GLICPIXxX README
> HEY YOU!
> I AM HAPPY TO INTRODUCE A NEW SERIES OF PNGS AND GIFS TO INTERWEBZ, CALLED GLICPIXXX. NAME COMES FROM GLIC, AN OPEN SOURCE PROGRAM MADE FOR PROCESSING TO ENCODE IMAGE FILES WITH A HUGE VARIETY OF OPTIONS, AND PIXXX, TO END THE NAME SEXY.
> GLICPIXXX IS A COLLECTION THAT APPRECIATES MISUSING TECHNOLOGIES, SCRIPTING FOR AUTOMATING MASS TASKS, PURE AESTHETICS OF COMPUTER CODE, COMPRESSION ARTIFACTS, NOISE, ARTIFICIAL NETWORKS, UNPREDICTABILITY AND ALGORITHMIC MUSIC.
> EVERYTHING IS A SOFTWARE, EVERY TECHNOLOGY IS BIASED, EVERY DIGITAL MEDIA IS ENCODED AND INTERPRETED WITH THOSE BIASES. EVERYTHING YOU USE IS THE RESULT OF A THOUGHT PROCESS AND GOAL.
> https://youtu.be/Oj0sZr8I8OE> http://nickbriz.com/thoughtsonglitchart/> EVERYTHING IS A REMIXxX
> NARROW DOWN THE POINT OF VIEW / ABSTRACT A TINY FRACTION FROM THE WHOLE / TREAT THAT FRACTION AS A WHOLE / ENJOY HOW THEY CAN STAND ON THEIR OWN, WITHOUT THE NEED OF FULL CONTEXT
> COINCIDENCES ARE AWESOME. RANDOMNESS IS FUN. CALCULATIONS ARE WONDERS.
> BENDING AND CORRUPTING 0s & 1s REVEALS THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE.
> LO-EFFORT/HI-EFFORT IN MAKING IS NOT A RELEVANT PARAMETER FOR QUALITY. ESPECIALLY IF YOU SEE WHAT CODEX FROM OPENAI IS CAPABLE OF; WE WILL SEE PROBABLY THE MOST INTERESTING STUFF FROM THE IMPROVISERS. MOST MESMERIZING ART WILL BE MADE IN MINUTES. CRAFTMANSHIP IS OF COURSE PRECIOUS, BUT THOUGHTS ARE ALSO.
> GLICPIXXX WANTS TO BE AN ASSET FOR DESIGNERS, ARTISTS, GAME DEVELOPERS, ANY TYPE OF CREATORS TO MAKE AWESOME LOOKING THINGS. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO BE ON GAMES, WALLS, SCREENS, SMART WATCHES, VIRTUAL WORDS, ARTWORKS, CARPETS, SHOES, HATS, HOODIES, T-SHIRTS, SCARVES. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO BE A WALL SHEET, OR A NOTEBOOK, CELLPHONE COVER. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO BE A FLAG OF A GUILD. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO GIVE BIRTH TO NEW REMIX PROJECTS, DERIVATIVES. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO BE TEXTURE PACKS IN MINECRAFT, OR A WEAPON SKIN ON AN FPS GAME. OR TILE TEXTURE IN CRYPTOVOXELS BUILDS. GLICPIXXX WANTS TO SPREAD THE COMPUTER AESTHETICS MORE TO THE VISUAL CULTURE.
> THERE ARE MANY COLORS, MANY PATTERNS, LOTS OF SHIT. LINES OF CODE RUNNING SOMEWHERE MADE THEM HAPPEN.
> THE ORIGIN UNGLICCED IMAGES ARE LOST. I EVEN DON'T REMEMBER WHAT WERE THEY LMAO. WE WILL ONLY KNOW THE PROCESSED OUTPUT.
KINDA HISTORY
YOU MAY BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BUT MY GLICPIXXX ADVENTURE ACTUALLY STARTED AS A JOKE. IN 2020 WINTER, I WAS STREAMING ON TWITCH ONE DAY. AND I OPENED A IMAGE ENCODER SOFTWARE I LOVE USING CALLED “GLIC” AND STARTED FUCKING UP SOME IMAGES.
I GOT ONE OF THE ENCODED IMAGES AND STARTED TO TILE IT ON PHOTOSHOP INTO SQUARES, AND I HAD 36 IMAGES. I JOKINGLY SAID TO CHAT “I QUICKLY MADE A LOW EFFORT ARTSY SERIES LOL”.
I LAZY-MINTED THEM IN AN OPENSEA STOREFRONT COLLECTION (OPENSEA STOREFRONT WAS RECENTLY LAUNCHED AND I WANTED TO GIVE A TRY). SO THIS WAS VER001.
IN THE SAME DAY, I ALSO HAD 48 MORE IMAGES GENERATED WITH “GLIC”, USING DIFFERENT PRESETS, CODECS AND PARAMETERS. THE GLICCED IMAGES WERE 1024x1024 IN SIZE. I WANTED TO SEE HOW INDIVIDUAL TINY PIECES FROM THESE IMAGES WOULD LOOK LIKE. I USED A PYTHON SCRIPT TO DO THE TASK. AT THE END I HAVE MORE THAN 40k IMAGES with 32x32 RESOLUTION.
WELL, I LOVED THE LOOK OF THEM. THEY WERE TINY, BUT THE VARIETY IN COLORS AND PATTERNS WERE VERY COMPLEX. EACH COMPRESSION/ENCODING ALGORITHM HAD THEIR OWN STYLE. SOME LOOKED LIKE EYES, SOME GRADIENT RAINBOWS, SOME HARSH RANDOM CUTS, SOME PLAIN STRIPES ETC. EACH SOURCE IMAGE HAD PRODUCED ITS OWN NARRATIVE INTO THE FRAGMENTS AND IT WAS FASCINATING TO SEE IT. I KNEW I HAD SOMETHING VERY POWERFUL, IT WAS NOT A JOKE ANYMORE.
AT FIRST I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. ACTUALLY IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL FOR ME BECAUSE I JUST LIKE COLLECTING DIGITAL MATERIALS, THEY DO FIND THEIR WAY OF USAGE IN SOMETHING EVENTUALLY. FOR EXAMPLE I HAVE A FOLDER OF THOUSANDS OF IMAGES I HAD GATHERED BY SURVELLIANCING MY BROWSER ACTIVITY FOR A MONTH (BY AUTO-DOWNLOADING EVERY IMAGE MY BROWSER ENCOUNTERS), I MADE A SMALL WORK WITH THEM BUT STILL I HAVEN'T USED IT FOR SOMETHING THAT WOULD SATISFY ME YET. WELL, MAYBE I WILL USE IT FOR A SELF PLAYING TETRIS GAME, WHO KNOWS LOL
LET'S GET BACK TO GLICPIXXX. VIV3 REQUESTED AN ARTWORK SERIES TO PUBLISH ON THEIR PLATFORM, I COMBINED GLICPIXXXVER002 IMAGES INTO 42 DIFFERENT GIF ANIMATIONS.
LATER ON FEBRUARY 2021, DURING PREPARATION OF BASTARD GAN PUNKS V2, I USED SOME RANDOM GLICPIXXX AS THE BACKGROUND FOR TRANSPARENTLY GENERATED BASTARDS.
GLICPIXXX FIT BASTARDS’ AESTHETICS SO WELL, IT KINDA BECOME A NATIVE PART OF BASTARD LORE. PEOPLE STARTED HUNTING FOR THE MOST BADASS LOOKING ONES. IT WAS LIKE GLICPIXXX WERE BORN TO BE ACCOMPANIES TO BASTARDS.
I HADN’T HEARD ANYTHING BACK FROM VIV3 AFTER MONTHS, AND I DECIDED NOT TO USE THIS HUGE AMOUNT OF COLLECTION IN FEW GIFS, AND PLANNED TO DO A GRAND NFT COLLECTION BY MYSELF, AS A GIFT TO BASTARD GAN PUNKS HOLDERS. ALSO STARTED TO THINK A LOT ABOUT WHAT “GLICPIXXX” REALLY IS AND HOW PEOPLE WILL INTUITIVELY UTILIZE THEM FOR SOMETHING IN THEIR LIFE.
SO I MADE A COLLECTION OF 32x32 IMAGES EXCLUSIVELY CLAIMABLE BY BGANPUNKSV1, BGANPUNKSV2 AND GLICPIXXXVER001 HOLDERS. IN TOTAL OF 11500.
THE COLLECTION CONSISTS OF FOUR DIFFERENT SUBCATEGORIES, AND SOME EXPERIMENTS I ENJOYED WORKING WITH AS A MUSIC COMPOSER. LIKE DANCERS. CHECK VER002 PAGE IF YOU WANNA SEE MORE ABOUT IT.
LIKE BASTARD GAN PUNKS, THE IMAGES IN GLICPIXXXVER002 WERE CREATED WITHOUT "LAYER MERGING" GENERATIVE METHOD. SO THEY DIDN'T COME UP WITH TRAITS FOR PATTERNS. I ADDED SOME TRAITS BY ANALYSING THE IMAGE, BUT FOR THE PATTERNS, KUDOS TO MEMBERS OF BASTARD GAN PUNKS COMMUNITY FOR REVERSE ENGINEERING, CATEGORIZING AND ASSIGNING PATTERNS TO BOOMER CALM AF GLICPIXXX. CHECK VER002 CREW SECTION.
BEFORE I RELEASED GLICPIXXXVER002 GRAND COLLECTION, I WANTED TO GET MY HANDS ON GLICPIXXXVER001. BECAUSE IT WAS KIND OF LIKE A TEST FOR ME TO TRY OPENSEA STOREFRONT COLLECTION, WHICH I DID NOT LIKE USING AFTER I RELEASED GLICPIXXXVER001. BECAUSE THEIR SMART CONTRACT IS STILL NOT VERIFIED, THEY STORE ALL DATA IN THEIR API, AND TOKENS ARE SINGULAR ERC1155s.
SO I WORKED ON A COOL UPDATE WITH MY FRIEND CANER @memorycollector (CHECK VER001 TEAM) .
THERE IS A NEW ERC721 SMART CONTRACT FOR GLICPIXXXVER001, WHICH IS A NFT COLLECTION + PROGRAMMABLE ART PIECE. WITHIN THIS SMART CONTRACT YOU CAN MIGRATE YOUR TOKENS FROM OPENSEA STOREFRONT TO THE NEW CONTRACT, AND THERE IS ONE EXTRA NFT #00 , WHICH SHOWS LIVE RENDER OF PROGRAMMABLE CANVAS VIA A P5 SKETCH (CODE CAN BE FOUND INSIDE THE SMART CONTRACT). EACH TIME A GLICPIXXXVER001 HOLDER CHANGES THE PARAMETERS OF THEIR TOKEN, THE FINAL RESULT ON CANVAS CHANGES TOO. IF YOU KNOW ASYNC ART, THIS IS KINDA A SIMILAR CONCEPT.
AND YEAH, WE HAVE VER001 AND VER002 NOW. LET’S SEE WHERE THIS PROJECT WILL EVOLVE. HAVE FUN! :D