generated images, 2021
software, keypresses
Proof of Work is a series of manually generated images where physical gesture is directly correlated with visual density. Sold as non-fungible tokens, the series is both an enactment of the experience of being an artist in NFTism, as well as a challenge to the metrics NFT markets use to determine the value of an artwork.
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“Art is proof of work, whether Whistler's "Nocturne" or an Abstract Expressionist act of heroism. There must be something to own, a parsable product of labour that represents the potential to exponentially multiply the value of an investment of time by the artist and cryptocurrency of the collector.” - Rhea Myers
Beeple’s ‘The First 5000 Days’ sold for $69,346,250 on March 12, 2021. Buyer MetaKovan explained his rationale behind the purchase as such:
When you think of high-valued NFTs, this one is going to be pretty hard to beat. And here’s why — it represents 13 years of everyday work. Techniques are replicable and skill is surpassable, but the only thing you can’t hack digitally is time. — MetaKovan, Christies Press Release
MetaKovan identifies effort over time as the key indicator of value for a NFT. Dominant NFT aesthetics also reflect this understanding; intricate 3D scenes signal that creative and computational effort was expended to create and render a scene.
In Proof of Work I probe this understanding of art, creating images where the effort required to produce a work is directly correlated with visual density. Each series begins with a 1x1px canvas, which doubles each day of production. This doubling allows the series to reflect distinguishably different degrees of effort, and provides a mechanism which ensures scarcity; each series ends when one image cannot be completed in one day.
The images are generated in a custom application, wherein one keystroke or tap produces one graphic pixel. Each gesture requires a physiologically bounded amount of time, and so the visual density of pixels in the image correlates directly to a fixed amount of expended effort. As the scale of the task increases, the challenge of consistency becomes overwhelming, patterns and flaws appearing in the generated images.
Research in keystroke dynamics demonstrates that the rhythm and pattern of keypresses can be used as a biometric identifier. The images in Proof of Work are not just documents of effort, but are unique records of the artist’s hand, the patterns arising the digital equivalent of that essential element in a physical artwork; the signature.
Read more: Proof of Work Origins
Buy tokens: https://proofofwork.jonathanchomko.com/
View secondary: https://opensea.io/collection/proof-of-work-v1