Teratia

October 2021 - Current

Heteropsis teratia is a butterfly. Not a tremendously pretty one, by Lepidoptera-based standards, but I liked the name 'Teratia' and it reminded me of the Greg Egan novel Teranesia, so there you have it—a name was chosen.

Teratia is an algorithm based on a butterfly. Well, that's not entirely true: it's based on a hexagonal grid over which a periodic function iterates, but it sometimes looks a little like the wings of a butterfly. Two separate functions are chosen, and their results combined, then passed through to a colouring algorithm. In some cases this uses an arc-tangent function to create a sweeping spectrum of hues around a central point; in other cases two further algorithms are combined to produce colouration remeniscent of a butterfly's wings. If you've read my descriptions of Calyxia and Pulse, you can see how the two have influenced Teratia.

Teratia produces organic, striated patterns intended to represent the wings of butterflies or moths. Initially, I intended the works to be symmetrical, and considered darkening the centre of the pieces to represent the body of the insect - you can see the concept in my sketch at the foot of the page. Ultimately, I abandoned this idea, pleased with the results and feeling that further post-processing was unnecessary.

Often, the images remind me of the textures used by computer artist William Latham, whose work featured prominently on albums by The Shamen. More obscurely, it also brings to mind the colouration of the box for the Amiga version of Shadow of the Beast, which itself often reminded me of the cover of a prog-rock album I once saw, possibly with Rick Wakeman involved.

The unremarkable colourings of the Heteropsis teratia butterfly.

The Shadow of the Beast, featuring slightly-striated beast of indeterminate origin.

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