One of the greatest joys of making generative art is simply exploring mathematics. It’s a fluid kind of experimentation: rather than deliberately searching for any particular outcome or aesthetic, instead trial and error are used, with tweaks for visual satisfaction. Freed of having to relate to the real world, mathematics can find space to express itself unencumbered by our preconceptions about what it might be or do. When I’m working with sines and cosines they even tend to make themselves beautiful, responding in captivating ways to the suggestions that I offer to them through my code. A medium this responsive and yet unpredictable cannot help but trigger suggestions about what it might mean in the real world — even if it is clear that these suggestions would be of little concern to the sines and cosines themselves. They whisper things to us in their own language, but what we make of it is up to us.