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Flower Type

Ronen Tanchum · Generative artwork · 2026
A living typographic herbarium.

Release Nov 2026 · Presented with Glitch Residency, Château du Feÿ, Art Blocks and OpenSea


Letters, numbers and symbols become petals, stems and atmosphere.

Live Flower Type specimen

A flower composed entirely from fixed-width glyphs.

Specimen details

Composing specimen…

About Flower Type

Flower Type is a living typographic herbarium. Letters, numbers and symbols become petals, stems and atmosphere. A finite alphabet gives rise to living forms: each specimen holds its own shape within a shared set of rules.

From a distance, the characters gather into flowers. Up close, the image separates into readable marks. The eye moves between the organism and the alphabet that constructs it.

Growth changes how a specimen occupies its space. A change of owner leaves an additional bloom. The work asks how a form can remain recognizable while carrying the history of its changes.

Material
Type & color
Identity
Persistent
Growth
Unfolding
Ownership
Leaves a mark

Growth

Stems extend and petals open, changing the balance of the same specimen. In the ownership-based work, time with a custodian advances its maturity. This recorded study compresses growth into a short sequence; the live preview above opens at a chosen stage.

Select the specimen to explore it in the preview above.

One seed, unfolding through time.

Ownership leaves its mark.

One magenta columbine on white typographic paper.
Before
The same magenta columbine, now accompanied by a new bloom at its right.
1 new bloom
The same magenta columbine with 3 additional blooms from its ownership history.
3 new blooms
The same magenta columbine with 4 additional blooms from its ownership history.
4 new blooms
The same magenta columbine with 5 additional blooms from its ownership history.
5 new blooms

A new custodian adds a bloom to the existing specimen. Its initial form remains recognizable as the composition becomes more crowded. Ownership becomes visible as an accumulation of encounters, each one leaving a mark on what follows.

An illustrative ownership history, using example addresses. Same seed, same stage of growth. These images show the rule rather than actual sales.
Select a specimen to explore its state.

A garden of characters.

Six-work exhibition study · October 2026

Six encounters, moving from angled heads and folded petals to a quiet blue interval, repeated mouths and a crowded night garden. Select an image to explore its seed in the live preview.

Three orange and cobalt Strelitzia heads rise at contrasting angles against black, with green foliage and fine typographic clouds.
Strelitzia at night01

Orange and cobalt hold three oblique heads against the dark.

Open preserved version ↗
A single magenta columbine with sharply divided plum folds, mint stem and pale blue marks on white.
Magenta columbine02

A folded magenta crown hangs over a pale, curved stem.

Open preserved version ↗
Two cyclamen with swept upright petals in cyan, turquoise and magenta, coral edges and slender cobalt stems, set against typographic clouds on ivory.
Blue cyclamen pair03

Two unequal crowns turn in the same field of color.

Open preserved version ↗
Three blue Anthurium forms at different heights with slender stems and sparse leaves on pale blue paper.
Blue Anthurium04

A restricted blue palette brings posture and spacing forward.

Open preserved version ↗
Two unequal foxglove stalks carry coral-pink tubular flowers with bright yellow mouths and violet edges above green stems on pale cream.
Foxglove columns05

Small repeated mouths build two unequal columns.

Open preserved version ↗
A varied bouquet of yellow, orange, pink and violet flowers above green foliage on black.
Night bouquet06

The sequence closes with many forms sharing a dark field.

Open preserved version ↗
Identity, change and preserved versions

The seed establishes the specimen’s base traits within a version of the code. Growth changes its stage; ownership history adds blooms. The word “living” describes these authored changes and the work’s motion.

The images above show the six selected seeds rendered with the current software. The original images and software from 11 October 2026 remain in the preservation record. “Open preserved version” runs that saved software. Selecting an image opens the same seed in the website’s live preview, which can change as the code develops.

A still image records a particular state. A software work also includes the rules through which states develop. This website is an evolving preview; an issued edition is defined by its own released software and ownership rules.

View the preservation record ↗

Atlas

One selected specimen for each form and atmosphere. Select an image to explore it above.

Opening the field guide…