GupArt 2 is the concentric-dial view of the same synthetic system as GupArt classic: two coupled layers (a fast, reactive rhythm population and a slow, consolidating one) plus a regulator. Same dynamics core, same measured readouts — new instrument face. The simulation runs entirely in your browser and keeps no user data (the page loads web fonts from Google's CDN; nothing about your interaction is recorded or sent).
ground (optional): grant camera + microphone and your movement and sound become live inputs — how much you move stirs the fast form; your horizontal position steers where it attends and your vertical position nudges its phase; loudness perturbs the pair (loud → fast, soft → slow), vocal pitch steers which band it favors, and each rhythmic onset lands a beat-kick. The video and audio are analyzed frame-by-frame entirely in your browser and discarded immediately; no frame, clip, or measurement is stored or uploaded. Deny permission and everything works exactly as before — grounding just stays off.
The math. Two coupled oscillator populations — a fast, reactive layer and a slow, consolidating one — are fields of complex Stuart–Landau (Ginzburg–Landau) oscillators with Kuramoto–Sakaguchi coupling, advanced by an exact Strang-split step with Euler–Maruyama noise; their synchrony is read as a Kuramoto order parameter and their phase-locking as the dyad's beat. On top of that, each layer runs an active-inference loop: it infers its state by minimizing variational free energy, then acts by minimizing expected free energy — an information-seeking (epistemic) term plus a preference-seeking (pragmatic) one — while the two weigh each other's beliefs through a precision-weighted linear opinion pool. Everything you see and hear is a function of those logged quantities.
It's a meter, not a mind. "Fires / kept / excited" describe the dynamics, not experience, agency, or emergence — anything that looks or sounds "alive" is pattern-reading on your side.
Created by Grant H Brenner.
Under the hood: each form now runs a genuine active-inference loop — it infers which state it's in by minimizing variational free energy, then acts (attends a band) by minimizing expected free energy, foraging for information and committing when it recognizes a pattern. Coupling is the precision the two forms grant each other's signal. This is a mathematical process producing lively, bounded behavior — a meter, not a mind; "infers / attends / commits" name dynamics, not experience.
Center: the two forms — the dance between them is measured, not staged (orbit speed = the layers' measured beat rate, distance = 1 − dyad lock, the orbit carries the fast form in front and behind). First ring: the output readouts — each glowing node swings around the circle with amplitude and color set by its own measured score (blue = low, amber→red = high); the calm↔excited needle rides its arc. Thin ring: the same words as classic, curved. Outer ring: the five input knobs, scaled 1–11 — tap any scale number to jump the dial straight there, or drag around the knob to turn it like a real amp knob; each knob answers with its own sound cue (Coupling's two tones literally converge to unison). The amber LED at each knob's heart just twinkles; it indicates nothing (decoration, honestly labeled).
1 · Excitement — quiet → balanced → over-excited. 2 · Coupling — how strongly the layers pull each other's rhythms into alignment (0 = disconnected). 3 · Commit — how selective the slow layer is before keeping a pattern. 4 · Tempo — fast:slow spread. 5 · Novelty — how much fresh random activity is stirred in.
The SONICS switch turns sound on (browsers need a click): guitar-pluck strums from the fast layer, a deep subsonic cello that swells when patterns are kept — the Commit knob sets how often (turn it down for frequent swells, up for rare); a breathy flute that traces the strings' own scale (anchored to the note they emphasize) — Novelty sets how far its melody wanders, and its tones lengthen and space out as Coupling rises; a low pad that physically beats at the measured dyad rate, a kick/hat groove with a little beatboxing when things get excited, a soft brass swell when the state switches, and a breathy flute when the leading pattern changes. Thunder follows the lightning. And the center answers your hand. The forms feel your cursor: the fast one drifts toward it, the slow one shies away — you can draw the pair apart, a limited way, and a bright filament stretches between them, holding the two together. Gestures are physical inputs to the system: tap a form for a small random nudge; stroke across a form to push its rhythms — the stroke's speed sets the strength and its direction sets the phase of a coherent kick to whichever form(s) your path crosses; draw a circle to spin the fast layer's phase (the orbit lurches with your rotation); and draw a five-pointed star in one stroke to freeze the simulation clock for 2 seconds. Circle continuously and the pair orbits faster and faster while glowing a bright saturated blue (it settles back in seconds); swipe downward repeatedly to mute and dim them (it fades back, and spinning burns it off early). Drawing also brushes a temporary tint across the forms — the hue follows your stroke's direction, and it fades back to the pattern-driven colors within a few seconds (a bounded overlay, not a readout). RESEED restarts from a fresh seed.
The small buttons under SONICS — DISCO, HOLIDAY, SWEEP, LASER, CRYSTAL — each throw a 7.31-second dance party: lights plus a musical outtake sequenced from whatever the system is currently playing — and the two forms dance to it, swelling to the beat. The LASER show traces a deep pool of mathematical forms: parametric curves, strange attractors, and fractals (Julia sets, Barnsley fern, Sierpinski, dragon curve) plus QED shapes (electron orbitals, a photon loop, a Feynman scattering diagram). Pure celebration, zero claims. And the dark corners keep a small secret for patient cursors — now with its own soundtrack.