Figure31
Loucas Braconnier, or Figure31, is a visual artist from Montreal, Canada. He previously studied photography, cinema and medias, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Visual and Media Arts from L’Université du Québec à Montréal. His work explores the specificity of the blockchain as a dynamic medium and the conceptual implications of collecting such artworks. The visual and conceptual body of work made by Figure repurposes photographic techniques to highlight how technology can generate new alternative modes of perception.
PortfolioPress
Works
SALT
Sensors. Proof of photographic space. They exist as much for the viewer as for the tools used to make them. They emanate from the world, but tell nothing about it. They are drawings of the map in the machine. They have neither subject nor depth. They aren’t meant to be read but seen up close. They show what the camera sensor sees, what is normally invisible. Digital noise. Salt.
Starting from a base of 180 photographs, the NFTs in SALT will first display a different image and name in this set and cycle to the next on a daily basis. In sum, the underlying smart contract sets all 180 NFTs into an endless, asynchronous loop. No owner possesses a specific image, all are collectively shared.
By Figure31 & 0xmons in collaboration with Juried Protocol Galleries.
View ContractLYAM
All images are made from a different scene frame of Alain Renais' 1961 Last Year at Marienbad. Each frame is autonomously reduced to 10 different inverted grayscale values on a 4 x 10-pixel grid. This grid is then scaled up 1000 times using a bilinear interpolation algorithm. The machine fills the void created by the initial loss of information.
Each artwork can be recreated using only its title found in the token metadata. The title follows this format: LYAM_serial number_grid format_grayscale values_scale_interpolation algorithm.
The collection was made with banal tools to enter into dialogue with other artists and collectors on what makes art generative or not, and what is needed to make quality art. All NFTs of the collection are minted on OpenSea without any specific alteration to the smart contract as a gesture of contradiction with the prevalent idea that good art has to be made with a complex technical apparatus. Lyam is a collection of 340 low-fidelity generated images.
The title of each artwork in the collection gives enough information to recreate it; the NFT is independent of outside storage solutions, and its perpetuity is assured.
Each title follows this format: LYAM_serial number_grid format_grayscale values_scale_interpolation algorithm
To recreate an artwork, follow these steps
1. Make a 10 x 4 pixels grid at 1 px/in using the grayscale values (0-255) found in the title
2. Scale up the image 1:1000 using a standard image processing bilinear interpolation algorithm
Figuring out the right order of the grayscale values will be a trial-and-error process. It can potentially impact how the artwork will look, just like how the characters in Last Year at Marienbad are confused about their memories.
ViewCollect
LUX
LUX is a collection of 176 photographs split into four distinct phases. The sun's eleven-year oscillation is a dynamic unifying factor for all phases. Similar to four movements of a larger composition, each phase is a closed system. The images contained in a phase presaged the others. They cycle across tokens but are restricted to their own set of loops. Still, a few have broken out and remain petrified.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Wildxyz.
View Wildxyz ContractLINE
LINE is a dynamic photographic series of 250 tokens, each positioned within a meticulously crafted landscape of 625 coordinates. Tokens act like lenses, where location influences perception. They may cross this terrain while their paths intersect in time and space.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Fingerprints Studio.
View FingerprintsDAO ContractMARK
Manifestations of fictive identities rendered in the style of shared visual language. Human markers, fingerprints, imagined by a machine, embodied in collective memory.
MARKS are GAN-generated images of fingerprints expressed in the shared visual language of blockchain art aesthetics: pixelation. They are unique identifiers of a fictive digital identity, coupled with names generated from a list of shortened common surnames. Once five of them are assembled, they can be used to claim a set of five rings. This second state, an unbreakable link between the digital and the physical realm, creates a trust bond between the artist and the collectors. Information about an Ethereum wallet address, private key, and a domain name is engraved on the inner side of the rings.
There are 500 MARKS, and only 42 sets of rings are available (42 have been claimed as of 22/07/2022 01:45 EST).
By Figure31 in collaboration with (GALLERY).
View Exhibition text Roundtable ContractDEAD ENDS
DEAD ENDS is a series of night photographs depicting chaotic woodlands. A single camera flash illuminates what immediately lies ahead. A lost wanderer seeking companionship amongst an entangled landscape. Every step forward provides more comfort and clarity, yet confusion and fear remain. In these images, the natural environment and the digital representation combine. They reference pop art and painting techniques while remaining anchored in digital photography, as one can hardly distinguish between foliage and noise.
Original photographs are decoupled into six colour channels, then rendered to bitmap matrixes. Collectors collectively share these different images, yet they all possess a unique fraction and will participate in the culminating curation of this dynamic collection. Every $DED ERC721 mint will be accompanied by a balance of $UP ERC20 tokens which can be used to upsample the images of the $DED tokens, adding more information and density. This upsampling process can be repeated five times and requires spending a certain amount of $UP tokens. The total amount needed to upsample an image fully will require combining the $UP balances of two $DED mints. The final appearance of the collection will be determined by the collectors’ choices, who can use the token’s attributes to inform their decisions.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Scooprinder, Ace Da Book & Solve.
Project site View Social Telegram ContractPROXY
PROXY is a collection of 639 portraits generated from a pool of 322 pixel grids. Each grid carries the algorithmically evaluated dominant tones from photographic portraits of the United Nations’ global leaders found through a peculiarity of the UN Photo Library. The collection is a class photo featuring member states representatives and leaders of all departments, offices, subsidiaries, funds, programmes, bodies, commissions, agencies and organizations.
In an attempt to refigure figuration, this collection abstracts away all sense of representation. It puts forward curated outputs generated by countless repetitive image interpolations of the initial pixel grids–transmuted surrogates of select political avatars.
Five portraits of the permanent members of the UN Security Council were excluded from the generative process. Custom grids were created, and the resulting outputs were manually rendered. Their stretched format symbolizes the significant power these members hold. These five assets were printed and exhibited before the collection launch, embodying physical features unique to the PROXY collection.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Wildxyz
View Wildxyz ContractATLAS (ongoing)
ATLAS is a series of compositions made with descriptions of historical and cosmographical images borrowed from Aby Warburg's Mnemosyne Atlas. Individual images are generated with a version of VQGAN+CLIP and processed with different post-production tools. The generative process has been stopped early on to preserve an incomplete representation of the original descriptions with the effect of creating "bad machine learning art".Each image of each composition is unique. Collectors can use these images as they see fit as long as they quote the artist. Inside the description of each asset, there is an IPFS link containing the definitions used to generate each image and their respective files for further uses and research purposes.
60 compositions released progressively starting 29/05/2022. Acquire on demand.
ContractLIMIT (minting open)
LIMIT is a collection of 341 on-chain text tokens tracing the spectral locus defined by the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram. Each LIMIT token represents a monochromatic colour—a pure hue of a single wavelength that cannot be rendered by inks or computer screens. Imagination is the only tool at our disposal to visualize these colours.
Released on the occasion of the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Morgan Ali.
Mint page & view ContractIFICE (minting open)
IFICE is made up of 6884 unique frames, with each image derived from 22 larger sequences. Digital artifices and memories shared amongst collectors.
Each IFICE token is a ticket that can only ever be claimed once. Claiming enables access to a digital viewing room to experience a short montage that connects every frame of a ticket's associated sequence.
After this single viewing, the ticket survives as a standalone artwork. It persists as a memento experentia, a fully tradable souvenir of a past experience. A lost frame in time.
Mint page Sequence viewing room ContractUNSHADED (minting open)
UNSHADED ROCKS is a collection of 10,000 tridimensional primitive assets. They possess form yet remain untouched. Existing between two speculative states—beyond nature, products of the digitized hand. Each contains multitudes of what was and what's to come.
All assets are unique and procedurally generated, offering 37 different types, each with varying levels of surrealism and rarity. These rocks are intentionally "unshaded," devoid of colour or texture. What you see is the foundational material of all digital 3D objects: polygons. Their appearance is dynamic, adapting to their surroundings and rendering context.
By Figure31 in collaboration with Jonathan Chomko.
Project site Mint page ContractRG
REAPER'S GAMBIT is an ERC20 that becomes non-transferable after 64800 blocks (9 days).
Project site ContractERASED
Reenactment of Robert Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing with Max Osiris' low effort "NFT”. Made in collaboration and with the artist’s consent.
By Figure31
About "low effort NFT"