Jack Butcher, founder of creative agency Visualize Value and artist behind the breakthrough Checks VV non-fungible token (NFT) collection, is releasing a new project titled Checks Elements that pairs generative artwork with hand-drawn physical prints.
Checks Elements, a 152-piece generative art collection, is inspired by the four classical elements of earth, fire, water and air. Each piece in the collection is a unique algorithmically-generated composite of colors that make up these elements, and explores the "ever-evolving relationship between consensus and truth."
"Elements are conceptually ... the first instance of decentralized consensus," Butcher told CoinDesk. "We're trying to play into the themes that Checks is trying to express about consensus on the internet to pre-internet consensus, which is that all of these different cultures, languages, parts of the world, different schools of thought around how the world came to be ... all landed on these four categories of matter – earth, water, air and fire."
Butcher explained that to create the new collection, his team modified the algorithm that created the original Checks collection and added some new parameters. Butcher teamed up with master printmaker Jean Robert Milant and Cirrus editions to bring the NFT outputs to life, translating them into hand-drawn 30-inch by 43-inch monoprints created via an on-chain SVG file fed through a vintage lithographic printing press.
To create the physical prints, the signature four-by-four Checks grid was etched onto a plate used by the printer. Each paint color featured in the collection was added one by one, based on the algorithmic outputs created by Butcher and his team. Each physical artwork was then authenticated using Butcher's fingerprint and comes paired with an Ethereum-based NFT.
"Translating Checks into a physical artwork, it never felt like anything was really continuing the project's DNA until we spoke to Milant and understood his process," he said. "There's a lot of similarities in the way conceptually these [prints] come from a set of constraints that then get modified based on rules that are computer generated."
Three of the four "Alpha" elements, including water, air and earth, will be offered at a solo auction at Christie's beginning on May 16 and concluding on May 23. A portion of the sale proceeds will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The physical work and their digital counterparts will then be displayed at Christie's New York gallery from May 20.