Eric De Giuli
Zero (Broken Symmetry)
September, 2025
Zero (Broken Symmetry) is a new generative series by Eric De Giuli that transforms the imperceptible variations of computer systems into vivid, evolving fields of colour and form. Beginning from “nothing,” the works reveal how order emerges from instability, translating the physics of symmetry breaking into a constantly shifting visual experience.
Eric De Giul is a theoretical physicist and generative artist whose work explores the emergence of complexity in the universe. His scientific research addresses the origins of life and the mechanisms by which simple physical laws generate intricate structures. He sees his artistic practice as a complement to this work. Physics demands rigor, precision, and constraint while art allows him to freely bend or break rules, creating speculative systems that illuminate and diverge from reality. For him, generative art is at once exploratory and expository: a way to experiment with systems while making abstract scientific ideas accessible in experiential, non-mathematical form.
Zero (Broken Symmetry) asks the question, what does it mean to start from nothing? In computer systems, nothing is never truly empty. The value zero contains imperceptible variations, floating-point errors too small to register in ordinary use. Unlike many generative systems that impose order through pre-defined noise fields, Zero (Broken Symmetry) draws form from these minute, shifting instabilities, which De Giuli amplifies until they cascade into visible patterns.
What emerges is not pre-imposed structure, but a process of creation itself: perfectly uniform horizontal bands gradually destabilize, breaking apart, and giving rise to intricate, fluid-like formations. Crucially, the work’s indeterminacy is not fixed at mint. The randomness is sourced at the moment of execution, drawn from the hardware environment of the viewing system itself. Each rendering is therefore unique, with the smallest differences in numerical precision triggering new trajectories. In this way, the works are not fixed and function more as live performances, constantly evolving topologies, endlessly unfolding with subtle differences revealed each time they are run.
The series draws directly from De Giuli’s scientific background. In physics, the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking explains how the potential for a vast diversity of structure can emerge from initially uniform conditions, an unstable but symmetrical balance tipping one way or another, like a pencil falling from its point. From the cooling of the early universe to the diversity of biological forms, this mechanism underpins the creation of complexity in nature. Zero (Broken Symmetry) translates this abstract principle into an immediately legible experience, as form quite literally emerges out of nothing before collapsing into a unique state.
Aesthetically, Zero (Broken Symmetry) departs from the darker tones of De Giuli’s earlier work, embracing vibrant palettes and fields of shifting colour. Allowing hues to mix and collide, the pieces explore chromatic spaces that can appear incongruous, even jarring, before gradually resolving into unexpected harmonies. This tension is integral to the work, with De Giuli taking the view that if colour never risks dissonance, it cannot reveal anything new. The works unfold slowly, rewarding sustained attention as relationships between colour, form, and motion emerge over time. They bloom in a way that evokes the behaviour of a fluid, but on closer observation it becomes clear that they are moving both in accordance with, and defiance of the laws governing the natural world. De Giuli deliberately seeks to undermine easy recognition, seducing with beauty but destabilising certainty, compelling viewers to reflect more critically on what it is they are encountering.
By translating symmetry breaking into colour, motion, and time, De Giuli allows viewers to witness emergent complexity as a lived process, unstable, unpredictable, and evolving. In this way, Zero (Broken Symmetry) doesn’t just illustrate a scientific idea; it stages it.
Bio
Eric De Giuli is a theoretical physicist and generative artist living in Canada. He is interested in the emergence of complexity in the universe, which he explores at the intersection of art and science. He holds a Hon. B.S.c. in mathematics and physics from the University of Toronto, and an M.S.c. in geophysics and Ph.D. in applied mathematics, both from the University of British Columbia. He is...