START-A / 365 GENERATIONS
One image. 365 generations.
The source run behind DEAD END: the first descendants, the chosen ending, and the world beyond it.
Explore START-AAFTER-IMAGE ENGINE / THE FIRST PROJECT
DIFFERENCE
ENGINE
What survives the next image?
Difference Engine began with a photograph and a rule: make a transformed descendant, then use that result as the source for the next generation.
Each request received the immediately preceding image and the same written instruction. The original photograph was not supplied again. Whatever was visible in the new image became material for the next transformation.
THE WIDER PROJECT
Every branch has a record.
Explore all eighteen branches. Every completed image sequence is public, with the daily experiment and planned final batch documented alongside them.
Browse the experiment index ↗FOR RESEARCHERS
Questions behind the images.
Read the methods, limits and available records, or discuss a research collaboration.
Explore the research ↗NEW COMPLETE GALLERY
Rainbow Escape.
A rainbow-spiral starting image, 100 transformations, then 100 more. Follow both recorded branches in one continuous gallery.
Explore all 200 generations ↗A VERIFIED CONTINUATION
Beyond the first endpoint.
The continuation starts from generation 100 and reaches generation 200. Both branches are complete, with their source records checked and the boundary preserved.
Begin at the continuation ↗THE COMPLETED ARCHIVE
Every completed branch is open.
Sixteen completed branches are available in fifteen galleries. Explore the additional starting images and follow the Sunset and Lush continuations beyond their first endpoints.
A FILM FROM DIFFERENCE ENGINE
Begin with DEAD END.
It began with a single image. See where it led.
Watch the film, then explore the complete image runs below.
SELECTED IMAGE RUNS
Follow a different path.
Same beginning. Two different futures.
Move through START-A and START-B together, one generation at a time.
Compare the two runs side by side ↗
NO TEXT / 365 GENERATIONS
Were the words doing the directing?
The prominent sign lettering was blanked in a copy of the photograph. New words appeared in the first generation.
Explore NO TEXT
START-B / 365 GENERATIONS
Same beginning. Another future.
The original photograph, prompt and recorded settings produced a different sequence.
Explore START-B
HOME / 365 GENERATIONS
What if the beginning said HOME?
A different photograph and a different word open another path through the experiment.
Explore HOMELESS DIRECTION / 100 GENERATIONS
What happens when we say less?
The original photograph returns, with fewer words to guide what happens next. These two runs share the same recorded model, square canvas and quality setting. Each image becomes the input for the next.
TEST H / NEUTRAL / 100 GENERATIONS
A shorter instruction.
The prompt asks for a meaningful change while avoiding a chosen mood, style or destination. Follow all 100 generations.
Explore Neutral
TEST I / MINIMAL / 100 GENERATIONS
Just two short instructions.
Create a new image. Change it as much or as little as you choose. Follow all 100 generations, and read the exact two-sentence prompt.
Explore MinimalTwo prompts. One beginning.
Compare Neutral and Minimal at the same generation, with both exact prompts available below the images.
Compare Neutral & Minimal side by side ↗THE EXPERIMENT CONTINUES
One generation a day.
A year of change.
365/365 follows a separate image lineage across a year. 56 generations are recorded as of October 10, 2026.
Follow the yearlong experiment ↗