126 Sextillion Collages

These are just few of the 126 sextillion possible combinations that "The engine" can generate.

Self published book with process and ideas behind the project

Artist notebook with ideas, sketches and project related concepts

126 sextillion collages is a project about finding abundance within limitations. It’s about leveraging technology to transcend an artist’s unconscious constraints and biases, allowing chance to operate in a true and unbiased manner.

Máximo Tuja, also known as Max-o-matic, embarked on the generative art project titled “One Hundred and Twenty-Six Sextillion Collages,” commissioned by New Collection from January to August 2022. This innovative endeavor was a deep dive into computational artistry, aiming to redefine the boundaries of his own creativity and expression.

At the heart of Tuja’s project lies The Engine, a bespoke generative art tool meticulously crafted by Tuja himself and coded by Marcos Biagi using Processing 4. The Engine serves as a conduit for Tuja’s artistic vision, enabling the creation of an astounding array of collages by blending images, masks, and text.

Rejecting conventional artistic control, Tuja embraced a symbiotic relationship with The Engine, allowing it to autonomously generate collages while guiding the project’s overarching vision. This collaborative dynamic between artist and machine underscores the transformative potential of generative art, challenging preconceived notions of artistic authorship and highlighting the role of the viewer in interpreting artwork.

Central to Tuja’s exploration is the concept of limitless creativity. Through a combination of randomness and predefined rules, The Engine generates an unfathomable number of unique compositions, each with its own narrative and aesthetic sensibility. This proliferation reflects Tuja’s commitment to pushing creative boundaries, inviting viewers to engage with the narratives created by the randomness injected by The Engine mixed with the source material and direction he programmed into it.

Despite the project’s vast scope, surpassing one hundred twenty-six sextillion potential collages, Tuja highlights the transient essence of artistic expression. It would require thousands of years, playing one collage per second, to view all The Engine’s possible combinations. Therefore, many of these collages may never be seen, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the creative process and the fleetingness of the present moment. Additionally, each image created by The Engine is projected for only a few seconds before disappearing forever, adding to the transience. Each new image is designed to exist briefly, leaving a fleeting imprint on the viewer’s mind before yielding to the next creation. This cycle of brief existence adds another layer to the project’s ephemeral quality, underscoring the impermanence inherent in the art generated by The Engine.