Behind the Work

Last updated - Nov 8th

Renders Game is an on-chain generative piece designed for screen and print. This piece was a self-reflective look at my own creative process.

An early iteration of Renders Game

The Story

Renders Game is a note to myself on creativity.

I will often believe strongly in an idea, yet, once realised, and I'm confronted with the reality of the output, it leaves me unsatisfied.

So I take it apart, find a detail that I love, and grow something new from that tiny piece. It's a constant process of discovery. Eventually, I'll find a result that feels right — but only once it's staring back at me.

The name of this piece is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Orson Scott Card's 1985 science fiction novel, Ender's Game, as well as to the countless outputs I've made during this creative process. In the book, Ender trains relentlessly. Only once he's completed his final exam (what he believes to be another simulation) does he discover that it was actually real — the final battle to save humanity.

In my own creative process, most of the steps along the path likewise feel like practise, with the satisfaction of achievement only revealing itself after the work stares back at me, complete. Hence the title of this piece.

This has been one of my longest running creative processes to date, having been re-written and re-conceived many times over.

It’s worthy of the name.