Ratlladís goes live at 11am ET / 5pm CET on Highlight on December 8.

Barcelona-based artist Anna Carreras draws creative coding inspiration from the rich architectural details that surround her in Spain’s vibrant second city.

A play on the Catalan art technique “trencadís” which produces colorful mosaics from broken ceramic pieces, Ratlladís pays homage to Barcelona’s signature Modernisme movement of the early 20th century. Sinuous lines and geometric shapes echo the naturalist motifs found across Antoni Gaudi’s curving contours and Domènech I Montaner’s glittering stained glass.

“It’s a tribute to my town, to my culture, a tribute to some old masters,” Carreras says.

In Ratlladís, Carreras digitally translates the tactile processes of Barcelona’s master artisans through code, algorithms, and generative techniques. Up to 270,000 hand-drawn lines layer atop one another like individually placed mosaic tiles. 140 distinct color palettes draw from iconic facades including Casa Batlló and La Pedrera.

Beyond encapsulating specific buildings, Carreras seeks to capture an impressionistic ode to Barcelona itself—the moments of surprise and inspiration that come in turning any street corner.

“Ratlladís is a review of those experiences. It brings real big algorithmic structures and small digital details to reimagine the physical artistry, the city, the weather, the colors and life,” she explains.

Emerging as Cataluña industrialized in the late 19th century, Barcelona’s signature Modernisme movement emphasized craftsmanship and organic motifs drawn from natural forms. Seeking to elevate Catalan national identity through distinctive aesthetics that broke from Spanish and French styles, seminal architects like Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner, and Puig I Cadafalch incorporated floral designs, skewed geometry, mosaic tiles, and stained glass into their building plans. The movement extended across decorative arts like wrought-iron work, ceramics, typography, sculpture and furniture design.

Modernisme not only imparted Barcelona with its characteristic charm, but also provided a wellspring of inspiration for native artists like Carreras to channel through contemporary approaches today. Just as Modernisme masters innovated new techniques while tipping their hats to Catalunya’s stylistic traditions, Carreras preserves the spirit of their craft in code.

Specifically, Carreras took inspiration from the Catalan “trencadís” style of broken tile mosaics. This artistic approach involves arranging shards and irregular ceramic pieces in repetitive patterns to form vibrant, mosaic images. Carreras sees connections to the generative process of recycling and reusing code in fresh combinations. “As generative art is a creative coding practice it's also inspired by this recycling/reusing idea—reusing code, sharing techniques and merging old and new algorithms,” she explains.

In Ratlladís, Carreras emulates the meticulous manual effort behind trencadís through endless generative loops, layering over 270,000 generative lines to build up each artwork.

"The project uses broken lines filling broken paths. And they are drawn with a lot of loops within nested loops to digitally perform the repetitive process of arranging one piece after the other, after the next one to create the design," she says. Just as trencadís masters carefully placed tiny ceramic shards, Carreras sees generative code as enabling a new form of digital craftsmanship.

While Carreras creates virtual environments that retain intrinsic sensory qualities, she steers clear of figurative representations. With Ratlladís, her work maintains real architectural weight and volume while remaining purely generative.

“What’s inspiring me is exploring the gap between the digital and physical worlds. I’m trying to push the generative realm towards something more sculptural or more architectonic, but without representing it directly, and while maintaining the soul of generative code.”

Carreras' collection contains surprises awaiting discovery. Collectors minting 5+ works will unlock Desmesurat mode, named for the Catalan word meaning exaggerated size. The work cycles through 139 distinct color palettes, and collectors minting the max supply will have the chance to collect the full chromatic range.

And Carreras hints alluringly at other rarities still hiding in her code: “There are more secrets to be revealed.” This will be fitting.  As an interplay of code and culture, Carreras seeks to capture an impressionistic ode to Barcelona itself—the moments of surprise and inspiration that come in turning any street corner.

Just as Barcelona’s landmarks have shaped Carreras’ artistic practice, her collection presents new ways of seeing a landmark city.

Ratlladís is open for minting at 11am ET / 5pm CET on December 8.