Spiroglitch

A selection of between three and thirty-two imperfect-helixes are mapped out from polar co-ordinates according to three separate constants: one too large, one too small and one… just right. The results are glitchy and unpredictable, akin to taking a leaky marker pen to the old-fashioned Spirograph toy and pressing too hard.

The helixes are offset by 120° and rendered with equally-spaced colours on the HSB colour wheel. I've used the MULTIPLY or SCREEN mode in Processing, depending on the background colour, to allow the overlaid elements to push the colours up to full white or full black.

The spiking effect is a result on putting the larger constant onto a function with a very short gap; the results oscillate back and forth between two large numbers, but because the resolution is small a spiky pattern arises instead of a smooth, albeit narrow, curve.

By manipulating the stroke weight, this spiky pattern can be manipulated into a glitchy, jagged form, or a multi-layered glowing form reminiscent of a sea urchin. Having spent some time working on the replication of bioluminescent creatures, this was a pleasant surprise.