[Creative Challenge] Make Your Own Creative Application with Quantum Computing!

[artreadcode]

Goal: Make your own art or creative application using quantum computing skills (70 points) or quantum-inspired creative practices (30 points).

Overview

Artists and creative technologists were always in the front row of bringing new technologies onto people's hands, especially when it's powerful or interesting enough to introduce new way of thinking to this world. For example, even before personal computers (PC) get popular, artists started to make their computer music in early 1950s.

And apparently, (classical) computers now become a tool for not only faster, accurate calculations (which was the original intention of making a 'computer' back in the past) but also for creative purposes, such as editing photos and videos, producing music, making games or even making one's own computational audio/visual/interactive art with creative computing, physical computing, computer graphics (and shaders). Compared to 70 years ago, computers are man's another best(?) friend/buddy/tool/assistant/consultant/sketchbook nowadays. Machine became a playground for humans. (Not only a camera or a computer but also even an electric toothbrush, etc. See Device Orchestra.)

Then, how about quantum computers? We all know quantum computers are different and they are accessible through cloud computing platform, by API call and tokens. However, in the future, important computational tasks can be done with hybrid collaboration between classical computing and quantum computing. How the world will change? What impact will it bring to our lives? And what will the creative usage of quantum computers and its toolkits?

Make your own projects and submit them! For example, this is the good example of using real quantum mechanics for creative usage, called [Quantum Palette] (https://v0-quantum-pallet-app.vercel.app/), which used SWAP gates with parameters to implement traditional colour mixing with HSL colour format's hue and luminosity encoded on Rx, Ry rotation gates. (The scientific motivation and how-tos can be found in the Quantum Brush paper.)

Outcome

A creative usage (a computational art, a computer program, a web app, etc.) of quantum computing with classical computing framework, based on quantum mechanics or inspiration from it (philosophy, paradigm, etc.)

[AbdullahKazi500]

Hi I want to give an attempt at this issue as part of Unitary fund design hackathon

[AbdullahKazi500]

This project explores how quantum computing ideas can be turned into visual art in a meaningful and technically grounded way. I looked into quantum image representations like FRQI and studied how classical pixel data can be encoded into quantum states using amplitudes and rotations. From there, I experimented with concepts like interference-based pattern generation, iterative unitaries for quantum fractals, and even decoherence as a creative tool.

The goal was to build visuals that reflect real mathematical structures like superposition, entanglement, and unitary evolution. Overall, it’s a mix of research, creative coding, and design trying to show the quantum computing stack not just as theory or hardware, but as something that can also become an artistic medium.

[SecludedPerson700]

@artreadcode I would also like to participate in this challenge , I have made a PR Adding my project

[ljcamargo]

Hello everyone, here is the PR #39 for with the project called "Quantum Interference" that you can check on https://quantuminterference.netlify.app/ which aims to create beautiful interference patterns estimated after a quantum circuit that you can download. I would love to see what you can create with it!. Cheers! This PR is running for #UnitaryDesign

repo: https://github.com/ljcamargo/quantum_interference

[artreadcode]

Dear @ljcamargo , @AbdullahKazi500 , and @SecludedPerson700 ,

Based on unitaryDESIGN's AI Slop rule:

A message from unitaryDESIGN about AI Slop: "While we are open to collaboration with LLMs for unitaryDESIGN, please note that fully AI-generated PRs are not acceptable. It is up to the discretion of the individual maintainers whether or not LLM-generated PRs are the right fit for their issues, and they have the right to reject those that appear fully AI-generated."

Thus, I would like you to indicate what scope of work you've done, with the brainstorming process of developing the creative usage of quantum computing stack, and how did you implement your creative thinking to computational algorithm.

Best,
Astryd

[AbdullahKazi500]

Dear @ljcamargo , @AbdullahKazi500 , and @SecludedPerson700 ,

Based on unitaryDESIGN's AI Slop rule:

A message from unitaryDESIGN about AI Slop: "While we are open to collaboration with LLMs for unitaryDESIGN, please note that fully AI-generated PRs are not acceptable. It is up to the discretion of the individual maintainers whether or not LLM-generated PRs are the right fit for their issues, and they have the right to reject those that appear fully AI-generated."

Thus, I would like you to indicate what scope of work you've done, with the brainstorming process of developing the creative usage of quantum computing stack, and how did you implement your creative thinking to computational algorithm.

Best, Astryd

Hi @artreadcode thanks for the opportunity to work on this issue astryd My 6 years old niece just passed away yesterday and I needed a break , I will get back to you on the scope of work done and other creative ideas that I had probably by tomorrow thanks for understanding in this tough situation

[ljcamargo]

Dear @ljcamargo , @AbdullahKazi500 , and @SecludedPerson700 ,

Based on unitaryDESIGN's AI Slop rule:

A message from unitaryDESIGN about AI Slop: "While we are open to collaboration with LLMs for unitaryDESIGN, please note that fully AI-generated PRs are not acceptable. It is up to the discretion of the individual maintainers whether or not LLM-generated PRs are the right fit for their issues, and they have the right to reject those that appear fully AI-generated."

Thus, I would like you to indicate what scope of work you've done, with the brainstorming process of developing the creative usage of quantum computing stack, and how did you implement your creative thinking to computational algorithm.

Best, Astryd

Hello @artreadcode

As a quantum physics and quantum computing enthusiast, I get my inspo from an awesome video of Veritasium where he created interference patterns in a lake with balloons which have wondered me for ages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuv6hY6zsd0, so the first intuition I have is how quantum computing would have an effect in the interference patterns. As quantum computing is formalization that has very different outputs that lab quantum mechanics like double slit experiment, the relation on the effects on the quantum gates like HXYZ would have on the double slit pattern was not obvious to me.

So I briefly researched and found this article "Ruimy, R., Tziperman, O., Gorlach, A., Mølmer, K., & Kaminer, I. (2024). Many-body entanglement via ‘which-path’ information. npj Quantum Information, 10(1), 121." which portrays a double slit experiment after a quantum circuit which was not used for artistic means but as a model to study many-body quantum correlations, this paper confirmed me the effect of Hadamard gate which would actually let the typical pattern and each hadamard represents the "barrier" between the two slits, so in the software I made, if no hadamars were present, there is no pattern, just a plain light. If I add an extra H, it would become 3-slit, etc..

But then the I needed to understand the role of the other unitary gates, at least X,Y,Z, would have on the n-slit experiment, so I found the interpretation of the effect of the other gates from a medium article What Is Quantum Interference? which gave me the answer, so I moved forward to implement this on a bun/nextjs/reactjs/tailwind/netlify stack which is very handy.

As this developments allows very simple circuits, the statevector simulation is not done using qiskit (which cannot be used on web) but with a known implementation of state vectors computations directly in js, as this if for art purposes, a research level accuracy was not pursued.

I hope this fulfills your question, let me know if other info is needed.

[AbdullahKazi500]

Dear @artreadcode

I have worked on every pixel channel (R, G, B) is amplitude encoded into a Qiskit QuantumCircuit via quantumblur.image2circuits(log=True). Then real quantum gate sequences are applied and decoded back

Thank you for your message and for clarifying unitaryDESIGN’s AI Slop rule.
I completely understand the concern regarding fully AI-generated submissions, and I’d like to clearly outline my contribution and thought process.
The core concept, artistic direction, and technical framing of the project were developed by me. I began by brainstorming how the quantum computing stack (state preparation → unitary evolution → measurement/compilation constraints) could be represented visually in a way that is both scientifically accurate and creatively engaging. My main idea was to treat each layer of the stack not just as a technical abstraction, but as a visual transformation stage similar to a pipeline where information progressively gains physical constraints.

I first mapped the conceptual layers: logical unitary design, hardware mapping (graph embedding), gate synthesis (Clifford+T/native basis), and cost/noise optimization.

I then asked: how can these abstract processes be visualized in a way that preserves correctness? For example:

Logical layer → abstract SU(2ⁿ) operation illustrated as ideal gates without hardware limitations.

Mapping layer → explicit graph connectivity constraints to reflect minor embedding.

Synthesis layer → visible T-count growth to reflect compilation overhead.

Optimization layer → cost landscape to reflect depth/2Q/T trade-offs.

Translating Creative Thinking to Algorithm:
After defining the conceptual stages, I implemented them computationally by:

Structuring the animation into discrete “phases” corresponding to real compilation steps.

Designing parameterized plotting functions that reflect physical quantities (e.g., gate count scaling with time parameter, cost functions plotted as curves).

Ensuring that visual elements correspond to real quantum compilation ideas rather than decorative abstractions.

Maintaining scientific consistency (e.g., SU(2ⁿ), Clifford+T decomposition, depth/T-count tradeoffs, graph embedding constraints).

The algorithmic structure was modular:

A frame-generation function encapsulating each quantum layer.

Time-dependent evolution parameters controlling gate growth and optimization phases.

Clear separation between logical abstraction and hardware-aware transformation.

I’m happy to further break down any part of the brainstorming or implementation process if helpful.

Overall I did some research survey on quantum art
for quantum art approaches for mapping classical visual data (pixels or coordinates) into quantum amplitudes, one of the most commonly used representations in the literature is the {Flexible Representation of Quantum Images} (FRQI), along with the {Novel Enhanced Quantum Representation} (NEQR).

In FRQI, a quantum image is encoded as a normalized quantum state:

$$ |I(\theta)\rangle = \frac{1}{2^n} \sum_{i=0}^{2^{2n}-1} \left( \cos \theta_i |0\rangle + \sin \theta_i |1\rangle \right) \otimes |i\rangle $$

Here, $\theta_i$ encodes the grayscale or color intensity of the $i$th pixel, while $|i\rangle$ represents the spatial pixel coordinates in the computational basis.

By manipulating the rotation angle $\theta_i$ through unitary transformations, artists can achieve what has been described as {spectral superposition}, where color components tunnel across spatial coordinates in ways that classical filters cannot replicate (Wootton, 2020).

for example in classical procedural noise (e.g., Perlin or Simplex noise), quantum patterns arise from constructive and destructive interference of probability amplitudes.

When applying sequences of Hadamard ($H$) and phase rotation ($R_z$) gates to an entangled quantum register, the resulting measurement probability distribution is given by:

$$ P(x) = |\langle x | \psi \rangle|^2 $$

This probability landscape can generate Moiré-like interference textures. As demonstrated in Henderson et al. (2020), non-local quantum image filtering operations allow a gate acting on a single qubit to influence multiple disjoint spatial regions, producing what can be termed {entangled textures} with long-range correlations across the image.

Fractal synthesis in the quantum era can be achieved via iterative unitary evolution of an initial state, forming a Quantum Iterated Function System (QIFS).

The recursion takes the form:

$$ \psi_{n+1} = \hat{U} \psi_n $$

where the unitary operator may be constructed as

$$ \hat{U} = \bigotimes_{j=1}^{m} \mathrm{CR}_y(\phi_j) $$

As $n \to \infty$, the state may converge toward a self-similar probability density. Lanzagorta and Uhlmann (2011) explored this idea in \textit{Quantum Computer Graphics}, proposing that quantum computers can generate complex fractal sets (e.g., Julia and Mandelbrot sets) by evaluating high-dimensional escape-time algorithms in parallel using quantum superposition.

research direction explores {open quantum systems} as a generative artistic mechanism. In this framework, artistic evolution is done by the transition of a pure quantum state into a mixed state via environmental interaction.

The evolution of the density matrix $\rho$ is modeled by the Lindblad Master Equation:

$$
\frac{d\rho}{dt}
= -i[H, \rho]

• \sum_i \gamma_i
  \left(
  L_i \rho L_i^\dagger

• \frac{1}{2}
  {L_i^\dagger L_i, \rho}
  \right)
  $$

Here:

• $H$ is the system Hamiltonian,
• $L_i$ are Lindblad operators,
• $\gamma_i$ are decoherence rates.

In creative applications such as Quantum Blur}, this controlled decoherence process introduces gradual entropy into the system. Visually, an image dissolves into a thermalized state.

• Wootton, J. R. (2020). ``Quantum Blur: Preparing and manipulating images on quantum computers.'' arXiv:2012.01351.
  • Henderson, J., et al. (2020). ``Quantum Image Filtering using Phase Estimation.'' Quantum Information Processing.
  • Lanzagorta, M., & Uhlmann, J. (2011). \textit{Quantum Computer Graphics}. Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
  • Yan, F., Iliyasu, A. M., & Venegas-Andraca, S. E. (2016). ``A survey of quantum image representations.'' Quantum Information Processing.

Best regards,

[artreadcode]

Hello @everyone,

I'll review everything and select the winner.

Best,

[AbdullahKazi500]

Hello @everyone,

I'll review everything and select the winner.

Best,

Thank you