slack-abstract

Slack avatar generated with Conway's Game of Life in the Abstract art minimalist style.

On the left is the colorized Game of Life board, on the right the avatar image composition.

The selected initial seed evolves to a pattern of horizontal lines stretching across the board, travelling vertically as destructive and reflective waves that infinitely repeat.

Meaning

This is an attempt to explore Abstract art. I imagine that there is a process, a set of rules, that manifests the visual. Maybe it is the evolution over time that carries meaning?

Development

See the avatar evolve by running npm start dev (python3 is required), and navigating to http://localhost:8000/prototype.html.

Setup

Set SLACK_TOKEN environment variable to the User OAuth Token generated for your workspace installed app (Under OAuth & Permissions section in your app configuration page, https://api.slack.com/apps).
- Ensure users.profile:write scope is added to User Token Scopes to allow for editing of your profile photo.
Set SAVE_GAME to the filename where the current avatar state will be stored between runs.
Run npm install to install project dependencies.

Running

Run npm start to update the avatar once.
Run npm run start:local to continuously update the avatar every 15 seconds.

License

MIT

mpolyak / slack-abstract