yo, yo, Ruth, what's up, man? You there?
Yo, what's up, man? Yeah, it was just I was waiting for like more people to join before getting started. What's good, man?
Yeah, good, man. Yeah, just was curious. I like how things are going and like, yeah
I'm well, man. I'm I'm doing good. I was just I was hanging out for a bit and what it goes discord this morning
Just going through like kind of the final like rarity of the collection. Um,
Whitelist is is gonna end up working out
Um, just preparing and stuff. You know what I mean, dude? Yeah
Yeah, bro. Like it's getting close, huh?
Like one week or something
Six days now six days, man. Uh, i'm super excited. I
Really feel confident in the work. Uh, oh wait, right like this month has like a few days last year. I forgot, man
Yeah, yeah, yeah february. Uh, we we actually I think it's a leap year. Oh, yeah, true. You're right
I just see it like in the calendar. Yeah, it's leap year. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get uh 29th, uh this year. Yeah
It's exciting man, it's very exciting. Oh, yeah
Yeah, bro, I can't wait bro, like i'm happy to like be a collector of your art and
The next project was really good as well bro, so yeah
Thank you, dude. It's exciting to see you like grow, you know, like you can really see like
You improving like as an artist, you know, like i don't know bro, like the way like you really do the art like with
Coding and stuff like I like that a lot with odors out boots and like yeah, like I like that
It's going to be interesting right because I don't think there's a lot of like art that that is
That is like really true generative art on so now I think a lot of it is like mostly ai stuff
So it's going to be a lot of fun releasing
Uh an algo that i'm really proud of uh on salona and increasing the supply a bit from constructs, right?
And then also like, you know, uh being able to reward the the folks who uh have held their constructs
By giving them like whitelist and whatnot like that's gonna be
But um, yeah, man, no, so, uh, I just wanted to hold this space because I had a couple people DMing me about like
You know, what are the whitelist mechanics going to be?
Uh, what time is the drop going to be all that stuff?
Kind of like working through some of those details, but also like I have a pretty good idea generally of like what that's going to look
Should be good, man. Um, it's going to be very similar to constructs
So it's going to be launching on metaplex's new platform
The team over at metaplex approached me a couple weeks ago and they were like, um,
Hey, you know for your next mint, you know, do you want to?
uh time it around the same as uh our drop and for me that kind of like meant like
Putting in a lot of hours to get everything ready
But also a little more than happy to do that because you know, i'm passionate about the work and uh, it's been it's been fun
Well, what was it called from metaplex a new thing? How is it called? Their new platform is called truffle
Truffle. Yeah, I I think I saw it. You mentioned it but like
Yeah, their new platform is called truffle it's uh
It's a nice platform. Honestly, like uh, they redid the ui but essentially all of the back end on their side
Um is staying roughly the same
Unlike the the mechanics and stuff
Like it's better the way that more people come in, huh?
Yeah, yeah, let's uh, give it like I don't know like a couple minutes just to see like, uh, when people come in and then
We'll talk about the algo a little bit. We'll talk about uh, kind of like how rarity is going to work
Talk about like inspiration, um for these pieces
Kind of do some q and a uh as well
Let's give it like four or five minutes and then we'll start up
Thank you for being here though. 71 70. I appreciate you dude. No problem. You being a collector and always like, uh,
Just being supportive of my work
Oh, yeah, bro, like yeah, bro
Like the moment we met like in the froganas row, I always like I I felt like a vibe like you're a guru like
Yeah, so why like it's like it makes sense to support like people like you so
All right, I don't want to set in silence so I think we're just going to go ahead and get started
Thank you everyone for for showing up. Um, just going to be holding kind of like a
Q and a uh as far as like the currents drop
And we'll be talking through like I mean if anybody wants to come up and just sort of like ask any questions, uh, feel free
You know getting started. Um, so obviously like currents is uh, the second work that i'm going to be releasing uh on salon
A flow field based algorithm, um that i've been working on for
About a month and a half maybe longer. Uh, let's see
I started working on it like second week of january a little bit before constructs came out. So
I put probably somewhere in between like 250 and 300 hours into it at the end of the day
Um as far as like developing the algorithm and curation and the whole nine yards there
Um, i'm pretty stoked on it. I like the outputs
um, I think the art really speaks for itself, um, and
I'm excited about it. Uh, like i'm super excited about it. Honestly, I think there's not a lot of stuff, uh on salona
Um that is uh similar to it
Um, and i'm i'm very pleased with how it all came together. Uh, so
Uh, it's kind of cool to only see like, uh, you know, like seven people in here and shout out like whetico stone vc
Um, uh jd black long, uh, all you guys are
unironically like very early
thinking through like I guess like to start like um
The the I guess, you know, we'll start with the most pertinent stuff, right?
It's like so what is the idea behind currents, right? So the idea behind currents, uh constructs was kind of like boiling down
Currents is more about like talking about the flow and movement of them
Like some sort of like liquid substrate, right? So, um, it's actually uh
Construct currents and control are going to be like a full trilogy of work
basically, uh, if you want to guarantee a mint slot, uh for
Uh currents the only way to do so, uh is by holding
A construct right and that's going to give you the ability to have like guaranteed white lists, right and going forward
That's going to be like a theme, uh in my work
Um, is that if you want to collect future pieces, uh, the best way to do so
Um is going to be to hang on to your work, right? Um, and so
uh for control, uh, which probably is uh going to come out, uh sometime in the summer like june july it's going to be
A bit of like breathing time. Um, I haven't even started working on it
and I I really like want that one as well to
Just uh, you know keep leveling up my game, right? Like if you look at uh constructs and then you look at currents
You can see that there's like very clear progression
there in terms of uh, like the technicality of the work and so, um
basically for control you're going to need a a construct and a current to be uh on white lists and
Anybody who only owns like one or the other. Um, those slots will likely be raffled
Um, we're going to keep the collection sizes, uh always
Around like a thousand going forward
I think that offers a nice like sweet spot in terms of like
And uh, like number of people who can kind of like get involved with the work
Um, i'm going to be updating my site soon, uh with more of the the details, um and more examples of currents
But i've been posting them all over the timeline
And the response that i've gotten has been pretty awesome. Um, so i'm stoked on that
i've relentlessly curated the collection, um, and I I think that that is going to show for a lot of people when they're
Finally able to to view the work and load it up on, you know
Their their exchange of choice and kind of like look through it and whatnot
details post mint for launching on like magic eden and uh tensor
Same thing as currents they're going to be available. I mean same thing as constructs. They're going to be available, uh immediately afterward
the the day that constructs launched we had a bit of a
Like a weird day on salona where uh, there was like an airdrop that was going on at the time
That caused a lot of the rpc nodes to kind of like, uh, I don't know just go haywire
Uh something that hopefully we don't have to deal with this time
Um, which is going to be great
But yeah, it's going to be launching on the new
Metaplex creator studios, uh platform, which is truffle
um, like I was saying a second ago like all of the the back end for truffle is essentially the same
And so there's just going to be uh, like pnft's uh on salona
If you're curious about like samples of the work, like please like by all means go look through my twitter
I've been posting quite a bit of it
And you know, like I said, if you want to guarantee a whitelist spot
The only way to do so is going to be to hold a construct
I'm going to be doing a couple of like spaces and interviews like throughout the week
help with that like marketing and promotion push and kind of like
Give people a bit of insight as to like, uh, what went into the development, uh of this work
If you don't know about me
Briefly about myself like i've been involved in the blockchain space since about 2016
I've been a software engineer since like 2013 2014
Was a part of two startups, uh one like successful exit that I exited in 2021
Um, and I basically went full-time with three in 2021 as well
Um, I got super into nft's
over the summer of 2021 stuff like board apes were like minting and
Uh whatnot I mean, I didn't get into more hate mint
But I did buy around like three to five east picked up two apes then
I was trading the the whole nifty gateway stuff way back in the the spring of that year, uh, december of that year
Yeah, I mean it's just kind of been like a beautiful experience ever since then I got to see art blocks kind of like play out
Um, I I come from the east side of things
But I think salona is like a very promising, uh sort of environment
Um, and I made a lot of like really great connections, uh via my time, uh in the nft space. Um,
I uh went to school for for game design, um way back in like, uh 2010 2011
That curriculum was about like 50 coding 50 art
Um, I thought coding would be the more pragmatic approach
Uh toward my career. Um, and so that's why I kind of like pursued that as an avenue when I eventually did like get into
the workforce and whatnot
A lot of that was art though a lot of the 50
The other 50 was like art history courses design courses studio courses that kind of thing
Um, and i've always just had appreciation for for pretty things, right? So
I I don't know like I it's weird to kind of come up here and monologue and talk about myself
But I I want to just uh, give people as much information as possible
So I guess like uh, the mint's gonna happen on friday, right? It's gonna happen. Uh 10 a.m. PST
First two hours of it are going to be for construct holders, uh to mint their pieces
Um, the way that this works is one construct equals, uh, one currents whitelist mint spot, right? So
There's no cap on that. Uh, you can basically collect as many constructs as you want
Um, and that will guarantee you a number of minute the number of mints
The uh, the mint price is going to be uh, the same for everyone across the board
I think 0.5 is like more than fair, uh given the uh, the work that i've put into this
Um, it's like one of those things where like I want to
Offer, uh something that's like affordable, but also like very very high quality. I'm very concerned with uh quality
Pretty much everything I draw, right? So
I don't want this to be too long and I know we're already like 20 minutes in and I want to leave like a ton
Of room for like anybody to come up and like ask questions and just kind of uh, pick my brain about like anything
Regarding currents or generative art or we can talk influences. We can talk. Um, pretty much about
Whatever you want. Um, so
71 70 I know you were the first to request up if anybody else wants to request up
Uh come up and we can talk mint details. We can talk art we can talk
Uh the process I can go over uh different pieces of the algorithm, uh for you and kind of like explain like what it's doing
We can talk pallets we can talk whatever. Um, so uh, yeah, uh 71 70 what's up, man? How's it going?
Yeah, chilling man. Like yeah, I enjoyed uh you explaining and like I don't have a lot of questions
I'm just really excited bro. So
Hell yeah, dude, that seems to be the vibe and that's like awesome
I'm like very very stoked on that to be honest, like uh, i'm really grateful for everybody who showed up for constructs
um and just in general to have a lot of people around me, uh in the space who support my work
And who i've developed relationships with and who like i'm excited to produce work for um, I think
It's really special like the nft space is the only place where you can do that like over the internet. Um, so yeah
All right, i'm gonna start inviting some of you people up then some of the some of you guys that spam out invites because uh,
I don't want to say there's nothing to talk about but like also like if you want me to I could just go like deep into
Like mumbo jumbo, but also I don't want to bore people
All right. So now it's for me
It's all google like if you want to explain more about the technical stuff like I enjoy like you explaining that stuff. So
All right, cool. We got whetico up here whetico. What's up, man? What's up root?
What's that? I love your rundown just your uh introduction and you're talking about the project
I've liked on it. You know this
I was just in in whetico's discord for the last couple of hours and we were kind of like chopping it up
He actually helped me with something with regarding whitelist, uh that I didn't know that I could do on metaplex
So nice, uh, that was very helpful
whetico is a an awesome artist on salana, I love collecting his work, um got a bunch of guides and uh
Some other like one-on-one stuff that he's done and it's it's still not gonna lie
I still remember the day you like DM me like get some bro
Like and until this day like I keep looking back and like fuck when I faded like that cold back in the day, bro
Like yeah, and like the art really grew on me, bro
And like now it's like at that high floor already like I just hope like to
Yeah to get to get one soon as well. Like it's a nice collection for sure
Allie, what's up? How you doing?
Hey root. I'm good. How are you?
I'm well, um, I was told uh earlier today like via DMS
like I should be like holding like Q&A spaces for like people to like come up and kind of like ask questions and
Get ready for the mint and all that stuff
So I just wanted to make sure that I was like being uh available
Uh for that sort of thing and ready to discuss everything and whatnot and not gonna lie
It's a little nerve-wracking because i'm a bit of an introvert, but like we hung out the other night for a while
Um, and and that was a vibe in the alpha vibe spaces, um, and that was awesome. Um, shout out that whole crew
Yeah, no, you're doing great. And I think uh Q&A is wonderful because you have something amazing to share
Um, so hopefully for those that don't know much about it can come and learn for those that do know and want to support
Um, I know I saw that you're in here. So I wanted to come and show my support
But I was talking to my sisters and some of my friends about your art and I said this is
Something huge already and it's gonna get even bigger just because it's beautiful
And you're doing something purposeful behind it. It's not just
You trying to sell artwork if there's meaning behind your work, um, and you have a lot of passion behind it
for currents and I love my construct and
I saw that AV group picked up a bunch of their constructs
And I swear every single one that they picked was one I looked at that I really liked
I mean, they're all amazing, but they like picked my top five
Oh, yeah, I love that and I love the the vibes in in AV like
remember hanging out with a lot of those guys in the mutant Mondays chat with like outer lumen and like divide and
Yeah, rook and there's just like a whole bunch of like good people around there
Yeah, glass spies in there as well have known glass spies since uh, basically like 2021
Um, so it's like a good collection of like new friends old friends and like it's the best to have friends collect your work
You know, like I think community is like super important
I know like my community is kind of quiet, right?
Like if you're in my discord, like it's a quieter discord
But also like I feel like that's kind of a good thing, right?
Like people get overloaded a lot of the time like trying to keep up with like different stuff and whatnot
I just kind of want to offer art to the the community and uh
Be a resource for them. Um, and
I don't know just cultivate something that's like, you know quiet but also like very beautiful on its own, right?
You find your tribe in this space
And I think you get attracted to like-minded people, you know
Absolutely. Yeah, I would agree with that
It's funny like the other night after the the av space
I like hopped off for like an hour because uh, I was just like burnt out on spaces for a bit
But then uh later on in the night i'm like sitting in my bed watching anime and I see uh, there's like a lost
tape space going right and that's uh
Uh Demi's like, you know, you know like the other space, right?
Like the kind of like not recorded like later on space after alpha vibes
And I just went back in there and uh chilled with him and see elf for a bit and we were talking like
I don't know just bull market things and just it was it was a lot of fun. It was a good vibe
That's not recorded. We call it lost tapes. Yes
Yeah, so, uh, all right, um, what cool stuff can I tell you about currents that you guys don't already know?
Okay, so I kind of gave like a brief rundown of like the traits
Earlier in in the week right where I made a post, you know, it's like
Kind of bull posting my own stuff. I'm very excited about this project
I legitimately think this is the best art that i've ever created in my life
And i'm like super excited to get it out there
Um, i've gotten to show it to a couple people. So like, you know, whetico, uh kind of like got a tour of it this morning
Uh, I hopped on a call with glass earlier in the week and we kind of like chopped it up and that was a lot of fun
And then there's been like a couple of other people who have like reached out to me and just like hey, man
Like let's like, you know learn about each other and kind of like, uh,
Feel each other out and like let's see, you know, like what what you've been working on, right?
Let's think like where did the inspiration for currents come from currents came from like, uh study on like jackson pollock actually, right?
So like one night i'm i'm sitting in my room and i'm like looking, um at uh, this dude steve from maker space
Uh, basically like I I had wanted to emulate, uh
Jackson pollock's painting style in code and it's kind of funny because it like became this entirely different thing, right?
Like I don't think they like really look like pollocks
Like after some evolution of the algorithm, there's there's been like 15 different versions of this algorithm
I have one version where it's animated. Uh, I had to basically like resize the entire
Like canvas of the algorithm which like threw off a bunch of the math that I was doing behind the scenes with it
um, it's all hand coded if you're not familiar with my work, like um,
I I have been a software engineer for for years and years and uh,
Generative art is just like a way that like I can keep myself from uh,
Like over trading especially in like bull markets, right or or even in bear markets
Like this is when I august 2022 is when I got like really into kind of just like starting to create
generative art on the computer
But uh, where was I going with this and by the way, we have new people up here. So pop a bearded
What's up, man? I don't follow you. But now i'm gonna follow you what's going on. How you doing?
Oh, i'm just popping in to give you some cues to your a
Uh, I think we connected at one point
On your last drop. I was we were vibing and brought up some projects, uh back on fx hash
That resonated back in the day. So we we put out at least in one other space
But oh sick, man. Yeah. No, actually, I remember exactly what you're talking about. You pointed out. Uh, like one of the algos that was on fx hash that
Kind of reminded you of of my drop and we went and like we looked through it together and it was it was a fun time
Yeah, absolutely. Exactly. Exactly. I I wouldn't say I know very much about generative art and I I never got super into fx hash
But that being said like currents looks
Amazing. It's like there's such a diversity in the exploration that you're offering here
Uh, and so one of the questions truffle, huh?
That's going to be your your mint partner
Yeah, so uh truffle is the new metaplex creator studio
So like uh, i've known about metaplex, uh since like 2021, uh being on salona for for a while there
Um, I kind of left solanas for the end of the bull market because things got kind of dicey underneath 200 bucks and my
Entry wasn't as good as a lot of people, uh on solana
So, you know, I I definitely played around with the tech, uh on solana back in the day like, uh using candy machines and stuff
Like that and so like i've always had a deep respect for the metaplex team and uh working with those guys. Um,
They have a different kind of outlook than a lot of these like other launch pads that exist within the ecosystem
And so like ideologically we just kind of like aligned being like both very like technical, uh in nature
And I appreciate their contributions to the solana community. And so, um, i'm like very honored to be uh selected to
To be a part of their their new platform. Um, and I expect like a lot of really cool things to drop on truffle and I think
uh truffle is just in general like a really nice platform to use um for creating nfts on solana it abstracts so much responsibility from
Uh whoever's developing it and you basically, you know, you have your metadata ready you have your images ready and they handle
all of the linking of the the images to to ipfs
And and that's just you know, phenomenal, right? It's like one less thing that I have to worry about. So
yeah, big fan of the metaplex team and
That's that's why uh, i'd be launching on on truffle
Well, it's a really clean ai too. So I I can see it working really well for this drop and
You know having missed your last one i'm i'm trying not to replicate that mistake
Oh, yeah, man, uh, what what what do you mean clean ai? Sorry, I I just you ui you use ux
Their design team is phenomenal. So like actually, um
The guys who are doing their ux are like also affiliated with like clano's
They uh, I I respect like the clano team a lot in terms of like the I was just commenting
In a different discord on on their website, um, and they do a really good job
Visually kind of like explaining
You know what they do and they just have great user experience and great attention to detail. So
Um, i'm super stoked on that and i'm super stoked to to be able to launch like a very quality drop like on their platform
Beautiful beautiful, um, I had to dig to the the tweet yesterday to find it
Are there like links that are going to show up in your pin and you're going to have new tweets and all that sort of stuff
So relatively i'm still trying to like drink from the fire hose getting my feet under me and salana
So it's like just how how do you expect someone coming in who may not know about the project to be able to get up to speed?
Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good question. Um
So I think in terms of like setting up like a wallet on salana and stuff like that
Like I would recommend using phantom wallet. I know a bunch of people like using soul flare
I've had soul flare get recommended to me a lot and for a lot of people
I think this will be their their first uh, salana drop
Um, because a lot of my following is like more on the east side of things
Um, but I also think like, you know when you're doing, uh, low cost, uh kind of mints
like it's important to take into consideration the cost of like things like gas and whatnot for for minting
Um, and so salana just has a really clean nft ecosystem. I think like tensor is a great platform magic. Eden is a great platform
Um, and I don't want people like having failed transactions if they all go to mint something
And basically like, you know wasting money that they don't need to be um
And I also just i'm really bullish on salana as like a chain, right? Like I think salana
Uh offers like a very unique experience and that as liquidity grows there like it's gonna offer a lot to the greater crypto community
Um, so i'm kind of like torn between two worlds right now in between eath and salana
But like just bullish the blockchain in general as I have been for many years at this point
Super helpful and i'm glad you're saying this on a recorded line. I was actually saying more you as the creator. Um, yeah, I mean i've been
Menting my own stuff on salana for like two years now
But uh, if I came to your your page and like I pull up your your pin tweet
It's like oh, there's no there's no link and i'll fly. Where are you gonna be? I bought the
The link tree and i'm like, oh I see constructs
Where's where's the new drop, you know, i'm getting the fomo already. So I guess that's just a little bit of feedback
Man, that's like excellent feedback to be honest beard. Like uh, i'm really glad you brought that up
I do need to do a bit more writing and explaining on
My website so if you want to learn more about me the best place to do that is kind of uh
I have my website linked in my link tree
Um, you can kind of get a feel for who I am as a person
Uh on that um kind of like where I come from and how I feel about art and kind of like
What i've worked on in my journey and whatnot as an artist
Um, that's probably the best place to get started. But as far as like an actual write-up, uh for currents yet
There's there's not there's not one yet. Um, there there will be one posted soon
That's a really important like thing to to do. I think is uh, kind of like
When we're talking about art and so uh similar to how constructs has one right now on my website. There will be one for currents
probably either later today or tomorrow, um, and i'll translate that into a thread on twitter as well that then I can pin and
kind of like get people to uh
recognize more of the backstory and definitely the work that was put into it as well because
I've just been so focused on the work that also like now that the work is essentially done
I'm like switching into kind of like more marketing and documentation mode
Right, which is like it's weird context switching as an artist
You probably get this since you really sent a tease beard
But like there's this whole like uh dynamic where like you're like heavy into
Uh creation mode and getting everything perfect there and then you finally hit this point where it's like, okay now it's like networking
marketing and documentation mode to make sure that like, you know, everything goes smoothly and so
That write-up will be coming soon, man
Absolutely, and it's not as sexy. It's just not as fun. It's really bad. I'd much rather be creating than
than messing around with writing about uh, you know, because
It's interesting right because like I have this idea of what it is, right?
But I don't know how clearly that idea is illustrated. Um via
uh, the messaging and the communication that I put out right and
You know, it's art is as much about the context
And as much about the artist as it is about the actual work itself, right?
So I think that you know, i'm really glad that you raised that point
That's something that i'm gonna kind of like take home and work on
Pleasure notifications around looking forward to seeing how this goes
Hell yeah, dude. Thank you
Uh papa bearded. I may have missed it, but do you have a construct yet?
Yeah, no, I I whiffed on those uh, and
Truth be told i'm i'm trying to save up a little bit of a soul balance. Um,
Word on the street is where he's dropping a a duck. Uh, bun
next week or the week after
Uh, I mean i've got two little kids, but but they won't be in college for a while. So I think i'm probably okay there
That's good to hear I just got my first construct last night and I love it
Um, so keep your eye peeled and for anyone in the audience that doesn't have one
I would get one now because
I think it's only up from here price wise
They're just so beautiful
And he's such a solid artist and a solid
Person like I I will back people like rue all day
I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Halle
Have you announced a mint price for uh currents, yeah, so uh currents are going to be 0.5 soul
Okay, so I definitely gotta leave notifications on them because those are gonna go
I mean, I don't I don't really comment on like pricing of like any of my work. It just doesn't feel right. Um, but i'm
Pretty reasonably certain that like I I have uh, like i'm building something that's cool. Um, that will that will
You know at the end of the day, right like people got to do what's right for them, right?
So like I don't know like everybody's liquidity situation
I just want to make sure that nobody's overextending themselves and um is able to collect work that they enjoy right regardless of price action
Stone vc. What's good, man? I'm glad we finally get to talk. What's up? What up root? How we doing brother?
Well, I say sunny it's kind of foggy up but also i'm doing well, man. I'm i'm excited. Where are you? Are you in cali?
No, i'm up in washington. I'm like right outside seattle basically
yeah, so I just had a couple I mean, I would love to hear more about the technical aspects of
making the currents and then maybe um
a little bit of help like, you know if you wanted to end up printing these out and
You know going about that like it'd be great to hear the best resources for
Getting the high res and scaling and all that type of stuff. Oh, absolutely, man. I'm so glad you brought that up. Uh, and yeah, I would
Love to I don't know if you were offering to help or if you needed some help, but I can do either
Both okay. Excellent. So currents are 25 20 by 33 60
Right. Originally the algorithm was written for 1500 by 2000
But I noticed there were some weird issues with integer and integer interpolation
Inside of the algorithm, right?
So one of the interesting things about currents is that everything is stepped via fibonacci values, right?
If you're a trader in the space
And you use fibonacci numbers or even if you're an artist in the space and you like
Know about like the golden ratio and all these things like so
Fibonacci numbers are just patterns that appear in nature consistently that produce
interesting and varied visual results
And so every number inside of the current algorithm is actually a fibonacci value
And so I dubbed this technique fibonacci stepping right and part of that comes from like my background
being kind of like trading focused
But also I think it produces
A really unique variation inside of the art. So as far as the uh, that was off on a tangent, right?
But they're 25 20 by 33 60
Um, so they're fairly high res as is right like when I was creating the collection I create on like a 40 inch. Uh, oled
Panel right a 40 inch 4k oled panel. So they take up most of the screen. They're they're pretty large
Like I said earlier like originally they were going to be 1500 by 2000 now. They're a bit higher res than that
Um, I have played with throwing them through
Some like upscaling methods
And they actually do like very very well with that. There's no like weird color banding or anything like that
and so i'm actually really excited to see what they look like as prints and to be honest like
Post mint like there's definitely a couple that like I think this is like one of the first pieces that like i've produced that like
you know, not that I wouldn't like hang up my other pieces as well, like I would but
uh, I I am definitely going to print some of these out in like
Big format and like hang them above my bed and in my living room some in the office that kind of thing like i'm
Very stoked to do that and I highly recommend
Other people kind of like pursue that avenue as well
And what's the best like I don't know how do you go about
Printing and you just like send them to fedex kinkos and have them printed on nice paper and stuff like that
So actually like this would be something that like the last time I printed like a large amount of works, right? Like it was actually um
There's a a person down there arian, right? Um, we we had developed an nft project on eth together, uh, probably about three years ago
And we ended up sending out close to like 2000 prints and we had to be very careful about like selecting the correct type of paper
And the correct quality that these prints were were issued on
And so like I mean you could go the whole fedex kinkos route
But this is actually a really interesting topic and it's probably something that like, uh, if we want to touch base, uh, like in discord
I would definitely be more than happy to especially if you have connections in that industry stone because
When you're printing stuff, whether it's on like canvas or paper or what have you like it's important to be able to illustrate the quality
Um of the work, uh in that because you know, it's one thing to illustrate it digitally but doing it on print
There's a lot of like small gotchas that you have to be aware of and I I haven't really like given much thought as to like
You know, I wouldn't basically like shop around myself, but also like if people wanted their currents
Uh printed I would like to set up some way that would be easy for them to get a quality
Kind of like out of the box plug and play experience to be able to get this work framed for their home
Um, I would love to see some of these on like glass too, dude
I think on glass like the one that uh pop a beard is on top of things. He's he's helping me out. He pinned, uh,
the the uh the truffle launch page, uh to the top
and like something like that, uh
Current like that with the chromatic palette on glass would be like an absolutely lovely piece to I think have in your home
I think those metal posters. This would be fire on those metal posters too. Have you ever seen those?
Like it's like printed on metal and then they have this magnet thing in the back
And you stick a magnet to your wall and it's a metal poster. It's fantastic
um, I can't remember the company that i've ordered a couple for some of my friends as gifts
And they turn out so nice. So maybe something else to look into if you want a
Really sharp piece for your currents
Yeah, that that sounds amazing. Um, I have I don't have any experience with the the metal
But like just even thinking about that like that sounds like it could be like very nice. So
Uh, if you guys have print suggestions by all means please throw them in my dms
And i'd be more than happy to like explore that and like try and point people in the right direction
Maybe we get like a thread going where they can connect with uh, you know print shop themselves. Um
I really don't want to be handling like physicals and shipping
But if it comes down to it and that's like the best way to go about it for the community
Maybe we go that route too
Um, i'm not like totally averse to it
I just know that it's also like a lot of work and I want to sign up for things that I know I can deliver on
rather than uh, kind of like
I appreciate everyone showing up. I see like so many like people who are just like supporters
Uh in the crowd and that that means the world to me. Uh, like very much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart
Um jigsaw out there wetiko
Um alpho mega test glass by lazy sandra. You guys are all like
I mean basically like friends at this point, which is like awesome
Means we've got the homies tight for this drop, right? Which is
Uh, very exciting. Um, I I just wanted to kind of like highlight too. Like uh, all of this is like hand coated, right? So, uh
The result that you're gonna see I think is going to be very interesting compared to a lot of drops that have been happening on soul lately
Just the trait filtering you're going to be able to see
Uh in in certain like parts of the work that there's a lot of consistency across the board while maintaining variation
Um, I really like to to kind of like hammer that home is like what I try and do when i'm writing a generative algo
That's going to comprise a thousand different pieces
Is that it's very important to have diversity inside of your work while also maintaining a consistent theme
Um and and also maintaining control right like control is a very important aspect of generative art
Like I talked about this on the alpha five space the other day
But there were like entire nights where I spent like
Five and a half six hours, you know, like basically modifying decimal point values from like point zero zero four eight eight six two
Uh point zero zero four six one eight and then spending like 30 minutes trying to decide like okay for this particular trait
Uh, does this point zero zero two, you know, two three six or whatever the difference on those it ends up being like does this minimal
Modification actually produce work that I think is aesthetically superior
Um and considering how many traits are in the collection, right? There's like 68 traits in the collection
All of those are fibonacci stepped
Um, you know, it's outside of the pallets. The pallets are not fibonacci stepped obviously
A lot of work to uh to do something like that
And it kind of requires almost like a certain degree of like masochism to an extent, right?
It's like you're looking for such small variations. Uh, and and you're kind of like, uh
You get like almost like glazed over after a certain point you have to kind of come back to it, right?
So like discussing the creative process, right? Like uh in terms of like developing currents
Like what I would generally do is I would uh play with the algo like, uh during the afternoon, right?
And then what I would do is I'd go to
Before I went to sleep I would generate like somewhere in between like a thousand and three thousand, right?
And then I would wake up the next morning and I would go through every single output every single one
um, and I would try and figure out what were the
Aspects of it that I liked and what were the aspects of it that I didn't like and how could I modify the algorithm?
Put out more things that I liked than what I didn't like and going through a thousand plus images
Every single morning for like a couple weeks at a time
Really, we're not even at the point where like the actual collection curation starts. We're still at like curating outputs
Uh for the algo to determine whether or not the the results are aesthetically pleasing
So after you would or after I would curate in the morning, right by the time I was done
It'd usually be like 12 or 1 o'clock, right going through them from like 9 a.m. And then I would
essentially like go back into the algo change the values that I thought I needed to right and especially like
Change other things as well, right?
So it's not just like is the result aesthetically pleasing but does it have the probability of occurring that I would expect
For that particular trait with the vision that i'm going for right?
So trait distribution and generative art is something that I think doesn't get talked about enough
random normal weighted distribution algorithm for
constructs and that same algorithm is being used inside of
currents and basically that's just a fancy way of saying that like
When i'm setting up the potential properties that exist inside of these pieces
There is a probability of them associate a probability of them appearing, right? There is a
Whether that's a hex value whether that's an array that contains different properties
Or whether that's like strictly a numeric value those objects get constructed
Together into an array that sits
As like a possible choice for like a particular trait category, right?
And so this is essentially what like if you're if you're developing like a pfp project quote unquote
What's stuff like like hash lips?
Or like bueno kind of like rap for you behind the scenes. I wrote that from scratch
For for these pieces because I wanted to make sure that they kind of like fit for for what I need, right?
and it's also just very different in terms of like
Generative art versus pfp is the process because you have so many more possible outputs, I think and a lot of generative art
Just because of the entropy that gets introduced at various parts of what you're doing, right? And so like
Perlin noise based effects that are
Based on a property but within a particular range based on Perlin noise
There's like random Gaussian distributions inside of currents as well. Um, that select them on more of like a bell curve
And these are all things that like I had to like think about take into account and then kind of like use
My advantage when I was constructing a particular style of piece
inside of the algorithm, so
Uh, yeah long rant about rarity, but like I think people will be pretty pleased
With the the trait distributions as well
You see, you know even on eth there's a lot of times where like the traits don't necessarily make sense for the art
It's very difficult to pick out
individual elements of the work that are uniquely identifiable
but one thing that I strive for
when i'm creating art is like
Doing that essentially is like I want to build
It all exists within a central like theme but also
That theme needs to have unique things about it that allow people to kind of like resonate across a body of work
Right together with one another right? And so like
I try and express a lot of that through color theory
But there's uh a lot of other elements to it as well
So like speaking of color theory like most of the palettes inside of currents, um are built
Um using like specialized like color software, right?
Um, and this software what it allows me to do is it allows me to lock in certain like hexadecimal values that like
I can then generate like complementary colors, uh alongside, right?
um, and I think that this is like important, uh for the work because like it creates the the kind of like
Uh consistent stepping that you see across the pieces
Rather than just picking out random colors, right?
Like when I started with generative art the first generative art algorithm that I wrote probably back in like 2019
Um, I was basically using just RGB and trying to grab random values for red green and blue, right?
So if you don't know like how RGB works in generative art, right or in just in colors in general, right?
It's like a zero to 255 and you have three colors you have red green and blue, right?
and they they exist on these like zero to 255 scales and
Essentially if you just try and select colors at random from these, right?
You end up with what looks like a lot of noise, right? It ends up looking almost like one of those like
TVs that you know is like broken or something
And that's not a very successful way of doing it, right?
So a lot of the color work inside of both constructs and currents was very meticulously crafted using software specialized
with obviously like my own
Right to create like this certain like steppings and select shades within those colors and even inside of the algorithm
itself a lot of these values
They they start as hex values
But I have a portion of the algorithm
That's a function that converts them to a different color standard called hue saturation and luminance
And the reason that I convert them to hsl is to determine
Which colors in a palette
Exists in particular luminance ranges, right? So I'm able to pick out like dark colors for certain areas
I'm able to pick out light colors for certain areas
And then what that allows me to do is add essentially like highlights to the work, right?
So and this actually brings up like a whole interesting other like kind of thing, right?
And by the way, there's there's 27 of these palettes that exist within the work, right?
So it's not like you're getting like three different palettes or four different palettes
And this is important to producing like the visual variation that you see like with the algo
But another interesting part of that right is like
There's a certain portion at the bottom of the algorithm, right?
That deals with uh, like splatter effects, right?
And so I wrote a custom splatter algorithm to to kind of like emulate a particle system
Right. And so like the way that like particles actually exist in nature, right? You have these like kind of like larger particles
Right and the way that they you know break into pieces is essentially by like
What would be called like nearest neighbor, right?
So like nearest neighbor essentially like allows you to set up like, you know
If something is breaking apart, you kind of want like smaller versions of it all more tightly grouped together
And so there's a whole particle system that exists
At the bottom part of the algorithm like at least inside of the main draw loop, right?
um, but you know, hopefully just me expanding on like these different parts of the algorithm, right like
Talking about the hsl converter talking about the way I build color palettes talking about
You know the the particle system that exists
all of these things the fibonacci stepping they hopefully they provide some sort of context as to like
how this work was constructed and why i'm so proud of this work and why I think that this work is is
interesting and cool and produces the
kind of like visuals that it does right like it was very
Like personally satisfying to me when I got to the point with the algorithm that I could just like
Hit refresh on my p5.js server constantly and be like wow. Every output is like fucking great. Every output is beautiful
You know, this doesn't also get into like the work that goes into like the curation process, too
I don't know somewhere around like five to seven days really of just like doing it for like 10 to 15 hours a day
You know kind of like we're right like you're you're looking at your own
Thousands of different images generated and just trying to pick out the best ones without ruining a probability distribution
And you know, it's a it's an interesting kind of like task, uh to go down. But yeah, that's a lot to chew on
And it's all like pretty technical so
Alpha omega welcome up, dude. I'm so sorry that it took me like fucking like five minutes to even say hello
Alpha shy alpha shy I bored him to death. He's he's asleep now
Am gonna go but I just wanted to say thank you for hosting this space
I'm really excited for march 1st
And if you host another space, hopefully i'll be available to jump on
I appreciate you coming by ellie. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Have a wonderful rest of your day
Oh, uh alpha comments, I don't think alpha is trying to make children sleep. Oh, okay. That makes perfect sense. Um
Yeah, definitely have them listen to me talk about my algorithms then that's you know, 100 put them to sleep. It would be great
Uh rude is a bedtime storyteller. He just talks about math and why colors are the way they are and stuff instead
But uh, no, I appreciate you coming up to support alpha
does anybody else have any like questions whether it's about like, uh, the details for the drop or like
Any questions for me any questions about the art like by all means like this is for you guys
This is like your chance to kind of like
Ask me anything like uh, poke me and kind of like say hey
What about this you can you can literally ask me like whatever you want
Just feel free to request up
And if you're not and you're just supporting and you're vibing that's awesome
um, I appreciate that as well, uh, so many people came through and uh
I'm grateful for all of you. I think the question about the prince was like super awesome
Uh, I need to kind of like work that out in my head
I always kind of think that everybody has like just like a frame that they can put all of these on like a digital frame
And so I forget, you know sometimes like you know, it's actually super cool to have like analog stuff like that pickles. Hell, yeah
Yo, what's up pickles how's it going man
This is actually a good way of doing this as well
Like if you have uh questions, you can totally drop them in the comments of the the pin posts or of the space
And then i'll be able to answer them as well without you having to like come up and speak if you don't want to
So hot boy charlie actually, uh pickles. Did you have a question mate?
Okay, I I can't hear pickles and I don't know if he's talking or not but um
I'm gonna go ahead and answer uh charlie's question
So he goes i'm at work can't get on and speak but where do you see the future of generative art going?
so generative art's really cool, uh
Because like it actually has like a deeper history than I think uh, most people realize right?
So, um, I posted a thread on kind of like, um, you know generative art history 101 like, you know basics of the space
Um a little while ago and i'll retweet that and i'll reply with that, uh when the space is is done
but essentially like um generative art, uh, to me at least my my best approximation is like
Uh people using algorithms to express. Um, kind of like their creativity, right? Um
It's a an interesting form of art that emerged, uh mainly like the 50s and 60s
But it has gotten more and more popular, uh in recent years, especially because of stuff like art blocks
because of artists like uh snow fro
and tyler hobs and dimitri cerniac and uh
Just so many people, um that that have become like legends in the space, right?
And so like where do I see the future of generative art going?
I definitely I think the future of generative art, um is
For now it's going to remain
Kind of like a 2d medium, uh with like 3d kind of like fringes, right? I think uh 3d in animation
Um, you know because generative art, uh, basically like that that's the rules of the game is essentially like is it generated by computer code?
Right and did a human write that computer code?
I mean you can have like sub-genres of generative art as well, right? So like
There's a new sub-genre that's been emerging like generative ai, um and stuff like that
um generative ai is a little bit different because you're you're not having a human actually write the code right which kind of like
um is a bit different in terms of like how
uh the parameters contribute to the resulting work because you
You essentially at that point are working with a black box and you don't know the parameters
And so it's a it's a bit different in that regard
But where do I see it going right? So generative ai is going to continue to grow as like an art form
And I think there are uh, you know similar to you know, a lot of early generative art on chain
There are good and bad examples of each, right?
Um, I think uh people like claire silver do a really good job of championing what's possible with generative ai art
And i'm i'm excited to see where that goes because there's a lot of potential there
But also like a generative art from a like more
Uh traditional sense is all about um, how can I organize these data structures and these algorithms to express?
A particular emotion right or to express like a particular like cohesive thought
That is something that I think
Uh will continue to be a thing going forward
And will express itself in different ways
A lot of generative art purists, uh would absolutely like they would hate what i'm doing with like curating uh outputs for a collection
um a lot of generative art purists, um that exist think that you know
The algorithm should just uh absorb entropy or absorb randomness
From some uncontrollable element and then that that that is the the test of whether or not an algorithm, uh is good or not
I agree and disagree with that mindset
um, there's a lot of nuance when it when it comes to that right because
If you are truly trying to produce the absolute highest quality work for those who consume your art. I think that there's
Um something to be said for the curation process. Um
But also like I can see how
Completely would disregard the visual output of a particular algorithm and look at more of like the code itself as the art
Um, so that's like an interesting dichotomy to explore
Right is like what is the actual art when we're talking about generative art?
Is it the resulting visual outputs or is it the algorithm itself and how that's constructed?
And I think that's more of just like a preference thing
I think that's more of just like who you are and what you kind of like want to get out of it
Right, like what you want to get out of the art?
So I can respect both of those things. Um
Now on salona, we don't really have an excellent way of generating entropy on chain
Um, there's a relatively new platform nfa a new frontier art that actually allows people to just upload p5.js algorithms
Um, I was thinking about launching there for a little bit
But to be honest, like there's some caveats that come with that platform
One of them being that the art that gets produced via um, their platform can't be traded on either magic eden or tensor
and I also think a lot of art is about the like
uh community that exists around the art and so if you limit yourself to just using a platform like
Like the one I just mentioned
Well, you're going to be missing out on a whole bunch of people who might not
Know much about generative art and want to be exposed to your work or might be you know
Stumbling upon your work through other means. I mean, I think for me when I started minting generative art on ethereum in 2021
um, I didn't have like a deep respect for
A lot of the things that I consider essential in generative art now, which are like, uh, cohesiveness, um, you know consistency
Uh variation it feels funny to mention all these things together, right because like variation and consistency are essentially diametrically opposed, right?
But at the same time like when you think about it in the context of generative art
Like can I get a varied range of outputs that all adhere to a particular theme?
It does kind of like make sense and and get put together as far as like the future of generative art
So like kind of like bringing this all together, right?
I think generative art, uh in mixed reality platforms is something that I definitely want to explore
Um, I was playing around yesterday with a piece of software called like p5 xr, right, which is essentially
Um a mixed reality platform for p5 js
Um, and it's actually got a surface area to the api. That's like remarkably similar, uh to just standard p5
And there's a couple of other ones that you can use to do this kind of thing. There's like web xr
There's three js, uh has some some stuff that plugs into that babylon js is another one
And and you can do a lot of cool stuff inside of those environments
And I think that that's like definitely where the future of it is headed. I just don't know, uh, how quickly
We're going to get there and I think uh for right now
It makes a lot more sense, uh as an artist, uh to be producing
Forms of generative art because of the lack of availability and the rapid technical advancement
Uh that occurs, um inside of those like kind of like, uh mixed reality and vr kind of environments, right?
There was a tweet that I reposted yesterday
That has like an example of like what generative art could be, uh, very very quickly
And that's really exciting to me, especially as someone who like did a lot of hallucinogenics like, you know when they were a kid
like having those kinds of
Be laid out in like a deterministic way meaning, you know by deterministic
I mean it's the same every time or even if it's not the same every time but at least predictable to an extent
Um is like very interesting and appealing. So like that was a great question, uh hot boy, like uh, appreciate that. Yeah
And to be honest like I think uh with that we might close it out
Um because we've been going for about an hour now and I want to be respectful of everybody's time
if nobody has any questions about the mint the only thing I can really say is like
Definitely scroll through the outputs that have been shown on my twitter and on the timeline
Um, i'm very proud of the consistency and the overall caliber of work that has been
Uh done for this collection. Um, i'm excited about it. I think other people should be too
Um, I appreciate uh anybody who you know takes the time to to support
Um deeply like I want to thank you. Um, all of you guys for for showing up and supporting me and my work
Um, and i'm excited for uh this friday. I mean, um, fuck. Yeah guys like
Like, uh, i'm very stoked to see all of this work out in the wild
For the few people who have kind of like seen like large portions, um of the collection like I think
Um, they're the the feedback has been very positive
And so I think people are going to be uh, very pleased with um with anything that they meant
Yeah with that, um, just want to kind of like ask one more time if anybody has any questions and if not we'll
We'll go ahead and close it out
Perfect, okay, no questions. Um, awesome. So listen just to reiterate
Uh, only way you can get guaranteed whitelist is by owning a construct and having it delisted
Um when I when I take the snapshot at the uh, the end of february
I actually don't know if i'm going to be taking the snapshot at the end of february or if like I can
That there someone mentioned something to me earlier today. Um, like the mechanic works the same
Just just hold your constructs
But at the at the end of the day like there's a way that I think I can link
The minting of the token to a requirement that that token that that a construct exists in your wallet
Right. So i'm not sure if it's going to be like a snapshot yet
Or if it's going to be one of these things where like when you go to the mint site itself
It says hey, you have five constructs you can mint five currents like that kind of deal
But at the end of the day like in terms of like user experience, it really shouldn't matter. It should be about the same
Um, so with that, um, yeah constructs holders get guaranteed whitelist
There's going to be a couple of other communities that get offered whitelist
Uh for the collection i'm going to try and have as much of it
Minted out in kind of like a private sale as possible. Um, I don't really like doing public sales
I think a lot of people like, you know get bought it and you know, that introduces like a whole bunch of like headaches
Um, so as much as we can in private sale probably have the second half of allowlist over subscribed
Um, and yeah, that's uh, that's it. Keep an eye out for friday. Um, i'll be posting a link to the mint page
Uh sooner, uh, like probably around like wednesday or thursday that'll be up
There will be like a write-up
Of the collection and the building of the collection a lot of the things that I discussed today, right?
So like the fibonacci stuff the uh, the way that I select colors that kind of thing
The particle system that exists in the collection
Um the like overall kind of like overview of the draw loop
Um all of that, uh, i'm gonna try my best to put into like a proper write-up
Later tonight to have it released tomorrow
um, and then we can all blast that out and um
Yeah, i'm just super excited like honestly like I scroll through the collection
like basically like every morning just kind of like looking through it and kind of like seeing like
What could be improved and where where it's at and whatnot and um
This is the best work that i've ever like produced
And i'm excited to be able to offer it to people who really want it for a reasonable price. And so
Um, like I said, thank you all for for coming and for for asking me questions and for hanging out
I appreciate you and uh, thank you for collecting my work