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

24 Heures

Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #118 instructs executors to connect randomly-placed points with straight lines, on a continuous surface of wall. Art Blocks Project #118 imagines that seminal artwork executed on complex, algorithmically-generated walls.

LeWitt Generator Generator

Sail-o-bots try to combine but also spare concepts, perceptions and even basic human need based on Maslow's hierarchy. They are the mischief of the sea, have their own tiny boats to sail but they prefer to stand still, and watch the sunset. Until the next day comes, Sail-o-bots wait, they do not eat, they do not sleep, that's why they are on edge from time to time. Do not judge them quickly. Each bot has its own messages if you want to take or they are just shiny stuff you can stare at. Sail-o-bots cannot stay at a same style, that is who they are, they might be called inconsistent, but it has advantages, having multiple disciplines is really important for them, they will never stop trying to discover more. They will always be going back and forward around several versions, do not think that they will stop at one since they discover themselves, which is probably never.

sail-o-bots is based on the original generative project Strange Robots by Che-Yu Wu (https://twitter.com/Majer666666) Source code derived from https://openprocessing.org/sketch/1150492 under CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. Modifications include: custom botGlasses variable added with 3 different cases; custom botLips variable added with 3 different cases; 10 sets of custom colors added; antennas, ear and nose size and geometric shape types updated.

sail-o-bots

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

In this collection, each mark on the digital canvas is made by text of the algorithm that created it. When viewing Symbol 1, you’re viewing its code – logic becoming art.

If you look closely at an oil painting you may see brushstrokes. If you look closely at an iteration of Symbol 1, you'll see snippets of the code that generates the piece itself: text from for() loops repeated over and over; the Random() function itself weaving through the piece; and the hash code, like an artist signature, displayed on the bottom right.

Organic and mechanical forces have long been in tension in art and architecture. Art nouveau's floral  curves vs. art deco's industrial geometry, Jackson Pollock's declaration “I am nature” vs. Andy Warhol's confession “I want to be a machine,” etc.

This conversation continues in generative art. One collection might appear surprisingly organic, as if crafted by hand; another might appear strictly computer generated, showing the expressive power of machines.

Symbol 1 joins this conversation, offering another way to synthesize the natural and the mechanical. Just as a crashing ocean wave could be explained mathematically by the forces that generated it, an image in Symbol 1 appears almost chaotic while revealing the logic that created it.

About the title: Symbol 1 is a term from First Principles, a chapter in The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) by George Boole, a founder of modern logic. For Boole, “symbol 1” represents “the Universe comprehending every conceivable class of objects, whether actually existing or not.”

Art Blocks Presents

24 Heures #71

Alexis André

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LeWitt Generator Generator

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