Juanita tilted her head, squinting until one of her gold earrings brushed against her shoulder like tiny chimes. "Is this art, poetry, or a Rorschach test?" she whispered with a voice a blend of awe and confusion.
Shu didn’t blink. He remained perfectly still, his silhouette framed by the synthetic lights. "Perhaps all three," he murmured, "depending on how much of yourself you're willing to lose in this image. Code is a mirror of the mind's syntax." He then breathed, pupils dilating in the electric glare.
Ella let out a sharp, dry laugh then folded her arms. "As a poem, it's utter gibberish. As an art work?" She pointed the luminous orb at the center of the object. "It looks like some frantic words erupting from a digital rectum." She then stabbed her index finger at the swirling core.
"You’re far too anal, mate!" Jack barked with a rough, gravelly laugh that echoed off the smooth plaster walls. He swayed slightly with a wolfish grin spreading across his face. "Me? I see glorious tits: a divine feminine silhouette. Sacred geometry with a wink and a nudge, huh? This is proof God's a woman with worshipful bosoms."
Juanita stepped back, ignoring Jack, her eyes tracing the text in the image. "Look deeper," she urged, her voice hushed . "Can't you see the jagged peaks of mountains reaching for a radiant sun? Can't you perceive the peaks and sharp horizons?"
Shu leaned towards the image until his nose nearly kissed the screen, his analytical calm fracturing. "Or is it just chaos wearing couture?" he countered, his breath fogging in the moist, cold air. "Perhaps it is nothing more than data spill we’re desperate to baptize with meaning?"
The screen pulsed briefly as the symbols rearranged before dying to dull static. Growing bored and a desire to see the last vestiges of the sunset the group moved on, leaving the empty gallery to revert to zen silence.