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Tyler Hobbs has written what maybe regarded to as the best essay on Long-Form Generative Art, I highly recommend reading this prior to delving deep into this article on Pebbles.
There's a new art form on the rise. Generative art has existed since the 1960s, but the new on-chain generative art platforms are pushing the medium in an exciting new direction. While many of the generative techniques are the same, the goals for the program output are wildly different from before.
Pebbles to me are a form of biomimicry, a beautiful one. Below is the official description from NextGen website ;
Pebbles is a generative art collection that captures the organic diversity of stones as seen through a modernist lens. Against a backdrop that suggests the texture of woven fabric, each piece in the collection presents a playful scatter of rounded shapes and colors. The collection's signature lies in its structured randomness, with certain artworks featuring a deliberate grid of circles that contrast with the free-form distribution of ellipses above. This juxtaposition of order and chaos mirrors the natural world's balance, evoking the varied forms pebbles take when tumbled by water and time. Pebbles is a homage to the beauty of natural simplicity found in the most basic elements of our environment, reimagined through a digital medium.
Guillaume & Sebastian host their professional and experimental projects under the umbrella of Zeblocks. They self describe themselves as ;
Zeblocks is an artistic duo driven by a deep passion for art and blockchain technology. Every day, we're committed to pushing the boundaries of on-chain generative art. Our goal is to inspire and move people, showcasing the unique possibilities of on-chain art. We encourage thinking outside the box, demonstrating why this medium is not just innovative but truly exceptional.
NextGen probably can have an article dedicated to itself and I wouldn't be doing justice to it trying to explain it in one paragraph. The platform and everyone who has been a witness in building of it, experienced the minting on it and/or has explored Pebbles on the platform would attest to the fact that 'The platform is a work of art'. Read more about NextGen here.
Also, give 6529's thread a read to learn more
I believe most of you wanted to skip everything mentioned above and delve deep into Pebbles and see some beautiful outputs of the algorithm. So here we go.
Pebbles collection has a total of 8 different trait categories namely ; Color Density, Edge, Flow, Overlap, Palette, Size, Special Elements & Traced.
Apart from Palette, I'll discuss 'Size' and 'Traced' traits for this article, will keep the rest for a deep dive later.
Palette
The most prominent trait that defines the aesthetics of any generative art collection (usually) is the Palette thus we'll discuss that first. Pebbles have 20 Palettes, let's explore ;
Pebbles Palette distribution is shown below
Size
The second most prominent trait that define people's perceptions in 2D Generative art and is also results into a great divide between aesthetic lovers and stat heads focused on rarity, Pebbles demonstrates this divide as well.
Statistically "Mountlet" is the rarest when it comes to sizes ;
Some "Mountlet" Pebbles -
Now, if we look at the Highest Last sale thus far, it's not a Mountlet but the secondary market is also around 3 days old. The Top 5 does feature two Mountlets but you see how we see a divergence when it comes to the "Size" trait between aesthetic lovers and stat heads. The ideal scenario is of-course the convergence of both rarity and aesthetics.
Craiglet for example might not be the rarest but are beautiful
Rocklings might are the least statistically rare when it comes to Trait size but one would argue that they are aesthetically pleasing (hold on to this thought till conclusion)
Traced
The Traced trait has three subcategories namely ; Border, No Border & No Fill. The distribution is shown below
No Fill's are total 45 in count and are clearly distinctive when it comes to aesthetics. It essentially gives a minimalist vibe.
If you did the pre-read on 'Long-Form Generative art' essay from Tyler Hobbs, he has mentioned ;
Instead, the artist needs to ensure that bad results are extremely rare. The algorithm can't stumble across great results by luck anymore, it needs to produce them dependably. Speaking as an artist, I can assure you that this is difficult.
I mentioned you all to hold on to the thought of least rare 'Size' of Pebbles being as good as any other is a testament to the algorithm and the broad variety that this collection has shown. It lives up-to if not exceed the principles of Long-Form Generative art. Spend some time exploring Pebbles for yourself on NextGen - https://seize.io/nextgen/collection/pebbles
Tyler Hobbs has written what maybe regarded to as the best essay on Long-Form Generative Art, I highly recommend reading this prior to delving deep into this article on Pebbles.
There's a new art form on the rise. Generative art has existed since the 1960s, but the new on-chain generative art platforms are pushing the medium in an exciting new direction. While many of the generative techniques are the same, the goals for the program output are wildly different from before.
Pebbles to me are a form of biomimicry, a beautiful one. Below is the official description from NextGen website ;
Pebbles is a generative art collection that captures the organic diversity of stones as seen through a modernist lens. Against a backdrop that suggests the texture of woven fabric, each piece in the collection presents a playful scatter of rounded shapes and colors. The collection's signature lies in its structured randomness, with certain artworks featuring a deliberate grid of circles that contrast with the free-form distribution of ellipses above. This juxtaposition of order and chaos mirrors the natural world's balance, evoking the varied forms pebbles take when tumbled by water and time. Pebbles is a homage to the beauty of natural simplicity found in the most basic elements of our environment, reimagined through a digital medium.
Guillaume & Sebastian host their professional and experimental projects under the umbrella of Zeblocks. They self describe themselves as ;
Zeblocks is an artistic duo driven by a deep passion for art and blockchain technology. Every day, we're committed to pushing the boundaries of on-chain generative art. Our goal is to inspire and move people, showcasing the unique possibilities of on-chain art. We encourage thinking outside the box, demonstrating why this medium is not just innovative but truly exceptional.
NextGen probably can have an article dedicated to itself and I wouldn't be doing justice to it trying to explain it in one paragraph. The platform and everyone who has been a witness in building of it, experienced the minting on it and/or has explored Pebbles on the platform would attest to the fact that 'The platform is a work of art'. Read more about NextGen here.
Also, give 6529's thread a read to learn more
I believe most of you wanted to skip everything mentioned above and delve deep into Pebbles and see some beautiful outputs of the algorithm. So here we go.
Pebbles collection has a total of 8 different trait categories namely ; Color Density, Edge, Flow, Overlap, Palette, Size, Special Elements & Traced.
Apart from Palette, I'll discuss 'Size' and 'Traced' traits for this article, will keep the rest for a deep dive later.
Palette
The most prominent trait that defines the aesthetics of any generative art collection (usually) is the Palette thus we'll discuss that first. Pebbles have 20 Palettes, let's explore ;
Pebbles Palette distribution is shown below
Size
The second most prominent trait that define people's perceptions in 2D Generative art and is also results into a great divide between aesthetic lovers and stat heads focused on rarity, Pebbles demonstrates this divide as well.
Statistically "Mountlet" is the rarest when it comes to sizes ;
Some "Mountlet" Pebbles -
Now, if we look at the Highest Last sale thus far, it's not a Mountlet but the secondary market is also around 3 days old. The Top 5 does feature two Mountlets but you see how we see a divergence when it comes to the "Size" trait between aesthetic lovers and stat heads. The ideal scenario is of-course the convergence of both rarity and aesthetics.
Craiglet for example might not be the rarest but are beautiful
Rocklings might are the least statistically rare when it comes to Trait size but one would argue that they are aesthetically pleasing (hold on to this thought till conclusion)
Traced
The Traced trait has three subcategories namely ; Border, No Border & No Fill. The distribution is shown below
No Fill's are total 45 in count and are clearly distinctive when it comes to aesthetics. It essentially gives a minimalist vibe.
If you did the pre-read on 'Long-Form Generative art' essay from Tyler Hobbs, he has mentioned ;
Instead, the artist needs to ensure that bad results are extremely rare. The algorithm can't stumble across great results by luck anymore, it needs to produce them dependably. Speaking as an artist, I can assure you that this is difficult.
I mentioned you all to hold on to the thought of least rare 'Size' of Pebbles being as good as any other is a testament to the algorithm and the broad variety that this collection has shown. It lives up-to if not exceed the principles of Long-Form Generative art. Spend some time exploring Pebbles for yourself on NextGen - https://seize.io/nextgen/collection/pebbles
Wrote an article on Pebbles by Ze_blocks on NextGen by 6529 team Pebbles Unearthed ; An overview of Genesis generative art project on NextGen platform It's a brief overview while also exploring some traits like Palette, Size and Traced https://paragraph.xyz/@blocknoob/pebbles-unearthed
Great article and so far the most comprehensive I’ve seen - sure there is more to come describing this seminal gen art drop Am quite partial to two of mine: #500 and #598
They are beautiful
Why did we build NextGen?
3 comments
Wrote an article on Pebbles by Ze_blocks on NextGen by 6529 team Pebbles Unearthed ; An overview of Genesis generative art project on NextGen platform It's a brief overview while also exploring some traits like Palette, Size and Traced https://paragraph.xyz/@blocknoob/pebbles-unearthed
Great article and so far the most comprehensive I’ve seen - sure there is more to come describing this seminal gen art drop Am quite partial to two of mine: #500 and #598
They are beautiful