ghetin #120

Through the interplay of shape, shading, and negative space, the 128 works in Phlins’s ghetin convey an uncanny sense of motion, as if each scene were perpetually collapsing and reforming.

Phlins generated ghetin using three interwoven JavaScript programs that produce tightly composed arrangements of slender, curving pillars. Each pillar contains a dizzying array of shaded and unshaded polygons that evoke urban skylines. The artist used the Tinycolor2 library to vary the tonal range of these forms, while Perlin noise, an algorithm first developed for the 1982 film Tron, introduced organic terrain-like irregularities. Finally, a line clip function layered these polygonal structures across twisting, descending pillars, creating visual tension between construction and dissolution.

The three works seen here—ghetin #39, #97, and #120—exemplify distinct compositional motifs that recur throughout the series. In #39, tightly packed pillars sweep downward in unison, diminishing as they cascade toward the frame’s empty center. In #97, spiraling pillars collapse into a void, suggesting a digital vortex. The comparatively spare _#120 _contains just over twenty pillars whose pixelated edges disintegrate before reaching the frame’s base. Across all three, Phlins’s code captures motion at the threshold between order and decay.