Every now and then I see a project that just blows me away and I feel the need to write about and share it. T E C T O N I C A by Luka from {protocell:labs} is one of those projects. It is a visually stunning work with some fantastic sci-fi story telling to go along with it. These are floating data structures in space that stretch across light years in distance and size. They span across the vastness of space glowing and shimmering in radiated light. I love the thought of some ancient alien race building these and storing their lives or cultures onto it in digital form.
First things first, you have to watch the video below. Turn your volume up and enjoy the story.
In the boundless loneliness of space, strangeness abounds.
Standing here are the digital engrams of a spacefaring civilization, the final remnants of the Universe's vast computer, a layered stratum of glitched, galaxy-sized digital memory banks. These calcified data deposits have accumulated over eons, forming physical tectons that span light-years of space. They offer a glimpse into the fundamental building blocks employed by a forgotten alien civilization which encoded its entire culture as digital data in physical form. While the specifications for this stellar machine have been lost to time, its fractured components continue to perform computations, seemingly trapped in an eternal loop. We can observe the inner workings of this enigmatic structure, but its true meaning remains forever silent, its message encrypted.
This video is a fantastic exploration of the art and story behind this project. It reminds me of some old sci-fi TV shows and it sets such a great tone. I’ve been excited for this project ever since I saw some animated gifs in the Launch Calendar on fx(hash). All the story telling and meaning behind it has taken it to the next level for me.
This is a params project. That means you have a hand in creating the output you will receive. You get a ticket when you mint one. From there you can go to the params page and start exploring the algorithm. It’s an animated and interactive project. It has a great flow of colors that ripple throughout the structure. One of the interactive parts is very interesting. You click on the structure and disassemble or blow it up. Is it an unseen force destroying it or something else? The video below shows some great examples of this in action with instructions on how the interactivity works.
Use click (touch) to explode / unexplode the structure, click hold (touch hold) to set new explosion center (also E + click), P for pause / unpause palette cycle, B to change background color, S to download loader animation, G for gif capture, and numbers 1-5 to export progressively higher resolution of the artwork as a png image. Available URL parameters are listed in the browser console.
One really cool part of the params is the triptych you can setup. A triptych is three panels that when put together create a larger more cohesive piece of art. When creating you can select left , middle, or right. When you mint three pieces, you use the same seed for all, but just change each ones position. You get some really beautiful sets. To check them out together you will either have to use three digital screens or three browser windows placed together. Watch the video below to see how it will look with three browsers beside each other.
If you want to mint multiple triptych pieces, make sure to mint with the SAME wallet and select the SAME seed number, then select a DIFFERENT triptych part for each token you are minting. Mints don't have to be consecutive and can be done in any order. Your triptych parts will form a continuous pattern according to their position (left - middle - right).
I reached out to Luka of {protocell:labs} while writing this to ask some random questions about the project. He was kind enough to take the time to answer. One of the things I was curious about were the origins of the story that came along with the art.
My question.
“Did you build this around the story or the thought of a vast database structure in space? Or did you start building the art and the story started to form around it?”
The idea of a "space computer" was there from the very beginning. Just the other day I found a discord message from a year ago where I was posting early WIPs with a caption from me saying: "it's a computer"
At that time it was more of a general idea, but it helped guide some decisions like introducing the palette cycle which resembles computation operations.
Big shout out to the {protocell:labs} crew. You bring a wonderful style to the gen art scene. Happy to have found your work through this project.
The mint starts tomorrow on Friday the 16th.
200 Pieces in the set @ 15 Tezos a piece.
Luka Piskorec with {protocell:labs} - give them a follow on twitter.
fxhash // {protocell:labs} - For all of their projects on fx(hash).
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