Who are you?

Hello, my name is 劉乃廷 (Liu Nai-Ting), nicknamed 19. I’m a web developer from Taiwan.

Eziraros is the name for web3.

When did you start making art?

I’ve loved creating since I was a child. My attempts till now included drawing, graffiti, making music, origami, wool felt, and creative coding.

The pictures below are from one of my wool felt works — a brain. (2019)

I keep trying, but I don’t really know what art is. I just try to approach it.

If anyone is interested in the music I have made, click here.

When did you start making generative art?

It was about 15 years ago. A friend showed me some sketches made by him with Processing. I felt surprised and started to learn Processing from him, making some sketches during that time.

In the next few years, I became a front-end developer and occasionally used the techniques I learned before. Other than that, there was no further generative art creation until this year. I got into generative art again because of fxhash.

How did you hear about FxHash?

I have a friend named Aluan, probably the most famous generative artist in Taiwan. He stayed on the path to being an artist while I was not continuing to make generative art. I saw him mentioning fxhash and NFT on Facebook too many times in the last year. Finally, I felt as if I should try. Then began my first work on January 1st of this year.

What is your creative process for making a work of generative art?

I don’t have a very solid process yet.

If I want to do something figurative, after I decide what to draw, I’ll collect images as references from Pinterest, and watch a bunch of videos on Youtube. (Sometimes, I put them into Milanote for a better arrangement.) Next, do some studies.

1. shape study

I start by drawing some sketches in pencil, dismantling the various parts of the object, and building a familiarity with the shape.

In this process, I think about how to classify the various parts programmatically and how the shapes grow.

2. texture study

This part usually starts after my code is able to draw some shapes roughly.

Besides studying the texture of the object itself, I also study artistic expressions. (e.g., sketch, watercolor on paper)

The layout and features are decided while coding.

Coloring is at a later stage. I’m not good at creating color palettes, so I usually use only two or three colors. It’s relatively simple.

Why do you make generative art?

I love coding and art. Making generative art is a perfect way to combine both.

But as I said, I stopped once. NFT was the turning point that made me want to continue it. I never imagined that I could have income and get connections with people by making generative art before.

Tell us about one of your earliest low edition FxHash projects.

“The generative octopuses” was a huge success. How did this work come to be?

I did a write-up for the octopi here.

As well as A Twitter thread to document it.

Explain your work “shape study” to us.

It’s embarrassing to admit this. The key to making me start this project was “Balanced” by JeffW.

My friends and I liked this project and minted a few. Later we found out that some of the shapes looked a little bit… familiar. A question bubbled up in my mind: “why don’t I make sex toys in the form of generative art?” Then I took “shape” as the theme and started my “Shape Study.”

The process was the same as I described. I sketched in pencil first.

At first, I drew many types of sex toys. Then I decided to make dildos only. Because I thought the shape is the most recognizable and symbolic. The shape of the dildo is from humans. I need the shape which has a connection with our body because the shape of ourselves is what I really want to talk about.

In the work description, I mentioned

I realized that when people explore themselves or others, it is also a form of shape study.

With what’s visible and concrete, explore the unseen and abstract

It’s not only about physical shapes but also about preference and personality. Therefore, I don’t want all shapes to look strong and aggressive. You can find a short, thin, or even soft one in some variations.

You can see some of the WIPs here

About the development of this project, I’ll make another write-up in the future.

How did you know when “shape study” was ready to be released?

The question is great and hard to answer. Frankly, Shape Study was not completed as I imagined before, although I’ve spent lots of time on it.

But I suddenly remembered something Sam Tsao said

My capacity is not there, but the results seem okay to release for me. The details were rich enough; the variations were not bad, so I decided to release it. Then move focus to the coming projects.

In your opinion, what’s the difference between a good and great piece of generative art?

In my opinion, a good piece would have a good concept and good execution.

And a great piece should be a good piece that is pioneering, exploring the edge of possibility in some way.

Why did you choose coral as the theme for your latest generative work?

I made “coral” as a variation of my previous work “Shape Study”. At the time, I added corals to my to-draw list. I knew I’d draw it someday. Probably because of this, my web3 friend @newyellow referred me to the project which belongs to Delta Electronics Foundation. After listening to the brief, I think it's a meaningful project that worth a try. I didn’t know my work could help others before.

Can you tell us more about your plans for "The Restoration Scheme" series?

“The Restoration Scheme” consists of five generative art NFT works by me. Each of them was based on five different species of coral as the theme. The species are:

- Acropora cervicornis

- Acropora intermedia

- Acropora digitifera

- Montipora grisea

- Pavona decussata

The first four works will all be released on fxhash in smaller edition sizes (≤ 80, will be smaller and smaller) at 5 tez each. Start from 10/5. Released once per week.

The final one will be released on a Tezos-based NFT platform from Taiwan called "AkaSwap". 300 editions at 3 tez each, but only 10 are available to mint. 290 editions are gifts for the holders of the previous four.

What is the "Delta Electronics Foundation" and how are they involved with these coral themed works?

It was founded by Bruce C.H. Cheng, the Founder of Delta Electronics. (a famous electronics manufacturing company in Taiwan) The Foundation's goal is to foster sustainable development through environmental education, the promotion of green buildings, and rigorous climate and energy research. Since 2019, the Foundation has additionally developed several marine protection projects that facilitate biodiversity conservation.

In this project, the foundation promises that if collectors mint tokens, they will drop seedlings of the corresponding species into the sea (1 token = 1 seedling). The goal is to plant 1,000 seedlings within three years.

The project is powered by FAB DAO (Formosa Art Bank). The split will donate to the local organization from Taiwan dedicated to the coral restoration scheme.

Is there anyone you want to shoutout?

I want to give a shout-out to the friend who taught me Processing. Now he is running a bookstore that specializes in photobooks. If you love photography and have a chance to visit Taiwan, please check his bookstore “moom bookshop.” It’s a small but beautiful place.

Anything else?

Thanks John, for the interview. It’s my first time being interviewed in English. Please forgive me if my words were hard to read or made some ridiculous mistakes. Thanks for your reading.

Note for collectors

Each collector of this ARTKL will receive a test render coral minted under the "Scrap Works" objkt collection. In addition, one lucky collector will obtain a rare golden 1/1 coral output created by s_r_r_z.