About the Exhibition

Volume DAO recently organized an exhibition at the Hong-Gah Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. We aimed to showcase the parts we love about generative art culture from the online world into a physical space. We didn't just display artwork on screens but also different formats to enhance the overall exhibition experience.

Our exhibition features a diverse range of talented artists from the generative art community, showcasing artwork from fxhash and ArtBlocks. We are thankful for the support we have received from the community, which has allowed us to exhibit high-quality content. We give a special shoutout to Yi-Wen and Matt for not only lending us their artwork but also participating in our exhibition forum in person. Thanks to the help of the entire community, we were able to promote our exhibition worldwide and draw significant interest from the generative art community.

As a contributor to this exhibition and Volume DAO, I would like to offer an online text tour for those who couldn't attend in person. Please note that this tour will be from a personal perspective as an artist and collector, and my opinions on the artworks may not be comprehensive. However, I will do my best to showcase what I admire and find interesting.

About Volume DAO

Volume DAO is a collective of art enthusiasts consisting of collectors, artists, and curators based in Taiwan. Despite our diverse backgrounds, our paths crossed during the emergence of crypto art. While we don't employ crypto tokens or smart contracts for governance, we operate with "decentralized authority" principles, making us a genuine DAO. Each member contributes voluntarily, and we welcome collaboration opportunities, including overseas exhibitions.

The Exhibition Space

At this exhibition, we may have limited space to showcase the artwork, but we make sure to exhibit each piece meaningfully. Our main goal is to bring our online Generative Art culture and its enthusiasts into the physical realm, allowing people to better understand the field beyond just the visuals. To achieve this, we have created several interactive components and curated a series of works to demonstrate the cultural content.

The Embroidery Series: Physical and Digital

Starting with the Embroidery series, the Hong-Gah Museum has an outstanding collection of embroidery art. This section includes reference work related to their collection and introduces the concept of generative art, which is not restricted to computer technology.

So, what is Generative Art? Personally, I am fond of Matt DesLauriers' definition. He defines Generative Art in two components in his recent book "Meridian":

1) The artwork is defined by a set of rules.

2) The execution process includes partial automation.

A notable example is Sol LeWitt's famous Wall Drawing series. A Wall Drawing piece is merely a series of instructions, and the museum staff is responsible for executing when exhibiting the work. Due to the absence of certain details in the original instructions, the outcome of the drawing may vary from one to another, which aligns with the concept of generative art. However, the automation aspect of the process is carried out by the hands of the museum staff.

The image below is WALL DRAWING #295. The image on the left is from MASS MOCA, and the one on the right is from openprocessing. While the instructions are the same, the execution may result in a different outcome.

The Embroidery collection takes a similar approach, where the factory creates patterns that anyone can execute. Generative art doesn't require computer technology and has existed in the physical world for a long time. This window presents the museum's Miao Embroidery from their collection, which features patterns similar to modern generative art's geometric patterns.

The second window displays a digital version of the embroidery art. Our artists Yi-Wen and Nineteen have created it. We have selected two pieces from the museum's collection and used modern JavaScript techniques to "sew" them into a modern generative art piece. In the video, you can observe the process and the final result. They have also incorporated some variations into the work, which are widely used in on-chain generative art nowadays.

The third window demonstrates the willingness to present digital works in physical space using a plotter machine. To transform digital art into a physical piece, we usually need to print it. However, some might argue that printing differs from physical paintings due to the lack of detailed textures. With the help of plotters, lines and shapes are composed with strokes, which display the thickness of the paint. Only the original data is digital and executed by the machine.

By displaying these three windows, we aim to convey that the boundaries between physical and digital works are not that distinct. They all share the concept of generative art.

Recursive and Blocks: The Traits in Generative Art

This section presents my work titled "Recursive and Blocks." It utilizes the popular "Subdivision" algorithm and incorporates colored dots to create a visually captivating texture. In this section, I have made an interactive experience to introduce the concept of "traits" in modern generative art. The installation allows the audience to interact with a user interface on their mobile devices. They can select the traits they like and then generate the artwork on the screen in real-time.

In modern generative art, a primary algorithm is typically employed alongside various "traits" to produce a broader range of outputs and provide greater control. These traits can include different primary colors, such as red, orange, or blue, variations in layout, such as portrait or landscape modes, and light or dark backgrounds. Unlike mathematical algorithms, these traits are more "predefined," and the results are more predictable.

Through this installation, I demonstrate to the audience that different traits can result in vastly different outputs. Furthermore, even when using the same traits, the randomness of the subdivision algorithm can still produce very different results that make each work unique.

Recursion: Adding Complexing

One of the most intriguing aspects of generative art is its inherent randomness. The artwork itself is created by a computer program and can generate countless outputs, each one unique. However, some forms of randomness are too simplistic, such as using different colors. It's like rolling a dice, where rolling a one will result in a red piece, and rolling a two will result in a green piece. If all the randomness is of this type, then the resulting artwork may not be complex enough. And recursion is a powerful algorism to deal with this issue.

In computer programming, "recursion" refers to algorithms that follow simple rules and repeat themselves. For example, the "Subdivision" algorithm begins with a single shape that may divide into two, and each resulting shape may also divide into two more. This algorithm can create artwork from 2x2 or 3x3 rectangles, resulting in a wide range of sizes and shapes.

Some recursive algorithms attempt to mimic nature. For example, the fractal tree algorithm (also known as L-system) simulates the growth of a tree's branches, where each branch has a chance to split into two. The automata cellar algorithm simulates the growth of cells.

In this section, we include many artists from the generative art community. However, due to space limitations, we have condensed all of their work into a 10-minute video that will play in the exhibition area. If you're interested in the video, you can have a peek at this trailer version.

Yazid and Aluan: Textures and Style

While Aluan and Yazid's works were initially planned as separate sections in the exhibition, I prefer to showcase them together during tours to discuss the variety of aesthetic styles.

Aluan's "After the Cave" is inspired by Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," where shadows are merely projections of true forms, just as each iteration of generative art is only a sample of the whole work (the coded system). While this work incorporates symbols from ancient cave paintings into its generation algorithm and centers around the cave concept, it is primarily a visually-oriented piece focused on textures and colors.

"After the Cave" is a typical example of modern generative art market preferences. From Andreas Rau's early work "Loom," it's clear that the market favors pieces with rich textures. This makes sense since the basic visual aesthetic is "point and line to surface." In this piece, you can see large brushstrokes of color and small, intricate strokes and spray dots that add complexity to the overall composition. The texture is currently a popular topic in the generative art scene.

Yazid's artistic style is so different from Aluan's. He challenges himself with limited lines and strokes, resulting in a minimalist aesthetic that is uniquely his own. Initially, some people may have doubts about his work, but as they see more of his creations, they come to appreciate and recognize his signature style. As a result, Yazid has become one of the most successful generative artists in Southeast Asia today.

Here's a quick story. When fxhash was in its early days, one of our DAO members named ssshitung minted a work by Yazid. However, the output only had three strokes, which made ssshitung feel like he got scammed and so angry. However, this experience led ssshitung to do more research on Yazid and ultimately become a big fan of his art style.

And we also introduced the concept of long-form and short-form to our audience here. We showcased both Yazid's long-form work and a few pieces from his 365 series that are short-form.

Artists create the program and algorithm for long-form pieces, and the final output is only generated once a buyer collects it. This means that even the artist doesn't know the final result beforehand. Short-form pieces, on the other hand, have already been generated using code, but the artist selects the ones they like and mints them on the blockchain.

Chaos "AI" Research

In this section, you can create an AI art NFT by submitting a photo and seeing it transform into a unique art piece.

One of Aluan's famous works, Chaos Research, is the basis for this system. Aluan trains an AI model with his Chaos Research and collaborates with the AkaSwap team to create this system. Once a user uploads a photo, the system applies an AI filter in the style of Chaos Research. Then, the user can decide whether to mint it or not.

I am fascinated by this system and believe it has great potential, especially with the expected dominance of AI in the future. It showcases the capabilities of "real-time generative AI art." You can view the whole collection on AkaSwap and also Objkt.

FOLIO: Extending the Experience into Physical Space

Collecting generative art usually involves using blockchains and NFTs, which means the experience only exists online. However, some artists started exploring how to bring this digital experience into the physical world. One such example is Matt DesLauriers's FOLIO, which offers a unique real-world experience rather than simply pushing a physical "mint" button.

The FOLIO work consists of two parts: a generative art program released as NFTs and displayed through a projector in the room, and a physical interactive installation of an old-fashioned computer with various commands to play with.

FOLIO was first designed for Bright Moment London, a physical event where attendees could purchase a mint pass online and mint their work during the event. The installation allowed users to log in to their accounts and use the "mint" command to obtain their work. However, the mint feature is disabled at this exhibition since all NFTs have been sold. Instead, you can use the "view" command followed by a number to view a specific minted FOLIO on the chain.

In addition to "mint" and "view," there are other commands you can use. For example, if you type "ASCII" followed by some text, it will be displayed on the monitor in ASCII art style. And if you type "WAVE" followed by text, the system will generate an animated wave using the characters you typed.

Although some may feel that most commands do not directly impact the generative art visual, there is still a connection between the installation and the NFT. It showcases Matt's love for old-fashioned text art and is used to generate the FOLIO visual - a generative subdivision of rectangles composites by typed characters. Personally, I would take FOLIO as a space installation that embraces the good old technology fashion while also exploring the potential to bring a unique minting experience to the physical space.

Live Minting Sequencing

The last stop on our tour is the Live Mint Machine, where we aim to recreate the classic experience of generative art minting in a physical space.

To streamline the process, we have developed a system with a QR code scanner that allows you to scan your wallet QR code and generate your minted artwork in real-time, which will then drop into your wallet. To make it accessible to everyone, we guide the audience through using the web Kukai wallet and signing in with a Google account to create their wallet.

At the exhibition opening event, Yi-Wen's "Sequencing" on fxhash was minted out, but we are now dropping another memento NFT to the audience based on Sequencing and designed by Kana.

The concept of live minting is already popular in the world of NFTs. It stems from the human desire to own something. In the past, we relied on photos to capture memories, but with the advent of mobile phone technology, we can now take hundreds of photos a day. This seemed to make photos less valuable, so people started looking for new ways to preserve memories. NFTs and live minting may fill this need.

Well, I guess owning is all Web3 and NFTs are about. To grab, to obtain, and to embrace. So as this article. I hope you enjoy this text tour with me. And if you do, you could also consider preserving it, in the form of an fx(text) NFT.