As an artist operating at the cutting edge of new media, Siebren Versteeg is not blind to the shortcomings of technology. In fact, his works, which date back to the 2000s, have leveraged digital tools themselves\u2014generative algorithms, live data feeds, web scraping techniques, programming languages\u2014to critique the role of technology in contemporary culture, while centering the art-making as a gesture in itself.<\/span><\/p>\n The emergence of NFTs, then, should have piqued the interest of the tech-minded man. But Versteeg told Artnet News that the crypto art space, with its emphasis of commodity over the creative process, is \u201cin many ways antithetical to the kind of ethics and ambitions of my work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So, in response to the NFT phenomenon, Versteeg is releasing his first NFTs. But of course, these won\u2019t be your usual PFPs: Titled \u201c<\/span>For a Limited Time<\/span><\/a>,\u201d the collection is billed as a year-long \u201cartistic experiment\u201d that invites collectors to decide when and what to mint.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Siebren Versteeg, sample image from \u201cFor a Limited Time\u201d (2023). Photo courtesy of Arsnl Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Quite simply, across the next 12 months, the project will be generating a new image every 10 to 15 minutes, capturing the moment\u2019s trending events and stories, scraped from the internet, in computer-generated yet painterly collages. Of the roughly 35,000 works that will be generated, 750<\/span> will be saved and made available for a limited period, during which collectors can opt to claim them as NFTs, each priced at $300 (or about 0.18 ETH), for their crypto wallet.<\/span><\/p>\n To build out the project, Versteeg dove into what he called \u201clibraries of code that have become a staple of my tool cabinet over the past two decades,\u201d programming solo as opposed to relying on a technology team. The time period of a year was chosen, he said, \u201cfor viewers to experience the full breadth of the algorithm\u2019s potential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Following its physical exhibition at Frieze L.A., presented by Bitforms Gallery, \u201cFor a Limited Time\u201d will launch its presale on March 13 and public sale March 15 on Arsnl Art, the <\/span>Web3 arm of the Artists Rights Society<\/span><\/a> that was responsible for last year\u2019s Frank Stella drop.<\/span><\/p>\n Siebren Versteeg, sample image from \u201cFor a Limited Time\u201d (2023). Photo courtesy of Arsnl Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fitting for an artist who worked \u201cin the dotcom industry of the late 90s,\u201d the collection taps directly into Versteeg\u2019s long-standing interest in media saturation and information overload. H<\/span>e\u2019s addressed these issues in a prolific run of multimedia and multivalent works, which he began exhibiting<\/a> at the turn of millennium, and some of them have been collected by institutions including the <\/span>Whitney Museum<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Yale University Art Gallery<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Most pertinent here are his pieces such as <\/span>Dynamic Ribbon Device<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2003), <\/span>Daily Times (Performer)<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2012), and <\/span>Today\u2019s Paper (with flies)<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2019). These internet-connected and video-based works, which variously run news headlines through algorithms to generate animations and abstractions, reflect not just the fleeting nature of current events, but also the subjective experience of media consumption.<\/span><\/p>\n In sample images generated by \u201cFor a Limited Time,\u201d this information surfeit is likewise represented in chaotic assemblages that stitch together images as disparate as that of the Pope, street protests, fashion editorials, Princess Diana, and Rihanna\u2019s Super Bowl halftime performance.<\/span><\/p>\n Siebren Versteeg, sample image from \u201cFor a Limited Time\u201d (2023). Photo courtesy of Arsnl Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leveraging immediacy and real-time data, said Versteeg, \u201cfelt to me a more accurate way to explore my interest in communicating the experience of art as an evolutionary and often unpredictable act of production over confrontation with an immutable artifact.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Such shifting interactions between viewer and art are built directly into \u201cFor a Limited Time,\u201d in its urging of collectors to capture and intervene in moments that are ephemeral at best. In doing so, the project \u201cacts as a collaborative conduit for creative production, imbuing the collector with the responsibility for what becomes encoded into their wallet and the blockchain\u2019s memory,\u201d said Versteeg. In short, it\u2019s the collectors who decide on the value of the NFTs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor me,\u201d he added, \u201cthe most rewarding part of the work is its ability to shed light on the small and particular interactions with technology.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Siebren Versteeg, sample image from \u201cFor a Limited Time\u201d (2023). Photo courtesy of Arsnl Art.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The collection launches at a time when generative art is having quite the moment. Refik Anadol\u2019s A.I.-assisted work is <\/span>currently installed at the Museum of Modern Art<\/span><\/a>, while the likes of <\/span>Tyler Hobbs<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Dmitri Cherniak<\/span><\/a> continue to see sustained, <\/span>if not swelling<\/span><\/a>, market interest in their generative creations. The rising popularity of text-to-image platforms, too, has made generative art all the more accessible to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n While Versteeg\u2019s own use of digital technology has tended more toward the conceptual, he professed delight at the increased popularity of such tools in art-making. These encounters between human and machine, after all, have been productive, if not necessarily in his observations, then in his experience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt had always seemed inevitable to me,\u201d said Versteeg, \u201cthat humanity\u2019s adoption of this technology would eventually produce and celebrate creative coding as a legitimate and important way to make art in our time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n More Trending Stories:<\/b><\/p>\n A Wall Street Billionaire Shot Himself in His Family Office. His Death Is Reverberating in the Museum World, and the Art Market<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Researchers in Vietnam Discovered That Two Deer Antlers Languishing in Museum Storage Are Actually 2,000-Year-Old Musical Instruments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n \u2018That Little Piece of Energy Is Magnified\u2019: Artist Wangechi Mutu on Honoring the Spirit of the Natural World in Her Fantastical Works<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n We Asked ChatGPT About Art Theory. It Led Us Down a Rabbit Hole So Perplexing We Had to Ask Hal Foster for a Reality Check<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Innovation Is Not Repetition\u2019: Living Legend Gaetano Pesce on His Boundary-Pushing Furniture Design and \u2018Mass-Produced Originals\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Hit Mockumentary \u2018Cunk on Earth\u2019 Offers an Absurdly Comic Take on World History. Here Are 5 Things It Gets Right About Art<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n A Photographer Who Found Instagram Fame for His Striking Portraits Has Confessed His Images Were Actually A.I.-Generated<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n After Sending \u2018Girl With a Pearl Earring\u2019 Out on Loan, the Mauritshuis Has Hung an A.I. Facsimile in Its Place. Fans Are Not Happy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/app\/news-upload\/2023\/03\/falt-5-819x1024.jpg\")
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