Gravity Grid is heavily inspired by Go, a 2,500 year old board game. The game of Go is played on a 19x19 grid, which is how every Gravity Grid invocation begins. A psychedelic "gameboard" is drawn and pulled apart by gravity, as if slowly orbiting a black hole in space. Each Gravity Grid starts at a different stage of this process. Don't forget to click and hold - you *might* find an additional effect.

Gravity Grid

“Life will be lived all the better if it has no meaning” - Albert Camus 

Optimistic nihilism embraces the idea that life's inherent meaninglessness is, in fact, positive. The conflict between intrinsic meaninglessness and our search for meaning is both absurd and liberating. We are free to create our own meaning yet ultimately, there is none. By acknowledging both the futility and the opportunity, we can find joy.

These images have no specific meaning yet often they seem purposed. Each output evokes an emotional tone, such as calm, erratic, troubled, bold, mysterious or cheerful. We are frequently reminded of something or can identify shapes like birds, houses or spaceships. Our innate tendency to find patterns and meaning is evident.

The algorithm uses geometry and rules but has been given as much freedom as possible to create varied compositions which contain both chaos and order. The compositions are constructed using node layouts, which are connected to form shapes. Connection is a recurrent theme in our pursuit of meaning - manifested in pattern formation, our relationships and the interconnectedness of the universe. The shapes are duplicated and modified through rotation, mirroring, and scaling to build up structure and chaotic form. If an output appears too sparse, an extra stage of manipulation is applied. Keypresses reveal the components, allowing viewers to observe the underlying mathematical structure of the composition. How does this insight influence our perception of meaning?

The meaning communicated by each piece is subjective, shaped by the viewer's own experiences interacting with the work. The artist aspires to connect with her audience by discovering the meanings they derive from the outputs we have yet to encounter.

Toggle components - 
1 - Nodes
2 - Shapes
3 - Extras
4 - Strokes or Outlines (if present)
5 - Border
r - Return to full piece

s - Save 2000px wide image
p - Save 5000px wide image

Meaningless

Compression has been the driving force behind the image-based internet since the early 90s. No compression, no Netscape, no social media, no NFTs. The JPEG compression has specifically enabled photography-based imagery on the net. It has always served that purpose and over time become the de facto default for showing high quality imagery online. But compression always leaves a trace, which has become the lens through which the network sees the world of uploaded images.

"A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience." ― Mark Rothko

JPEG tries to create an image programatically fully expressing that signature compression. An image that is like empty made from barely nothing, yet fully present in its blazing appearance. A work deeply material, expressing itself through the language of code and codec only. This is not a JPEG depicting an image. The JPEG is the image itself.

Delving into the depths and peculiarities of the digital, tethered to art history, JPEG found its way to the surface. Generated color fields are utilised to trigger the compressing algorithm, resulting in a world of raw visual entities. Where the abstract expressionists cut out the depiction in painting, aiming to let the artist convey pure emotion, JPEG cuts out the artist's emotion and lets it emerge from within the algorithm. Carefully you could categorize the work as *compressionism*. An art form where the machine speaks in its own raw language, but nevertheless makes a direct touch to our human heart.

JPEG is a collection of generative images in the JPEG file format. The work tries to break with the idea of the fixed file format, therefor creating the JPEG entirely from code using no image material whatsoever. The individual JPEGs are generated responsively at the moment of viewing based on the token hash as a random seed. You can literally drag the JPEG out from the browser window.

JPEG pays tribute to interface culture, and as such the work is responsive and not scaling. When the work is resized, the work is again rendered and compressed. When viewed smaller, details will disappear, yet the composition stays recognisable. It’s like stepping back to see a work from further away. The choice of color wanders from monochromatic tones to the brutality of complete randomness and everything in between.

In honour of the blockchain and the web, the work is written in vanilla JavaScript, using no dependancies, and generates a standard JPEG. This way the file is downloadable, aiming for a materiality that comes as close as possible to the standard browser.

JPEG

Those structures suddenly appeared, yet they don't talk to us. Yet.

Messengers

Ben Kovach

_100 PRINT_ is a nonfigurative, abstract generative drawing system based on the principles of visual perspective. Each edition is made up of carefully constructed lines and shapes that fit into a multidimensional world created on the fly, inviting the viewer to let their eyes wander and find pockets of what appear to be deliberately constructed objects in 3D space. _100 PRINT_ is an experimental project that draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including cubist and abstract expressionist artworks, printer test sheets, and Escher sketches. It represents a raw display of powerful drawing principles that have governed the construction of many artworks before it.

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time signature

arrow party

perspective

construction

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This sale has a fixed price of {base_price} in {currency_symbol}, which is a custom ERC20 token that must be obtained before purchase.

Art Blocks Presents

100 PRINT

Ben Kovach

About 100 PRINT

Ben Kovach

Algorithmic edition of 100

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