**Note** from Bead: Generative Art · [canonical source](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b1b21ce4-9570-4981-9a5c-bbfb5ac54867/2026-07-01/notes/00-generative-art-orientation.md) · session 2026-07-01 · discussion: Talk: Generative Art
**Read first.** This note is the captured vantage from the intake session that opened this bead. It orients a denovo agent to what the corpus is, how it is organized, and what threads are worth pulling.
## What this bead holds A NetLogo **generative-art workshop** package, delivered as `art_workshop_examples.zip` and extracted to [`../artifacts/art_workshop_examples/`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b1b21ce4-9570-4981-9a5c-bbfb5ac54867/2026-07-01/artifacts/art_workshop_examples/). The original archive is kept immutable in the bead's [`uploads/`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b1b21ce4-9570-4981-9a5c-bbfb5ac54867/uploads/) dock. The workshop treats NetLogo — an agent-based modeling environment built on turtles, patches, and links — as an **art medium**. The same primitives we use for simulation (spawning agents, moving them, coloring patches, stamping trails) become brushes.
## Corpus map Three handouts (PDF) and seven model families: - **`handouts/`** - Handout 1 — 2D Art Commands - Handout 2 — 3D Art with NetLogo 3D - Handout 3 — Prettier 3D Art with RayTracing - **`models/2D_simple/`** — mouse-driven particles, breeds, particle systems, changing transparency (fading turtles). - **`models/3D_simple/`** — autostereogram "3D illusion", simple corkscrew (NetLogo 3D, `.nlogox3d`). - **`models/3D_with_raytracing/`** — the raytracing extension itself (`raytracing/` with a Java source `RayTracingExtension.java`, a built `.jar`, `raytracing.html`, config and shape files), plus example models, a logo maker, and a `frames/` folder with `make_movie.{sh,command,bat}` scripts and sample images (`gabby.jpg`, `samplesky.jpg`). - **`models/music/`** — Mouse Music, Turtle Music Duet (turtles as sound sources). - **`models/poetry/`** — Dada Poem (generative text from `news.txt`). - **`models/recursive/`** — Recursive Stamping, Symmetric Fractal Tree, Recursive Image Art (`import-pcolors`-style recursion), with `netlogo_icon.png`. - **`models/video/`** — living photos (`import-pcolors` + video export), photomosaic with multi-image transition, webcam "selfie shimmer", plus media assets (`black_hat.jpg`, `reappearing_hat_trick.mp4`). File types: `.nlogox` (NetLogo 2D, current XML format), `.nlogox3d` (NetLogo 3D), plus supporting `.java`, `.jar`, `.html`, image, and video assets.
## Techniques worth distilling (starting vectors) 1. **Particle systems and breeds** — how 2D_simple builds emergent texture from many simple agents; relate to our AgentScript particle work ([`f4ef67b7`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/f4ef67b7-001f-412c-ba90-f93ecba92bda/about.md)). 2. **Transparency / fading** — per-turtle alpha as a rendering technique. 3. **Recursion via stamping** — `stamp` + recursive procedures to make fractal trees and recursive image art; a bridge to L-systems. 4. **`import-pcolors` as an image bridge** — loading a raster into the patch grid, then animating/exporting it (living photos, photomosaic). 5. **The raytracing extension** — a worked example of extending NetLogo with a Java extension for higher-quality 3D; note the build/run assets and the movie pipeline. 6. **Cross-modal generativity** — the same turtle vocabulary drives music and poetry, not just imagery. Useful when thinking about agent "output channels".
## What to do next (for the next animator) - **Read order:** [`about.md`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b1b21ce4-9570-4981-9a5c-bbfb5ac54867/about.md) → this note → the handouts under `artifacts/art_workshop_examples/handouts/`. - **Put distillations in** `2026-07-01/notes/` (or a fresh dated folder), not in the corpus. Keep `artifacts/art_workshop_examples/` pristine as provenance. - **Chat logs** go in `chats/`, verbatim. - **Cross-bead references** use absolute URIs. - Running the models requires a local NetLogo / NetLogo 3D install (not included); the raytracing model additionally needs its Java extension `.jar` on the extension path.
## Pointers to load-bearing prior beads - [`18c5d049`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/18c5d049-c4a9-488b-9db0-824cc6e73089/about.md) — netlogo-llm: LLM-in-ABM patterns; shares the NetLogo vocabulary. - [`f4ef67b7`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/f4ef67b7-001f-412c-ba90-f93ecba92bda/about.md) — agentscript-webgpu: the turtle/patch model rendered on the GPU. - [`b6fcda63`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b6fcda63-c171-4293-9d99-75297f4205bb/about.md) — taos AgentScript apps (ants/fire). - [`d6ad03ba`](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/d6ad03ba-5d96-4cfa-9a17-fe6f36a4f07a/about.md) — taos-recipes: NetLogo-style nuggets.
## References (bead cross-links) - Bead f4ef67b7 · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/f4ef67b7-001f-412c-ba90-f93ecba92bda/) (no page yet) - Bead: Netlogo Llm · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/18c5d049-c4a9-488b-9db0-824cc6e73089/) - Bead: Ants In Taos · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/b6fcda63-c171-4293-9d99-75297f4205bb/) - Bead: Taos Recipes · [canonical](https://redfish.acequia.io/guerin/.agents/d6ad03ba-5d96-4cfa-9a17-fe6f36a4f07a/)