jwpe

This gallery is a celebration of select pieces in the collection I feel are "beautiful outliers". The concept is similar to what others have called "transcendent grails", such as Fidenza #938, Ringers #879, and Meridian #801, but perhaps less striking (and more affordable).

These beautiful outliers may be understated, but what they all have in common is they invoke an aesthetic that's unusual in the wider output set. They exist at the edge of the algorithm. Sometimes its a very subtle difference, other times its more obvious.

I've acquired most of these pieces from secondary markets or other collectors, so they also show my tastes and curation process. In one instance, I was fortunate enough to get one straight from the minter.

I've contrasted each piece (along with its working title) with a selection of more representative outputs from each collection to make the difference, as I see it, visible. I hope you enjoy what I've arranged.

Beautiful Outliers

Blue Blocks

Cory Haber, SOL - 365. SOL #203, October 2022. Short-Form Generative Art.

Cory Haber's generative painting style caught my eye a few months ago. It was an enticing intersection of plotter art, colourful palettes, and generative art making methods.

The SOL series was love at first sight. Each output is assigned a day of the year, location, and time, among other things. This particular output depicts the sunrise in Casablanca, Morocco, in July next year. The colours remind me of Monet's lillies.

More info

conundrumer, Pseudofigure. Pseudofigure #83, November 2022. Long Form Generative Art/Plottable.

I enjoy these pieces from plottables for a few reasons:

1. Even though these collections are powered by the ArtBlocks engine, they are much more accessible price-wise for collectors. And the mints, for the moment, stay open for longer. No bots.

2. Plottable art is a fun and DIY-friendly way of engaging with the creative process. It is present, visceral, and perhaps a Generative Art equivalent of the , which encouraged hobbyist engagement with technology back in the 1970's.

Collector's Notes, Volume 3. November 2022

Collector's Notes, Volume 2. October 2022

GrailersDAO, Grailers. Grailer #756, 2022. DAO Membership Token.

Designed by Stefano Contiero, the membership these tokens represent has changed my course as someone who's interested in NFTs and Internet art.

Put succinctly: I've found my tribe. I feel a sense of belonging, in a discord server, among people I've mostly never met... and that gives me hope for the online communities of tomorrow.

More info

Golid and Deca, Decagon. Decagon #525, 2022. Open Membership Token.

The Decagon is the open membership token for the Decaverse. Its infinitely evolving, and an exceptionally addictive experience, as one "upgrades" it over time. The outputs are striking too, but that's unsurprising as it was designed by Kjetil Golid.

I love what Deca is doing, and no one in the Web3 space ships faster. Hell, we're on Deca right now. Isn't it great?

More info

Larva Labs, CryptoPunks. CryptoPunk #4523, 2017. PFP Collectible.

I remember looking at the punks for sale before I settled on 4523. I chose it, like many other punk owners, because it looks like me.

The cryptopunks are more than just pixelated avatars. Obviously. They represent my "ah hah" moment where I "got" why NFTs are so powerful. This thing is part my identity, my face.

More info

berk.eth, BASTARD GAN PUNKS V2. BASTARD GAN PUNK V2 #4948, 2021. PFP Collectible.

We all wear multiple masks. I remember initially thinking the BGANs were ugly... and then I learned about how they were made (using a GAN model, among other things). Suddenly I liked the popping colours, the madness, the glitch. He's my bastard alter-ego. You'll come around one day, too.

Now gods, stand up for bastards!

More info

pob.studio, HASH Season 0: Genesis. Committed to the Cause, 2021. Generative Art.

Proof Of Beauty's HASH project allows us to create generative art from an Ethereum transaction hash, bringing beauty to something technical. Art like this is a gateway for those new in crypto to understand how blockchains actually work.

I used HASH to tokenise a moment in my own journey, which is now forever with me. The message I appended to the art reads:

“My ETH2 deposit, made whilst in hotel isolation in Sydney during the years of the Covid-19 pandemic. November 22nd 2020.”

More info here and here

Collector's Notes, Volume 1. August 2022.

When I see a couple of kids And guess he’s fucking her and she’s
Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,
I know this is paradise

Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives—
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side Like an outdated combine harvester, And everyone young going down the long slide

To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if
Anyone looked at me, forty years back,
And thought, That’ll be the life; No God any more, or sweating in the dark

About hell and that, or having to hide
What you think of the priest. He And his lot will all go down the long slide
Like free bloody birds. And immediately

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass, And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

High Windows

A poem by Philip Larkin

Anticyclone #524

Remember what we are here for, anon.

This is my decagon. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Paletted

Prismatic

Gouache

Procedural

Polarized

Gilded

Watercolour

Screenprint