Anna Carreras is a creative coder and digital artist focusing on the use of generative algorithms, code and interactive technology, rethinking and manipulating these modalities through art. I had the pleasure of speaking with Anna in anticipation of her upcoming release of Trossets on Art Blocks.

Jeff Davis: Hi Anna! It’s great to speak with you. I’m really excited for your project on Friday. Tell me how you first got started with art.

Anna Carreras: I originally wanted to study Fine Art but I ended up studying Engineering. At University, I started to use all the technical knowledge with a creative approach, as a way to return to my vital path. And I found myself merging art and technology, fascinated by the early digital artists and the generative art pioneers. After ending my studies, I’ve been developing interactive installations for the last 17 years. I like to explore new narratives and encourage the audience to participate. Interaction adds human behavior to the experience, fostering unexpected visuals and richer generated outcomes.

JD: How has your creative practice changed over time?

AC: Interactive projects and real time installations have taught me a lot about generative visuals. You have to cope with long time exhibits or unpredictable audience interaction and generate the visuals accordingly. Sometimes it’s even more difficult if your users are kids or robots! You can’t curate the output of your generative system and select which visuals to hide. So, you need to create high-quality output all the time, even without it being under your total control. Those lessons and all the expertise over years have been incredibly useful for my Art Blocks project.

JD: Yes, that’s a great foundation for how Art Blocks works. Have you focused more on generative art in recent years?

AC: Working on interactive installations got me progressively interested in digital art and generative art. Actually, I’ve always been coding the visuals of my projects, so I was already into generative art. Last year lock-down gave me the opportunity to share all my knowledge, expertise, and visual explorations with the community. I started coding generative art almost every day and posting my work in progress and drawings on Twitter.

JD: How did you discover NFTs?

AC: Also during lock-down I had the time to read and discover what some other genart colleagues were doing in the NFT space. So I got interested in crypto art as a way to explore new possibilities of the digital medium, the market, and our work.

JD: And did that lead to any new opportunities for you?

AC: In January of this year, Casey REAS contacted me to create an art piece for the inaugural exhibition for Feral File platform. He found me and my work on Twitter and I ended up exhibiting together with huge artists and friends like Manoloide, Dmitri, Lia, and all the rest of incredible artists of Social Codes exhibition. After that, everything has rushed! It has been an incredible half year.

JD: That’s awesome, such a great exhibition. Alright, let’s talk about Trossets! What was the inspiration for the project?

AC: I’m interested in diversity. I’ve been doing some research on how generative systems can be built to foster very diverse outcomes. How complexity can emerge by coupling a small set of construction blocks and using limited system rules. It’s a way to look and try to understand our universe. For me, some building blocks are at the core of everything. Combining them in a way that we still don’t understand creates biodiversity, materials and everything we know. It’s about all of us having a common core substance, while maintaining differences, that makes us unique and diverse. For the geometrical blocks of Trossets I was inspired by a game, Mecanno, I used to play as a child. I’m sure that experience drove my interest in understanding how the universe is assembled and which are the pieces.

JD: What would you like collectors to look for in your project as the series is revealed?

AC: I would love the audience trying to discover the building blocks of each piece, how it might be constructed, guess the internal rules, imagine the chance, forces and destiny that created that mint. In that process, they will gain knowledge about the system and get close to it. They will understand it better and value how diverse the mints are while sharing some fundamental characteristics.

JD: Anything else you’d like to share to help people better understand your art?

AC: Sure, I am located by the Mediterranean sea, not far from the dry Spanish interior villages. A lot of my work is inspired by these landscapes and their traditions and culture. The colors and what I’m searching for in my drawings is the core substance of where I’ve live and what surrounds me, the essential tones and shades that build my experiences.

JD: That sounds great, I might need to pay a visit. OK to wrap it up, let us know the best way for people to follow your work!

AC: I actively share my genart sketches on Twitter. My finished generative and interactive projects can be found in my website.