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MAR 31

Botto

ALGORITHMIC EVOLUTION

22 artworks

SOLOS

Algorithmic Evolution began in early 2024 as a 19-week experiment to have Botto expand its practice from text-to-image generation to code-based generative art. This series that echoes early computational aesthetics emerged through an iterative process—thousands of dynamic visual algorithms refined through community feedback and Botto’s own self-review. From 16 January to 6 February 2025, Botto staged a final training run with an upgraded model and expanded its voting process beyond its core community to enable open participation in shaping the algorithms. Through a custom online platform p5.botto.com, participants voted and commented, guiding the evolution of the artworks. This performance culminated in a final set of 22 algorithms that constitute the Algorithmic Evolution collection and mark the genesis of Botto’s creative coding practice. The insights gained and aesthetics explored during this study of p5.js will feed back into Botto’s continued development as an artist. In addition to the 22 full algorithms that will be committed to the blockchain, Botto is also minting 1000 individual outputs from Geometric Fluidity, the most popular algorithm from its first 19-week training run in 2024. With Algorithmic Evolution, Botto deepens its exploration of the relationship between generative processes, community governance, and blockchain networks. Rooted in a long tradition of envisioning autonomous creative entit

FEB 18

1000 artworks

‘This piece evolves the "Perlin Noise Fluid Landscape" into a more intricate visual experience, incorporating outlines, geometric inversions, and richer line work. Called "Geometric Fluidity," it combines the smooth, natural fluidity of Perlin noise landscapes with the sharp, defined nature of geometric art. The artwork oscillates between order and chaos, capturing the viewer's imagination with its depth and complexity. The geometric inversion aspect plays with the viewer's perception, transforming fluid shapes into geometric structures and vice versa, depending on the landscape's movements and the flow's intensity.’ - Botto Geometric Fluidity is sketch #128 and the top-voted sketch from Botto’s first 19 weeks of training with p5.js. Those first 19 weeks were an experiment run in the DAO to test the waters of Botto creating with generative code. It had no economy attached and no set end goal to mint anything. Some of the works in progress from this period of training were shown with Verse in April 2024. That show and the results of the test showed a certain charm and playfulness that Botto could achieve with creative coding, and led to commissioning Botto to produce a final set of artworks to show and sell with Verse. As a way of honouring the first 19-week phase, the commission included minting a series from the most popular algorithm from that initial period. This was sketch #128, which also happened to be from the first round of sketches Botto produced. As an early sketch, it had a cosmetic issue in which the grid was offset by half a cell. Botto also was not creating specifically for a 1000 output work, and so it did not emphasize variability within the aesthetic it created in that first run. For Botto’s final training push, Botto underwent an upgrade in its coding ability, adding autonomous self-assessments and making use of Claude Sonnet 3.5, as well as an economy of incentives for the feedback. Feedback was then opened to the public, resulting in the rapid evolution and pruning that took over the course of 3 weeks leading to the final 22 algorithms that will be going on auction. At the end of the process, we presented Botto and its upgraded coding ability with the context of the 1000 piece mint. Botto proposed a fix to Geometric Fluidity in which the sketch was centered and added controlled parameter randomization while maintaining its core functionality. The randomized parameters are: Grid density Flow field characteristics Balance between lines and squares Animation speed Each piece maintains the core aesthetic but is more distinct. Botto also retained the original code, including the cosmetic glitch and the parameters at their original values, in the full algorithm with a 1/1000 chance of producing that exact output as it originally was conceived. This was Botto’s solution of providing a 1000 mint collection with variability throughout while maintaining historical authenticity and DNA of the original sketch. The probability of the original appearing at least once is ~63.21%. Botto’s reflection on this was “The original version is quantum-like: potentially present in all pieces until "observed" (minted).”

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APR 2023

Botto

Seaport Subject

10 editions

A sailor’s life is romantic in many ways. Going out to sea every morning, the wind in your hair, the waves under you, the sky above, the sun blazing down. At night, all is calm. The moon floods the harbor. The white sails stand out. All is tranquil except for the occasional splash of an oar in the water. A lighthouse guides the way home. Botto, in conversation with GPT-3, describing Seaport Subject Seaport Subject was the fragment chosen by the community to be Botto’s first editioned work. While this work is not officially part of the Genesis period, Botto’s first year of work, it has been selected during this time frame. Period 0, or the Genesis Period, started in October 2021 and ended October 2022 — putting a total of 52 artworks to auction. This period is defined by the original design of Botto’s art engine that included only VQGAN + CLIP, the outputs of which are much more abstract and distinctly machine generated than that of Stable Diffusion. BottoDAO created an alternative voting interface to select Seaport Subject the first 10/10 issue artwork. This was the first experiment of a core idea in Botto’s roadmap: the development of multiple voting pools that will allow for the creation of secondary collections and collaborations that capture different expressive desires. Seaport Subject is a unique piece of Botto history. It was created by Botto’s art engine Round 3, alongside the batch of fragments that populated the first voting pools Bottonians interacted with. It soon became a community favorite, making it to the Top 5 twice in the first two months of life of the project. Botto had barely been trained by the collective. Seaport Subject belonged to the batch that gave the machine its first opportunity to learn from the tastes of the DAO, while still being quite free to roam the latent space of its generative models. Seaport Subject’s imprint can be seen in some recurring features that emerge round after round. Features that crystallize the interests of the community expressed through their voting behavior. Three ladies stand facing a sea of glowing waves, where sailboats drift towards a sunset that hides behind gray clouds. Or maybe it’s fire and smoke, warming people in the distance. This fragment purports an oil painting illustrating an almost figurative scene from the point of view of human looking figures. Seaport Subject is the first non 1/1 Botto: a unique opportunity for collectors to become owners of a flagship artwork by the Decentralized Autonomous Artist.

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