JMY

Artist

JMY · site ↗

Based

Gothenburg, Sweden

Raster

raster.art/artist/jimmy-herdberg ↗

In the set

Gravity 16 · 1,024 editions; Gravity 12 · 512 editions; Time travel in a subconscious mind · 256 editions; Mycelia · 200 editions

Links

Full bibliography ↗

Jimmy Herdberg began coding at age twelve and has spent decades exploring how to create experiences in the digital world. In 2001 he founded the creative studio KOKOKAKA, producing digital experiences for luxury brands including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana.¹ His transition to generative art emerged naturally from this background: a self-taught programmer who saw algorithms not as technical constraints but as instruments for expressing natural phenomena.

His artistic practice centers on what he calls the connection between math, music, art, and nature. Through algorithms, he gives instructions to the computer to draw his ideas, creating systems that produce outputs as varied as fungal growth patterns, flow fields of charged particles, or vibrating strings that generate sound.² In 2022 he founded KOAMI, an art lab dedicated to uniting traditional and digital art, reflecting his belief that generative work should not remain confined to screens but should extend into physical space through installations, laser engravings, and plotted artworks.³

Gravity 16 and Gravity 12

Released in September 2021, Gravity 16 is JMY's most comprehensive Art Blocks collection to date, comprising 1,024 editions across fourteen distinct themes.⁴ The work is about movement, transformation, and exploration: different stages of thought from the birth of an idea through journey, exploration, getting lost, discovery, and finally fading away. Each theme corresponds to a phase of creative process, named The Beginning, Journey, Exploration, Lost, Discover, Mindblowing, Brightening, Flowing, Logic, Growing, Maturity, Aging, Heritage, and The End.

The algorithm behind Gravity 16 was first created in December 2020 and refined through sixteen versions, each building upon the previous. The core code is approximately 1,000 characters, with the full script around 4,000 characters, written in JavaScript using p5.js.⁵ Five palettes structure the visual output: Paper (bright, subtractive color mode), Screen (dark, additive color mode), Silk screen (single contrasting color), Gradient (varying intensity), and Monochrome (black and white, the only palette containing all fourteen themes). A gliding hue value adds subtle variation between works, reflecting natural imperfection.

The collection includes an exponential gravity parameter that enables new thematic possibilities, optimized for faster rendering and finer detail. The Monochrome palette contains only fourteen black and fourteen white editions total, making these among the scarcest outputs.⁶

Gravity 16 variety grid · live on Art Blocks ↗

Gravity 12, released in July 2021 with 512 editions, represents an earlier iteration of the same algorithmic lineage. Where Gravity 16 expanded the system to fourteen themes and five palettes, Gravity 12 established the foundational vocabulary: the gravitational pull of ideas, the tension between order and chaos, and the visual language of flowing lines that would come to define JMY's work on the platform.⁷

Gravity 12 · 512 editions · Art Blocks ↗

Time travel in a subconscious mind

Released in March 2022, Time travel in a subconscious mind comprises 256 editions that explore what JMY calls the hidden part of mind. The project uses a flow field consisting of charged nodes that either attract or repel a pen, creating organic pathways through the composition.⁸ The algorithm originated in 2020 from an idea about how everything relates to each other on micro and macro levels. Early versions took approximately ten minutes to render a single image; by 2021, optimization reduced this to under thirty seconds, though some functionality was sacrificed for speed.

For the Art Blocks release, JMY replaced the CPU-intensive flow field generation with a GPU shader, enabling real-time rendering and far greater line density. The color palette is deliberately constrained to cyan, blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow spectra, with green largely removed, creating a dreamlike, nocturnal atmosphere appropriate to the subconscious theme.⁹ The project also offered a physical component: the first 100 minters received a free 30x30cm pen plot of their edition, bridging the digital and physical in a gesture that has become characteristic of JMY's practice.¹⁰

Time travel in a subconscious mind · 256 editions · Art Blocks ↗

Mycelia

Mycelia, released in 2023 with 200 editions, marks JMY's most direct engagement with biological processes. The generative animated artwork mimics mycelium growth in nature, with each piece possessing its own token that makes the growth pattern unique.¹¹ The algorithm models how fungal networks locate and distribute nutrients, creating wave functions that alternate between frequencies to generate nutrient fields. The visual expression emerges from this distribution: where nutrients cluster, the mycelium grows dense; where they are sparse, the threads remain delicate and wandering.

The project extends beyond the screen into physical space. At the Art Blocks Marfa Weekend in 2023, JMY presented Mykorhizae, a companion project that laser-engraved fungi-inspired designs into thin pieces of wood, symbolizing the symbiotic relationship between fungus and tree.¹² The Boletus series of 26 laser-engraved artworks were given away to visitors, while the Amanita series was distributed to the first five collectors of the digital Mycelia release. This interplay of digital generation and physical fabrication exemplifies JMY's approach through KOAMI: generative art need not remain virtual.

Mycelia · 200 editions · Art Blocks ↗

Strings and the sonic turn

JMY's most recent Art Blocks project, Strings, released in October 2025 with 1,000 editions, represents an evolution into interactive audiovisual work. Each artwork is a unique instrument: lines represent playable strings where sound is affected by length, tuning, and playing style.¹³ The project draws on string theory, the physics of vibration, and nostalgic color palettes inspired by childhood comic books. Each string's pitch is determined by its length and tension; shorter strings produce higher pitches, while bending increases tension and raises frequency.

The sound engine uses sine, triangle, square, or sawtooth waves, shaped by vibrato, tremolo, or filter effects, then played through light reverb. The grids range from 3x3 to 15x15, with a main string always dividing the artwork into two sections. Colors include yellow, red, green, blue, and pink, combined with white or black backgrounds, plus black, white, and gray variants. The project is designed for pairing: collectors can align strings across multiple artworks, creating larger compositions.¹⁴

Method and philosophy

Across his practice, JMY maintains a consistent methodology: start with a natural phenomenon or mathematical principle, refine it through iterative algorithmic development, then release it into a system that produces unique outputs. His creative process, as articulated in the Gravity 16 essay, involves crossing a threshold of understanding into the unknown, embracing the discomfort of lostness, and emerging with expanded perception.¹⁵ This is not merely a metaphor for his art but a description of how the algorithms themselves evolve, each version building on the last, the line of understanding moving upward with each iteration.

His work is deeply Swedish in its combination of technical precision and natural romanticism. Gothenburg, his base, is a city of shipyards and design schools, heavy industry and delicate craft. JMY's art carries this dual inheritance: the algorithmic exactitude of the programmer and the organic sensitivity of the naturalist. Whether plotting the growth of fungal networks or the vibration of theoretical strings, he treats code as a form of attention, a way of watching the world closely enough to simulate its processes.

The AB[500] set captures JMY at a pivotal moment: four Art Blocks releases that trace an arc from the foundational Gravity series through introspective psychological exploration to biological simulation and finally to interactive sound. Each project is distinct in theme and output, yet all share the same underlying commitment to generative systems as a means of understanding the patterns that connect mathematics, nature, and human perception.

Bibliography

For the complete bibliography see the JMY links page ↗.