about this piece

back when I still had space on my phone, I'd open a sketches app and just write down whatever came to mind, and over time it would turn into a piece of art. visual brain dumps. these four are from the turn of 2020 into 2021, posted to my stories between December 29 and January 4.

one of them literally says and the beginning is the end, so this piece loops. every sketch is hidden inside the one before it, and the last one holds the first. you can keep zooming forever and you'll keep landing back on December 29.

Dec 31 grows out of the dotted purple blob next to who are we? Jan 1 comes out of the teal stipple right above emergent & phenomenal. Jan 4 is tucked into the scribbled bouquet over try as you might, I cannot fit everything in this space. and Dec 29 opens back up where Jan 4's yellow sky tears into blue, right above how am I to know if I am a big fish in a big pond?

tap the spiral for the twist. it's a conformal map: take the log of the picture around its center, tilt it, and wrap it back up, so all the nesting becomes one continuous spiral and a single turn around the center is one full trip through all four. Hendrik Lenstra and Bart de Smit worked out the math for it in 2003.

pinch or drag to travel · tap to pause

the originals

screenshots of the stories as I posted them, captions and all. tap one to see it full size.

Dec 29, 2020 · 2:18 PM“Visual brain dump” Dec 31, 2020 · 8:27 PM“Another visual mind dump” Jan 1, 2021 · 1:38 AM“Another visual mind dump lol” Jan 4, 2021 · 3:07 PM“Zoom in from a brain dump I have yet to share”

sorta wish I still did this.

— Shira · voices made with ElevenLabs