Every Icon #419, 1997 - 2021
NFT, programme informatique (language de programmation javascript)
Every Icon (1997-2021) is a conceptual artwork made using software that has been presented in various forms since its creation in 1997: an online installation, a Palm Pilot application, a video projection, and a self-contained wall hanging object. The piece consists of a 32 x 32 square grid where every square can be coloured black or white. Every Icon starts with an image where every square is white and progresses through combinations of black and white squares until every square is black. The piece will show every possible image. Although it takes only 1.36 years to display all of the variations along the first line, it takes an exponentially longer 5.85 billion years to complete the second line. Even in this limited visual space, there are more images than the human mind can experience in many lifetimes. In this way the piece comments on the promise of technology and the artist. In December 2021, John F. Simon Jr. created a new version of Every Icon in the form of 512 NFTs published on the platform OpenSea. Whilst the algorithm always adheres to the same compositional principle, each of the 512 NFT editions is made unique by a starting (abstract or figurative) motif paying tribute to pixel art. This generative artwork showcases digital art’s place continuing the abstract “programmed” research undertaken in Europe in the 1960s.
Marcella Lista et Philippe Bettinelli, 2023