A track. Some vehicles. An endless chase for lovers of loops.

24 Heures

This artwork will “die” on 20 October 2052.

Today I’m 50.
Will I live to be 80?
Will I outlive this artwork?
Will this artwork outlive me?

The original CENTURY project is autobiographical. Creating art and experiencing art is the core of my life, and CENTURY is my homage to 20th Century artists. It’s a synthesis of their ideas.

CENTURY 2052 brings the endeavor to the 21st Century. It’s released as 50 unique artworks, one for each year since I was born. The artwork transitions from life to death at 6:44pm EST on October 20th 2052.

This isn't a commercial or public release. It’s a gift to others who have shaped the world of art that I inhabit.

CENTURY 2052

Mathematics goes deeper than we are taught. The square roots of negative numbers point us towards the shallows of an abyss, as the simple number line expands into the complex plane. Stranger still, that plane is INHABITED, filled with microbe-like entities, among others, waiting to be reified by the right algorithmic invocation. Each work in this apeirographic series is at once a dynamic work of art and an interactive instrument of insight into some of the biomorphic inhabitants of the mathematical realm. Touch the centre to pause and resume the dynamic aspects of the Thereidoscope. Touch the top and bottom to zoom into and out of the biomorphs shown, and the sides to reset the zoom level. Every Thereidoscope is a work of generative fine art and a thoughtful example of slow art, aiming to intertwine the benefits of static and dynamic works, creating an ever-changing experience tempered by aesthetic cohesion that offers something new every time one looks, but without loudly demanding constant attention.  Being resolution, aspect ratio, and framerate independent, Thereidoscopes offer a visually consistent experience on different devices and screen sizes; but are intended to be experienced on large, high resolution displays as long-term/permanent installation pieces.

Thereidoscope

Departing from generative art’s focus on the size and variety of algorithmic outputs, Coalition contains just 36 geometric creations. Every mint is composed of unique combinations of line, shape, and color, making them artworks unto themselves. However, just as significant as the individual mints is the larger series of which they are each a part. When viewed collectively as a 6x6 grid, the 36 tokens make up a larger, single artwork, the titular Coalition. Patterns and palettes that exist across different tokens come together seamlessly in the Coalition, allowing users to recognize their mint as an indispensable element of the coherent whole.

By highlighting the inextricable relationship between the single set and its 36 components, Coalition suggests that storytelling must play a vital role in the future of generative art. The medium’s current emphasis on long-form algorithmic exploration has come at the expense of narrative craft. While long-form algorithmic exploration has produced groundbreaking artwork and will continue to do so, our project urges practitioners and collectors to consider generative art’s capabilities outside of replicating the look of analog media. Instead of attempting a mimesis of old modes of production, Coalition foregrounds the stories about human experience that emerge when artists free their code from the burden of replicating paint and paper. We ask, does the “art” in generative art refer to the algorithm, or the outputs?

To encourage artists and collectors to value storytelling and limitation in their NFTs, Coalition doubles as performance art. While the set is limited to 36 mints, a 37th is available for purchase. The collector who buys the final token will find only an error message. The algorithm self-destructs after mint #35. Read about why we chose to do this [here](https://medium.com/@generativeartworks/from-reservation-to-coalition-the-stories-that-generative-art-can-tell-d5466e7ba15b).

There can be no avant-garde because everything has been done.
—Pedro Friedeberg

Coalition

Inspired by the bright lights of the big city, Time Squared is an homage to New York City, brought to life through the magic of prime numbers. 

A key problem that we wanted to solve with this project is allowing visually impaired individuals to enjoy our art. As a result, these artworks feature a first-of-its-kind screen reader which contains a detailed description of the colors, movement, size, and structure of the artwork. You can activate it by enabling a screen reader such as ChromeVox and hovering over the artwork. 

Use any key to pause the artwork, or click to make it full screen. Photosensitive warning: These artworks contain flashing colors and moving patterns that could trigger seizures for people with visual sensitivities.

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24 Heures #70

Alexis André

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