaces

I put one generative artwork inside another one: a little color composition inside a room made from code.

The room is generated too. Press Enter to move the sun. Press A and the inner artwork immediately goes fullscreen.

Project 06 of 11canonical work
100 Untitled Spaces #0: a generated architectural room holding a generated artwork, lit by moving light.
100 Untitled Spaces #0View live
Released
Nov 15, 2022
Format
Two nested generative systems
Edition
100 unique spaces
Platform
Art Blocks / Bright Moments

The Idea

There are actually two artworks here

The first thing you see is a room. The stairs, openings, shadows, camera angle, all of it comes from code. Then there is a second little generative artwork sitting inside that room.

I loved that smaller color algorithm, but honestly it always felt too simple to release on its own. Giving it a space to live in solved that for me. The room changes how you find it and how you spend time with it.

I made this for Bright Moments Mexico City. I was born there, my wife is an architect, and the city has always shaped how I think about color and space. So this one is personal in a way that may not be obvious from a still image.

Two Algorithms

One algorithm makes the room. Another makes the little color piece hanging inside it.

Finite Constellation

There are 100 spaces. I like seeing them together and noticing the small rule changes from one to the next.

Light Moves

Press Enter and the sun starts moving. The shadows and the whole feeling of the room change with it.

Made For Mexico City

I released it with Bright Moments in the city where I was born and spent a lot of time growing up.

Nested Generation

You start wide, then you find the piece

The wide room view and the fullscreen artwork are both important. You're supposed to notice that they came from two different systems that ended up together.

Finding a room…
100 Untitled Spaces

You can use the buttons or click inside the room and use Enter, ↑, ↓, and A on your keyboard. The original renderer has no way back after A; “Return to full scene” reloads this output.

01 / Generate The Space

The code picks the stairs, walls, openings, beams, light, and where the camera starts.

02 / Place The Artwork

A different algorithm makes the small color composition inside the room.

03 / Press A

A jumps straight to the inner artwork and makes it fullscreen. The original renderer has no back button, so you have to reload it to see the room again.

04 / Let Time Enter

Press Enter and the sun moves around the room. Same room, totally different light and shadows.

Place

Why I wanted to make this in Mexico City

I was born in Mexico City and spent big chunks of my summers there growing up. The color, food, density, speed, and really intense architecture all stuck with me.

I also love what Luis Barragán's spaces do to me. They can feel peaceful and kind of dangerous at the same time, especially the stairs. I wasn't trying to make Barragán with software. I was trying to work with some of the feelings his spaces give me.

Why 100

Judd is in the title for a reason

The title is a nod to Donald Judd's 100 Untitled Works in Mill Aluminum. I wasn't trying to copy how they look. I was thinking about what happens when you put a finite group of related things together and start noticing every tiny difference.

That's one of my favorite parts of long-form generative art. One output can be great, but the algorithm really starts showing itself when you look at a bunch of them.

Interaction

The still image misses a lot

A still gives you the basic room, but it misses what happens when the light starts moving. Press Enter and the sun rotates. Up and down change the speed. Press A and the inner artwork goes fullscreen.

I really like how much the room changes without any of the geometry changing. It is just light and shadow doing their thing.

  • Enter — toggle moving light
  • Up / down — change the light speed
  • A — fullscreen the embedded artwork
  • There is no built-in return after A; reload the output to restore the room
  • Open the live view on a desktop for the fullest architectural experience

Maybe Someday

I would love to see someone build one

When I first talked about the project, I said how amazing it would be if someone actually built one of these rooms in real life and put its artwork inside it. I still love that idea.

Later projects like Heart + Craft, ///, and LIFT have much more direct paths from code to a physical thing. This one leaves the door open at the scale of architecture, which is maybe a little ridiculous, but that is also why it is exciting.

Go Look Around

Enter a space

Try a random room above, move the sun, and change its speed. A makes the inner artwork fullscreen; because the original renderer has no back control, use Return to full scene to reload the room. The collection page is the best way to bounce around all 100 outputs.

01View #0 live02View the collection on Art Blocks03Read the Bright Moments interview

Dates

A few dates

  • 2022-11-15Releasesourced

Provenance

On-chain details

  • Art BlocksEthereum0x0a1bbd57033f57e7b6743621b79fcb9eb2ce3676

In The Bigger Picture

Where this one goes

Surface
Artwork inside a room
Deeper Layer
Two algorithms: one making the room and one making the artwork inside it
Builds On
My interest in space, projection mapping, display, and Mexico City architecture
Sets Up
More ways for the code to make the setting around an artwork too

Sources

Where this came from

These are the public links I used to check the dates and details. A few of them also have much longer versions of the story.

Official / primary