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Microcosms is an on-chain generative art collection by Fahad Karim. The artwork has been created in connection with Consensus, CoinDesk’s yearly conference bringing together the Web3/crypto community. Ownership of an NFT in this collection unlocks rewards and multi-year access to the conference.

—

In moments when we gather, each person is an ambassador of their perspective, a microcosm of the world from which they come. The artwork in the Microcosms collection takes the form of dynamic two-dimensional cross-sections into people’s homes, providing a dollhouse-style peek into these spaces. A home is the most intimate setting, a place where people can be themselves. Karim uses the symbolism of this setting to build a collection representing a community of unique perspectives coming together under a common roof.

The visuals of Microcosms are inspired by the geometric structures of technology fused with the traditional aesthetics of Indo-Persian miniatures. A trail of floating rectangles is simultaneously a set of paintings in someone’s home and a literal manifestation of a blockchain. The resulting blend, a sort of abstract sci-fi miniature, feels both high-tech and traditional - a common theme in Karim’s work.

To explore the temporal nature of our evolving perspectives, each artwork is generated as an animated triptych that is revealed over the course of three years. Within each set, all three homes share the same compositional blueprint but can vary greatly in details. The primary panel on display will cycle every year, accompanied with glimpses of the future flashing in and out through glitch-style animation. Each microcosm, though tempting to appreciate as a still frame, represents this ever-changing and unpredictable blend of influences.

–

Use arrow keys to navigate through revealed panels. Click to toggle animation. Press ‘p’ or ‘j’ to download the displayed image.

Microcosms #46

*Navette* explores a juxtaposition of the virtual and reality by fusing a digital generative process and a physical loom. This collection offers a voyage between the worlds, a shuttle weaving between the two. Using a combination of digital techniques adapted for the physical world, *Navette* plays with the notions of series and unique pieces, but also of the inherent randomness of the digital realm—featuring the infamous “glitch.” Generative art thus becomes a way of taking a shuttle to the edge of a new universe…

Navette #24

9dcc ITERATION-02 #712

Robert Whitman’s genesis NFT project, New Worlds, transports viewers to otherworldly, cosmic landscapes beyond the Earth. Each of the 500 generative, interactive, and unique New Worlds NFTs centers on an imagined celestial body in space. The planets—and, in some cases, black holes—feature distinctive colors, patterns, shadows, and topographies on their surfaces, and they are situated in vast skies rendered in varying hues, opacities, and gradients. Some planets in the series are surrounded by rings, and they may have up to three moons in their orbits. Viewers can navigate around the planets and explore their sublime environments by zooming in and out and dragging their cursors on the screen. New Worlds will be presented in Whitman’s upcoming solo show with Pace Gallery, on view at 508 West 25th Street in New York from January 18 to February 3.
 
The New Worlds NFTs are based on Whitman’s mesmeric projections of planets and moons, which he presented in his solo exhibition Turning at Pace in New York in 2007, as well as new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, which sent its first pictures back to Earth in 2022. A pioneer of performance and multimedia installation art, Whitman has been producing exploratory and collaborative work for more than 60 years. He was at the vanguard of scientifically and technologically engaged art making during this period, co-founding the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), a collective that supported creative partnerships between artists and engineers, in 1967. Whitman was also major figure in the ephemeral Happenings—a hybrid art form spanning installation, performance, and other mediums—presented in New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a group of artists that also included Claes Oldenburg, Allan Kaprow, Jim Dine, and Red Grooms.

Whitman’s web3 debut reflects the limber and timeless nature of his influential and rigorous practice, which left an indelible mark on 20th century art history. As part of the artist’s forthcoming exhibition at Pace in New York, Pace Live, the gallery’s interdisciplinary platform for commissioning and presenting new live art performances, will stage live renditions of his seminal 1960 performance work American Moon. Whitman’s first NFT project can be understood in conversation with this disorienting, madcap performance, which premiered nearly a decade before the first moon landing. New Worlds, Whitman’s most technologically ambitious artwork to date, forges new through lines across the artist’s storied and experimental career, traversing his digital and physical investigations of universes beyond our own.

New Worlds are interactive and can be explored in 360 degrees and from varying vantage points by using a mouse or trackpad.

New Worlds #370

*Please Note: This is an Exponential Dutch Auction (no settlement). The price you purchase is the price you will pay.*

An ideal human being is one big optimization problem. We have a goal - we optimize our actions to maximize the outcome of this goal. 
In our initial days, we optimize to stay alive, during school, we optimize to study well, gain skills and obtain the best scores.

As we progress in our careers we optimize to get the most amount of money, material growth, and maybe even influential growth such as fame.

As we age we optimize to minimize diseases and maximize our lifespan - we workout, we eat healthily, we retire, and rest 

As ideal as it sounds, how do we know what exact actions would lead to maximizing my outcome? At this very moment - instead of reading this should you be doing something else that would make your life’s outcome better? Maybe, maybe not - We don't know... Although, we do find out through trial and error. 

In the grand scheme of things we’re just an agent exploring actions around us, learning which ones increase our reward and choosing the path that seems to lead to the maximum reward. Cerebellum is a window (pun intended) of the human mind - a continuously evolving art piece that is built on top of a reinforcement learning agent that is learning and optimizing and evolving as you see it. 

The project starts with an untrained model of a reinforcement learning agent that is deployed in an environment where it is faced with positive reward and negative reward. The agent is also equipped with a bunch of eyes that lets it sense the objects around it and judge if it wants to go ahead and consume the object or abstain and move in a different direction. The agent here is optimization to maximize its positive rewards while avoiding the negative ones. How does the agent know if a reward is positive or negative? - It learns that after experiencing a bunch of samples. And the magic is - all of this happens in your browser. The seemingly random motion of the agent at the beginning running into everything it sees subsides with time as it learns better about the environment and only hits on the positive rewards. How fast does this happen? Depends on your luck - every art has agents with varied number of eyes and range of these eyes. In addition with every refresh your agent would start from a new place, taking a new path - a path that might lead to it learning things at a different pace depending on what it comes across as it explores. To add some practicality - the environment also has some walls, elements that just block the agent from moving doesn’t add or decrease rewards. Hinders the agent’s movement, lets it find a different path - sometimes this is needed for the agent to strategize, sometimes it's just a hindrance… I’ll leave this to your imagination as you see the agent in action…
The seemingly random motion - the path towards true understanding - the process of optimisation is captured by the windows. Windows that show the beauty of this process expressed in a variety of ways. 

Cerebellum is a window into the black box of AI, an unapologetic exaltation of the unpolished, an ode to the process and its aesthetic vernacular.

+ Press 'p' to switch from 2d/3d views
+ Press 'e' to expose the reinforced learning layer
+ Press 't' to pause/unpause the training of the agent
+ Press 'w' to randomize the walls of the training environment

On mobile, tap to switch from 2d to 3d

Cerebellum #14

'Systems Madness' is a collaborative project by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton that explores what happens when reason meets unreason. Inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the project uses AI tools to transform literary language into a library of visual tropes, a translation of emotional expression into code. Together Hart and Blanton reconstruct the pattern language of romantic era wallpapers using warm, off-primary colors, noises, gradients, blurrings, layerings, and apply different fractal formations, repeated irregularly, pushing beyond the human desire to create order out of chaos. 'Systems Madness' is a mesmerizing interactive artwork that extends ‘beyond the wallet’ into our domestic spaces.

Exhibition Description: ‘Systems Madness’ from Claudia Hart is a conceptual artwork that extends beyond the screen. Collectors can interact with the work minted on Art Blocks, and they can also access a set of instructions for how to install the artwork as an interactive floor-to-ceiling wallpaper at home or in a public exhibition.

Artist Statement:
"Together we framed a question - what happens when reason meets unreason? The response: the all too human desire to create order out of the chaos of this world; and identically - the truth - that too much order can actually drive you mad!"

More information at https://madness.systems

The artists will donate a percentage of profits from the sale of this collection to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Systems Madness #6

Microcosms #71

Microcosms is an on-chain generative art collection by Fahad Karim. The artwork has been created in connection with Consensus, CoinDesk’s yearly conference bringing together the Web3/crypto community. Ownership of an NFT in this collection unlocks rewards and multi-year access to the conference.

Holders of a Microcosms NFT can join our token-gated Telegram: https://go.coindesk.com/microcosms-community

CoinDesk Presents: Microcosms by Fahad Karim

Navette #187

Navette by Alexis André

9dcc ITERATION-02 #853

These NFTs can only be transferred by tapping the physical garment.

ITERATION-02 is a collaboration between 9dcc and Snowfro (@ArtOnBlockchain) Art Blocks founder and creator of the Chromie Squiggle, that celebrates generative art creation on-chain and then translates that to generative garment. This is for enthusiasts of both luxury products and generative art. The iconic Chromie Squiggle will be remixed with 9dcc’s visual identity as a collection of randomly generated NFTs. Each holder will receive a unique 1 of 1 physical 9dcc tee featuring their newly minted NFT printed directly on the garment.

ITERATION-02 Tee

Cerebellum #115

Cerebellum by Laya Mathikshara & Santiago

'Systems Madness' is a collaborative project by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton that explores what happens when reason meets unreason. Inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the project uses AI tools to transform literary language into a library of visual tropes, a translation of emotional expression into code. Together Hart and Blanton reconstruct the pattern language of romantic era wallpapers using warm, off-primary colors, noises, gradients, blurrings, layerings, and apply different fractal formations, repeated irregularly, pushing beyond the human desire to create order out of chaos. 'Systems Madness' is a mesmerizing interactive artwork that extends ‘beyond the wallet’ into our domestic spaces.

Exhibition Description: ‘Systems Madness’ from Claudia Hart is a conceptual artwork that extends beyond the screen. Collectors can interact with the work minted on Art Blocks, and they can also access a set of instructions for how to install the artwork as an interactive floor-to-ceiling wallpaper at home or in a public exhibition.

Artist Statement:
"Together we framed a question - what happens when reason meets unreason? The response: the all too human desire to create order out of the chaos of this world; and identically - the truth - that too much order can actually drive you mad!"

More information at https://madness.systems

After the allowlisted fixed price sale ends, there will be an auction starting at 1pm ET with a starting price of 2 ETH, and decreasing over the span of 30 mins to a final resting price of .1 ETH

The artists will donate a percentage of profits from the sale of this collection to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Systems Madness #0

Systems Madness by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton

Flows uses the mathematics of aerodynamics to animate colorful particles and forms that move through underlying flow fields. Potential Flow Theory, a cornerstone of traditional aerodynamic analysis, is the basis for all outputs in this project.

From an aerospace engineer's perspective, these functions are powerful tools to simulate airflow on the wing of an airplane or weather patterns over a geographical area, but rarely are we given the freedom to explore the potential for beauty. Generative art is a wonderful platform to showcase this because it is simply math and physics given shape and color.

Subtle nods to my background in the aerospace industry are given throughout the project. Outputs include particles that traverse along pathlines, simulating particle tracer analysis methods. Some palettes limit their colors to the conventional analytical color spectrum of red to blue. Regions of smooth color gradients are broken up by discontinuities, inspired by Schlieren photographs of shockwaves.

Flows, however, intentionally breaks away from many analytical conventions. This is largely representative of my personal journey out of the aerospace industry and into the world of generative art. Streamlines are replaced by winding, spiraling forms that twist through underlying scalar potential fields instead of aligning with them. Pixelated, analytical graphs are replaced with smooth GPU animations rendered in real-time.

For a more detailed overview of this project, including more details about the choices behind each color palette, a breakdown of the underlying aerodynamics, and a summary of how shaders are being used, please see [ryley-o.com/flows](https://ryley-o.com/flows).

An extra personal touch is given to this project, inspired by my son born with Down syndrome. Token #21 will have a unique blue and yellow palette titled "Inclusion". 100% of artist royalties from sales of that token will be donated to Down syndrome related charities, in perpetuity.

Flows #7

Flows #12

Flows by ryley-o.eth

# sub·​tle |
**so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe.**

Perspective is everything. It is the lens through which our reality is formed. It’s the filter through which we interpret and make sense of our experiences. Perspective is what shapes our beliefs, influences our decisions, and determines our attitudes about the world around us.

'*Subtle*' explores the profound yet delicate role of perspective while offering a world in which scale is undefined, form is sleek, and luminescent rays rule all. Nuanced changes in vantage point and form reveal a fascinating interplay between light, complexity, and composition. Additionally, viewers can investigate these relationships interactively or turn on *Gallery Mode* for an ever-changing experience.

This series is heavily inspired by Gall’s Law, which states that “all complex systems evolve from simpler ones,” and aspires to strike a balance between intricacy and simplicity, while retaining its core values of light, color, and tone.

‘*Subtle*’ is built on nearly 15 years of experimentation with luminescent beams, starting with the acclaimed web game Auditorium, as reimagined in the art show “We’ve Traveled so Far,” and fully realized here.

Each unique creation is generated through a wholly bespoke WebGL implementation. At runtime, all attributes and features are combined to realize a completely distinctive GLSL Fragment Shader. Finally, the piece is rendered to your screen using a technique called Raymarching. All of this in just 12.2kb of Javascript.

## Controls:
- [ **spacebar** ] *Change Perspective*
- [ **mouse/finger drag** ] *Interact*
- [ **g** ] *Toggle Light Beams*
- [ **h** ] *Toggle Hi-Res Interactivity Mode*
- [ **enter** ] *Gallery Mode* - changes perspective every 10s
- [ **1-6** ] *Change Antialiasing ( low-high )*

## Notes:
- Requires a WebGL capable browser
- Render resolution up scales with viewport dimensions.
- A black and white low-res preview is used for interaction. Turn on high-res interactivity if you have a lovely GPU

Subtle #94

Subtle #159

Subtle by willstall

This series is inspired by both net and glitch art.

It represents nostalgia from an era when the Internet was a mystical new space, where computer graphic cards had more limitations than what we know nowadays, where graphical user interfaces were beginning to shape as a result of a steep learning curve for command-line interfaces, and where artists started to test unfamiliar methods to make art.

It’s a juxtaposition of chaos and order. A disarray of colored geometric shapes, wrapped by orderly patterns, trying to find their place in a screenshot. Patterns depicting an intended path or miscalculation in a new domain. Infinite combination of rules within certain parameters creating distinct yet related architectural collages. A real-time static visual memory of what Web3 was in the now.

For interaction and animation please look at the display notes.

👾 ilithya (@ilithya_rocks) is a multidisciplinary artist from México, based in Hamburg, Germany. 
👾 Erin Wajufos (@erinwajufos) is a generative artist, projectionist and curator based in Brooklyn, New York.

Net Net Net #7

Net Net Net #11

Net Net Net by ilithya x Erin Wajufos

Isotopias: A Living Canvas of Time and Space

The Isotopias collection is a wondrous blend of isometric perspective and utopian landscapes, constructing a world where mathematical precision and abstract visions converge. 
Each piece in the collection forms a unique and exact realm, inviting the viewer to embark on an exploratory journey of curiosity and creativity.

At the heart of each Isotopia lies the emblematic letter H, honoring the HODLERS collective and the community that binds us together. 
Every artwork in the collection is an on-chain, living entity that evolves with the passage of time, revealing 24 enchanting designs corresponding to each hour of the day.

As moments unfold, new designs gracefully build upon the previous ones, echoing the essence of blockchain technologies and HODLing culture within the crypto space. 
This dynamic evolution celebrates the power of community and innovation, where individual blocks amalgamate to form a harmonious whole that surpasses the sum of its parts.

SZN 1 Collector Pass: Isotopias #25

SZN 1 of the Collector Pass, featuring Isotopias designed by HIDΞ0. The membership is valid from May 1st, 2023 to May 1st, 2025.

Exclusive perks include:
- Early access to our future releases
- Access to decentralized curation
- Access to a private community
- Access to research content
- Entry to giveaways

"*Isotopias combines isometric perspectives and utopian landscapes, creating a unique world that evolves over time. At the heart of each piece is the emblematic letter H, honoring the HODLERS collective and the community it unites. These on-chain, living artworks transform with each passing hour, revealing 24 captivating designs that reflect the HODLing culture within the crypto space.*"

SZN 1 Collector Pass: Isotopias #11

Hodlers Collector Pass

**Human Unreadable (Privacy Collection - Lot 03)**

**Human Unreadable** is a three-act, embodied generative artwork hiding the human body in plain sight (on-chain). Bringing together choreography, code, blockchain, generative art, and cryptography, the work culminates in a live performance. Each output is driven by the motion data of its underlying unique, on-chain choreographic sequence. The sequences behind the first 100 minted works (mint #2 to #101) will be performed during the IRL premiere. The hosting art institution will be announced in 2023. 

A journey of slowly recovering the human unfolds as such: 1) reveal on Art Blocks, 2) uncover the choreographic score, and 3) final performance. After the reveal, the human is still unreadable, visible only through the results of movement on glass, obfuscated by code, rendered as a still image. In the next phase of the work, collectors get a glimpse at their underlying choreography by unlocking the secondary token—an on-chain choreographic score. In the final phase, the performance, life is breathed into the human movement that has been lying dormant inside the pieces. **Human Unreadable** brings flesh and viscerality into code and "vulnerability as a feature" into long-form generative art. What you don’t immediately see in the visual artwork outputs is the invisible potentiality of performance, inscripted on-chain and able to be brought to life by a dancer at any moment. 

 **Human Unreadable** intentionally punctures the safety of modernist design and the idea of a universal voice, pushing the limits of human expression within rigid technical systems. With a focus on the body, the collection brings risk, chaos, confusion, and vulnerability to the reveal, everything that function-focused design systems normally prevent. Each piece is an invitation, a transparent layer through which the messy human experience can come into focus through the three phases of the work. This work is a continuation of the pivot away from modernism, clean lines, and the quietly gendered values therein, in favor of a more embodied and sensual approach to human-machine collaboration pioneered by early women in digital art. **Human Unreadable**'s 6 distinct looks derive from the core materiality of Operator’s Privacy Collection: glass, light, x-ray and the human body. The transparent and illuminating nature of these materials reveal what is below the surface.

What are you revealing when you reveal?

**Human Unreadable** has roots in various histories such as computational choreography (Analivia Cordeiro, Jeanne Beaman), Merce Cunningham's Chance Dance, and the Experiments in Art and Technology movement. With Ti’s extensive background as an HCI technologist and multimedia artist and Catherine’s background as a choreographer and performance artist, Operator architected a bespoke team, 25+ individuals ranging from specialized engineers to dancers, who embarked on a 9 month process to realize the work. Operator's on-chain generative choreography method is the technical backbone of **Human Unreadable**—the process and open source tooling for which will be made available via white paper in 2023.  


***Additional Information***

**First Minter Benefits** 
The first 100 minted pieces (mint #2 to #101) from the collection will be performed in the IRL premiere in an art institution. 
-Mint #2 to #101 will be counted as the first 100 mints. Mint #0 and #1 are artist mints held by Operator.
-Hosting art institution will be announced in 2023. 
-Additionally, Privacy Key 00 holders will have one of their collected Human Unreadable sequences performed.

**Choreographic Score (secondary token)** 
-The secondary token will be released at the end of June 2023.
-The secondary token is a choreographic score that represents the unique choreography that generated the output minted on Art Blocks. For this reason, the Art Blocks token and the secondary token are bound together and cannot be transferred separately.
-The underlying choreographic score visible through the secondary token can be performed by a choreographer or dancer at the collector's discretion.

**GPU Intensive Rendering / Live Preview** 
This piece involves GPU intensive composition and rendering of programmatically drawn body parts, generative glass objects, x-ray shaders as well as motion paths. As a result the ‘live preview’ on your laptop or phone may look less detailed than the PNG on Art Blocks which is rendered by a high powered computer. Not to worry!

**Official Token-gated Prints** 
Human Unreadable collectors will be able to purchase Operator official, signed, token-gated prints (on hand-selected materials) of their collected piece(s).

Human Unreadable #144

Human Unreadable #237

Human Unreadable by Operator

"Imagine" showcases fictional star maps that transport viewers to worlds yet to be discovered. In the far future, as humans venture ever farther out into space, we will encounter new worlds and new skies. This collection offers a glimpse of what those skies might look like — each star map a vision of the universe as we have yet to see it. 

Each piece invites the viewer to engage their imagination and find objects, animals, and mythical heroes within the shapes and patterns of the unique constellations drawn between the stars.

"Imagine" speaks to the limitless potential of human exploration and the infinite possibilities that await us in the cosmos. It is a celebration of the human capacity for creativity and imagination and a reminder that our journey into space is just beginning — a journey that stretches out into the infinite expanse of space and beckons us to dream big and reach for the stars.

Check out this special message from Ax-2 Commander Peggy Whitson as she initiates this special Ax-2 collection from the ISS.
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmNYhcxJQscKdyXCSgauuPcpn1kNYc842RY9zLQ8LSneNc

Imagine #21

"Imagine" showcases fictional star maps that transport viewers to worlds yet to be discovered. In the far future, as humans venture ever farther out into space, we will encounter new worlds and new skies. This collection offers a glimpse of what those skies might look like — each star map a vision of the universe as we have yet to see it. 

Each piece invites the viewer to engage their imagination and find objects, animals, and mythical heroes within the shapes and patterns of the unique constellations drawn between the stars.

"Imagine" speaks to the limitless potential of human exploration and the infinite possibilities that await us in the cosmos. It is a celebration of the human capacity for creativity and imagination and a reminder that our journey into space is just beginning — a journey that stretches out into the infinite expanse of space and beckons us to dream big and reach for the stars.

Imagine #23

Axiom Space3

_Lucky Clover is released as part of reGEN, a special charitable auction of generative art to raise funds for Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, curated by Alex Estorick and Foteini Valeonti in collaboration with The Giving Block._

Four-leaf clovers, with their rare and mystical allure, have captivated hearts for centuries, bringing happiness to those fortunate enough to discover them. When I was little, I used to embark on quests in search of one. In a sea of lush green clovers, I carefully examined each specimen and time would slip away.

_Lucky Clover_, developed in collaboration with generative artist [Kazuhiro Tanimoto](https://www.kazuhirotanimoto.com/), is a collection that recreates the joy of finding that special clover. Each piece represents a clover field at a certain time of day, with the four-leaf clovers hidden away for viewers to discover them.

The algorithm in _Lucky Clover_ was designed to be both realistic and surreal. The output is simultaneously photographic and illustrative, merging three-dimensional and two-dimensional elements. The myriad of clovers that fill the screen form a variety of patterns. Every color, placement, and flow is unique. Among the features assigned to the output, the “Number of Four-Leaf Clovers” is the most important feature of the work. Each output also corresponds to a specific time of day, evoking memories of the search, whether at sunrise, sunset –– when you don’t want to go home yet –– or else during mystic moonlight.

_The precious memories of the beautiful clover fields that each of us carries in our hearts are etched onto the blockchain as code._

The work is a counterpart to Sputniko’s other work [A Drone In Search For a Four-Leaf Clover](https://sputniko.com/Drone-in-search-for-a-four-leaf-clover), where the artist reflects on the era of AI-driven efficiency by creating a drone with advanced image recognition algorithms. The drone can discover the lucky clover with unparalleled efficiency. Would you rather use the drone to guarantee rare treasure or do you prefer the nostalgia of a sunlit search, with the chance that you might not find one?

_Lucky Clover_ is a charitable project in support of research into Alzheimer’s disease, which seeks to illuminate both new treatments and a possible cure like a beautiful clover. We respect the ongoing efforts of the many researchers around the world and believe that scientific and technological advances will make the world a better place.

_**Notes**_

Press [F] for full-screen mode.
Press [L] to highlight the four-leaf clovers (if you want to spoil the fun and immediately discover them)
Press the number keys to download a high-resolution image.
[1] 1600x2400px image
[2] 3200x4800px image…
[7] 11200x16800px image
[8] 12800x19200px image

It may take time to draw depending on the environment.

Lucky Clover #18

Lucky Clover #4

Lucky Clover by Sputniko!

marfaMESH is an event-driven generative art experiment that took place over the course of Marfa 2023, Sept 21st to 24th. To participate attendees were required to download the marfaMESH app developed by Shane Richardson (Breath You, Ouroboros) and wear a NFC Card lanyard powered by IYK. Scanning other peoples lanyards built a social graph of interactions that created personalized artworks for each participant that evolved throughout the event. When scanning, the app prompted users to take a picture from which colors and basic forms were abstracted and fed into the emerging artwork. Interactions ‘nodes’ are clustered based on eleven key geo locations and there is a night day mode based on time of last interaction.  The project’s primary objective was to serve as an icebreaker to help bring about connections between people that wouldn’t have met otherwise. 

It is hoped that this project is an example of how generative art can be used to create highly personalized art chronicles of an event. Art that helps to preserve memories and create a treasured artifact that’s an extension of the ticket stub or merch item we are all familiar with. It's my belief that generative art has inherent properties that enable it to provide a new class of art that is part infographic; memorabilia; social graph; personal story and proof of participation. I can see a future in which a person's inner and outer worlds can be expressed in an evolving, responsive and interactive artwork. These life-artworks may meld in real time with life-artworks from friends and family or as large community expressions. 

A global expression of all the data collected will be created and auctioned as a one of one in the coming year. While it might seem that the individual outputs in this series will have the greatest value and meaning to the co-creators, a single collective expression of the event may have more value and meaning to art culture as a whole. Profits from this auction will be reinvested into the continued exploration of this approach of which marfaMESH has served as a compelling early proof-of-concept.

marfaMESH #203

marfaMESH #178

marfaMESH by Harvey Rayner

Loie Hollowell’s first-ever NFT project, titled Contractions, comprises 280 unique, generative works that center on the artist’s embodied experiences with childbirth. Based on Hollowell’s Split Orb sculptural paintings, which she began creating following the birth of her second child, the Contractions NFTs feature two bifurcated orbs situated one on top of the other, with the top orb representing the artist’s brain and the lower orb signifying her pregnant belly and cervix. This new series brings Hollowell’s explorations of bodily landscapes—with a particular focus on sex, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood—to the digital realm. Contractions will be presented on Pace Gallery’s booth at West Bund Art & Design in Shanghai from November 10 to 13. As an extension of the project, Hollowell will create several new paintings of Contractions NFTs.

Hollowell, who has developed a distinctive iconography of geometric and organic forms as part of her painting and drawing practices, was the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai in 2021, and her solo show Loie Hollowell: Tick Tock Belly Clock continues through May 8, 2023 at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis. Her work can be found in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Long Museum, Shanghai; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and other international institutions. 

There will be 11 scenes in the Contractions NFT series: closed orbs signifying the final stage of pregnancy, just before childbirth, and orbs featuring one of ten set degrees of openings at their centers, representing each of the ten centimeters of cervix dilation required to begin the second “pushing” stage of labor. With variations in their hues, saturations, and textures, the orbs reflect, on a conceptual level, the artist’s shifting state of mind and body during childbirth, with each of the colors describing her ranging emotional states. 

The total NFTs in the Contractions series reflects the average number of days in a full-term pregnancy. The colors of these NFTs are drawn from a wide spectrum, from grayscale—which Hollowell has never previously incorporated in her work—to a vivid neon palette. The expansive possibilities of color in the NFTs situate Hollowell’s abstractions in a new light, influencing her approach to painting and drawing.

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