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Cat photography adventure game Neko Odyssey announced for PC

By in Photography

Cat photography adventure game Neko Odyssey announced for PC
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Publisher Flyhigh Works [148 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/flyhigh-works”>Flyhigh Works and Banchou Tactics [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/banchou-tactics”>Banchou Tactics developer Secret Character [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/secret-character”>Secret Character have announced Neko Odyssey” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/neko-odyssey”>Neko Odyssey, a cat photography Adventure [1,020 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure game coming to PC [18,143 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC via Steam in 2024.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

Neko Odyssey is a game for cat lovers you can’t miss!

Here’s a slightly unusual casual adventure game where the main gameplay centers around taking pictures of cats. The pixel art graphics in a 3D setting create a charming atmosphere reminiscent of Japanese animation.

In the game, you’ll have to search for cats in various locations throughout the town and take pictures to upload to social media (in game). Each photo you upload will earn likes from netizens. As you receive more likes, you’ll become better known, and your followers may offer tips on finding new and different cat poses.

During the cat photography sessions, some cats may require you to establish a connection with them before allowing you to photograph them. You’ll also encounter certain events that will lead you to discover new photo opportunities.

Apart from taking cat photos and sharing them on social media, the game features a main storyline where you’ll unravel the mysteries of the town based on the information you capture in your cat photos. You’ll experience excitement, cuteness, and inspiration along with the adventure in this game.

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

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Screenshots

Video: A Slam Dunk in the 2023 Cheese Sculpture at the Indiana State Fair

By in Sculpture

Video: A Slam Dunk in the 2023 Cheese Sculpture at the Indiana State Fair
It’s another slam dunk for American Dairy Association Indiana at the Indiana State Fair! The 2023 Cheese Sculpture was revealed on August 9 at the Fairgrounds. See the completed Cheese Sculpture presented by American Dairy Association Indiana in the Mercantile Building at the 2023 Indiana State Fair, Celebrating “The State That Grew the Game!” On […]

Close-up and macro photography

By in Photography

Close-up and macro photography

How to capture high quality close-up and macro photos – tips and advice on depth of field, focus stacking, macro lighting, exposure, and selecting the right camera and lens gear.

Shooting close-ups doesn’t require special equipment; almost any camera and lens (including smartphones) can be used. But only true macro equipment can reproduce subjects at life size on the sensor.

This smartphone shot of a crucifix orchid flower demonstrates the capabilities of today’s mobile devices.

‘Macro’ vs ‘true macro’

The term ‘macro’ is often used very loosely in photography, with many people confusing it with taking close-ups. Technically, true macro photography requires the image on the sensor to be reproduced at ‘life size’ or greater; that is with at least a 1:1 reproduction ratio. (Images with a 2:1 or greater reproduction ratio also qualify as macro shots.) Anything else is simply a close-up shot.


True macro photography requires 1:1 (‘life size) or greater magnification. Canon EOS 70D camera with 100mm macro lens; 1/160 second at f/9, ISO2500. (Source: iStock by Camera House.)

There are also two sub-sets of macro photography: microphotography, which involves reproduction ratios of 20:1 or greater and photomicrography, which relies on a microscope. Both require special equipment that is beyond the scope of this guide.

Zoom lenses with ‘macro’ focusing seldom deliver better than half-life size magnification (a 1:2 ratio). Only true macro equipment can reproduce subjects at life size on the sensor.

Zoom lenses with ‘macro’ focusing can give you some great close-up shots; but they’re not true macro photos.

The right gear

True macro lenses have some useful characteristics that can make them worth including in your camera kit. As well as offering at least 1:1 magnification, they can also focus to infinity, making them useful for other types of shots.

Macro lenses also have flat fields, which result in good edge-to-edge sharpness, little or no distortion and few aberrations. Other lenses tend to have curved fields, which means the image can be much sharper in the centre than at the edges of the frame.

A flat field of view ensures details are captured equally across the image frame, as shown in this illustration. Sony Alpha 99 camera with 90mm macro lens; 10 second exposure at f/32; ISO 100. (Source: iStock by Camera House.)

Macro lenses aren’t always easy to use. Although close-up shooting can present challenges, these are magnified when you start taking macro photographs.

The first challenge is choosing the right focal length for the task. This depends on the size of the sensor in your camera, and it determines how much ‘working distance’ you have between the front of the lens and the nearest subject.

Longer focal lengths provide a greater working distance for a given magnification. (Note: you can find the minimum focusing distance and magnification ratio of each lens in its specifications.)

Spiders in their webs are relatively easy to photograph if your lens provides a good working distance. Canon EOS 40D camera with 105mm macro lens; 1/50 second at f/9, ISO 800.

To provide some typical examples: Canon’s RF 24mm f/1.8 Macro IS STM has a minimum focusing distance of 10 cm, which is very short. (It’s worth noting this lens is not a true macro lens as it only has a half life-size magnification capability.) In contrast, the RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens (also from Canon) has a minimum focusing distance of 26 cm and can deliver 1.4x life size magnification, making it a true macro lens.

Because lenses with shorter focal lengths are usually smaller, lighter and more affordably priced, casual shooters may find a small and light macro lens is more convenient than a heavier, bulkier telephoto macro lens. Shorter focal lengths can work well for totally static subjects and subjects like close-ups of flowers and other plant parts, particularly when artificial lighting is being used.

Lenses with longer focal lengths give you greater flexibility to experiment with lighting. (Source: iStock by Camera House.)

Long working distances are vital when you’re photographing creatures that are easily ‘spooked’ like small animals and insects. They also make it easier to avoid casting shadows on subjects, regardless of whether you’re working in natural light or with add-on lighting. Focal lengths between 90mm and 150mm (or their 35mm equivalents) should provide a good balance between size and weight, price and working distance.

Depth of field presents the next challenge. The closer you get to the subject, the shallower the depth of field (the region of sharp focus). This can make it difficult – if not impossible – to obtain sharp focus across the subject.

Stopping down the lens aperture goes part of the way to solving this problem. But it also reduces the intensity of the light reaching the sensor, which requires you to shoot with slower shutter speeds. This makes blurring much more likely as a result of subject movement and/or camera shake.

This image shows the very shallow plane of focus that makes photographing even quite large insects like this dragonfly challenging, particularly when they are easily spooked. Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera with 100mm macro lens, 1/60 second at f/7.1, ISO 1000.

Putting the camera on a tripod can reduce the possibility of camera shake. But it won’t do anything to solve subject movement. Even with relatively static subjects like flowers, a slight breeze can cause enough blurring to ruin the shot; and when the subject is magnified, any blurring is magnified to the same degree.

Focus stacking

Many modern cameras include a focus stacking function that records a rapid series of shots at a relatively wide lens aperture but with changing focus distances. It relies on the camera’s built-in stabilisation plus the ability to process the shots in the camera, combining the sharpest areas in each of the shots into a single JPEG image.

Long working distances are vital when photographing small, active creatures. This image was created by photographer Chris McGinnis with an OM-1 camera and M.Zuiko 90mm f/3.5Macro IS PRO lens by stacking 16 frames with small focus adjustments. The effective focal length of this lens is 180 mm, thanks to the camera’s Micro Four Thirds format sensor.

The first cameras with in-camera focus stacking recorded a second or two of video using fast enough frame rates to reduce the chance the subject would move during the exposure sequence. The latest models have much faster image processors that can support stills capture at up to 40 fps (frames/ second), which ensures better results.

If your camera doesn’t have a focus stacking setting you can use a manual capture technique and take a sequence of exposures, changing the focus by a small amount as you move the focus point from the closest part of the subject to the furthest away. This technique only works with totally static subjects because you need time to make each focus adjustment.

The resulting stack of frames is combined in image editing software. You will probably need to consult the instructions to find out how to go about it since different programs use different settings. Some recent image editors can also stack raw files.

Success depends on your shooting technique and focusing precision. The camera should be tripod-mounted and the shutter should be triggered either via the self-timer or with a remote shutter release or a camera app.

Macro lighting

The closer you come to the subject, the more difficult it is to light it. Short working distances make it difficult to prevent your shadow falling across the subject. Longer focal lengths are easier to use.

Avoid shooting in bright sunlight, which can create harsh shadows. The best type of natural light for macro photography is a bright, overcast sky where the thin cloud diffuses the sunlight.

It’s easier to use available lighting for macro shots of flowers like this close-up of a grevillea, which was taken with a 100mm macro lens on a Canon EOS R5DS R camera. The very shallow depth of focus is due to the exposure being at 1/640 second at f/2.8 with ISO 100.

A sheet of white cardboard or crinkled foil can be used to reflect light into shadowed areas to even-up the lighting and it’s easy to cut it to shape for use in tight areas or curve it to direct the light where you want it. Both options work well with static subjects.

An adjustable desk lamp can also be used to add light when shooting indoor close-ups. Fluorescent and LED lights are the best to use since they produce less heat and their colour output is easily corrected by most cameras’ auto white balance settings.

Flash is much more challenging because you can’t gauge its effect until after the shot is taken. Some professional flashguns include LED modelling lamps to overcome this problem but they’re often large, bulky and complex as well as quite expensive.

A diffused flash shot taken with a 65mm macro lens on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera; 1/20 second exposure at f/9; ISO 800.

The main advantage of flash is it allows you to shoot at faster shutter speeds than would otherwise be possible, allowing you to ‘freeze’ subject movements. But it’s also likely to scare off easily-spooked subjects and can cause temporary blindness in nocturnal animals and birds.

Interchangeable-lens camera users can choose from a wide range of add-on lighting devices at their local camera store. These include ring flashes that fit around the lens to provide evenly-distributed light, twin-flash kits and pocket lights that can be used for directional light.

Normal flash diffusers are seldom suitable for macro work because they don’t increase the size of the light source so many photographers create their own diffusers to suit their existing gear. A web search should bring up plenty of information about suitable alternatives you can produce from tissue paper, foam sheets and tape.

Exposure tips

In most cases your camera’s auto exposure modes should deliver correctly-exposed shots – assuming your subject fills the frame. But it’s still wise to use one of the semi-automatic modes: Programmed auto exposure, Aperture-priority AE or Shutter-priority AE.

Aperture-priority AE provides useful control over depth of field and is essential for taking a manual sequence of shots for focus stacking. Programmed AE allows the camera to adjust apertures automatically – but it usually selects a relatively wide aperture. (Close-up modes always set the widest possible aperture.)

Spot metering on the flower and use of an aperture of f/4 with an effective focal length of 200mm isolated the subject from the background in this macro shot.

Select the spot or partial metering mode, where possible. If you’re using a modern macro lens on a modern camera body, the exposure system should adjust the aperture when it detects the light is changing. It should also be able to account for additional lighting and adjust for flash.

Useful links

Shooting close-ups

Macro lens use

This article by Margaret Brown is an excerpt from Nature Photography pocket guide

Pocket guide Partner: Camera House

Painted Feathers: Native American Artists Demonstrate their Crafts

By in Native

Painted Feathers: Native American Artists Demonstrate their Crafts

The fifth annual American Indian Cultural Art Fest was recently held on the 900 year old grounds of the Aztec Ruins National Monument. Free to tourists and locals, the art fest took place beneath the trees in the picnic area of the park where potters, weavers, and jewelry makers demonstrated their craft in 100 degree heat. You’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by Pop’s Truck and RV Center, and the Big Idea Makerspace at San Juan College. I’m Hayley Opsal. The artists work quietly at tables in the shade. Florinda Vallo is a fourth generation potter from the Acoma Pueblo. The oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. I take this little dish here and I insert it there. And that will give me the base for the beginning of my pot, which kind of will look like this. I invert it, and this is the finished product. All I have to do is let it sun dry, where this one is still in the raw stage. You can see where I added on the layer. And once I finished doing that, I will simply get a straight edge sort of a tool that I can use to scrape off the excess clay. Making that blended part disappear.

while Florinda makes the pots, her husband, Leland Vallo, paints them with a yucca leaf and Spanish ink. He was working on a commissioned wedding base.

On all my pottery work is re-lined twice or three times. So to make sure the paint stays directly even on the pottery. So when you look at it, the whole pot is evenly painted with that color, and there’s no spaces or anything that are given away from it. So I simply, again, put my brush in, and I simply pull it towards me. Trying to keep the pottery still as possible, and I simply just pull the brush towards me.

Artists from various nations in the Southwest, including Zuni, Hopi, and Laguna, come to the fest each year to show, and tell, and to sell their unique pieces.

One of the first stages of making a bracelet that I’m making I hand carved. This is melted scrap silver into a mold that I create from tufa stone. You can do it out of sandstone or sand cast. This particular one is tufa cast, and then it lay out the designs out on it. So that one is not finished yet. When it’s finished, it’s going to look kind of like that.

Roy Kady is a weaver. from Teec Nos Pos in Arizona where he raises Navajo sheep to create his vegetable dyed yarns.

I am starting a horse cinch weaving for a horse. And if you know anything about the cinches, it’s the belt that goes around the belly bottom that holds the the saddle in place. So I’m just barely starting it. So I’m just making my rounds back and forth using just this one color, which is black. And then later, after I’ve woven about a couple of inches, then the design will start.

The American Indian Art Fest is made possible with help from the Chaco Culture Conservancy. A nonprofit organization that supports education, interpretation, and funding for the Aztec National Monument, and Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. To learn more about this and other stories, go to farmingtonlocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I’m Hayley Opsal.

Immersive art exhibit in Yellowstone emphasizes past and present Native presence in the park

By in Native

Immersive art exhibit in Yellowstone emphasizes past and present Native presence in the park
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This weekend, the 2023 Yellowstone Revealed installation is bringing teepees with a contemporary twist to Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park. The art exhibit combines Indigenous art and storytelling to raise awareness of Native connections to what is now known as Yellowstone.

Native peoples have long-lasting and continuous connections to the area – according to the park, 27 tribes have historical and contemporary ties to the land. According to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, 49 tribes maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which encompasses roughly 22 million acres in northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho.

Last year, a traditional teepee village was installed at Madison Junction as part of the first Yellowstone Revealed event. According to the event’s website, the week-long programming and place-based art projects aimed to “put forward Indigenous truths and perspectives” and provide a “long-overdue opportunity to envision and co-create the future of the park.”

This year, the second Yellowstone Revealed continues in that theme with the creations of two contemporary Native artists – Ben Pease (Apsáalooke/Tsétsêhéstâhes) and Sean Chandler (Aaniiih).

Chandler’s project “WHEN WE USED TO BE.” features eleven contemporary teepees with liners decorated by paintings portraying historical events and present-day Indigenous narratives.

Pease’s “AMMACHHÍIA: JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND CULTURE” reimagines the landscape with teepee lodges decorated with mixed media, stitching, portraits on canvas, and screen mesh. Both artists’ creations are installed in relationship and visual proximity to the traditional teepees on view at Madison Junction.

Eastern Shoshone member Ren Freeman is the Cultural Producer and Project Manager for the project, along with Artistic Producer and Mountain Time Arts (MTA) Co-Founder Mary Ellen Strom, MTA Executive Director Francesca Pine-Rodriguez (Apsáalooke/Tsitsistas), and MTA staff Victoria Cheyenne (Tsitsistas/Aymara) and Tia Doney (Rocky Boy/Fort Belknap/Gros Ventre/Cree/Assiniboine/Chippewa/Little Shell/Crow).

Partnering organizations include Mountain Time Arts and Yellowstone National Park. Mountain Time Arts is a Bozeman-based public art organization that cultivates projects and programs exploring the history, culture and environment of the Rocky Mountain West and its Sovereign Nations.

Mountain Time Arts’ Administrative and Program Assistant Victoria Cheyenne helped with the project and said the exhibit helps illustrate tribes’ ongoing relationships to the landscape through time.

 “A lot of the messaging that can be seen in the artwork is of the past, present and future presence of Indigenous peoples on this land. That’s part of our goal – to evoke dialogue and discussion and be a reminder of presence in the park” she said.

Cheyenne said artists Chandler and Pease wanted to create a more contemporary representation of Indigenous presence in the park and create an immersive experience for all visitors.

“Part of the approach of these artists was looking at this in a way of asking ‘How do we want to represent teepees as more than just the traditional teepees?’ and ‘What messages do we want to share? What do we want people to experience?’” she said.

The installation opened on August 10th with a song from actor Michael Spears, a member of the Kul Wičaša Lakota from the Lower Brulé Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Visitors can take self-guided tours through the installation from sunrise to sunset through August 12th.

Lahaina showcased centuries of Hawaiian history. Now its gems are gone.

By in Native

Lahaina showcased centuries of Hawaiian history. Now its gems are gone.
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Situated in the heart of Lahaina, the 34-room Pioneer Inn was a piece of history built in 1901 by George Alan Freeland, a British adventurer who followed his star to Maui and started a family with a Native Hawaiian woman. The hotel became the linchpin of a modest business empire that eventually included a saloon, a liquor wholesale operation and movie houses in plantation camps.

Now the Pioneer Inn, owned today by Mr. Freeland’s grandson, figures among the architectural gems obliterated by the wildfire that swept through Lahaina, wiping out not just buildings but sites imbued with historical and cultural significance to many people in Hawaii.

“The Pioneer Inn was the place where crusty old sailor types used to hang out,” said Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which manages more than a dozen historic sites in the town. “But it was also where we would hold our Rotary meetings before the fire. It was part of Lahaina’s daily life for well over a century,” she said. “And now it’s gone.”

Indeed, while the community of about 12,700 people is known as a vacation destination for many visitors, for many locals it is simply their home — a place where the presence of some families, especially Native Hawaiians, harken back centuries to an era long before the tourists arrived, and well before the United States annexed Hawaii in the 1890s.

The Pioneer Inn in Lahaina, Hawaii, last year.Daejas Fallas for The New York Times

The losses in Lahaina from the fire now include the historic Baldwin Home, which houses the restoration foundation’s main office and was considered the oldest house still standing on the island of Maui. It was built between 1834-35 by the Rev. Ephraim Spaulding, a missionary from Massachusetts who prized its proximity to the waters where whaling ships once anchored.

The home contained the wooden rocking chairs that the family of the Rev. Dwight Baldwin had shipped all the way from their East Coast home in the 1830s when he took over the compound, their son’s antique shell collection and the medical instruments that Dr. Baldwin, a missionary and physician, had used to vaccinate much of Maui against smallpox.

Unlike others in Lahaina whose families in the area stretch back generations, Ms. Morrison, 75, from Berkeley, Calif., happened upon the town while sailing around the Hawaiian islands in 1975. She said her mind was made up when she set out on foot around the town, once known as a vacation spot for Mark Twain and as a gathering point for whalers, now featuring art galleries and restaurants. “I walked down Front Street,” she said, “and decided this was my place.”

In the wake of the fire on Thursday, the sense of loss — of history, of community, of friends and family — was coming achingly into focus for many of those who had long lived there.

Kiha Kaina, 46, a Native Hawaiian tattoo artist who grew up in Lahaina, was one of the few people allowed into town to drop off water and supplies for residents stranded there.

Family and friends had sent him videos of the fires, but none prepared him for the heartbreak he felt seeing the destruction in person: the smoke still rising from the flattened homes, the firefighters who looked like “zombies,” the downed power lines, the charred cars.

Destroyed cars in Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui on Thursday.Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Kaina said he personally knew more than 10 people who were still missing, including his biological father and one of his kickboxing students. “Everything that you could think of that meant a lot to this town were just gone,” he said.

Lee Anne Wong, the executive chef at Papa’aina, the restaurant in the Pioneer Inn, said one employee was still unaccounted for, and she said she expected that the death toll would climb significantly because there were so many old wooden buildings around town, making it a “tinderbox.”

“It happened very, very fast,” said Ms. Wong, who moved to Hawaii a decade ago from New York City, where she had been the executive chef of the French Culinary Institute. “A lot of employees are in shelters in the same set of clothes, and they are just thinking about their next meal.”

She added: “I’m thankful for the people who made it out alive, but an entire town has burned down.”

Originally called Lā-hainā — which roughly translates as “cruel sun” in the Hawaiian language, a nod to the area’s dry, sunny climate — the town was known before the fire as a place where one could reflect on centuries of Hawaiian history simply by walking around.

Shops and dining destination along the sidewalks and streets in Lahaina, Maui.Tony Novak-Clifford for The New York Times

“Many people don’t understand that Hawaiians have been in these islands for nearly 2,000 years,” said Ronald Williams, an archivist with the Hawaii State Archives who has researched Lahaina for decades. He likened the city to global capitals like Mexico City, where different layers of history are visible. Walking around Lahaina before the fire, Mr. Williams said, was a chance to listen to “voices from the 18th century that are clearly wanting their stories to be told today.”

The Front Street area includes, near Shaw Street, the Moku’ula archaeological site that once served as the Hawaiian kingdom’s capital; Prison Street, which served as the monarchy’s prison; buildings dating back to the whaling, missionary and plantation eras of Hawaiian history; and the trinket shops and retail outlets now symbolizing tourism’s importance in Hawaii.

“To locals, it’s a very touristy spot, but we embraced it,” said Jared Hedani, 37, a grant specialist of Japanese-Filipino ancestry and who has lived on Maui nearly his whole life.

Yes, many of Lahaina’s old wooden storefronts had gone from housing fish markets to high-end tourist spots like Tommy Bahama and Cheeseburger in Paradise, but the town maintained its charms. Mr. Hedani said the fabled beach areas on Oahu that Hawaii is best known for held nothing on Lahaina. “To me, Front Street is better than Waikiki,” he said.

Mr. Kaina, the tattoo artist, said he never took for granted the town’s stunning sunsets, temperate climes and pristine beaches. He recalls fondly nights spent with his family feasting on fresh-caught fish and working alongside laborers from around the world in the nearby pineapple fields.

“You’re sitting there, and you see the islands in front of you and the water, and the whales are jumping, and even as a local, I’m like ‘Bro, is this real?’” he said. “The sunset looks fake every time I see it.”

Sunset in Lahaina, Hawaii.Jim Wilson/The New York Times

For some Kānaka Maoli, as many Native Hawaiians call themselves, Lahaina was particularly notable as the place where Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who united all the Hawaiian islands, established his kingdom’s seat at the dawn of the 19th century.

Kaniela Ing, a former state legislator and Native Hawaiian organizer, said several buildings in town traced the story of Hawaii’s industrial and capitalist development, evolving from the era of the Hawaiian kingdom to the sugar and pineapple plantations and finally, in more recent years, tourism and luxury hotels.

Longtime residents, he said, have had to endure the effects of both displacement and climate change.

“The fire, to me, is a symbol of the terminal point of that trajectory, like where it all ends up if you keep down this road of extraction,” said Mr. Ing, who is the national director of the Green New Deal Network, which seeks a climate-conscious reconfiguration of government programs.

Still, until the fire hit, Lahaina was mainly known for its mellow vibe; small locally owned galleries still thrived among chain surf shops and jewelry stores. Mr. Hedani said he and his friends would stroll Front Street during nights out on the town and play “Spot the Local” — a difficult challenge among the hordes of visitors.

And whenever he passed the Kishi Building on the waterfront thoroughfare, he felt a rush seeing the historic name. It had once been his family’s fish market, opening in 1903 and closing in the mid-1970s.

“I’d always pass by there and I’d look up at the name and feel a little sense of pride,” he said.

It appeared to have been one of the first on Front Street to burn.

Mr. Hedani said he worries that buildings will not be rebuilt in the same style, that the owners of small galleries and eateries won’t be able to afford to rebuild, and there will only be room for businesses that cater to wealthy clientele, like in parts of Waikiki, where designer temples lure foreign shoppers.

“What happens when you take away the most important street on Maui?” he said.

Amy Qin, David W. Chen and Mitch Smith contributed reporting.

The Godfather of Generative Art Goes Global

By in Art World News

The Godfather of Generative Art Goes Global

Generative digital art remains in demand, even as the broader NFT market struggles. This summer alone, the medium has garnered eye-popping sales, the doting attention of elite brands and institutions, and the emergence of new platforms. But it wasn’t always that way.

Casey Reas, an artist and software designer who has pioneered the use of automated computer code in creating digital art for over 20 years, recalls how much lonelier—and cumbersome—things used to be prior to the rise of NFTs, which made it much easier to sell original digital artwork.

“If I was showing a piece of generative art in a gallery, the collector base was extremely small,” Reas told Decrypt of the bygone aughts and 2010s. “I would have to produce a documentation box that would include source code, the files on a storage medium, and a lot of documentation credits—all these mechanisms just to make it possible to collect a generative work.”

How things have changed. Next week, Reas will debut “923 Empty Rooms,” a series of just as many digital artworks minted on Ethereum as NFTs and released in collaboration with generative art startups Bright Moments and Art Blocks, at six live minting events held across three continents.

At the gatherings, members of the vibrant, global generative art community will watch as Reas’ works come alive for the first time, birthed by code of his design. 

A sample output from “923 Empty Rooms.” Courtesy: Casey Reas/Art Blocks/Bright Moments

“It’s been a dream of mine, for decades, to have generative art scale—to have a community of artists and collectors working in this medium,” Reas said. “And now it’s here, after so much slow-burn, pioneering work going all the way back to the 1960s.”

Reas’ connection to that history fuels much of his output, including his latest collection. Earlier this year, the artist—who co-created the influential, visual design-oriented programming language Processing—was commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to riff on an exhibition chronicling the evolution of computer-generated art in the pre-internet age.

For the occasion, Reas created the software equivalent of a machine once envisioned by 20th-century optical art pioneer Victor Vasarely, which could replicate any one of the French-Hungarian artist’s works in infinite permutations. The physical machine would have cost nearly $11 million in today’s dollars; it was never built.

An output from “METAVASARELY,” Reas’ coded realization of Vasarely’s theoretical infinite output art machine. That machine, which would have cost near $11 million, would have been composed of lights arranged in a grid. Courtesy: Casey Reas

Reas took his reflections from that experiment and incorporated them into his own work, which at the time focused on putting the history of still life paintings in conversation with modern conceptual software. Layers of history on top of history, pulled apart and put together again by technology—the result, he called “An Empty Room.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly for Reas, who’s been on the faculty of UCLA’s Design Media Arts department since 2003, the layers of reflection didn’t stop there. As he watched museum patrons interact with his collection for long stretches, the artist further pondered the indeterminate possibilities lying in wait within seemingly simple shapes and colorforms.

An output from “An Empty Room,” which displayed at LACMA earlier this year. Courtesy: Casey Reas

If you were to take just six colorforms—let’s say, for argument’s sake, representative of the six cities in which Bright Moments has already launched its unique mix of immersive art minting experiences and community galleries—you could combine them to create 923 unique permutations. 

And so that’s what Reas did. He created every 923 combinations of six base colorforms inspired by Bright Moments cities; they will be released next week in batches, one day at a time, at the galleries that inspired them: first Tokyo, on August 14, then Berlin, London, New York, and Mexico City, followed finally by Los Angeles. The pieces will be sold daily via Dutch auction on the Art Blocks website.

A sample output from “923 Empty Rooms,” based on the Tokyo colorform. Courtesy: Casey Reas/Art Blocks/Bright Moments

Though Reas makes a point of remaining connected to generative art’s decades-spanning history, he also acknowledges that the last two years have permanently changed both the medium and his connection to it.

Even half a decade ago, the artist couldn’t have dreamed of distributing so much of his generative art to such a large and collaborative audience, let alone one spread so far across the world. 

But then came two seminal events: the innovation of the blockchain, which allowed for the dissemination of digital art via the internet, and the creation in 2020 of Art Blocks, the collective founded by Erick “Snowfro” Calderon that fused the permanence of the NFT minting process with generative code, and by doing so ushered in demand for owning such art.

“As a distribution mechanism, it’s been extraordinary.” Reas said of the blockchain. “But what Erick did, by launching Art Blocks, changed generative art forever.”

Calderon sees things a little differently. 

“The reality is that Art Blocks would likely not be what it is today if it were not for [Reas’] contributions to creative coding,” Calderon said.

Perhaps after so many years dissecting and reflecting on the strands of art history that led to this moment, it’s hard to see your own place in the big picture. But given the global scale of the rollout and growing anticipation around the events, Reas may soon have hundreds of new collectors affirming his status in the generative art world.

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