Afterglow

What do you see when you close your eyes and look into the light?

… the afterglow of light on the retina, a diffuse pattern of points, colors, and blurry shapes glimmering in the dark … a random constellation of lights and colors that the brain tries to arrange into known formations and learned patterns … a playful and beautifully distracting array of visual sensations.

These intimate sensations initiated an experimental series coded with p5.js.

Imagine a grid that picks colors from an input image, set into motion. The grid dances, animating the columns' height and width, creating a fleeting, wave-like sensation. As a last layer, CSS filters are applied to the p5 canvas, oversaturating the colors and blurring the shapes, transforming geometric patterns into fleeting and flowing blobs of color.

The outcome is a mesmerizing display, a dynamic representation of the visual afterglow. The grid pulses and waves, colors blend and blur, evoking the dreamy sensation of looking into light with closed eyes. It is a visual dance, both calming and captivating, an ever-changing tapestry of light and color.

This experiment is a poetic exploration of color, light and perception, brought to life with code.