Harm van den Dorpel

Harm van den Dorpel, a Dutch artist, merges diverse mediums like paper works, sculptures, computer graphics, and software into evolving artworks, driven by feedback loops and algorithmic systems. His practice, extending from 'net art', emphasizes software development to navigate artificial intelligence, creating dynamic aesthetic forms that explore subconscious computation. His work is part of collections worldwide, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the New Museum New York.

Artworks

Mutant Garden Seeder

Mutant Garden Seeder consists of 512+1 unique, generative artworks on Ethereum, evolving with blockchain activity. Each ‘mutant’ is born from the blockchain's state, changing over time with network transactions. These digital ‘responsive paintings’ vary in composition, color, and layering, offering a dynamic art experience that reflects on blockchain's immutability versus digital fluidity. This project is therefore a lively exploration of digital permanence and transformation of technology.

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Markov's Dream

Markov’s Dream is a series of 32 generative animations, evolving from the artists’ project Markov’s Window 2004. This 2022 project merges art and technology, offering tokenized digital artworks that animate, color, and nest within a unique computer program setting. The first 20 pieces were showcased at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle Munich and Upstream Gallery Amsterdam, with the remaining 12 released by Folia. Drawing inspiration from the organic shapes of modern software, these endlessly mutating artworks challenge traditional views on art, promising a future of unpredictable compositions.

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Markov's Dream: Orb (lite)

Markov’s Dream: Orb (lite) is a spin-off of the token Markov's Dream: Orb, generated fully onchain with colors, rings, rotation speed, and curvature that were set at minting. Crafted through Solidity in its smart contract, this artwork's animated vector graphics exist solely on the Ethereum blockchain. With no external servers or IPFS dependencies, Orb is indestructible, destined to endure as long as Ethereum itself.

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Autobreeder (lite)

Autobreeder (lite), crafted in 2018, is a fullscreen software exploring the expansive genealogy of Harm van den Dorpel’s ongoing 'Death Imitates Language' series. Featuring 12,000 specimens generated through a genetic algorithm and refined by the artist's micro-feedback, it operates offline, offering an infinite, non-interactive, and silent viewing experience.

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Indiscreet Units

Indiscreet Units is an art project featuring 266 hue-rotating flags of nations and entities, stored on the ethereum blockchain and IPFS. It explores the indeterminacy of color and its metaphorical implications on social and political boundaries. Inspired by Josef Albers's color theory, the project questions the notion of a perfect flag and challenges the rigidity of national borders. Each NFT flag aims to serve as a provocative statement on how context alters perception, blurring categorical certainties.

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Struggle for Pleasure

Struggle for Pleasure, a Verse Solos collection, showcases 128 artworks, partly inspired by Wim Mertens' 1983 composition – which is celebrated in the Minimalist music tradition. Here, Van den Dorpel explores the allure and intellectual challenge of art with dual dimensions: employing musical Minimalism elements like repetition and arpeggios. This series marks a departure from the artist's previous work by preserving images throughout the algorithmic iteration process, rather than discarding them. This approach offers a historical glimpse into the creative process, presenting a collection that reflects both the journey and the outcome.

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Venster

Venster presents 100 fully onchain animated SVG compositions, evolving from the 2004 work ‘Markov's Window’ to now exist entirely on the blockchain. This collection showcases generative, animated recursive SVG files, powered by Solidity code. Each token in the series features unique color palettes, blending modes, and filters to amplify its artistic quality. "Venster," translating to "window" in Dutch, offers a glimpse into the fusion of coding and creativity, showing the possibilities of onchain art.

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Maschine

Commissioned by Mercedes-Benz NXT, Van den Dorpel explores motion, velocity, and perception in Maschine. This series captivates with radial patterns embodying the illusion of spinning objects, powered by a custom-trained neural network to mirror the artist's style. A pioneering venture into fully 3D art, it delves into the wagon-wheel effect, where wheels' motion contradicts their actual speed and direction. Co-created with Fingerprints DAO, Maschine marks an interesting chapter in AI-integrated art.

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Phantom Crush

This collection blends traditional artistry with contemporary digital techniques. A set of 130 generative portraits, Phantom Crush is a project originating from Enver Hadzijaj's pastel drawings on paper, and then digitally programmed by Harm van den Dorpel.

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Browse more of Harm ven den Dorpel's artwork here.