There is an old parable about a wise, old man and a boy. The sage suggests that there are two wolfs inside all of us: the white wolf who represents the good and the black one – representing the evil. And the two wolfs are in a constant, deadly fight. “Which wolf will win at the end?” – rushes to the conclusion the curious boy. “The winner is always the one you feed.” – replies the old man.
This dynamic development of a person is very important for the understanding of our individuality. We are born neither good nor bad, but the strength of our character, our ability to comply or to resist, the efforts we apply to understand the people around – that’s what makes us human and shapes the personality. We are free to choose the wolf we want to feed, we are in control of our own life, though sometimes one pays heavy price for this.
Generative art should demonstrate developments by similar principles as individuals. It means being unpredictable, self-driven, self-motivated, opinionated, biased – basically having all the positive and negative sides of human character. One should see the wolfs fighting inside such generative art.
These are exactly the principles which are built-in to the WonderChaos project (and that what makes it different and standing out). More correctly – the principles which give the kick-start to the process of development of the artworks. Beyond the kick-start the art advances by very unpredictable rules. The artists can give a tiny bias towards one or another direction, but will the art follow this bias? The principles are designed in such a way, that the inner structure controls the appearance, but also the appearance can influence the inner structure. This creates ever evolving sequence of development of the art, often with very unexpected results.
To gain even more links between our generative art and the real world – a link is created through which the art can actively influence our world (for instance by donating to charity), but also the real world can influence the development of art (by selection and breeding processes). This way our art gets disconnected from its creators, live its own life, communicates with entities (individuals and other art) it chooses to communicate, develops its own character.
To be more technical, we create a complex DNA of a painting, which allows our art to breed with other art from its own species (or even with some paintings from other species as well). The breeding rules include not only the direct interaction between the genes, but also the appearance and the prehistory of the pieces. A number of charitable organisations are linked through the DNA apparatus to the genetic structure of the art, so active real life communication (donations, announcements, participation in on-line and in-person events) is maintained throughout the active life of the art (forever?, solved the issue of death?).
To disconnect the art from its creators, to develop truly independent entities – the artpieces are placed inside Crypto space using NFT technology. The complex breeding rules are intertwined with the NFT functionality, ensuring autonomous development of the paintings. Interaction with the real world is done partly through the owners of the art, who can allow certain cross-linking, but practically cannot influence the developing and maturing of the offspring.
Currently we are developing a complex Universe for our artworld. Starting with single-cell organism (simple artpieces with short DNA) towards the very complex types. Same as in animal evolution – the rules for development of the species are being matured simultaneously with the species themselves, ensuring the diversity of characters. The seeds to grow the white wolf are there, so as those for the black wolf. Which one will you feed?