Inside The Mind Of Michael Perusse
Inside The Mind Of Michael Perusse
Generative artist behind the original fxhash collection, Theatergoers.
Michael Perusse is a creative, creator, and generative artist - He’s done an array of cool things ranging from improv shows to writing gag books (perfect gift for friends/family with a sense of humor), and even collaborated to create a colorful chrome extension. Oh and he’s also the talented mind behind Theatergoers, a truly original collection released on fxhash in 2022.
In our interview, Michael goes in-depth into the story behind Theatergoers, his time spent working at Google (doodle labs), what it was like using ChatGPT, and we learn more about his newly released series on fxhash, Celestory.
Michael, what types of projects were you interested in creating while attending the Harvard School of Engineering?
Throughout college, I found myself spending the bulk of my time on extracurricular projects related to the arts—musicals, writing, improv. I really liked the balance of computer science classes during the day and creative stuff at night.
Getting to bounce between those two worlds helped prevent burnout, and since then I’ve found myself converging toward a happy medium.
I’m realizing how much opportunity there is to explore both tech and the arts simultaneously, which is really exciting (but would have been good to figure out a couple years ago)!
I can understand that.
You also worked at Google (doodle labs) - Was this during or after graduating?
This was right after graduating! I really lucked out by getting to start my career on a team whose mission is to delight, educate, and inspire the world. I learned so much from the talented artists, engineers, and leaders who drive that mission at scale.
The Doodles team curates the world’s largest canvas, and there is so much thought and craft that goes into making the most of the opportunity.
Experiencing Google Doodles and Easter eggs (e.g. if you search “do a barrel roll”) was such a nostalgic part of my childhood, so it was a dream come true to peek behind the curtain and see how the magic happens.
I agree. I remember always interacting with these!
What was the most interesting thing you were involved in while working there?
Wow, it’s hard to choose just one! Perhaps the funniest thing I got to work on was an Easter egg for Thanksgiving. We added a special mode to Google translate that allowed you to communicate with turkeys, where every word you typed would just be translated to “Gobble.”
Below is a demo video of the feature that someone luckily archived:
It was really special getting to go on Twitter and TikTok afterward and see so many people finding the surprise and sharing it with their loved ones.
Omg, this is hilarious and seems like such a cool project to have worked on.
I’m curious, what are your thoughts about ChatGPT? Have you experimented with it at all?
It’s undeniably a “before-and-after” moment for consumer AI products and definitely deserves the recent buzz. I’ve used it for some of the classic use cases—asking for sonnets, pasting in coding errors, having a conversation.
When it first came out, I asked it to write a 1-minute comedy set about the New York subway. When I read the output to some friends and it got a few genuine laughs, I was amazed!
Definitely excited to see what use cases people find for these tools in the next few years.
Are there any other AI tools you have experimented with? What are your thoughts about them?
I’ve played around with most of the image-generation tools and find those to be incredibly exciting. Most recently, I’ve been exploring how to use these models to lightly animate an existing drawing or image.
So many platforms today are video-centric, and I think that being able to convert images into videos would allow for some really cool new media formats.
For anyone interested, here are two papers that have recently opened my eyes to the potential applications of these tools:
You’ve written coffee table books. “The World's Largest Prime Number”, followed by “The World's Smallest Prime Number”.
What is the meaning behind these books?
I wish there was a greater meaning! To be honest, these were just a gag that I had too much fun with. I was sitting in a math class one day and thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if there was a book with the entirety of the largest known prime printed in a really small font?”
When I first pasted the number into a word doc, my computer crashed. I had to write a script that would take smaller chunks of the 24+ million digit number and change the font size to prevent further crashing.
I had to have several calls with folks from Amazon who review the quality of self-published books and explain that the 2-point font being pretty much unreadable was intended!
In hindsight, I had too much free time.
If you’re looking for a silly coffee table book or a White Elephant gift, it’s available on Amazon Prime.
When another largest known prime number is inevitably discovered, I need to decide if I print an updated edition with the new number, or if I just rename the existing book “The World’s Second Largest Prime Number” (which would be a lot easier, and perhaps a lot funnier).
Lol. Noted.
You are multitalented, being interested in theater and improv comedy as well.
I’m curious, do you see similarities at all between generative art and improv?
There are definitely a lot of similarities! Both are practices that require defining a set of rules and then letting randomness explore the bounds of those rules. Nothing is deterministic, but the more time you commit to it, the higher quality your results usually are!
I do appreciate how improv is by default a group activity. It’s really fun to bond with the people on your team, learning their style and how you mesh comedically.
Generative art can be an isolating hobby, but I’m really glad that platforms like fxHash with their multi-party release option, Bright Moments with their joint exhibitions, and Genuary with the shared prompts are making the space more collaborative.
Very well said.
I’m curious, how did you get into generative art?
In hindsight, I started doing generative art in 2020 before I had a name for it!
What was the first thing you started experimenting with?
A close friend and I created a chrome extension (“PatternTab”) that replaced every new tab with randomly generated CSS patterns: colored stripes, zigzags, and polka dots of varying sizes and colors.
It was exciting to realize that we could generate hundreds of potential themes dynamically, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of seeing friends using the extension months after we told them about it.
I was fortunate to discover you early on when fxhash first hit the scene. What a beautiful moment in time that was…
What have you been most fascinated with since entering the NFT space?
I’m amazed by the stream of new techniques and WIPs that other artists share on a daily basis. It feels like we’re all learning similar skills in cohorts, with certain artists leading the pack and trailblazing “what’s possible and what looks good” to inspire the rest of the community.
It’s easy to feel like you’ve missed so much if you take a week off, but it’s nice to see the trailblazers rotating at a really fast pace.
Everyone has a chance to innovate and make a mark on the gen art community.
You released a generative game as your genesis project on fxhash (which was given away for free).
Can you explain a little bit about this project and what it means to you?
Ah yes, The Emoji Finder Game!
This was a really fun project for me, as I was just learning the ropes around p5.js and wanted to publish something before 2021 ended.
The game is essentially a generative version of “Where’s Waldo?” using emojis as assets.
I was definitely influenced at the time by experimenting with Pico8 (a game engine that encourages sharing fun-sized mini-games) and wanted to create something that people could share with their friends who had no idea what fxHash was.
If you’re reading this, feel free to stop by and play a round or two!
I’m hooked, so much fun!
One of the most original generative art projects that I have come across is Theatergoers. Such an elegant collection, I come back to admire it often and am looking forward to eventually getting framed prints of my pair.
Not only that but 20% of primary sales were donated (in USD) to @CITYartsInc, a nonprofit that partners youth with artists to create murals in local communities.
Since mint, I’ve been eager to know how this project came about.
The project came about as a total accident! The exploration I’ve identified as the earliest known ancestor to Theatergoers is this simple image:
I experimented with making those squares into blobs:
After a few more variations, combining two layers of circles (one white, one black) really stood out:
I realized that little blobby figures were starting to emerge, and after quickly adding two more circles as eyes, the first Theatergoers appeared:
What types of things were you experimenting with regarding the code/script to have such fun, unique outputs?
I really wanted to lean into the playful, illustrated feeling of these pieces. How much emotion could I get out of a piece just by drawing a few hundred black-and-white circles?
This was an incredibly fun challenge and is something I’d like to circle back to for future works.
The most entertaining feature to play around with when developing the project was the positioning and location of the Theatergoers’ eyes.
By moving their eyes a few pixels to the left or right, the interpretation of the scene drastically changes!
How was your experience using fxhash to release this project?
It was a really great experience. Having already published a playful game-based project in the early days, I was familiar with the process and felt like the stakes were lower.
I was floored to see so much enthusiasm for the project at launch and am still so thankful to everyone who has enjoyed the project since. The team behind the fxHash platform truly amazes me.
I hope someone is working on a coffee table book about them.
Do you have plans to release more work on other blockchains like Ethereum?
Like many folks, it feels like the backlog of ideas and sketches for potential projects increases exponentially, while my output is linear!
I would love to release more work on different chains and platforms if it makes sense for the given project.
I’ve been really interested in doing a small edition size project, and I think that an in-person event one day would be an incredible experience.
That’s exciting to hear.
You're obviously a theater appreciator. I enjoy it as well and am curious what was the last show that you saw at the theater?
The last live performance that I went to was actually a friend’s comedy show!
Are there any performances in particular that you would recommend past or present?
I would highly recommend checking out any local improv/standup/poetry shows that seem interesting to you. It’s a great way to meet people and support local venues and performers.
Great recommendations, thank you!
Since the summer of 2022, you’ve been posting wips of your next generative art series, recently released on fxhash entitled, Clerestory.
Can you talk a little bit about how this complex project came to fruition?
This project has been a really valuable and challenging experience. It’s my first time using WebGL, which has unlocked a lot of really cool potential tools for future projects.
The process has given me a much greater appreciation of the people who create and use these graphics systems daily! Definitely, a lot more to learn, and am excited that other generative artists are alongside me for the journey.
What inspired you to create Clerestory?
After Theatergoers, I wanted to step back and explore a more abstract project with lots of color.
I noticed that the compositions of trig functions produced some really beautiful patterns, which led me down a path of shaping them into abstract stained glass and into the final project Clerestory.
The artisanship associated with stained glass is always something that I’ve really admired, so I was excited about the notion of creating a generative version of that craft.
Are there any tools you’ve been interested in experimenting with to create art?
I own a pen plotter, but a lot of the work I’ve been focusing on recently hasn’t aligned with the kinds of pieces a pen plotter does best.
I’ve been very inspired by what Licia He and Lars Wander did with watercolor pen plotting and would love to contribute an innovative way of using these machines to make physical pieces.
Is there anything you hope to accomplish by the end of this year?
I’m hoping to publish an additional project this year (fingers crossed!) and continue to make friends in the generative art community. I’d also love to partner with someone from outside of the gen art space and work on a project together. If you know of any artists who have a style that could translate nicely to generative art, let me know!
Oh that’s interesting and a fun project to think about - I’m going to put together a list for you, but curious to think who readers and friends would recommend. Let Michael know in the comments or on Twitter!
He’s definitely a generative artist you want to follow and collect from if you have the opportunity.