Little Block Machines
Defining the most reduced revelation of randomness and rules in algorithmic systems (click for reform, refresh for new machine)
Little Block Machines are 12 x blocks and 12 x color themes made in p5js.
The work is an on-chain machine. Each machine is made of 12 blocks that are held together by a couple of simple rules, their parts randomised within those constraints. If two blocks stacked vertically are of a similar width, they get a connector. If blocks are wide or narrow they have a light or dark tone. Some of the machines are dense, some sparse, as the gaps between the blocks tighten or loosen and their proportions shuffle.

Each machine scales dynamically, so as the width and height of the viewing window change the connectors and colors and line-weights do too. Stretch the window wide for chunky outlines. Try to almost break its blocky structure. Because it’s a machine not an image, you get an array of visual outcomes / right click saves with each minted nft.
Just because art is code doesn’t make it interesting. Within the spectrum of generative art - Raw Math / Beautified Math / Math Used / Math Castle - Little Block Machines are in the Math Used camp: they are things for play and a kind of déjà vu of function.
There are 12 color themes, starting with the words (code) and then finding the colors. Soft peachy, mountain moss, dense green, highlighter nux at night.
Just because art is code doesn’t make it interesting. Within the spectrum of generative art - Raw Math / Beautified Math / Math Used / Math Castle - Little Block Machines are in the Math Used camp: they are things for play and a kind of déjà vu of function.
There are 12 color themes, starting with the words (code) and then finding the colors. Soft peachy, mountain moss, dense green, highlighter nux at night.

Little Block Machines were minted through a custom front-end platform called Persistence, an independent project built by Neokry who is one of a number of hugely smart and culturally crucial members of the Mathcastles community. Of course the whole project is indebted to Mathcastles and artist 113’s fluid computing art lessons, and their curation of a resilient, loosely-bonded, tightly-aligned community constructed around the catalytic magnet of their groundbreaking Terraforms project. Wrote more here about personal revelations of learning p5js in 113’s school of art.
The minting and transaction of a project is emotionally horrifying, dopamine pump and dump, a necessary hurdle of sharing work in a culture and industry that is fun and fraught, inspiring and overwhelming. I tried to calm this by dropping Little Block Machines completely unplanned, at a time of day when only Australians were at their computers. Just some fun little machines.

I research and write about social and urban issues and their theory, policy, and industry intersections.
Alongside my research I work in urban renewal, helping government shape the strategies and outcomes of long-term large-scale precinct development to achieve economic, social and sustainability goals.
In both my research and practice I transform complex projects and problems into clear ideas and directions.
Alongside my research I work in urban renewal, helping government shape the strategies and outcomes of long-term large-scale precinct development to achieve economic, social and sustainability goals.
In both my research and practice I transform complex projects and problems into clear ideas and directions.
In both my research and practice I transform complex projects and problems into clear ideas and directions.
Contact: kirsten@kirstenbevin.com
Download CV
Publications:
James, A., Crowe, A., Tually, S., et al. (2022) Housing aspirations for precariously housed older Australians, AHURI Final Report No. 390, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne.
Tually, S., Coram, V., Faulkner, D., et al. (2022) Alternative housing models for precariously housed older Australians, AHURI Final Report No. 378, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne.
Bevin, K. (2021). Making housing, shaping old age: industry engagement in older persons housing, PhD Thesis, RMIT University.
Bevin, K. (2018). ‘Shaping the Housing Grey Zone: An Australian Retirement Villages Case Study’, Urban Policy and Research, 36(2), 215-229.
Bevin, K. (2016). ‘Diversity and disparity: Retirement housing in age-friendly cities’, in Future Housing: Global Cities and Regional Problems. Melbourne: Architecture, Media, Politics, Society, pp. 93-99.
Building buffers: Talk for the DADo Film Society (Sept ‘24)
Making housing shaping old age: Summary of PhD thesis
The story of retirement housing in Victoria: Case study within the thesis
I research and write about social and urban issues and their theory, policy, and industry intersections.
Alongside my research I work in urban renewal, helping government shape the strategies and outcomes of long-term large-scale precinct development to achieve economic, social and sustainability goals.
In both my research and practice I transform complex projects and problems into clear ideas and directions.
Contact: kirsten@kirstenbevin.com
Download CV
Publications:
James, A., Crowe, A., Tually, S., et al. (2022) Housing aspirations for precariously housed older Australians, AHURI Final Report No. 390, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne.
Tually, S., Coram, V., Faulkner, D., et al. (2022) Alternative housing models for precariously housed older Australians, AHURI Final Report No. 378, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited, Melbourne.
Bevin, K. (2021). Making housing, shaping old age: industry engagement in older persons housing, PhD Thesis, RMIT University.
Bevin, K. (2018). ‘Shaping the Housing Grey Zone: An Australian Retirement Villages Case Study’, Urban Policy and Research, 36(2), 215-229.
Bevin, K. (2016). ‘Diversity and disparity: Retirement housing in age-friendly cities’, in Future Housing: Global Cities and Regional Problems. Melbourne: Architecture, Media, Politics, Society, pp. 93-99.
Building buffers: Talk for the DADo Film Society (Sept ‘24)
Making housing shaping old age: Summary of PhD thesis
The story of retirement housing in Victoria: Case study within the thesis