A generative artwork that explores the emergence of error and ambiguity in an age increasingly shaped by semantic machines

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Description

Semantic Noise is a generative artwork that explores the emergence of failure and glitch in semantic, text based environments. Acting as an audiovisual imaginary interface, it presents an evolving sequence of abstract animations and typographic scenes, drawing on the visual language of low-level terminal aesthetics, malfunctioning devices and early net-art experiments.

Inspired by the behaviour of such devices, the piece continuously generates unstable digital landscapes where fragments of language, symbols, digits, and colourful structures reorganize themselves into broken narratives, and incomplete schemes of communication protocols, where the observer can reconstruct only partial meanings of these readable messages.

Built entirely from typographic elements, the work operates within a minimal, terminal-like environment that has some underlying algorithmic processes, causing movements, repetitions and rhythms that oscillate between coherence and collapse. The monospace characters are distributed on a low resolution grid, which becomes the fundamental material of the composition by organizing the character sequences according to simple computational rules.

The semi-readable texts and digits are originating from messages between different communication protocols that are trying to establish a connection with the network. The resulting fragments suggest machine reasoning without ever fully resolving into stable meaning, exposing the hidden uncertainties, biases, and hallucinations embedded within digital networks and contemporary AI systems. The sound is made with realtime audio synthesis, using basic audio building blocks like noise, sine waves, filters and envelopes. As opposed to traditional musical structures, the overall soundscape acts like the sonification of the interface, indicating the raw activity levels of the apparatus. In this sense, the artwork operates somewhere between machine logic and the semantic uncertainty of the human observer, where the boundaries between signal and noise, intention and accident, become increasingly eliminated.

Details

  • Edition Size: 128 Unique Artworks
  • Blockchain: Ethereum
  • Token Standard: ERC-721
  • Contract Type: Fully On-chain
Each token in the series is assigned to a unique, deterministic hash that serves as the seed for the generative algorithm, determining the specific visual and audiovisual properties of the artwork. While the resulting output is fully reproducible from the hash, the hash itself is unpredictable at the moment of selection, creating an outcome that is random yet deterministic. The hash determines the color palette and the visible algorithmic structures of each individual artwork. These parameters are then define the so-called features of an edition, of which Semantic Noise has four:
  • Base: the algorithmic process, used in the background layer of the artwork
  • Overlay: the algorithmic process, used in the foreground layer of the artwork
  • Mask: the static mask image type, that mixes together the Base and Overlay layers (can be seen by pressing the 'd' key)
  • Colors: the name of the color palette, assigned to the artwork
The soundscape is connected to the two layers and emerges from the interaction between the two visible systems. While the musical expressivity is intentionally kept extremely minimal, each layer has distinct sonic qualities defined by the intensity of its movement. Using simple audio synthesis components provided by Web Audio, every rotation, step, and change of position triggers subtle changes in the corresponding sounds. Tiny oscillators and noise generators are processed through different filters and ADSR envelopes, resulting in a rich sonic texture that can be understood as a sonification of the visible structures.

For the best experience, the system’s audio gain should be set close to the threshold of audibility. This allows listening to move between conscious attention and a more open, perceptual mode.

Appearances

  • Semantic Noise is part of the 2026 edition of Responsive Dreams, the first digital art festival in Barcelona, showcasing art created by code. Open to the public on 25/26/27 September 2026, at Nau Dents de Serra, Roca Umbert Fàbrica de les Arts, Granollers, Barcelona
  • Explore the full artwork live on the Artblocks project site

Credits

  • Xavier Hernandez - Exhibition Curation
  • Programming Languages and Coding Frameworks - Javascript, Canvas 2D, p5js, WebAudio Synthesis, WebGL
  • Thank you to Xavier, the ArtBlocks team and The Generative Art Museum for their help in making this artwork possible

© Agoston Nagy 2026