SERIES

Solve-Un-Solve

It’s the toy you played with as a kid. You don’t remember who gave it to you—maybe it was your dad’s. You held the block in your hand, rotated the parts randomly and scrambled it into a mess of color. The game was built for logical reasoning but there was no logic in your motions—you were having fun. Then came the desire to solve it; with the absence of the internet or a guide, you didn’t know the algorithm required and it was beyond you to derive it. You could solve one side, maybe two, but never the entire thing; for that you need to know the seemingly random motions—but actually a calculated algorithm. So the block was left on the shelf in the closet.

Then you return to it one day, older and wiser. Now you have the internet and a computer science degree, you go through the motions and put the algorithm into practice. Sometimes you mess up, break the algorithm, and you get frustrated and start over. Suddenly you become like a robot making ever precise movements, and you finally solve it. You put the block down, satisfied and smug, you feel smart even though the solution is well known. You decide never to scramble it again since, to be fair, the solving process wasn’t as fun as the un-solving. So it goes back onto the shelf in the closet.

Then you return to it one day resolving to make a generative art collection that captures the feeling you had when you solved it and realized your childhood was over.

Solve-Un-Solve mirrors the uncleanliness of life. It’s a puzzle that creates problems for itself. It’s a puzzle that tries to solve itself.

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