[← Back to work](https://cheyuwu.com/work/) Installation2023 # Shape of Mind [video](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/2f665ef5-hero.mp4) The plotter drawing a line version of Shape of Mind with a single pen, at the NCCU Art & Culture Center on 12 April 2024. Real speed, muted.Muted loop The gallery on 12 April 20242 ![Seven black-and-white prints on the wall, a laptop and a plotter on a black and a white plinth in front](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/ae60337b-site-wall.webp) Seven prints: four on white, three on black ![The plotter drawing on the white plinth, the laptop on the left](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/9ef2b610-site-plotter-front.webp) The laptop hands the SVG to the plotter Tap to enlarge. Archive year 2023 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 First version [13 October 2023, daily sketch 231013 Shape of Mind](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2042927/) Second version [10 January 2024, white on black](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2140345/) Code p5.js; the plotter versions exported as vectors with p5.js-svg Shown at [He, She, It: Residing in Multiple Universes, the second Digital Creation and NFT Open Call Exhibition](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/he-she-it-multiple-universes/) Dates 20 March to 6 June 2024 Venue Yi-sin Gallery, 4F, NCCU Art & Culture Center (Wenshan, Taipei) Installation Seven black-and-white prints on board; a pen plotter (iDraw) drawing live on A4 paper Role Exhibition advisor and invited artist, with Newyellow Contents & work details Archive year 2023 Type Installation Artist Che-Yu Wu 吳哲宇 First version 13 October 2023, daily sketch 231013 Shape of Mind Second version 10 January 2024, white on black Code p5.js; the plotter versions exported as vectors with p5.js-svg Shown at He, She, It: Residing in Multiple Universes, the second Digital Creation and NFT Open Call Exhibition Dates 20 March to 6 June 2024 Venue Yi-sin Gallery, 4F, NCCU Art & Culture Center (Wenshan, Taipei) Installation Seven black-and-white prints on board; a pen plotter (iDraw) drawing live on A4 paper Role Exhibition advisor and invited artist, with Newyellow Overview Shape of Mind is a daily sketch Che-Yu Wu made on 13 October 2023. On every frame the p5.js code places two hundred and fifty points along an upright axis. How far each point sits from the axis is set by Perlin noise, then stretched and shrunk by a slowly turning angle, so that from the side it looks like clay being thrown on a wheel. The axis itself also turns, and the whole picture shrinks a little more with each frame, so the paths of the points pile up into a disc: regular rings at the centre, which he likens to weaving and to a circuit board, and around them, strands of line that never come back in. From 20 March to 6 June 2024 the work was shown in the Yi-sin Gallery on the fourth floor of the National Chengchi University Art & Culture Center. Seven black-and-white prints hung on the wall, and on a white plinth in front of them stood a pen plotter. On the opening day he rewrote the code as continuous lines that a pen could draw in one stroke. From then on, staff of the centre loaded a different variant of the algorithm each day, and the plotter drew it on A4 paper with a single pen for half an hour to an hour. The finished sheets were laid one after another on the floor beside the plinth. > What Shape of Mind is really exploring is whether, from the machine’s point of view, from the algorithm’s point of view, we could come infinitely close to drawing something like the human mind. Che-Yu Wu, Generative Art lecture at National Taiwan University, 27 March 2024 ## After an argument The title comes from an argument. On 21 March 2024, the day after the opening, Che-Yu Wu explained the work to students during a livestreamed class of his generative art course at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University: “I was arguing with my partner at the time, and I thought, I really don’t want to have feelings. If I could think about things completely rationally, with no emotion at all, how good would that be.” He tried to sort the thoughts of the mind into a strictly rational shape, and left around it the tangled lines that could not be made rational. A few days later, at a lecture at National Taiwan University, he put the work as a question: whether a machine, an algorithm, could come infinitely close to drawing something like the human mind. Six source images6 ![A disc of black points on white, rings at the centre, fine lines flying off to the upper right](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/11a45532-work-white-1.webp) White ground, first version ![Black points on white, with more broken rings](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/a4772e79-work-white-2.webp) White ground, first version ![Black points on white, the densest disc](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/3712c1c6-work-white-3.webp) White ground, first version ![Black points on white, a cross at the centre](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/4b53e24e-work-white-4.webp) White ground, first version ![White points on black, lines flung to the upper right and lower left](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/f44de13f-work-black-1.webp) Black ground, second version ![White points on black, another disc](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/07373524-work-black-2.webp) Black ground, second version The source images sent for printing: the four white ones from the code of 13 October 2023, the two black ones from the second version of 10 January 2024. The centre printed the seven pieces on show in four sizes, mounted on thick board. Tap to enlarge. ## On the wheel There is no heart shape in the code, and no outline drawn in advance. On each frame, every one of the two hundred and fifty points multiplies three layers of Perlin noise to decide how far it sits from the axis, and every point sixty pixels apart is drawn with a heavier stroke. As the axis turns with time, those heavier points leave rings on the picture. The scale of the whole picture keeps falling with the frame count, so the later a point is drawn, the closer it is pushed to the centre, which is why the centre is the densest. The second version, written on 10 January 2024, turns to white points on black, with less sway, faster rotation and two fine white specks scattered beside each point. Neither version fixes its random seed, so every time it is opened a different disc grows. > You know how, when you throw a pot, you put your hand on the clay and let it turn along your hand, so it becomes something like a spiral. But if at the same time you change or rotate the axis in the middle, this is what you get. Che-Yu Wu, Generative Art lecture at National Taiwan University, 27 March 2024 (excerpt) Details2 ![Rings and points at the centre of the first version](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/a720c72d-detail-white.webp) White: rings, and points pushed towards the centre ![White lines and outer arcs of the second version](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/ce15dd28-detail-black.webp) Black: less sway, longer arcs Cropped from the 5,000 × 5,000 pixel source images, about four tenths of the width each. ## White and black For the exhibition, Che-Yu Wu wrote a short text for each version on the Art & Culture Center’s artwork form. The white ground is the first version of October 2023, the black ground the second of January 2024. > White: Trying to hold on to a rational reality, thoughts tangled. If the mind were etched into an emotionless circuit, could one see through attachment and let go? Che-Yu Wu, NCCU Art & Culture Center artwork form, March 2024 (English translation) > Black: Countless thoughts flow and weave into a mind. We draw our own existence with the traces of time. Che-Yu Wu, NCCU Art & Culture Center artwork form, March 2024 (English translation) ## One pen, drawing it again The plotter was Che-Yu Wu’s idea. When the NCCU Art & Culture Center first discussed the exhibition with him in October 2023, he already wanted a plotter drawing the work on site. The picture on screen is built up point by point, frame after frame, and a pen can only draw lines, so on the opening day he rewrote both versions: the positions a point at one height passes through over three thousand frames are joined into a single curve, sixty-three curves to a sheet, saved as vector files with p5.js-svg. He left the centre a one-page instruction sheet: check that the pen is clamped and the paper taped down, open the work’s link, wait for the picture to appear and press the space bar to save an SVG, place it in Inkscape within an A4 area, then send it from the iDraw extension. The plotter took turns with four programs: the two line versions of Shape of Mind, and plotter versions he made of two earlier daily sketches, 200802 Tangled and 230124 Chain Drawing. From code to paper5 1. 01 ### Rewritten as lines Points at one height joined into one curve, sixty-three to a sheet 2. 02 ### Saved as SVG p5.js-svg, saved with the space bar 3. 03 ### Fitted to A4 Scaled in proportion in Inkscape 4. 04 ### Sent The iDraw extension, one pen 5. 05 ### Half an hour to an hour A different variant each day, the sheets laid on the floor The plotter at work2 [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/) A line version of Shape of Mind, 12 April [video](https://cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/) The wall and the plotter, 12 April Real speed, recorded in the gallery on 12 April. Installing, and in the gallery11 ![The plotter’s two rails and pen holder, the laptop connected by a blue cable](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/6b58c0d4-site-plotter.webp) ![The pen tip on the paper, circles already drawn around it](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/6e856b63-site-pen.webp) ![The laptop screen showing the code and a Shape of Mind disc](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/9859adb8-site-laptop.webp) ![Finished A4 sheets covering the floor](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/5b3f8e3e-site-papers.webp) ![The seven prints seen from the side](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/fa7acf4c-site-wall-side.webp) ![Prints leaning against the wall before hanging](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/48331c21-build-prints.webp) ![Laptop, plotter and sheets on the floor](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/3c73c35a-site-corner.webp) ![The sheets on the floor up close, discs and star shapes](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/351dc121-site-papers-2.webp) ![The plotter and the A4 sheet from above](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/73bcb910-build-top.webp) ![Sheets drawn and signed on the opening day](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/516c779c-build-signed.webp) ![A sheet of wavering parallel lines, the plotter version of 200802 Tangled](https://media.cheyuwu.com/work/shape-of-mind/5c4ed27a-build-lines-2.webp) The photographs of 20 March were taken by Che-Yu Wu on his phone on the opening day; the rest are a record of the gallery on 12 April. Tap to enlarge and read the captions. ## The gallery at NCCU The exhibition was the NCCU Art & Culture Center’s second Digital Creation and NFT Open Call Exhibition, under the theme He, She, It: Residing in Multiple Universes, part of the digital art series of the 24th NCCU Art Residency Program. In October 2023 the centre invited Che-Yu Wu and Newyellow to be its digital art advisors; the two helped select the students’ submissions and also showed work alongside NCCU students and staff as invited artists. Nine of the eleven exhibitors came through the open call, with photography, watercolour, digital work and programming. On the evening of 24 April 2024, Newyellow and Che-Yu Wu gave the talk Experience and Guide of Digital Creation at the Digital Art Center on the second floor, then took the audience up to the fourth-floor gallery to see the show. ## Afterwards The exhibition closed on 6 June. Two years later, on 25 April 2026, Che-Yu Wu looked back on it at a MONOLAB digital creation salon, and what he talked about was the plotter that kept on drawing. > Because the machine cannot get close to the human mind, it keeps drawing different depictions of the mind, and we just let it draw and draw, and threw them on the floor, on the floor, a bit like a machine artist going mad. Che-Yu Wu, MONOLAB digital creation salon, 25 April 2026 (excerpt) Records and sources8 - [LivestreamGenerative Algorithmic Interactive Art, session 4: the plotter and Shape of Mind2024-03-21YouTube・哲宇寇汀吧](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPDOT7qbSZ4&t=1962s) - [LectureGenerative Art lecture at NTU, part 22024-03-27YouTube・哲宇寇汀吧](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dexZW8P90vw&t=800s) - [Sketch231013 Shape of Mind2023-10-13cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2042927/) - [Sketch240110 Shape of Mind 22024-01-10cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2140345/) - [Sketch231013 Shape of Mind lines, the plotter version2024-03-20cheyuwu.com](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2214970/) - [Exhibition pageDigital Creation Open Call Exhibition: He, She, It政大藝文中心](https://artist.nccu.edu.tw/2024spring/da.html) - [Lecture pageLecture: Experience and Guide of Digital Creation政大藝文中心](https://artist.nccu.edu.tw/2024spring/da_ac.html) - [OnlineOnline gallery政大藝文中心](https://artist.nccu.edu.tw/2024fall/nft.html) Notes are our own livestream, lecture and sketches; tags are the organiser’s and the platform’s pages. Every one opens. Grown from the daily practice This work grew out of the “Shape of Mind” family: 5 daily sketches, 2023-10-13 to 2024-03-20. 4 of the links are forks. ![240110 Shape of Mind 2 svg](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/mirror/b40fc0285d81-sm.webp) 240110 Shape of Mind 2 svg2024-01-15 [https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2144225/](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2144225/) ![240110 Shape of Mind 2 lines](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/mirror/4e008a4de91f-sm.webp) 240110 Shape of Mind 2 lines2024-03-20 [https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2215136/](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2215136/) ![240110 Shape of Mind 2](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/sketches/2140345-sm.webp) 240110 Shape of Mind 22024-01-10 [https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2140345/](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2140345/) ![231013 Shape of Mind lines](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/mirror/3a3197a9d6ce-sm.webp) 231013 Shape of Mind lines2024-03-20 [https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2214970/](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2214970/) ![231013 Shape of Mind](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/sketches/2042927-sm.webp) 231013 Shape of Mind2023-10-13 [https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2042927/](https://cheyuwu.com/sketch/2042927/) [See this family on the tree →](https://cheyuwu.com/lineage/#f2042927) ## Credits Concept and code Che-Yu Wu Exhibition NCCU Art & Culture Center, He, She, It: Residing in Multiple Universes, 2024 Printing, installation and daily operation NCCU Art & Culture Center Plotter iDraw, provided by MonoLab Photography Installation photographs of 20 March: Che-Yu Wu ## Context & sources - [Original work source](https://openprocessing.org/sketch/2042927) - [Source: artist.nccu.edu.tw](https://artist.nccu.edu.tw/2024spring/da.html) - [He, She, It: Residing in Multiple Universes · 2024 →](https://cheyuwu.com/exhibitions/he-she-it-multiple-universes/) Exhibitions, research & collaborations [Contact the artist](https://cheyuwu.com/contact/?work=Shape+of+Mind&from=/work/shape-of-mind/) ## 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 Flower of the Other Shore](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/covers/flower-of-the-other-shore.webp) 2024 ### The Flower of the Other Shore [https://cheyuwu.com/work/flower-of-the-other-shore/](https://cheyuwu.com/work/flower-of-the-other-shore/) ![The Coffee Dreamscape](https://cheyuwu.com/static/img/coffee-dreamscape/cover-landscape.jpg) 2025 ### The Coffee Dreamscape [https://cheyuwu.com/work/coffee-dreamscape/](https://cheyuwu.com/work/coffee-dreamscape/) 1 / 0