The Weekly Roundup #80
Looking at digital art projects and releases.
Hello and welcome to The Culture Project. I have spent a lot of hours writing this weekend. I’m pretty tired from the holiday and work. I posted the Marfa 2024 article yesterday. If you want to see what that magical place is like, please give it a read. There is some amazing art coming out this week and I didn’t want to miss sharing some of these. I don’t have a lot of time today so this is going to be mostly sharing and little talking. If you want to learn more about each project please follow the links and read about them.
Lets dive in.
Rodeo Mints - A few Rodeo mints from this weekend.
The Solitude by D I E L A
TT 🪻🪻 by Luka → {protocell:labs} ←
utopian tide — iteration #868665279 by Andrew Strauss
Sous le Ciel #2 by Sophie Belle
🐙 by Nikalaus
Presented on fx(hash)
Mints on Tuesday - Open Mint
Price: 0.001 ETH (Base)
I love the colors, patterns, and textures in these. Wonderful minimalism.
When this project reached its final stages, I realized that it encompasses the all foundational ideas of my previous projects. Dynamic grid from the "Gilim" project, square grid from the "xorjin" project, checkered color structures from the "Satranj" project, large, minimal color fields from the "How Bad!" project, reverence for empty spaces from the "xerqe" project. now here all these ideas come together with greater visual strength, unified within a multi-rule composition.
The central feature of this project is the strips embedded within the overarching logic of dynamic griding, which play a multifaceted role in the composition. These strips not only bring a distinctive visual presence to the image but also enhance the adjacent color fields while introducing another hidden rule to the overall composition. The result is outputs, each possessing a unique visual identity. This was my aspiration—that when viewers engage with the outputs of a project, they feel as though the artist has devoted individual attention and care to each one.
Presented on Art Blocks
Mints on Tuesday - 100 pieces in the set.
Price: Most likely an ETH Auction w/ Rebate.
Iskra had some of these prints in the Marfa house! They were amazing to see in person. Love her work so much. She releases on Tezos, ETH, and probably more.
INK speaks to the bold insistence on leaving a trace, a mark that knows it will fade, yet persists. A poetic contradiction lies in each stroke: the pursuit of permanence in a world destined to vanish.
Whether in blue or black, in pencil or rust, each line reflects fragments of human experience – perhaps figures, animals, or letters – yet none of it is real; it is only experiences, biases, dreams, and demons. Rather than rely on the slow decay of ink, paper, or perhaps one day pixels, we lean on what is within our control: memory, boundless, infinite, and ours alone.
In this quiet persistence, we find our redemption—an echo of those who remain and those who have already gone. INK is a profoundly personal project. As Velitchkova says "Life doesn’t give us what we desire without first demanding something in return". INK is Velitchkova's answer to a year filled with hard lessons, hopes, and losses. Built upon these experiences, each line structure tells its own story, echoing to a song by Travis—a band that knows the artist's steps better than most.
This series traces the history of inks through algorithmic iterations. Each one is reimagined as both a medium and metaphor. Iron gall ink, used in medieval Europe, ironically corroded the manuscripts it aimed to preserve. Blue ink, made practical by the 20th-century ballpoint, serves the demands of modern life. Black ink, from ancient Egypt and China, symbolizes permanence in official records and last words. White ink, an accent in manuscripts and art, was never meant for the mundane. It exists to illuminate, to contrast, used sparingly for highlights on dark surfaces.
INK draws from the simplicity of Picasso’s single-line figures, Chillida’s sculptural weight, Kline’s expressive brushwork, and Basquiat’s chaotic yet precise gestures. Yet it seeks neither homage nor critique, it merely stands as a mirror, reflecting our insistent need to matter.
Material Histories by Emily Xie
Presented by T E N D E R on Verse
Mints on Wednesday - 6 pieces in the set.
Price: Not released yet.
Emily is an amazing artists. She released my favorite art project to date, Memories of Qilin. Love the stitch work in Material Histories, looks incredible.
Material Histories series exercises the timeless practice of imbuing the natural elements with the character of myth, and the works are ultimately stitched into fabric the same way as some of the earliest creations in human history. The process for this series starts with a computer algorithm written by the artist to evoke fluid, multi-textural organic forms. Outputs from this generative code are then fed into an artificial intelligence model to produce thousands of images, from which Xie collages fragments, molding and distilling them to create hybrid digital-born images. Lastly, these digital works are closely translated by woven artisans over the course of eight months into a limited set of hand embroidered canvas artworks, each stretched and floated within exquisite hand joined black-stained oak frames.
The artworks of Material Histories are the first by Emily Xie that venture into bespoke physical materials, using the historical techniques and vernacular of Asian textiles that have inspired her work for years, and giving each piece the calm but powerful personality of an elemental force of nature.
Presented by T E N D E R on Verse
Mints on Wednesday
Price: Not released yet.
GANBROOD! Another favorite artist of mine, but in the AI scene. Always pushing boundaries and exploring.
Following the Industrial Revolution, machines replaced physical labor, and the digital age took over cognitive tasks. Now, with the rise of AI, we stand on the brink of a new era where machines not only assist but actively shape our imagination. These systems are no longer mere tools—they are collaborators, capable of translating abstract dreams into vivid, visual creations. Yet this potential inspires both awe and fear, raising important questions about creativity, authorship, and the role of the artist.
Throughout history, humans have expressed their collective memory and emotions through myth, painting, sculpture, photography, and film. Generative AI extends this tradition, distilling centuries of cultural heritage into new, uncharted forms. It bridges past and future, remixing timeless themes through a modern, digital lens. Rather than replacing human creativity, it amplifies it, offering the ability to create what was once impossible by blending styles, symbols, and ideas across cultures and eras.
Presented on fx(hash)
Mints on Thursday - Open Edition
Price: 0.0025 ETH (Base)
I love Rob’s work on fx(hash). Happy to see him push his art further and further.
The world used to shimmer with the unknown, an ever-changing tide of colors and shapes that whispered of unseen possibilities. But now, those whispers are silent. The unexpected has become familiar, the extraordinary reduced to the mundane. In a landscape where nothing shocks and wonder no longer stirs, what remains?
"where awe fades" journeys through the internal landscapes of a mind no longer capable of surprise. The patterns before you, swirling and intricate, should provoke awe, but they don’t. They move like echoes of emotions you’ve felt too many times, their colors vibrant yet devoid of meaning. The once-chaotic beauty of life’s design now plays out in slow, predictable loops, like watching the same sunrise again and again, each time knowing exactly how it will end.
Beneath these layers of familiarity lies a quiet truth: when the world can no longer surprise you, it still continues to exist. The unknown becomes the known, but the patterns keep shifting. Though nothing new seems to come, the world does not stop its motion. It is a paradox, a space where curiosity has faded, yet the intricate dance of the universe remains as alive as ever, indifferent to your lack of wonder.
Perhaps, in this stillness, there is something to be found. Or perhaps not. But even in the absence of surprise, the journey continues, weaving its endless, hypnotic tapestry.
Thanks for reading! Please like and share the article if you enjoyed it. We are just trying to spread some Generative Art love with The Culture Project. Our community is open to anyone that wants to learn about or share generative art. The communities Twitter & Discord. My twitter is @joshripple. If you like the content please give us a follow.
Man, so many good ones in this one! Thanks for the discovery, Josh. Appreciate you!