ChromieSquiglesExploration

"Simple and easily identifiable, each Squiggle embodies the soul of the Art Blocks platform. Consider each my personal signature as an artist, developer, and tinkerer." -Snowfro

Chromie SquiggleS: An Exploration

A Perfect Spectrum Squiggle - One of just 20 in the collection. Perfect Spectrum Squiggles show each of the 256 colors just once.

Full Spectrum Squiggles

Full Spectrum Squiggles contain within 1% of the entire Squiggle color pallet. Of the 6 types of Squiggles, they are only available in 3 - regular, bold, and ribbed. There are only 42 full spectrum Squiggles in the entire collection. Full Spectrum Squiggles have a look unique (other than Perfect Spectrum) because you can see almost the entire rainbow all at once, while regular spectrum Squiggles give just a slice of the Rainbow. In the next section, we will examine the color components in Squiggles, but stop and enjoy the rainbow before moving on.

12 Color Squiggles

Most Squiggles are composed of a range of colors. However, there are are small handful that have just 12 colors, the minimum number. In terms of color, these are among the most rare Squiggles in the collection and only appear in two types - slinky and pipe.

When activated, these Squiggles rotate through various colors, with just 12 colors in each rotation.

While there are very few 12 color Squiggles in the collection, there is another way to view colors within the collection - color ranges. Squiggle colors can be broken into five ranges:

*Greens *Blues *Pinks and Purples *Reds *Yellows and Oranges

An Exploration of Color Within Squiggle Types

At their heart, Chromie Squiggles are variations on two basic traits - type and color. Comprised of 6 types and 256 colors, we find practically infinite variation through different compositions of these traits.

Squiggle Types

Squiggles are available in 6 types. From the most frequently appearing, to the least frequently appearing, those types are:

*Normal *Slinky *Fuzzy *Ribbed *Bold *Pipe

Normal

Slinky

Fuzzy

Ribbed

Bold

Pipe

Here, we examine color ranges within 4 of the 6 types: Regular, Bold, Pipe, and Slinky. When activated, the colors will change, but the static color ranges are useful in understanding how Squiggles are composed.

Absent are Fuzzy and Ribbed.

Fuzzy is excluded because ALL Fuzzy Squiggles include a rainbow of colors; in other words, there are no Fuzzy Squiggles that contain just a small range of colors.

Ribbed are excluded because while there is variation within color ranges in the Ribbed type, there is a more interesting way to look at that type of Squiggle - the colors of the ribs themselves

Boundless, Free-Floating, and Incorpreal Fuzzy Squiggles

Though all Fuzzy Squiggles contain a large range of colors, there is still diversity within the type through their shapes. Boundless, free-floating, and incorporeal, they are among the most delightful Squiggles in the collection.

Ribbed Squiggles: Diversity of the Ribs

Though the Ribbed Squiggles contain all five colors, the colors themselves are not primary. Instead, the ribs are front and center, often overshadowing the colors. The colors of the ribs vary across the black and white spectrum, and can generally be classified as black, dark grey, light grey, and white.

Within the Ribbed Squiggles are both a perfect black and a perfect white Squiggle, numbers 290 and 3960 respectively. When viewed in live view, the bodies of these Squiggles disappears when the background is set to the appropriate color, leaving only pops of color.

Hyper Rainbow Squiggles

Hyper Rainbow Squiggles are among the most instantly recognizable artworks in all of generative art. Featuring every color in the Squiggle pallet, repeated to form several rainbows. They appear in all 6 types of the collection. With just 4 pieces, the Pipe type Hyper Rainbow is the most rare Squiggle in the entire collection.

Hyper Rainbow Squiggles are, perhaps, the most fun to view in live mode. When Hyper Rainbow Squiggles are viewed in live mode, the 3d depth of the Squiggles becomes apparent and we see the true magic possible when two simple traits - type and color - are combined.

Squiggles in Culture

Squiggles are comprised of two basic traits - type and color. But, they are so much more than the sum of their parts. As a genesis project, on one of the most important generative art platforms in the world, created by that project's founder - Squiggles are historic.

Squiggles have deeply permeated the culture of NFTs and are talked about with reverence. They have been used to raise funds for charity and have been auctioned at Sotheby's. They have been incorporated into other works of art and are a trait for one of the most popular PFP projects in history. Squiggles are adored by artists and collectors alike. Squiggles are culture.

Squiggles are art. Squiggles are history. Squiggles are culture.

Deeze

Punk6529

gmoney

Bharat Krymo

AC

Justin Trimble

Snowfro

FlamingoDAO

Derek Schloss

Von Mises

JDH

SquiggleDAO

CDB

Squigglevault

The Hall of Collectoooors

Thank you to Snowfro for creating Chromie Squiggles and to the entire Art Blocks team for bringing one of my favorite forms of art - generative art - to the forefront of culture.

Thank you to each of the collectors featured in The Hall of Collectoooors for giving me permission to feature your Squiggles in this gallery. Each collector has at least one Squiggle featured in the main section of the gallery, and it would have been impossible to curate this exploration of Squiggles without your generosity in allowing me to use your Squiggles.

Thank you to Deca for creating this platform that allowed me to curate this gallery!

A very special thank you to Mintface for his advice and support in my curation efforts.

And most importantly, thank you to you for taking the time to browse this gallery! I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed browsing and that you have a renewed respect and understanding of Chromie Squiggles!

By examining Squiggles with limited color ranges, we are able to see the individual colors more closely, giving us an understanding of the colors that create the Rainbow look for which Squiggles are known. It is these color ranges that give Squiggles diversity. Just as shining a light through a prism informs us of the components of light, so too does viewing small color ranges for Squiggles inform us of their components.

Some of the most well-known collectors in the world of NFTs collect Chromie Squiggles. But why? Uniformly, all of these collectors have great respect and admiration for generative art and understand the history of NFTs. Chromie Squiggles are the embodiment of these things. They are excellent examples of generative art - instantly recognizable, yet featuring strong diversity across the collection. And they are historic - created as a genesis collection on one of the most important generative art platforms by its founder. Chromie Squiggles will be taught in art history classes and the influence of Chromie Squiggles, their creator, and the generative art platform through which they were minted cannot be understated.

A Brief Introduction to Chromie Squiggles

Chromie Squiggles are one of three Art Blocks genesis projects, released for minting on November 27, 2020. They were created by Erik "Snowfro" Calderon, who is also the founder of the Art Blocks generative platform. Of the three genesis projects, Squiggles are the largest project (with total possible mints of 10,000 pieces) and were the least expensive to mint upon release, at just 0.035 ETH.

Public minting of Squiggles was halted before the collection was completed, with Snowfro retaining the last 1,000 Squiggles to distribute at his discretion. Of the 1,000 Squiggles that Snowfro originally retained, 624 have now been minted. You can read more about Snowfrow's decision to pause minting here.

A Note About Viewing Squiggles: Squiggles move and change colors! Click each Squiggle to view up close and then click the Squiggle to activate it's features.

When viewed in live mode, you can change the background color from white, through various shades of grey, to black by pressing space bar. You can also control the speed at which the colors change by pressing up and down.

Artists Love Squiggles

One way to help judge whether a series of artworks or an artist is relevant is to look at the other artists who collect from that series or artists. From this perspective, Squiggles are undeniably important. Squiggles have been collected by some of the most popular and best artists in the world. This is a partial list of artists who own Squiggles and representative works from each artist.

Bryan Brinkman

Nimbuds

FVCKRENDER

FVCK_CRYSTAL//

Hackatao

MORK and the BEAR

steganon

Autology

Screens

Thomas Lin Pederson

Matt DesLauriers

Meridian

Aaron Penne

Apparitions

Algobots

Stina Jones

pak

Polymorph: Whale

AlgoRhythms

Nicolas Daniel

SquiggleDAO

SquiggleDAO was formed by members of the NFT community with dual missions:

*To collect as many Squiggles as possible *To foster cultural longevity for Chromie Squiggles

Holding over 200 Squiggles, including at least one of all 6 types of Squiggles, and multiple Hyper Rainbows, SquiggleDAO has one of the largest and most diverse Squiggle collections in the world. The DAO is well on its way to acheiving its first goal.

Likewise, SquiggleDAO has made great strides in its goal of fostering cultural longevity for Chromie Squiggles. Through its recent grant program, SquiggleDAO has funded a Chromie Squiggle mural in Las Vegas and During NFT NYC 2022,

Thank You!