# Thoughts behind Cosmoforge | 宇宙鍛造

**Published by:** [mag](https://paragraph.com/@magcinephoto/)
**Published on:** 2025-09-23
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@magcinephoto/thoughts-behind-cosmoforge

## Content

I am Mag, a street photographer/Artist. Here is a brief profile.Street photographer & artist searching for beauty hidden in everyday life, started his career in December 2021. Based on the technique of street snapshots, he takes photographs with the theme of moments where reality and fiction are ambiguously intermingled and where there is a blank space for the imagination. He is also challenging unconventional photographic expressions such as collaborations, secondary works, and abstract expressions based on photography.Please allow me to describe the process and thoughts behind the creation of this new photo-based glitch/generative art work "Cosmoforge | 宇宙鍛造".About CollectionCosmoforge | 宇宙鍛造 is glitch/generative art based on photographs on Bitcoin. Inspired by the Gamma Continuum Calendar's concept of an eternally endless calendar and science fiction, the work originates from Kyoto street photographs evoking an imagined, cyclical universe. Each photograph represents one of four cosmic states—Void, Portal, Warp, and Hyperspace—forming an orderly universe that endlessly cycles. The four photographs are input together into an on-chain glitch program, where the ordered cosmic state is disrupted, fused, and reconstructed. Through the interplay of the original photographs' nuances and the unpredictable harmony of the fully glitched images, a new universe emerges as a dimension of disorder. Bitcoin transactions permanently capture this moment of creation as a snapshot, preserving this unique universe. Realizing the flow of entropy from order to disorder and the immutability that perpetuates the moment on-chain reveals Bitcoin's potential to evoke cosmic properties, demonstrating the profound depth of its canvas for unleashing human imagination. The original program, inscribed with the four photographs as its parent, is inscribed on Uncommon sats. With that inscription as its parent, 650 child inscriptions exist.Cosmoforge | 宇宙鍛造The Inspiration Behind This WorkThis work was inspired by the “Gamma Continuum Calendar” project held in the Gamma community, an Art on Bitcoin platform. The Gamma Continuum Calendar is a perpetual calendar for daily use. Each of its 366 date pages features unique artwork by a Gamma Partner Artist. Bound with a spiral binding, it allows continuous use day after day, year after year, until the end of time. As a perpetual calendar, each date is represented only by the day and month, without days of the week or years, making it a reusable calendar. I was honored to participate in this project. What this calendar evoked for me was a “cycling universe.” Drawing inspiration from science fiction films and novels, I curated four street photographs that suggest the state of a cycling imaginary universe. These four photographs represent the cosmic states: “Void” → “Portal” → “Warp” → “Hyperspace.” Beginning from nothingness, warping through an entrance, reaching hyperspace, and then returning to nothingness. I created this work envisioning an orderly, imagined universe where these four states continuously cycle.Gamma Continuum Calendar: Void, Portal, Warp, HyperspaceExploring directions for shaping it into a workHowever, I hadn't inscribed these four-photo series as Art on Bitcoin. While I could have simply presented them as-is, I felt within myself the thought, “Couldn't I create a more elevated expression based on these four photos?” and was searching for that approach. However, during this process, my second child was born, bringing significant changes to my personal life. While I felt happiness, there was a prolonged period where I could barely create any art. Yet, the idea of the work remained constantly in the back of my mind. Whenever I found a spare moment, I would jot down ideas or research possible expressions, but I struggled to find an approach that would take shape... As this state continued, just as my personal life finally began to settle down, I received a proposal for a project: to airdrop generative art to holders of the Gamma Season Pass. I remember feeling incredibly honored. After accepting this proposal, an idea suddenly came to me. Could I use glitch/generative art to create a new universe from the four base photographs that evoked space?An Approach to Creating the UniversePhotographs evoking the four states of an imaginary universe depict an orderly cosmos. Through glitch/generative art, unpredictable outputs with a high degree of randomness are generated, shattering the orderly universe and creating a chaotic one. That is the image. The universe possesses properties like the increase in entropy, a flow from order to disorder. Furthermore, the flow of time within the universe is irreversible; the past is definitively fixed. Considering Bitcoin as an artistic medium in light of these concepts, I sensed that Bitcoin might also possess some of the universe's inherent qualities. I believed the motif of the universe was inherently compatible with Bitcoin.Trial and Error in ProductionFrom there, I repeatedly created rough program sketches and applied glitches, experimenting to see what kind of expressions were possible. First, I tested individual glitch effects, then combined them to explore unpredictable, highly random outputs. However, while unpredictable, finding expressions that were also beautiful proved to be a challenging process. Stuck, I consulted my wife. Her advice was simply, “Isn't the output a bit bland?” Indeed, while applying different glitch effects to each photo and forcibly blending them created unpredictable glitch effects, the problem was that areas inevitably ended up blown out.My wife's advice: “Isn't the blown-out highlights a bit bland?”From those words, I conceived an approach to harmonize an image retaining the original photograph's nuances of color and form with one completely destroyed by glitches. By overlaying an image preserving the original photograph's nuances of color and form onto the areas blown out by glitches, I achieved harmony with the fully glitched image. It felt as though a new universe had come closer to expressing the moment of creation.The harmony between images retaining photographic nuances and completely glitched imagesArt on Bitcoin ArchitectureThis work is structured as follows:Four photographs are each inscribed.One original glitch program exists, with the four photographs as its parents.650 child inscriptions exist, each with the original glitch program as its parent.Original program with four photos as parent elementsThe original glitch program is inscribed on the 2025 Uncommon sats. (I chose the 2025 Uncommon sats because 2025 was a year of significant personal change for me.) 650 child inscriptions will be airdropped to Gamma Season Pass holders. Additionally, the four photographs have metadata specifying their title and next_state, defining which state in the universe each photograph represents and which state it is linked to. The architecture also expresses the mechanism where the ordered universe composed of the four photographs is created by the program into a unique, disordered universe for each one.ConclusionI am deeply honored to have had the opportunity to create the work Cosmoforge. Through this project, I have realized the attempt to generate an imaginary universe on Bitcoin, and I sense the potential of Bitcoin as a canvas for unleashing human imagination. I intend to continue striving diligently in my artistic endeavors. I would be delighted if you enjoyed the work Cosmoforge.

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