"Commute" is a coded collage. The layers are made from photographs, but they're composed and displayed using code.
This allows for emergent motion, interactivity, and an outside influence on the art (time). The pattern of motion runs in five second loops, but each minute the loop changes. A unique and randomly generated pattern is created for each piece, every minute, in real time.
The theme of “Commute” is juxtapositions.
In the piece, motion and interactivity are juxtaposed onto still imagery.
The art is made of code, which is a juxtaposition in itself.
The collage style relies on juxtaposition to convey new meaning.
For “Commute,” by dissecting and programming the layers that make up a still image collage, I made more than a still image. It resembles a still image, but it has emergent motion, interactivity, and the influence from an outside factor... time.
“Commute” has minimalist motion that runs in five second loops. A new loop is generated every minute, in real time. The loop pattern is “predictably random” and factors in the current minute and the current display size to create the next minute’s loop. That means if you view “Commute” on two separate screens but at the exact same size, their motion will sync up. Yet, it would take 50 million to 1 billion years to repeat a loop pattern.
The story behind “Commute” is also about juxtapositions.
I took the base photograph for the piece while lying on my back, in my yard, midday in the Texas sun. I do this daily. The title of the piece references the juxtaposition of my current lifestyle with the idea of traditional work and a commute. I’m very grateful for my current lifestyle.
In these moments of gratitude, a second juxtaposition often creeps in. Five years ago, I lost a child, and when life feels good... like in my yard in the sun... my brain likes to remind me of that hellish experience.
It’s impossible to guarantee the health of the people we love, and therefore, we can never be fully secure and stress free. There’s always potential for a hellish experience in the next moment.
Yet I’m extremely grateful to be able to look up into the sky, through our sunflowers, in the middle of the day. The final juxtaposition is gratitude in the current moment against the potential for hell at the next moment.
(The potential for hell contributes to the gratitude.)
For “Commute,” just like in life, I encourage us all to surrender to the randomness of the next minute and appreciate the beauty of the minute we’re in.
The art for “commute” is made of code. It’s a static website.
A static website is a website made of code and image files with no outside dependencies. You don’t need the internet to run it.
Using services like Arweave and IPFS, we can store static websites in a decentralized and pseudo-permanent way, and we can reference them with a url. NFT metadata can point to that decentralized website url instead of pointing to an image or video url.
In this way, we can use a static website as token art.
(Onchain sidenote: By compressing the static website files into a single html file, we can put the static website fully onchain.)
Fortunately, marketplaces already display static website token art, because that’s what generative art is made of!
“Commute” is an example of a style I’m calling “coded collage.” I take a still image photo collage, break it into layers, and reconstruct it with code, as a static website. I’m able to make still-looking artwork that subtly moves, interacts to input, and reacts to outside stimuli.
“Commute” loops in a five second pattern that refreshes every minute. Each minute a new pattern is generated with code in real time.
The whole piece moves subtly and rhythmically on its own, forever, but it also interacts to the mouse or touching the screen.
When the interaction stops, the rhythmic motion resumes.
There are two parts to using a static website for token art. First is creating the art. Second, it needs to get attached to a token.
I was determined to use a platform, but no platforms accommodate this type of static website as token art. But there’s a loophole. I can replace a token’s “token uri” (the link to its metadata information) by writing directly to the contract. This lets me change the artwork pointer to my decentralized static website. Everything else... the mint site and sales mechanics, the secondary marketplace, etc... are all still taken care of by the platform. The beauty of the open blockchain.
While I was able to successfully change metadata on testnet with several platforms, they almost all fell short of the full experience... either the mint page wouldn’t display my new static site art, or I could only update metadata after someone minted, which wouldn’t be practical as an edition.
Finally, though, Transient came through. I had a feeling they would. I deployed a contract and minted the first token. Then I pulled down the metadata for that token and appended a pointer to the static website I’d deployed to Arweave. I then deployed that new metadata file to Arweave and updated the contract to use it.
It would be relatively trivial to create a custom contract for static website art or for the platforms to accommodate static websites. Outside of generative art, static websites just aren’t very common for token art... yet. I aim to change that.
Truedrew (Drew Thomas) is a blockchain artist living in Austin, TX, USA.
Past works include coded, long form generative collections and photography-based 1/1s. His recent work combines these two disciplines into a unique style that’s both visually and conceptually interesting. It explores the question: What is blockchain native artwork?
Commute by Truedrew | truedrew.art