Inconvergent
inconvergent.net · Personal blog · on HN since 2015
Anders Hoff's blog on generative art, with algorithms, plotter drawings and his Lisp-based tools such as Snek and LQN.
What HN saysCommenters call him a stunning generative artist, group him with other notable names in the field, and link his Lisp query tool.
42HN people shared it
16linked it in comments
38stories submitted
1.7Kstory points
1 year agolast shared
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Most-shared posts
- 1On generative algorithms11 people · 790 points · first shared 2015 · 41 comments on HN
- 2Homepage9 people · first shared 2015
- 3Snek: An experimental system for writing generative art systems3 people · 128 points · first shared 2017 · 20 comments on HN
- 4Shepherding Random Numbers3 people · 126 points · first shared 2016 · 15 comments on HN
- 5A History (2018)3 people · 6 points · first shared 2018 · discussion on HN
- 6Lisp Query Notation (LQN)2 people · 138 points · first shared 2024 · 2 comments on HN
- 7Depth of Field2 people · 129 points · first shared 2019 · 22 comments on HN
- 8Grains of Sand: Monte Carlo Drawing2 people · 5 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 9Graph Data Structure with Datalog QL (2022)2 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 10Spurious Splines1 people · 119 points · first shared 2016 · 16 comments on HN
- 11From Datalog to SVG1 people · 104 points · first shared 2023 · 2 comments on HN
- 12Spurious Splines1 people · 76 points · first shared 2022 · 14 comments on HN
- 13Boxtype–Devlog (Part 1)1 people · 12 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
- 14Lisp Query Notation - A DSL for Data Processing [pdf]1 people · 4 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 15Boxtype – A Puzzle Game1 people · 4 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
opto · 2025-02-26
I love the early generative artists:
- Frieder Nake
- Vera Molnar
- Manfred Mohr
More recently people like Casey Reas, who developed the language Processing, Jared Tarbell (https://complexification.net), and Anders Hoff (https://inconvergent.net) are the people I'd look at. Hoff works in Lisp if that's your thing.
For a place to look at the history of generative art, the best resource is still http://dada.compart-bremen.de/
etrautmann · 2022-11-22
I like the drawingbots discord server, and this blog: https://inconvergent.net/#about, also follow #plottertwitter
mattdesl · 2021-06-15
The source code is visible on-chain - it can be queried from the smart contract, but also it has been etched into the data of the “script upload” transaction. This is how ArtBlocks and other projects can fetch the script and display it. But that doesn’t mean the code is open source! Just like scripts on a website (which are also easy to see), the author decides on how to license the work.
I often suggest GenerativeArtistry as a simple starting point if you already know a bit of JavaScript and want to understand how it works on a basic level[1]. Tyler Hobbs' blog (OP link) also has some great essays on generative art[2], as with the blog of Anders Hoff[3], and also lots of other resources in awesome-creative-coding repo[4].
[1] - https://generativeartistry.com/
[2] - https://tylerxhobbs.com/essays
[3] - https://inconvergent.net/#writing
[4] - https://github.com/terkelg/awesome-creative-coding
vindarel · 2025-05-02
Similar, in CL too:
* [lqn](https://github.com/inconvergent/lqn) - query language and terminal utility for querying and transforming Lisp, JSON and other text files.
(by this person doing nice generative art: https://inconvergent.net/)
ZephyrP · 2021-08-12
Inconvergent (https://inconvergent.net/) is another stunning generative artist as well; their generative trees (browser version: https://zv.github.io/static/algorithmic-tree.html) are especially evocative of Fishdraw.
epr · 2021-03-04
See also: Anders Hoff AKA Inconvergent
https://inconvergent.net
Previous hn discussions on the above:
https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=inconvergent.net
throwaway4666 · 2020-06-23
Obligatory inconvergent plug, one of the titans of generative art: https://inconvergent.net/
inconvergent · 2017-06-12
I'm not sure about how you would efficiently do this. (I'm not experienced with pure functional programming.) cloning the entire structure for every applied function sounds like it will be slow? is that not what you will have to do in practice?
i basically want the alterations to change the data structure, and i want them to do it according to a particular priority eventually. atm there is no priority ordering.
i can already make (almost) arbitrary functions, but you have to register them ahead of time, and they have to follow a particular pattern: http://inconvergent.net/arbitrary-alterations/. this is so that i can control the order in which they are applied, eventually.
peter_l_downs · 2017-01-17
Awesome – always interested in programming-related art. I was struck by the result in the article not for its novelty but for how similar it looks to a space-filling Hilbert curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_curve.
If you're interested in generative art you might like http://inconvergent.net/.
If you're interested in experimenting web-as-medium you might like reading/contribituing to my digital "zine": http://freezine.xyz.
bajsejohannes · 2016-11-03
Recommend following the link at the bottom: http://inconvergent.net/generative/
Very nice work. My favorite is this: http://inconvergent.net/generative/trees/
jere · 2015-07-24
I'm enjoying all of http://inconvergent.net/
I especially like how many of these algorithms look like ink illustrations (e.g. "Tree"). Glad it's MIT licensed.
iamacyborg · 2024-05-20
> I am missing a story and a movement in generative art.
Maybe you're just not looking at the right stuff?
https://inconvergent.net/2018/impossible-architecture/
fmoronzirfas · 2022-04-03
The Wikipedia article is a okayish description https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_coding . I guess if I had to describe it as short as possible I would say: using code to create art. Some good examples are the works of Anders Hoff https://inconvergent.net/generative/ or lots of projects on https://www.creativeapplications.net/ and of course the pioneering works of Frieder Nake et al. Am examples for generative design would be the old logo of the MIT Media lab https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-10-mit-media-lab-gets-a-multiplicitou…
andybak · 2021-12-14
I hadn't spotted that. That's much more digestible (and this page also: https://inconvergent.net/2019/depth-of-field/ )
How do you feel about the recent explosion of interest in generative art? Rather bizarrely it seems that people seem to think it developed out of crypto/NFTs and are unaware that people were doing it before it became hitched to this dubious trend. Do you think it will become tainted by association or can it actually benefit from all this attention?
octref · 2017-06-11
The author also wrote On Generative Algorithms[0] which is a very inspiring overview for many types of generative art.
[0]: http://inconvergent.net/generative/