Letter from the artist

by Xurxe Toivo García

[Al son de "Un elefante se balanceaba"]

Una célula
se dividía
en el meristemo de una planta.
Como veía
que aún había auxina
ahí siguió creciendo la raíz.

Dos células
se dividían...

That was probably not 100% biologically accurate. Please forgive me; it's been a few years since I last took a plant physiology course.

Back in 2020 I participated in the first edition of Nexo, although I never got to publish a piece in that zine (life and work got in the way of writing). Helping bring this second issue to life has not only allowed me to make up for that loss tenfold, but been a true creative privilege.

When Lois and Noora told me that the theme was going to be "roots", it felt like fate. From a scientific point of view, I had two degrees to draw inspiration from. But most importantly, the artist and developer side of me had an instantaneous vision involving one of the most beautiful branches of mathematics: fractals.

Fractals are limitless patterns, where the part echos the whole, and the whole reflects the part. The intricate veining in a fallen leaf. The icy hexafurcations in a snowflake. The curled up pinnae in a curled up frond in a young fern. The increasingly smaller bubbles filling every gap in sea foam at the beach. Imperfectly natural fractals can be found everywhere, at any time of year.

As you progressed through the pieces in this zine, did you pay attention to the roots growing in every page? Did you see the touch of order, the hint of chaos? Did you refresh the page, only to find a new pattern unfurling before your very eyes?

[If none of the above, don't worry. You can take another stroll around our garden whenever you heart desires. Even right now.]

Much like the underlying molecular mechanisms are the same in all plants (and all living beings), all the roots you saw in this zine are the result of a single function. In each page, I passed onto that function different parameters (genes, if you will). Finding the right visuals for each text took a fair amount of trial and error (evolution, in a way). And I made sure to build a healthy dose of random variation into this living algorithm.

Nexo brought me a beautiful theme and inspiring written material. I gave back every ounce of my scientific, mathematical, coding, and design abilities. Together, we tried our best to offer you something meaningful, something deep, something rooted. Today, we hope we succeeded.

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About the author

He/him. Galician in Helsinki since 2015. Currently working as a web developer and accessibility specialist. Nerd of many trades, nowadays focusing mainly on creating educational content, writing experimental non-linear texts, painting with watercolor, and making vector illustrations.