BUSY #18

BUSY is a generative reflection of urban complexity and interconnected systems.

As an artist who works at the intersection of code and mechanical plotting, James Merrill has become fascinated with the contrast between overwhelming city dynamics and the quiet stillness of his Vermont studio. He seeks to transform apparent chaos into structured beauty, creating works that reveal the hidden patterns within our seemingly disordered world.

Merrill says, "What drew me to generative art was the ability to make programs that generate infinite numbers of outputs. I often observe cities as layered systems that we've normalized through familiarity, and I wonder how to capture that totality. I'm interested in offering viewers a god's eye perspective—not just of urban environments, but of the underlying coexisting elements that form them." This tension between randomness and order drives Merrill's creative process and shapes the intricate compositions that emerge. BUSY explores the overwhelming sensation of being pulled in countless directions—notifications, movement, tasks—while seeking the underlying structure beneath.The work emphasizes relationships over randomness, causality over noise, and cause and effect over disorder. Drawing inspiration from highly detailed Wimmelbilder scenes, BUSY applies generative techniques to build complex compositions that feel both familiar and abstract.

This collection of 50 unique works invites viewers to discover new details with each viewing—much like exploring a metropolis where chaos resolves into structured complexity when viewed through the right lens.