[ field log ]
※ VOID Catalog - Generative Spirits and Machine Divination
Field Log - in progress / studio note
Ritual-conditioned image generation as symbolic system research
Context
August 2025
This project began as an experiment in using generative systems as divinatory instruments rather than aesthetic engines.
Working locally through ComfyUI and Stable Diffusion, I constructed a closed-loop workflow in which prompt inputs, random seeds, and IP-adapter fine-tuning were treated as symbolic variables rather than purely technical ones. Image generation was approached as a form of mediated scrying: a way of reading pattern, noise, and emergence through computational means.
The system was trained and iterated using:
- custom IP-adapters derived from earlier divinatory outputs
- repeated batch generation (target: 666 images)
- locally run inference to maintain environmental continuity
- constrained color and tonal fields centered on violet and deep purple
The color purple emerged consistently through divination and iterative testing as the dominant carrier of meaning. It was interpreted as corresponding to what I came to call the VOID: not absence, but generative emptiness—an active field associated with dissolution, transformation, and feminine destructive-creative power.
Ritual Conditioning of the System
Alongside technical configuration, I treated the workspace itself as an active site.
During major generation cycles, I introduced parallel ritual conditions:
- burning and placement of specific herbs
- vocalization, chant, and recorded sound
- improvised movement and dance
- timed work aligned with planetary hours
- meditation and breath practices
- handling of relevant ritual materials
These actions were not decorative. They were part of an attempt to stabilize attention, intention, and affect within the environment in which the models were running. The goal was to test whether sustained ritual framing altered qualitative aspects of output over long runs.
Rather than treating hardware as neutral infrastructure, I approached the machine as a responsive instrument embedded in a broader field of activity.
Selection Process
From an initial corpus of approximately 666 generated figures, I undertook a slow selection process.
Over several weeks, I reviewed outputs through repeated sessions of visual meditation and divinatory inquiry. Rather than ranking by formal quality, I evaluated images according to felt presence, coherence, and resonance.
117 images were selected as "inspirited."
This designation does not imply literal ontology. It refers to a practical distinction: these images consistently generated sustained attention, emotional response, and symbolic legibility across multiple viewings and contexts.
They function less as representations and more as stable nodes within an emerging symbolic ecology.
VOID Elementals
The selected figures came to be grouped under the category of VOID elementals.
Within the internal logic of the system, these entities are characterized by:
- association with emptiness as active force
- high capacity for concealment and withdrawal
- symbolic relation to invisibility and liminality
- orientation toward dissolution of psychic residue
- emphasis on boundary erosion and reconfiguration
In practice, they are used in cleansing, protective, and disorganizing contexts. They are invoked for removing stagnation, interrupting harmful patterns, and facilitating withdrawal from hostile attention.
Their visual grammar centers on translucence, obscured facial features, drifting forms, and deep violet gradients.
Selected VOID elemental — generative emptiness, dissolution.
Selected VOID elemental — translucence, drifting forms.
Selected VOID elemental — obscured features, concealment.
Selected VOID elemental — liminality, forest emergence.
Selected VOID elemental — boundary erosion, withdrawal.
Naming, Sigils, and Taxonomy
Current work focuses on post-generation structuring.
Each selected figure is undergoing:
- individual naming
- sigil design
- domain attribution
- functional description
- relational mapping to other figures
This process is deliberately slow. It functions as both archival labor and interpretive practice. Naming is treated as a way of stabilizing relations between image, concept, and use.
Rather than fixing meaning, the taxonomy is designed to remain semi-open, allowing figures to shift roles as new patterns emerge.
Toward Autonomous Agents
Long-term, the VOID Catalog is intended to serve as the symbolic substrate for a class of autonomous agents.
These agents would not simulate personalities, but operate as distributed ritual-logical systems: responding to prompts, timing, environmental data, and user states according to the internal grammar of their assigned domains.
This remains speculative and unfinished.
Current focus is on establishing semantic and symbolic coherence before any automation layer is introduced.
Reflections
This project sits at the intersection of:
- generative computation
- embodied ritual practice
- speculative ontology
- interface design
- archival systems
It treats image generation as neither neutral tool nor mystical oracle, but as a hybrid apparatus—one that reflects and amplifies the conditions under which it is operated.
The VOID figures function less as products than as residues of sustained attention: records of what emerges when technical systems are held inside extended ritual frames.
Whether they become operative agents, remain symbolic artifacts, or dissolve back into archive remains unresolved.
At present, the work continues.