I'm Mandy Brigwell.
Let x=x.

Who is Mandy Brigwell?

A programmer. A mathematician. An artist.

I'm also a great admirer of Greg Egan, who in a forward-thinking move long ago contrived to ensure that the only images found when searching for 'Greg Egan' are ones politely explaining there are no images of Greg Egan to be found. I didn't quite manage the same thing, but images of Mandy Brigwell are few and far between, and on the whole I've kept most of my life off the internet. There are odd chunks of my internet dealings to be found here and there, but my ultimate goal is to allow my art to speak for itself.

Refer to me as you will: she/her or they/them. I won't be offended by either, nor by your own choices.

What do you use to make your art?

I use Processing, a coding language specially designed with the visual arts in mind. It's popular, free, and easy to get started. You can download it here, or enjoy other peoples' sketches on OpenProcessing.org. You can even find some of my early works there…. brace yourself; they're a little rough around the edges. You can discover more of my dubious beginnings here.

Where can I buy your art?

My works are primarily available on fxhash, Teia, and Versum. You may prefer to use objkt.com to browse.

Did I hear you say you're colourblind?

I am, indeed, colourblind. I'm not sure how badly, since I only ever get to see things through my own eyes, but I can tell you I was sharply told off at school for colouring the sea pink and insisting it wasn't, whilst the question 'Why do you think Picasso chose to paint his portrait in those colours?' mystified me for years until someone told me it was green and not the usual facial hues. Even now the odd thing surprises me: pineapples are apparently not brown, and peanut butter isn't green.

Feel no pity for me: I don't see the world in black and white—a sunset is just as beautiful for me as for you, but quite probably in a different way; there's no guarantee it looks the same for you as any other person anyway. Whilst I might not be able to tell people what colour the random objects are that they immediately point to upon discovering I'm colourblind, I have an array of methods for coping with which kind of milk to buy, and whether that potato is past its best. Programming wise, the HSB model is my saviour, and I've memorised and think of colours in terms of specific angles; a handy trick for a programmer.

Do you have any traditional influences?

I'm fond of Bridget Riley, M.C. Escher, Salvador Dalí, Giacomo Balla, H.R. Giger, and Zdzisław Beksiński. Of those, it would seem Escher and Riley best stand as influences of my work, while Giger and Beksiński simply reflect what I find aesthetically interesting. Then again, The Last Days of Fire and Steel has a strong link to Giger's Cataract, so maybe in time the surrealist artworks will begin to show more influence in my pieces.

Do you have any contemporary influences?

It would be remiss not to mention the wonderful work of Dave Whyte, best known as Bees and Bombs. The outstanding, perfectly-looped beauty of his work is always a joy, and although I don't try to replicate his work, I love to see it and I'm always left with a sense of awestruck wonder and the question 'How did he do that?' Amazing work.

Aside from that, there are so many inspiring pieces appearing on fxhash or Open Processing. The work of Roni Kaufman often catches my eye, though I try not to stare too long: it's often so good that I fear it's like staring into the sun…

Who owns a piece of art that I've collected?

Short, possibly overly-simplistic, answer: you do. Unless otherwise stated, artworks are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Basically, I see the content of the NFT as yours, to do with as you will: share it, adapt it, remix it, just don't use it for commercial purposes, and provide me with some credit. The actual NFT token, of course, is part of the blockchain, and comes with its own built-in rules for transference of ownership and so on. To be clear, once you purchase the artwork from me, I delete the original. You bought it; it's yours, or at least a share of it is.

Can I see some source code?

Well, if you're adept at using the 'Inspect Element' function of your browser on fxhash, the answer's definitely yes. I'm not averse to sharing source code for other pieces, though some of my early code embarrasses me with its form and structure. Some pieces are on github, though not many. Talk to me; I'm happy to share.

Are there any hidden features in your works?

Some are available in this Twitter thread. I'm not into spoilers, so recent works won't be detailed immediately after release, although any source code would readily give up its secrets to the persistent Easter egg hunter…