Look very deeply into this yule card

One of the least conventional holiday greetings we received this week came from California Institute of the Arts. The art school has somehow found the frontier between Christmas card and video game -- something we didn’t know existed but are now grateful to have found.

The card, covered in multicolored, kaleidoscopic spirals, instructs recipients to go to a Web site at www.volvox.dasdeck.de. This is a “Volvox image generator,” which is, of course, what we figured.

Designed by CalArts alumna Andrea Tinnes, who earned a graphic design MFA in 1998 and now lives in Berlin, Volvoxes (Volvi?) are “ornamental character, or dingbats, superimposed concentrically,” and based on the illustrations of two turn-of-the-century biologists. There’s a description of multicellular organisms on the Web site that we did not entirely understand.

After a little messing around on the site, we ended up with an enormous winged blue thing that rotated and surged toward us, kind of like a giant, deranged moth. But after picking up a little skill with the program, we produced nuanced forms, harmonious blend of colors and shapes, and promptly drifted into a psychedelic haze.

We were then summoned and asked to get back to work. The whole experience left us wondering what they’re smoking out in Valencia. And more to the point, can they get us some?

-- Scott Timberg