When speaking about the history of generative art, Casey Reas is not just a central figure. He is one of its architects. Over the past two decades, his work has defined how artists create with code, shaping both the culture and the language of computational art. As co-creator of Processing, the open-source platform that transformed programming into a tool for creative expression, Reas made a profound contribution to the democratization of digital art. What began as a system for educators to teach the essence of computation became foundational bedrock for a generation of artists.

I encourage you to read our full interview with Casey. It paints a portrait of a deeply passionate artist who embraces the infinite potential of his medium. I had the opportunity to ask him about emergence, the concept of an artist ceding aspects of control to allow unexpected things to happen. He replied that it is essential to his practice: a way to discard bias and familiar patterns in order to allow something new, and perhaps unintended, to appear during the creation of the piece.

This adventurous, curious spirit animates the three Reas works now featured on Layer. Network F unfolds in quiet precision as colorful geometries interlock and form a web of relation. Process 21 evolves as a delicate system of growth, its lattice structures slowly organizing and dissolving across the frame. Still Life (HSB E) investigates how code can simulate presence - how a shape can be both fixed and in flux.

Reas describes his source code as sheet music, a score that serves as a record for how the artwork is to be performed in the future. The score is not precious, it is evolving and must be adapted as technology progresses. From CRT monitors to 4K displays, porting the code forward becomes a continuation of the creative act itself, a reinterpretation that keeps the work alive rather than preserved.

Layer brings that score to life in real time. The Canvas becomes an orchestra of pixels giving voice to the work as it was meant to be seen. It feels alive and responsive, a reverent performance that continues to surprise even the person who wrote it.