«Ottocento» is a collection of generative portraits of fictional historical figures. The series starts by exploring the nuances of the male figure as represented in the 19th century («Ottocento» in Italian). Further chapters of the project, focusing on different identities, are planned. The illustrations, drawn by hand and then converted to digital, constitute an ironic portrayal of the society of that era. The portraits, all in the same three-quarter view, reference the typological projects of German photographer August Sander.

Individual features and expressions are combined through the controlled randomness that generative art affords, deliberately blurring clear visual distinctions between nationalities, roles, and social classes. The result is an «Esperanto» of human types with an uncanny familiarity. Is that a poet? A salesman? An aristocrat? A farmer? Unlike Sander’s project, «Ottocento» doesn’t force any labels on the characters, eventually leaving the interpretation open to the viewer.

Ottocento

Renders Game is a note to myself on creativity.

I will often believe strongly in an idea, yet, once realised, and I'm confronted with the reality of the output, it leaves me unsatisfied.

So I take it apart, find a detail that I love, and grow something new from that tiny piece. It's a constant process of discovery. Eventually, I'll find a result that feels right — but only once it's staring back at me.

The name of this piece is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Orson Scott Card’s 1985 science fiction novel, *Ender’s Game*, as well as to the countless outputs I’ve produced during this creative process. In the book, Ender trains relentlessly. Only once he's completed his final exam (what he believes to be another simulation) does he discover that it was actually real — the final battle to save humanity.

In my own creative process, most of the steps along the path likewise feel like practise, with the satisfaction of achievement only revealing itself after the work stares back at me, complete.

This has been one of my longest running creative processes to date, having been re-written and re-conceived many times over.

It's worthy of the name.

## About

This piece treads a balance between the abstract and the literal.

The generative structure draws inspiration from cubism - procedurally generated curves of various complexity are grown, layered, intersected, and then broken into fragments of constantly shifting scale. 

Painting each fragment in turn reveals an abstraction of the original curves and lines, viewed through the algorithm's interpretation.

Each fragment is illustrated using prominent, simple lines - a nod to the literal. These are rendered using ink-like outlines and bold, loose colour application. It draws inspiration from contemporary ink illustration, balanced against the natural precision of digital tools. Not completely organic, yet not completely digital.

## Keys:

Number keys 1-4 - Debug views
Number key 5 - Re-render from seed
s - Download rendered image

Renders Game

Gen 3, the third and final installment of the Gen-Trilogy series, uses word combinations to create unexpected phrases. The phrases play with meaning, or the idea of it,  while characterizing identities relating to blockchain and NFT culture in a fun and abstract way. Gen 3 continues an emerging trend of parsing the minted token's hash in order to produce a deterministic image or animation. For each Gen 3 minted, 40% of the proceeds are donated to a non-profit organization called EveryShelter whose mission is to repurpose waste products into useful materials designed to help people in need. More information can be found at https://everyshelter.org/

Gen 3

Cryptocountries is a limited-edition series of digital prints using the medium of generative art. Each map is created by first procedurally generating a terrain height map and then rendering a map in a range of different styles and colours. Each print derives its randomness from a corresponding hash constraining the infinite possibilities for each print in the edition to a single unique image.

The series invites the observer to lose themselves in a selection of maps and annotated photographs from the unorganized archives that loosely chronicle the travels of a stranger in a mythical land.


## Prints 

All original token holders that mint a piece over 1.5 Ξ will be eligible for a single edition (1/1) handmade signed print of their edition using a printmaking technique suitable for the style of image (intaglio etching, screenprint, cyanotype, etc.).  The token holder will be consulted in the creation of their print. Size, paper choice, type of ink and even colours can be customized and chosen to suit the token holder's preferences.   

In addition, free signed digital prints on archival paper will be available to the following collectors
- All original holders that mint over 0.6 Ξ will receive a large signed digital print
- All original holders that mint over 0.3 Ξ will receive a medium signed digital print

All token holders will be able to purchase a signed print of any mint they currently own.

More information on prints can be found [here](https://www.michaelgdevereux.com/cryptocountries-prints).

CryptoCountries: The Unpublished Archives of a Mythical World Traveler

How can intent be communicated when ideas are filtered through a pseudorandom number generator? Simply looking at the output does not make it clear whether a stroke is placed on the canvas because of a decision by the artist or by a roll of the dice. The artist’s hand is more present in the process than the result; they choose the algorithms, tune the parameters, and prune the features. As I experimented with my code, I held a particular idea in mind, but I was uncertain how it would finally manifest. I pursued a visual composition that made me feel a certain way, and the visuals I landed on communicate my feeling better than anything I can put into words. Through Curved Air is about the challenge of communication. Regardless of the medium, I can never be certain that the message I intend to send is the message that is received.

Through Curved Air takes inspiration from musical minimalism, where repetition is used to highlight changes in rhythm and harmony. Every output is created by repeatedly copying a single shape. Each copy only has meaning in relation to the other shapes nearby, and that meaning changes with the context around it. Delicate structures form and are subsequently obscured by further layers, and though they may be hidden, they still affect the perception of the final image. Clicking on the canvas will start or stop the looping mode, where the image is recreated in a slightly different way. New facets are exposed as the composition changes yet remains the same. Just as I spend my days trying to share my inner experience through my art, Through Curved Air uses each shape and each loop and each token hash to attempt to create a common feeling between myself and the viewer.

Through Curved Air also takes inspiration from the paintings of Joan Mitchell. I was drawn to her expressive strokes, vibrant colors, and use of negative space, all of which come together to give a more intense feeling of looking at a landscape than just looking at a painting of a landscape. Her energetic marks clearly communicate that there is a human being behind the art. The marks of generative works are often similarly representative of the underlying process, but instead of drawing focus to the artist behind the piece, they draw attention to the algorithm. To convey human emotion in the way I intended, I had to use a subtler algorithm.

The technical tools to convey this emotion are tools I have been consistently developing in my practice. I love making generative art because I can design a system where I understand how all the components work, but they can still come together to produce a result that surprises me. The algorithm behind the compositional variation in my earlier works Coquina and Primordial is one I continued to evolve, and it rests at the heart of Through Curved Air. In fact, I pushed it further than ever, using it to create the individual shapes that form the building block of each output. This emergent variation permeates the work and results in surprising images that more closely resemble paintings than anything I made previously. I believe the potential for surprise is key to conveying emotion through code. When the possibility space of the algorithm grows too large to understand, the mind wanders to the person behind the algorithm. Perhaps the human element is the struggle to understand, or the struggle to be understood.

Art Blocks Presents

Through Curved Air #15

Jacob Gold

More in Art Blocks Presents

Ottocento

Berubara

Renders Game

MountVitruvius

Gen 3

DCA

CryptoCountries: The Unpublished Archives of a Mythical World Traveler

Michael G Devereux

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