Signs of Life: A #5TezCollection
written by Seán
Twelve artworks have been collected and are on display here. Please consider checking out the Gallery.co display at https://gallery.so/sean_art/galleries/2Ptk2EsX5lZu4fDwoItgc7QA8Qw.
Generative art. It's just so fascinating! Oh, the lovely people I have interacted with—I certainly have some favorite artists and artworks! For this collection, it was a challenge to spend a small amount. I thought of reaching back into the past for items that were picked up at low prices, but rather I decided to include only new purchases for the challenge. Accounting notes are available immediately below.
ARTWORK ARTIST PRICE (xtz) GAS FEE (xtz) DATE WALLET MARKETPLACE
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Hatchet: Kagami #27 Ben Lewis 0.5 0.01675 2023-05-18 tz1a6nqwLkdNEG1syHDr1wK4q1j78T9sn1wa fxhash.xyz
ge12Z2mi023El2 qubibi 1.25 0.001494 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
Flowers #210 Gray Team 0.375 0.004866 2023-05-16 tz1a6nqwLkdNEG1syHDr1wK4q1j78T9sn1wa fxhash.xyz
Silken — The Flower Andreas Rau 0.5 0.001505 2023-05-22 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
Easter Egg #923 Bewelge 0.2 0.00254 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 fxhash.xyz
Radial Accretion WIP 007 d_ho__ 0.25 0.00864 2023-05-22 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
Long, Thin, Tubular Structure #86 hrtkassh 0.5 0.00254 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 fxhash.xyz
The Right Side of History tenebris.via 0.4 0.010966 2023-05-22 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
Störungen #174 un_erscore 0.25 0.004867 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 fxhash.xyz
Generative Cotton III Black Orbital 0.22 0.001567 2023-05-20 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
Der Ast #179 un_erscore 0.25 0.012038 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 fxhash.xyz
Fern 276.tez 0.14 0.001561 2023-05-23 tz1ZQNJ2jb7WcoYjFaSsboAC6YUs1T577A95 objkt.com
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TOTAL 4.835 + 0.069334 = 4.904334 xtz
Dec 18, 2021 was my start in generative art collecting. I have been on a strict budget although I have let that slide on occasion. I want to see this space thrive—as I believe it should. There is so much merit, beauty and creativity here.
Hatchet: Kagami by Ben Lewis has a very pleasing animation-to-draw and then comes to a final resting composition (live view of #27). Fx(hash) collector, neffnet.eth, has made some lovely plotter pieces from the Hatchet series.
ge12Z2mi023El2 by qubibi (view at objkt.com) is a striking piece that was part of the #TezQuakeAid initiative in which the Tezos community helped to support those affected by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake on February 6, 2023.
I reached out to Gray Team (Manouchehr and Vahid) regarding Flowers. I had mentioned that I collected many Flowers and how I enjoy looking at them! They indicated that they worked on the project for more than 3 months. There are 29 types of different flowers and 47 different arrangement algorithms for them. The artwork has an animation-to-draw which is initially produced without color, and later is color-filled and framed (live view of #210).
Silken — The Flower by Andreas Rau (view at objkt.com), as per the artist, explores the relationship of lightness and fragility. The airiness of the structure has me pausing and observing.
Easter Egg by Bewelge feels satisfyingly minimalistic. And, hey, we have to have a little fun. "Live view" has the eggs "hatching" into unusual creatures (live view of #923). I have a private digital gallery in which I display a wall of many Easter Egg pieces. It is strangely satisfying to look at them en masse!
Radial Accretion by d_ho__ appears to be bursting with chlorophyll (view at versum.xyz). As per the artist, the pieces utilize 1D Perlin noise to drive angular position while incrementing the radius independently for each angular segment.
Long, Thin, Tubular Structure by hrtkassh (live view of #86) hits me in a unique way: it reminds me to maintain the lordotic curve of my lumbar spine as I sit for prolonged periods of time admiring generative art. It is striking too!
The Right Side of History by tenebris.via (view at versum.xyz) was a fundraising effort to support victims of the Ukraine invasion, and a contribution to #tezosartweek in 2022. I have long admired the work of tenebris.via and am pleased to be a collector.
Störungen by un_erscore involves lines from which a complex, seemingly biological shape emerges (live view of #174). I reached out to the artist and happened to ask about their name. Their response is below and used with permission.
"I have always liked the idea of meta-characters, that is characters that don't mean anything on their own but either stand in for other characters, like the underscore. Further, the underscore has a special significance because it mostly takes the place of a space character in places where spaces aren't allowed or ideal. In this way, it leads the thought to the spaces in between things, the emptiness, the void. I have a philosophy background, so I really like ideas like this."
Generative Cotton III by Black Orbital (aka Marcelo Kato) appears as a swath of cotton (view at objkt.com). My eyes scan for each little interesting nook.
Der Ast by un_erscore has a very interesting way of building organic shapes (live view of #179). Each open angle appears to be met with a square and the shape continues to grow.
As an art enthusiast that is influenced by math, Fern by 276.tez (view at objkt.com) reminded me to investigate fractals and mandelbrots, and led me to a book entitled, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, by Benoit Mandelbrot, in which he "attempts to understand quantitatively the notion of roughness". This led me to The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence which I am listening to the audiobook as I write this. He uses fractal geometry to propose a new way of describing market behavior. Fascinating!
Note: I did not use fx(text)'s Tezos pointer to link to the fx(hash) pieces in the article since objkt pieces could not also be displayed in the same manner. Both objkt and fx(hash) items have been added as standard images in the article for increased balance and readability. Below are the fx(hash) project mentions.