design
Simulacroom (cont.), causasui
Post by Causa sui (@__causasui), 2026-10-25
What it is, and who made it
A 4.4 s clip that moves one figure through four media: a pixel figure, vertical text, barcode bars and glyphs, then a photograph of a person holding a clear sheet.
Parts, layer by layer
- Sequence (O): pixel figure → vertical text column → barcode bars with broken glyphs → photograph with a clear acrylic sheet.
- Motion: mean speed 0.29 widths per second (fast), coherence 0.42, mean |div| 0.136 (M): cuts and wipes rather than a current.
- Type: monospace capitals, partly blacked out (O).
The framework behind it
A transformation chain: one subject carried through media in order, each medium a filter. The clear sheet at the end is the medium made visible.
The same idea in distant fields
- Translation chains (a text through several languages).
- Signal paths in audio (each stage colours the sound).
- Printmaking states (proof after proof).
Dual edge
Chains can launder an image's source; keep provenance per stage (where verification is the subject).
Measured
clip 1
- Dominant wavelength
- 0.0139
- Edge softness
- 0.88
Concepts
- advection
- chance order
- checking as craft
- collage recut
- field
- glass
- glyph cell
- identity name
- layering
- mosaic
- network graph
- noise as signal
- pigment
- reading order
- repetition rhythm visual
- sound
- transformation
- translation
- translation as depth
- witness transparency