ByGeorge Nelson. A generative art series by Irish artistJohn Gerrardis helping restore Ireland s temperate rainforest. Hosted by Feral File, an online platform for digital art founded in 2020, the series, titled crystalline work, offers dozens of collectable digital works a day for the next 12 months. It went public on June 18. This work is first and foremost an experiment, Gerrard toldARTnews. In a virtual world on a pontoon in the Arctic North Pole, a robot which I call a prismatic robot because its surface changes color every millisecond is creating 24 works every day, from summer solstice 2024 to summer solstice 2025. The artworks are derived from a JavaScript ice generation algorithm I found online 20 years ago. Gerrard describes the project as a global data performance. When asked what this means exactly, he explained that it is a work of public art that can be accessed by anyone on earth via the browser. . A link on Feral File s websiteleads to a video of the digital robot diligently enacting the algorithm in real time, to create crystal bar lattices. Once completed, these lattices are added to the Feral File gallery as unique, dynamic, tokenized 3D Web Graphic Library WebGL art pieces, per the platform s announcement. By the time next year s summer s solstice rolls around, 8,760 artworks will have been created, each tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain and available to buy for 100 a piece, or 0.026 ETH. The works can be strung together by collectors to create longer performances using the Feral File app, the platform noted in its announcement.Digital artists including Refik Anadol, Lu Yang, Rick Silva, and 0xDEAFBEEF have in the past exhibited with Feral File, which aspires to offer a new kind of collecting experience, connecting otherwise unaffiliated, previously disconnected artists, curators, and collectors. . We ve been working together for three years, and every time he brings a new strategy that often goes beyond my understanding of the digital art space. This time, as always, his approach is ambitious, but he delivers. He is an amazing man with a unique mind, and I personally love his art. Working with someone who has such an intimate knowledge of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss is a pleasure. . Every day, the robot will create enough artworks to fund the planting of 33 trees in Ireland. Each artwork comes with an annual generative soundtrack created in collaboration with Tone.js, a company helping people to create interactive music in the browser. The influence for the soundtracks is a sound bath, like a Tibetan sound bath. In the summer, the sounds are higher, while in the winter, the pitch is lower, Gerrard explained. Moreover, he said, this is not a media work it has nothing to do with media. It is a data work. There are no recorded elements whatsoever, and the sounds are from a choral piece derived from code. . A 4,000pixel image file of the generated crystal bar lattices, which Gerrard refers to as archetypes, is embedded in every work, and can be exported and pigment printed on paper. Also embedded in each work is a 3D model of the unique crystal arrangement, which can be exported for usage in 3D prints or virtual worldbuilding. . John has been pushing the boundaries of art for decades and crystalline work is his most ambitious and thoughtprovoking artwork to date, Feral File cofounder Casey Reas said in a statement. It s an exquisite work, from the ideas to the finished simulation to the direct impact on the temperate Irish rainforest restoration. . The World's Premier Art Magazine since 1913. Sign Up for our Newsletters. Get our latest stories in the feed of your favorite networks. We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Subscribe to our newsletters below. ARTnews is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 2024 Art Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
John Gerrard's generative art series, "Crystalline Work," hosted on Feral File, aims to restore Ireland's rainforest by creating unique digital works daily for a year. The project features a prismatic robot in the Arctic generating artworks inspired by an ice generation algorithm. Each artwork is tokenized on the blockchain and can be collected for €100 each. The proceeds will fund planting trees in Ireland. Gerrard's collaboration with Tone.js results in generative soundtracks for each piece. This ambitious project combines art, technology, and environmental conservation.