A research thread on images becoming editable, structured, explorable
programs — and a kinetic mosaic built from real recovered pieces of a
Hokusai print. The pieces below are real; pick them up.
live · 47 pieces · Hokusai red fuji
円相
drag mouse · click to cycle formation · click a piece to pin · try the ambient toggle →
Pieces recovered from Hokusai's Red Fuji via SAM (Segment Anything).
Each carries its semantic identity between formations — the same red shape
that's part of the ensō circle becomes the sun disc in hinomaru, the
mountain face in fuji. This is the thesis in miniature: pieces with
persistent structure, not anonymous squares.
B3 perception test —
toggle ambient in the hero controls. With it off, the medium is
strictly state = F(camera): nothing moves unless you move the
cursor. With it on, pieces gain a slow periodic rotation
(state = F(camera, t)) — still stateless, but no longer frozen.
The essay asks: does the frozen version read as elegant (clockwork)
or as dead? Does the ambient version read as alive or as
undermining the purity? There's no instrumented answer — it's a
perception question. Try both and notice your own reaction.
Five tiers of capability: intelligent bitmap → recovered layered
document → deformable semantic surface → explorable world → universal
image-program. Each tier grounded in shipping 2024–2025 systems
(LayerDecomp CVPR 2025, LayerD ICCV 2025, DragDiffusion CVPR 2024,
World Labs Marble, Genie 3). All named systems verified against
primary sources.
The camera-field composition agenda (F)
A distinct authorable medium: vector composition whose complete state
is a pure function of camera pose — state = F(x, y, logZoom,
rotation). The interactive hero above is the degenerate 1D
acyclic case (mouse = camera). The F agenda formalizes the general case.
Click a finding to expand ↓
A1 · SUBJECT RANGE
20 of 32 subjects survive quasi-static classification
Falsifier #6 ("thin subject range") not triggered. Mechanical
systems, network equilibria, multi-scale structure all survive.
Subjects that pass: watch mechanism, water/plumbing, power flow,
protocol stack, DB schema, trust/attestation graph, crystal lattice,
traffic equilibrium, river network, origami, knot diagram, cosmic
web.
Subjects that fail (hysteretic): cascading grid failure, current
supply-chain state, gene regulation, ecosystems, climate tipping,
embryonic development, recipes. The exclusions sharpen the medium's
identity: it is for cross-scale coupled equilibria, not history.
▶ click to expand
PRIOR ART
PortalInk and Graphite promote from flagged to load-bearing
PortalInk (UIST 2024) already has pan/zoom/portals — F's novelty
narrows to constraint graph + state purity.
PortalInk (Zhou et al., Brown HCI, UIST 2024) is the closest
existing implementation of F's portal half. Standalone SVG export
with embedded JS. Optimizes for intentional discontinuity
(comics). F wants the opposite: invisible seams.
Graphite (24.9k★ Rust node-graph vector editor) is the architectural
reference for F's runtime. Document = AST; Merkle-tree node caching;
rust-gpu shaders for CPU/GPU parity.
CSS scroll-timeline is now Baseline (Chrome 115+, FF 155+, Safari
26+) — F's runtime is "scroll-timeline generalized to 2D + zoom +
rotation + constraint graph."
▶ click to expand
A4 · FIELD AUTHORABILITY
Existential risk downgraded — partial answer found
A field is authorable iff: Morse function, simplified Morse-Smale
complex ≤ ~12 cells, acyclic constraint graph.
TopoSmooth (Weinkauf, Gingold, Sorkine) reconstructs C¹-continuous
fields from declared critical points. Solves portal-seam continuity
for free.
Spatial keyframing (Igarashi, Moscovich, Hughes, SCA 2005) is the
closest precedent: pose as pure function of position via RBF
interpolation. F = spatial keyframing + acyclic constraint graph +
reversibility.
Real expressive costs: ≤ 12 critical points per zoom band, no
high-topology route spaces (Gorogoa-density out), no closed
kinematic chains (see A2 below). These are the medium's identity,
not bugs.
▶ click to expand
A2 · LOOP CLOSURE
Resolved — restrict to acyclic
Closed-chain branch problem is the central problem of mechanism
synthesis. Try the demo below to feel why.
Resolution 1 (acyclic only) is the only choice that preserves
state purity. Linkages excluded permanently. Based on Krishnamurty
& Turcic 1988 (JMD), Myszka/Murray/Wampler 2013 (JMD), Bettig 2011
survey of parametric CAD constraint solvers.
Smaller loss than it sounds: none of A1's 14 full-QS subjects
require closed chains. Mechanism vocabulary remains (gears, cams,
sliders, belts, open levers) — only linkages lost.
▶ click to expand
四WHY A2 IS RESTRICTED TO ACYCLIC
The four-bar branch problem, demonstrated
A four-bar linkage is the simplest closed kinematic chain. For any
crank angle, the mechanism has two valid configurations:
elbow-up and elbow-down. Drag the crank, or let it auto-rotate. Then
click flip branch to switch elbows — same crank angle, different
mechanism. The configuration is multi-valued. Choosing one is a
stateful decision — exactly what state = F(camera)
forbids.
crank θ: —° ·
config: — ·
flips: 0
The faded silhouette is the other valid configuration at the
same crank angle — always reachable geometrically, never reachable by
continuous motion from the current state. To get there you have to
disassemble and reassemble the mechanism (or click the flip button).
Both configurations are correct answers to "what is the linkage doing
at θ = 90°?" There is no single-valued answer.
F resolves this by excluding closed chains entirely. The cost is real
— no linkages — but bounded: none of the medium's heartland subjects
(networks, equilibria, multi-scale structure) require them.
五STATUS
Open questions across the program
Four of six F-track questions resolved via literature alone before any
engineering work. The remaining risks are empirical or design-flavored.
Gorogoa concern partially validated by hysteretic exclusions
六SOURCE
Full notes and history
The complete research repo is on Gitea. It includes the source essays,
idea catalog (six ideas A–F), all working documents, the prototype
source, the 47-piece manifest, and the four-phase build log.