the city is burning

About

Part two of the diptych. This piece takes the sedimentary city tweetcart and expands it into p5.js with a 3D camera and fire palette.

The same algorithmic logic—horizontal drift, vertical accumulation, shape transitions—but now rendered in WEBGL with a camera that shifts perspective partway through generation. The palette cycles through 15 colors ranging from pure black through deep reds to bright yellows, creating a heat gradient that reads as urban conflagration.

Lemme just say fuck cars and be done with it.

Fire Palette

The color progression moves through darkness to heat:

c1  = [0,0,0]           // pure black
c2  = [10,0,2]          // ember hint
c3  = [20,0,5]          // deep red start
c4  = [30,0,10]
c5  = [50,0,15]
c6  = [80,0,20]
c7  = [128,0,38]        // red intensifies
c8  = [189,0,38]
c9  = [227,26,28]       // bright red
c10 = [252,78,42]       // orange emergence
c11 = [253,141,60]
c12 = [254,178,76]
c13 = [254,217,118]
c14 = [255,237,160]
c15 = [255,255,204]     // near white-hot
c16 = [16,16,16]        // structural gray

Each piece applies random variation to the palette (±5% per channel, ±10 absolute offset), giving every mint its own fire character while maintaining the heat gradient.

Camera Shift

The 3D camera starts at an angled view: camera(64, 128, 244, 128, 128, 0, 0, 1, 0)

When the color index reaches ~13.8 (late in generation, deep into yellows), the camera shifts to overhead: camera(128, 128, 244, 128, 128, 0, 0, 1, 0)

This creates a narrative arc: we watch the fire build from an angle, then the view flattens to top-down as if the perspective itself is consumed.

The Diptych

sedimentary city (part one): Tweetcart foundation, abstract sedimentary accumulation, Pico-8

the city is burning (part two): p5.js expansion, fire palette, 3D camera, explicit urban critique

Together: layers compress over time → ignition → consumption. History built, then burned.

Author's Notes

This piece is more explicit than sedimentary city about its politics. The fire palette, the title, the statement "fuck cars"—it's not subtle.

Car-centric urban planning is a form of sedimentary accumulation. Infrastructure piled on infrastructure, each generation adding more lanes, more parking, more sprawl. Cities become unlivable for anyone not in a vehicle. The heat island effect intensifies. Air quality degrades. The city literally burns hotter.

The algorithm doesn't know about urban planning or climate change. It just deposits shapes and cycles colors. But the fire palette and accumulation logic create a visual that feels like watching asphalt radiate heat at sunset.

Both pieces use the same core algorithm—the difference is palette and presentation. That's the point: same structure, different context, completely different read.