Laurent Houdard

December 2021 — October 2022

Four events in the summer of 2022 placed fxhash-based generative art in the spotlight, putting the relationship between the legacy art world and generative art community into focus. While large legacy art world institutions (Art Basel, Sotheby's, Christie's) have begun embracing on-chain generative art, the dealer sector remains skeptical. How can a bridge of appreciation be built between these worlds to ensure an inclusive future of creativity?

A companion piece to episode 36 of our weekly podcast. Follow along while you listen to the show, and consider purchasing this article to help support the show!

Breeding Grounds is inspired by the assumption that both the brain and the cosmic web are very similar in structural design. This can also be found in many other subsystems of the universe, such as Social Networks or molecular clouds. Thereby either biological or physical factors play a role and influence these systems in a certain way which leads to these similarities. Breeding Grounds should not be another fractal algorithm, but more an abstract idea of the topic. Especially since a distinction must be made between fractal systems (self-similar) and those described above (not self-similar). Fractal systems are an important component of the universe, therefore I didn't want to leave them unmentioned at least in a lyrical way.

Some artworks are still mysteries to me, and Contrapuntos is one of them. It was this piece that made me fall in love with generative art. It was this work that gave me this sparking moment when I came to understand not just intellectually, but at my very soul, how an artist's imagination, algorithms, and randomness play together in generative art to create beauty and meanings. And yet it turned out to be the most challenging piece to describe in writing. As I looked at it, thoughts and words vanished and a sense of joyful silence filled my mind. As much as I wanted to share it, I struggled to find the right words.

I am immensely excited that after being with fxhash since the start, almost ten months later, I am joining the team to wear my many hats full-time! This means I will engage with the team behind the scenes and continue my work with total commitment. Just as importantly, going full-time allows me to further immerse myself within our community to continue building a platform that best represents the needs and wants of the creators, collectors, and curators who call fxhash home.

A companion piece to episode 37 of our weekly podcast. Follow along while you listen to the show, and consider purchasing this article to help support the show!

Taking place at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, the NFT Show Europe has a special focus on generative art. Taking inspiration from the location's name, we curated an exhibition titled "Arts and Sciences". The exhibition features five projects, all quite different from each other, but with a common element of exploring the intersection of technology and aesthetics.

Mikkel Hansen is a physicist who went into data science and now spends the majority of his spare time doing generative art. They are from Denmark and have grand plans for the future of their creating. Collecting this article gives you a chance to win some original works from Mikkel Hartmann.

A companion piece to episode 40 (!!!) of the weekly podcast, Waiting To Be Signed. Follow along while you listen to the show, and consider purchasing this article to help support the show!

No one sees the imperfections like the artist does, but is there a way to reach perfection?

A short essay about how generative art sits in the greater context of art, and how it's been shaped through 2021 and 2022 by the blockchain and NFTs.

👋 fx(update) is a community newsletter bringing you platform updates, bug fixes, integrations, upcoming product releases, and more. This issue covers upgrades from our recent development cycle, a recap of Live Minting Experiences, new team hires, and a sneak peek at the fxhash 1-year anniversary plans.

WTBS is celebrating a year of fxhash with platform founder, and returning guest, ciphrd. Join us as we look back at the 1.0 features, talk about the greater market, and look ahead at what's to come in year two. Interested in fx(params), consumable tokens, and the future of live events? Read the interview below to learn more and, as always, collecting this article is one of the best ways to support the show!

The question I had on my mind when starting this process was whether a natural language processing AI like GPT-3 could be creative. One of the avenues that ended up being disappointing was the creation of metaphors and poetry. GPT would combine and rearrange existing metaphors into semi-meaningful sentences, sometimes outright stealing poetry. Unlike DALL.E 2, GPT is only able to generate text and not diffuse/generate images. To circumvent this, I decided to try to make it create generative artworks from the p5js JavaScript library. I knew GPT could create simple code and source it from a large codebase already presents in the training data. What I wanted to see was whether I could push the system to produce something that could be considered “original”. This article follows selected inputs and outputs from the generative art journey between GPT-3 and me, a collaborative article. I have never written a line of Javascript code in my life. (Free mint on my page!)

Our 50th weekly episode and you know the drill. In addition to the top projects of the week, intrepid podcasters WillPop and Trinity discuss new fxhash / AB crossovers, just who is Ty Vek, and, of course, Warrior Nun. Follow along while you listen to the show, and always consider collecting to support.

We know that generative art has a rich history, but what of generative music? It too shares a rich history, yet remains a passive subcomponent within generative arts, playing an auxiliary role, or even, occasionally, added to works as an afterthought. Yet I’ve found many examples -- on both Ethereum and Tezos -- where musical elements have become more of the primary focus. Join me as I rifle through some select choices, after offering a bit of history and context to it all.

A systematic deconstruction of output #317 of Piter Pasma's Universal Rayhatcher project, "castle" by StrangerintheQ.