[← Back to work](https://cheyuwu.com/work/) NFT / Digital2021 # SoulSea [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/1a5e0df5-hero.mp4) One sea from the exhibition build, grown from the hash of edition one: eight seconds of slow swell, then the mouse held to the right so the waves run four times faster, released at fourteen. Rendered frame by frame by the browser, with no post-production.Muted loop Archive year 2021 Type NFT / Digital Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Origin December 2021, New York; a wave written for a commercial job that was too good to hand over, so it was released as his own Release 29 December 2021, fxhash #5438, 300 editions at 39.99 ꜩ; sold out within thirty seconds of minting opening Medium p5.js, a height field of sine waves and noise, sea sound synthesised in p5.sound; computed live in the browser on a square canvas Sound Pink and brown noise swelling and fading, with a triangle-wave bass on E1, A1, C2 and E2; the minting build sounds on a click, the exhibition builds are silent Shown Chaos Laboratory zone one, 2022; The Great Equation, Life chapter, 2023; Tehran Tech Summit, 2023; the Sacred Forest stage, 2024; on permanent view at Tempo House since August 2024 Permanent home soulsea.art.cheyuwu.com (the root is the 1920 × 1080 exhibition build, /fxhash/ the 2021 minting build) The 300 editions [Every hash, the seventeen traits, the colour range and the capture at mint, filterable by palette, creatures, stroke and shape](https://cheyuwu.com/nft/soulsea/) [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/nft/soulsea) Contents & work details Archive year 2021 Type NFT / Digital Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 Origin December 2021, New York; a wave written for a commercial job that was too good to hand over, so it was released as his own Release 29 December 2021, fxhash #5438, 300 editions at 39.99 ꜩ; sold out within thirty seconds of minting opening Medium p5.js, a height field of sine waves and noise, sea sound synthesised in p5.sound; computed live in the browser on a square canvas Sound Pink and brown noise swelling and fading, with a triangle-wave bass on E1, A1, C2 and E2; the minting build sounds on a click, the exhibition builds are silent Shown Chaos Laboratory zone one, 2022; The Great Equation, Life chapter, 2023; Tehran Tech Summit, 2023; the Sacred Forest stage, 2024; on permanent view at Tempo House since August 2024 Permanent home soulsea.art.cheyuwu.com (the root is the 1920 × 1080 exhibition build, /fxhash/ the 2021 minting build) The 300 editions Every hash, the seventeen traits, the colour range and the capture at mint, filterable by palette, creatures, stroke and shape [Original page & interactive experience](https://cheyuwu.com/nft/soulsea) Overview You look down and find that the ocean in your heart is a sine wave; the tide gently laps onto the shore. The soul is the sea, you are the land; there are waves on the shore, and the waves are slices. Gazing at the slices you feel the cold of the Arctic Ocean, the permafrost of the Antarctic sea, the deep darkness of the bottomless sea, and you hear the sound of waves lapping at innumerable shores far away. Feel the soul of the digital ocean. I was in New York then, and out of loneliness I often took the subway to the sea and watched the waves break on the shore, as if in conversation with nature. In that moment a solitary cellist appeared in my mind, standing on the sand, looking out to the horizon, playing piece after piece to the ocean and the beach. SoulSea is my attempt to find out whether noise can carry the feeling I love most: the emptied mind of staring at an endless ocean washing in. The sea does not speak, and whatever mood or life story we bring to it, it does not judge; we keep proving ourselves inside the collective when all we are looking for is somewhere to belong, somewhere that ends the eternal loneliness. ### Where the sea comes from This sea has two sources. One is in New York: taking the subway to the shore out of loneliness, watching the waves break, imagining a cellist standing on the sand playing to the ocean. The other is on the desk: at the end of 2021 I wrote a wave for a commercial job, starting from a single wave and layering noise onto it in several places so the ripples ran continuous and natural, adding texture and small creatures, and it came out too beautiful to hand over, so I released it as my own. It was my second work on fxhash, two weeks after the first, SoulTree; the Chinese text of Soul Sea was conceived together with Mashbean. On 29 December 2021 the work was published, minting opened thirty-four minutes later, and all three hundred editions were minted within thirty seconds. That same day four impostor accounts rushed out works under the same name, one of them simply calling itself Che-Yu Wu, and the platform flagged them all as malicious; it was the second time being copied had happened to me. ### How the sea grows One hundred and ten lines cross the picture; each is sampled along the horizontal, its height stacked from two layers of Perlin noise multiplied by a sine wave, and each frame pushes it a little further, so the sea moves; hold the mouse and move right and the waves run four times as fast. The black ground is covered by only the thinnest layer each frame, so the previous frame’s lines linger, every wave trailing the path it came by; lines are blended with screen, and the oil palette switches between screen and normal with the noise. A single white pixel is a splash, its threshold set by the hash; a hundred and twenty small creatures, shells, stars or fish, drift among the waves on the noise. Last, each frame is overlaid with a grain texture the program generates itself, like the tooth of paper. All seventeen traits are given by the hash on chain: six colour bounds, the palette (colour in two hundred and twenty-five editions, oil in forty-three, mono in sixteen, ocean in ten, silent night and maverick in three each), creatures, stroke, shape, wave noise, vertex span, glitch frequency, two wave frequencies, the splash threshold and the canvas angle. The same hash always grows the same sea. Six palettes6 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #1: colour, 225 of the 300 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #5: mono, 16 of the 300 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #8: oil, 43 of the 300 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #17: ocean, 10 of the 300 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #35: silent night, 3 of the 300 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/) #189: maverick, 3 of the 300 The lowest-numbered edition of each palette, rendered frame by frame from the exhibition build for six seconds; the lines are the same system, the colours and blending are set by the hash. The journey: from one wave to a wall10 1. 01 ### 15 December 2021 SoulTree #3552, the first work on fxhash, 128 editions 2. 02 ### 18 December 2021 The SoulSea repository begins, working title DigitalOcean 3. 03 ### 29 December 2021 Published as fxhash #5438; minting opens thirty-four minutes later and 300 editions sell out in thirty seconds 4. 04 ### 21 January 2022 United Daily News 500 Times, issue 49: two pioneering Taiwanese NFT artists 5. 05 ### March to May 2022 Chaos Laboratory, the first solo exhibition: zone one, ocean life 6. 06 ### October 2023 The Great Equation, Life chapter, Taipei 101 7. 07 ### November 2023 The Tech Summit LED wall in Tehran; submitted to the Shanghai Light Point digital image festival 8. 08 ### 29 June 2024 Sacred Forest × PTS × NHK, Liberty Square, scene five 9. 09 ### From 5 August 2024 On permanent view at Tempo House: a print 10,240 pixels wide 10. 10 ### September 2026 After fxhash went dark, the 300-edition record and the minting build are kept here Dates follow the on-chain record, the organisers’ documents, the repositories and the archive. ![SoulSea, signed output of January 2022, 1](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/25828684-signed-01.webp) 15 January 2022, among the earliest formal outputs, the handwritten signature at the lower right; one of three for United Daily News 500 Times ![SoulSea, signed output of January 2022, 2](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/24702b25-signed-02.webp) The second of the batch: the mono palette ![SoulSea, signed output of January 2022, 3](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/5d354440-signed-03.webp) The third of the batch: violet and blue ## Sound The sound of the sea is not a recording. Pink noise and brown noise each run on their own channel, swelling for four seconds and fading over two, like a wave pushing up the sand and drawing back; beneath them one triangle wave, pitched by the hash to E1, A1, C2 or E2, rises and falls slowly. After Sliderverse this was the next time I synthesised sound directly with Web Audio; only with Soul Fish did real piano samples take its place. The minting build starts to sound on a click; the exhibition and web builds keep silent, because they often run all day on walls with no one at the controls. The recipe of the sea sound4 1. 01 ### Noise One channel of pink noise, one of brown, each at a low level 2. 02 ### Envelope Four seconds up, two seconds down, a little sustain then release, like a wave up the sand and back 3. 03 ### Bass One triangle wave, the hash choosing among E1, A1, C2 and E2, scaled by 0.8 to 1.2 4. 04 ### Hand Hold the mouse and move right: the sea runs four times faster and the fish five; P pauses Seas, twelve images12 ![SoulSea: Ocean palette](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/47c2506b-sea-01.webp) ![SoulSea: A green sea](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/ce1c7639-sea-02.webp) ![SoulSea: A wheat-coloured sea](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/51e05cb1-sea-03.webp) ![SoulSea: Blue waves](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/a41ae526-sea-04.webp) ![SoulSea: A teal sea](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/e946a1de-sea-05.webp) ![SoulSea: The cover render from the official record](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/d02b005e-render-00.webp) ![SoulSea: A render from the official record](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/ce2597ad-render-06.webp) ![SoulSea: A render from the official record](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/9874dc5d-render-09.webp) ![SoulSea: A square render](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/ae31b609-square-03.webp) ![SoulSea: The source of the Tempo House print: a purple sea 10,240 pixels wide](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/ff802e91-print-01.webp) ![SoulSea: The same print at one hundred percent: the grain of the lines](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/a6de7380-print-detail.webp) ![SoulSea: The LED wall at the Tech Summit in Tehran, 21 November 2023, a frame from a phone recording on site](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/71690a33-tehran-01.webp) The renders are the five he chose in 2024 and those in the MONOLAB record; the large print and the frame from Tehran are the two times this sea left the screen. Click to enlarge. ## Where the sea has been At Chaos Laboratory, the first solo exhibition in spring 2022, SoulSea was the first of seven zones, five minutes of ocean life projected beside the digital creatures, Pochi, the snails and the shoals. In The Great Equation in October 2023 it became the scene of the Life chapter, with visitors lying on the floor of Taipei 101 watching the journey run from Island Impressions to the Sea of Souls; in November that year it cycled on the LED wall of the Tech Summit in Tehran. On 29 June 2024 the Sacred Forest concert by PTS and NHK at Liberty Square drove the sea of scene five with live signals, changing its speed and drift; and since August 2024 a purple sea ten thousand two hundred and forty pixels wide has hung as a large print on the wall of Tempo House. Work film (with sound, 33 s)33s [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/soulsea/eca1cd76-film.mp4) Filmed in the empty room of The Great Equation; this is how the music of the Sea of Souls scene sounded. Filmed by MONOLAB. It starts muted as it enters the viewport; press Sound on at the top right to listen. Clippings and records12 - [**聯合報 500 輯**PressTwo pioneering Taiwanese NFT artists: Wang Hsin-Jen and Che-Yu Wu2022-01-21](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/12673/6050011) - [Our own writingThe first community meetup, part one: the generative universe of Che-Yu Wu2022-05-06creativecoding.in](https://creativecoding.in/) - [LivestreamLivestream: interactive web and generative art (SoulSea at 40:48)2022-04-19YouTube・哲宇](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSzX2lqQF4) - [FilmWork film: SoulSea, filmed in the empty room of The Great Equation (33 s)2026-01-17YouTube・MONOLAB](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZNosMIaSc8) - [DialogueTwelve rounds before the talk, round five: my favourite scene is SoulSea2026-09-02cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/zh/dialogues/2026-09-02-designbiz-from-zero/#round-5) - [Release recordSoulSea #5438, the 300 editions2021-12-29fxhashThe platform has closed; the record of all three hundred is kept by us](https://cheyuwu.com/nft/soulsea/) - [On chainThe fxhash #5438 collection on objkt2021-12-29objkt](https://objkt.com/collections/fxhash/5438) - [ExhibitionThe first solo exhibition, zone one: ocean life2022-03-29混沌實驗室](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab/) - [ExhibitionThe solo exhibition: the scene of the Life chapter2023-10-04萬物公式](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/the-great-equation/) - [ExhibitionA Journey in the Tide of the Soul: on permanent view2024-08-05Tempo House](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/tempo-house/) - [PlatformThe licensed version on the French digital art platform2023-04-15Artpoint](https://www.artpoint.fr/artists/che-yu-wu) - [Official recordArtwork record: Soul Sea2024-11-16MONOLAB](https://monolab.world/en/art/7/) Clippings are the outside record, notes are our own films, articles and interviews, tags are platforms, exhibitions and the database page on this site; every one opens. The Soul series4 1. 01 ### SoulTree 15 December 2021, fxhash #3552, 128 editions. The prelude on the same theme 2. 02 ### SoulSea 29 December 2021, fxhash #5438, 300 editions. This page 3. 03 ### SoulFish June 2022, fxhash #15625, 400 editions; the first time a real piano entered the work 4. 04 ### The Soul of Flowers December 2023, fxhash #29643, 200 editions The trilogy shares the signature and the layering of colour; SoulSea synthesises its sound with Web Audio, SoulFish moves to piano samples, and The Soul of Flowers is silent. ## Credits Concept, code and sound Che-Yu Wu Chinese text Conceived with Mashbean Release fxhash (Tezos), 29 December 2021, 300 editions Chaos Laboratory 2022 Produced by Monoame Design; visual design Jin The Great Equation 2023 Organised by Monoame Design and AMBI SPACE; curated by Kuo Shao-Yun; music director KIVΛMKII; technical and visual director Chen Yu; photography Shao An-Tse Sacred Forest 2024 PTS × NHK × One Song Orchestra (conductor Lee Che-Yi) Tempo House 2024 Organised by Tempo House; produced by WA Co., Ltd.; project manager Chen Chia-Hsuan; photography Huang Chao-Ming Work film MONOLAB ## Context & sources - [Open a living sea (exhibition build, a new sea every sixty seconds)](https://soulsea.art.cheyuwu.com/) - [The 2021 minting build, self-hosted, with sound](https://soulsea.art.cheyuwu.com/fxhash/) - [The 300 editions: every hash, trait, colour range and capture at mint →](https://cheyuwu.com/nft/soulsea/) - [The collection on objkt (on-chain record)](https://objkt.com/collections/fxhash/5438) - [United Daily News 500 Times: two pioneering Taiwanese NFT artists (21 January 2022)](https://500times.udn.com/wtimes/story/12673/6050011) - [Livestream: interactive web and generative art (YouTube, April 2022)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCSzX2lqQF4) - [Work film (YouTube, MONOLAB)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZNosMIaSc8) - [MONOLAB artwork record](https://monolab.world/en/art/7/) - [Creative notes: Twelve rounds before the talk (Chinese original) →](https://cheyuwu.com/zh/dialogues/2026-09-02-designbiz-from-zero/#round-5) - [Cheyu Wu Solo Exhibition | The Great Equation · 2023 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/the-great-equation) - [Tempo House Restaurant & Bar · 2024 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/tempo-house) - [Chaos Lab · 2022 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/chaos-lab) Exhibitions, research & collaborations [Contact the artist](https://cheyuwu.com/contact?work=SoulSea&from=/work/soulsea/) ## Continue through the work ![Soul Fish](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/soulfish/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2022 ### Soul Fish [https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulfish](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soulfish) ![The Soul of Flowers](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/soul-of-flowers/cover-2026-09.jpg) 2023 ### The Soul of Flowers [https://cheyuwu.com/work/soul-of-flowers](https://cheyuwu.com/work/soul-of-flowers) ![The Soul](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/the-soul-og.jpg) 2023 ### The Soul [https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-soul](https://cheyuwu.com/work/the-soul) 1 / 0