optical illusion

"With just one polka dot, nothing can be achieved. In the universe, there is the sun, the moon, the earth, and hundreds of millions of stars. All of us live in the infinitude of the universe." -- Yayoi Kusama

I saw this painting by Yayoi Kusama called The Galaxy (attached the image in files), and I was really inspired to try and recreate it for my Optical Illusion project. The original artwork is a canvas filled with irregularly sized and spaced dots, with "no fill" so to speak on a dark background. I wanted to somehow "bring it to life" in p5, and for some reason the idea of having all the dots be pulsing slightly, as though they were alive, really appealed to me. I knew I wanted to vary the size and the stroke weight of the dots, because that variation was what really struck me in the original artwork. I also color picked the shades from the original artwork to make it as close as possible.

I think the pulsating effect is what transforms it into an illusion, because it almost looks like images are being formed in the dark spaces between the dots, and random patterns keep forming and deconstructing gently. I also think the randomization and pulsating together really fits the theme that Kusama spoke of in regards to this artwork -- "All of us live in the infinitude of the universe." I feel a sort of infinity when I stare at the pulsating effect.