Simon Whiteley

Born in 1962, Lancashire, UK. Production Designer, Art Director, Visual Effects Supervisor. Author of the Knights of Castle Wood quest for the Eirys Coeden guardians of the Mimlacode, and the Peter Rabbit and the Merlin pentalogy. Creative mind behind the Peter Rabbit movies franchise and designer of the iconic “digital rain” code in The Matrix trilogy.

My family's name is imprinted in the digital rain for a reason, which dates back beyond Arthurian Legend. A childhood spent barefoot and free between the UK and the wilds of central Africa, where I first encountered the Eirys Coeden and Mimla. I completed my BA (Hons) in Design and Visual Communication in Birmingham, UK where I studied art, story and longevity in civilisations and began writing about the Eirys Coeden.

My career began at the BBC, Pebble Mill, Birmingham before moving to BBC, Shepherds Bush, London with the introduction of Quantel's Paintbox in 1985. In 1986 I joined BPCC Video Graphics pioneering Quantel's XL Graphic Paintbox (the forerunner to Photoshop) freelanced for the newly emerging Framestore before heading to Sydney, Australia in 1987 to work for The Video Paint Brush Company.

Precursor to Animal Logic which I joined in 1991 working on commercials then movies for over thirty years. Most of which have had some environmental grounding - The Babe movies, Happy Feet, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole Owl movie, the Peter Rabbit movies, even The Lego movies and The Matrix movies are trying to get humans to open their eyes and work together with the world around them.

1999 Temet Noscoe. Neo knows the Matrix code was designed and created for a specific purpose - to trigger an emotional response. Compassion and empathy for the world around us and to save humanity from itself. The Matrix code 25th anniversary. Deja Vu the code is in flux. Shooting stars of Katakana with trails of P1 phosphor green cross the screen.

Matching traditional Japanese calligraphy they become falling stars. Slowed they resemble tears of White rain [Eirys] creating a melancholy forest of Green [Coeden] where Mriga and her starry friends dwell. Long before stone circles there were glades in ancient forests called ley's, the sun delivered the time of day, the stars the night and the surrounding ring of trees the changing seasons.

The tears of rain are White trunks of Beithe, the first of thirteen different species of trees surrounding each ley, with their own code and calendar. Frequented by Creatures long before the Longlegs arrived, these ley's were connected to others by ley or song lines. All First Nation stories weave us into our environment, we should be part of its code.

There is more to this world if we just slow down, wait and listen. Shinrin-youku. I now spend my days with the mimlafoundation, between the Golden Valley sanctuary and the city. The fox, hedgehog, little bird and all our friends visiting my waking life and my dreams. Delivering you the mimlacode, raw and free as is their directive, without the assistance of AI.

Offering up an alternative - a little ray of hope to this wonderful world we call home. Cup and key to set you free, ring of stone to bring you home. The Oracle, Keymaker and Gatekeeper's are active and have the rainbow scabbard - the Eirys Coeden in all of us. From its light into darkness we are born. Follow us at Mimlacode and on reddit at PeterRabbit.