Brendan Dawes – Now Becomes Then (signed haiku broadsheet)

“Now Becomes Then” is a forty-page, large-format broadsheet publication created by Brendan Dawes to mark twenty-five years of brendandawes.com — a self-owned digital space dedicated to experimentation, process, and creative independence.

Rather than compiling conventional project documentation, Dawes designed a procedural system that transforms each project title into a unique digital sculpture: a three-dimensional, algorithmically generated form that functions as a visual fingerprint. These forms reflect Dawes’s long-standing belief that digital work possesses an implied physical shape — a presence beyond the screen.

Text is generated through a similarly experimental process. Using a locally run language model, Dawes fed in original project texts and asked the system to produce a haiku for each — machine-written poetry that sits alongside the sculptural imagery and archival material. These elements are then combined via a custom compositing system, built using an API drawn directly from his website. Each run produces a new layout, meaning the publication itself is the result of generative variability rather than fixed design.

The project is both a document and a manifesto: a defence of the open web, creative ownership, and interoperability. It argues for spaces free from platform algorithms, where experimentation, play, and cross-disciplinary thinking remain possible.

Produced as an edition of 100, each copy is signed and numbered.
Format: 380 × 578 mm broadsheet, 40 pages, folded.
Materials and tools include Houdini, TouchDesigner, Processing, Ollama, Kirby, PHP, and Python.
Typography: Warbler and Lab DJR Basic by David Jonathan Ross.

A precise, thoughtful artifact from one of digital art’s most quietly influential voices.

(images: Brendan Dawes)