Before we get into Artifice, I want to start with another round of gratitude for the reception here (on fxhash for my first two collections, Commune & Verdant Brut) and on objkt for one-off airdrops, 1/1s and the drops surrounding Art Basel Miami.

It means so much to me that this work has been resonating with the community and I promise you I don't take it for granted in any capacity. I couldn't be more humbled or thankful.

You are wonderful and I'm delighted to be in this community with you.

Let's first talk about Miami.

Artifice, the new collection, is rooted in an algorithm that was used to create four 1/1s that I placed around Miami for Art Basel. Anyone that found one was eligible to claim a matching objkt for the piece they found. There was also a piece called Subterfuge which was given away to folks that replied to a certain tweet in the thread documenting the event with their wallet.

Most of these 1/1s were found, but one was not.

The missing piece, Three truths, One lie #3, was then auctioned off and landed in the lovely hands of panda.tez after a little back and forth. This was really wild to watch play out, and while I would've been happy if all 4 pieces were discovered in Miami, this was truly a thrill. The result was truly unexpected. Fucking crazy is another way to put it.

For reference, here's the 4 pieces that were involved in the contest:

These prints were placed in envelopes and strategically scattered around Miami.

The Tezos/fxhash booth was an obvious target environment. I wanted to make sure that whoever found these at least knew what an objkt was, so two were placed there at different times on different days.

The first was found by the lovely fritt3r4 and the second by fxhash's own RockyRiver, who it seems has been elected resident Ty Vek expert. Thank you for not revealing me. The time will come for reveal, just not quite yet, please. I hope we're all having fun with a little bit of mystery.

I also placed one in the Tezos "Meet the Artists" talk featuring: Ivona Tau, DistCollective and Tyler Boswell. I'm not sure if that was found at all, but it was never claimed which led to the auction mentioned above. I know there is conjecture that this one was never dropped, and looking back, maybe I should've planned that all along, but that wasn't the lie. More below.

The final piece was found at FEMGEN by Tender hero ajberni and yes, it was tucked under his Tender tote... but I promise I didn't know it was his... and this was only after someone not-in-the-know discarded it along with their bag of chips.

To be clear, though, I didn't take it out of the trash, this person left all their trash on a chair and walked off. Someone who doesn't even take their rubbish to a bin hardly deserves free art, so I made sure it would at least be discovered by someone who knew what Tezos was and a person with a Tender tote seemed like a justifiable candidate, not to mention it was just two chairs away and I was trying to be discreet and quick. I wasn't playing favorites; I just wanted it to be found. (Even if Adam is, indeed, my favorite.)

Honestly, the whole thing was stressful, even if thoroughly fun. Sometimes I had a friend drop off the cards to avoid detection, and sometimes not, but I think I pulled off not being seen even if in the end, people have probably used their powers of deduction well.

Congrats to all that found a piece and while I was hoping all would be found and claimed, I am not complaining about how that auction turned out in any capacity. I'm still processing that.

Here's a link to the whole thread on twitter for a play by play.

Oh, before I forget:

The name Three truths, One lie refers to the (barely) encoded hints that were written on each of the cards/prints. Only three are relevant, as implied by the title. Since not all were found, I'll drop the messages here along with their respective pieces.

Three truths, One lie #1: 57-52-49-49-55

Three truths, One lie #2: 57-48-48-50-49

Three truths, One lie #3: 52-56-49-48-52

Three truths, One lie #4: 49-49-50-50-50

Just to set expectations, decoding these will not directly tell you who I am, but they may provide some hints about my identity or past.

So that's enough about that, let's talk a little about Artifice.

Part of concept behind the art is playful obfuscation, something that hopefully permeates the Ty Vek persona in general.

Compositionally, each piece is a play on 2 simple paths (sometimes with sharp corners, sometimes not) to keep the main structure of the piece pretty minimal. Each of these primary paths are comprised of many stacked paths with the same vertices but with varying widths and rhythms, creating an interplay that gives depth and surprising interactions between shapes depending on how they are layered and interleaved; giving birth to other forms far more intricate than the simple paths that make up the foundational elements.

Much like Commune & Verdant Brut, I love making the complex from layering the simple.

To contrast the pieces, Artifice can often come out more minimal than Three truths, One lie, due to the smaller number of primary paths/vertices and a more reserved range for their spread. The most obvious difference is obviously the aspect ratio. Other refinements are there as well, mostly relating to consistency while preserving diversity and quality.

Because the four Three truth, One lie pieces were rendered from the work-in-progress algorithm for this long-form collection so there are some obvious similarities, but think of them as crude parents.

I've also added a few new palettes, but in the end could not bring myself to remove any that were used in Verdant Brut. This algorithm plays with those colors well, in my opinion, and I feel it shows another side of them. It also adds a little continuity between projects.

The final major difference is the texture. I like the idea of the truth being woven from lies and facts and reality lying somewhere between, so making the texture fabric-like made sense. I want them to appear fused into one narrative, even if obtusely like an Altman film until they all come together.

This plays on the idea that there is a lot of misdirection going on with my identity in the first place, but hopefully those fictions are clear or at least fun in the end.

Who doesn't love a red herring once in a while?

To further explore this idea, the two primary paths in the composition represent some version of that truth, maybe even the two sides to a story or experience. Each of those stories have stacked subplots or through-lines that when combined show how complicated the experience may be to understand or even how one version is separate from the other... more so if we introduce binary thinking as could be inferred in the monochrome versions.

I'm using words like truth and lies, but earlier I mentioned the phrase "playful obfuscation", which I think is a more apt and pleasant way of describing what I'm going for with Artifice and the Ty Vek persona.

I hope you enjoy Artifice, and again, thank you for all the support. For information on the reserve list, please check the update on twitter.

10% of primary sales will be donated to Girls Who Code (via Giving Block) using this address: tz2B18hzRGTBzkq7AdSCWKyAAPpTaeTtaJiK.

Printing notes: If I were you, and wanted to print an Artifice, I would use the "paper" grain by adding "&g=p" to the end of the url in live view. If you are doing a large print, then append "&g=p&h=t" so that it renders in high resolution mode. This should give you a more consistent, predictable print. The default fabric texture is cool too, but it is more optimized for a display. In the end, it's up to you and what you prefer. If you want the most saturated colors, you could also consider the clear the grain entirely as well with "&g=n", but my personal preference is to have a little of that paper grain in there.

This would be no fun without you, and I'm having a lot of fun. I hope you are too.

This is a special time for generative art and we're so lucky to be here.

After Artifice, I am going to take a little break from any long-form for a couple months, but some random things may pop up on objkt, so feel free to follow me there. In that time, I might also be working on something that would require my own smart contracts. We'll see. Whatever it is, I will be back, I promise.

Thank you, again. I love you.

And please, don't speculate too hard, we all know where that can land you.

** I'm charging a small amount in an attempt to dissuade some folks from hoarding large amounts for free, otherwise, this would've been free to collectors. I apologize.