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Generative art NFTs have emerged as a popular sub-sector within the crypto art space, with artworks selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Read on to learn more generative art NFTs to help you decide whether they should be in your crypto art collection or not.
What Is Generative Art?
The term generative art is used a lot in the NFT market, but not everyone is clear on what it actually means.
Generative art describes art that has been created using a machine that has the ability to randomly produce colors, patterns, and shapes that are organized into an artistically pleasing piece of digital artwork.
In simpler terms, generative art can be perceived as a joint effort between an autonomous system and an actual artist.
Generative artists utilize code, algorithms, and a set of rules to develop a process that a computer program can follow on their behalf to generate new pieces of art. It’s therefore not uncommon to find the terms algorithmic art and generative art being used interchangeably.
While the process of creating generative art might appear like a methodical and predictable method of creating art, it’s nothing close to that. Generative art often utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to create artworks using the initial set of instructions given by the artists to generate art autonomously. That is to say, the computer program gets influenced by the artists but operates on its own generative process that produces original artworks that might end up surprising the artist themselves.
Additionally, there are three elements that feature in generative art – randomness, algorithms, and geometry. Without randomness, the outcome of a piece of generative art would be decided in advance by the artist. Incorporating algorithms in generative art helps to create amazing art while geometry can help provide beautiful visual effects.
What Are Generative Art NFTs?
Generative art NFTs are generative art that is created via a smart contract and stored on-chain in the form of an NFT.
NFT sales skyrocketed and reached $25 billion in 2021 alone. This was more than a 21,000% increase in sales compared to the previous year. Today, NFTs make it possible for people to own a piece of generative art while giving artists an avenue of creating pieces of generative art using smart contracts.
Moreover, AI-powered art has slowly started to grab the attention of NFT collectors and art enthusiasts, which could give the generative art market a boost.
Generative art is created by running a machine algorithm, whether it’s developed as an NFT or not. However, minting a generative art NFT helps add a unique level to the piece of art that would have otherwise not been achieved before.
Artists can mint generative art NFTs by adding code to the art, such as gas price, wallet ID, or transaction ID. While most NFTs have been original creations by people, the incipient AI-generative NFTs accentuate the potential for artists to collaborate with machines and generate unique pieces of art.
High-Profile Generative NFT Artworks
Let’s take a look at some of the most prolific generative NFT artworks launched thus far.
Autoglyphs
Established in 2019 by LarvaLabs, the creators behind CryptoKitties, the Autoglyphs is recognized as the first generative NFT art project. The project created on-chain generative NFT art with a code running on the Ethereum blockchain. From the start, the glyphs supply was limited to 512 NFTs, which have all been generated and sold. It’s estimated that the Autoglyphys reached a total sales volume of $41 million.
Art Blocks
Art Blocks is considered one of the most successful generative NFT art projects with a total sales volume of over $994 million. Similar to Autoglyphs, Art Blocks also runs on the Ethereum blockchain and creates abstract art pieces such as the Chromie Squiggles, Didenzas, and Ringers series.
Lost Poets
Poised as Pak’s most in-depth NFT project to date, Lost Poets is an NFT-based collection and strategy game. The project’s release has several stages. Although the future of the Lost Poets project was shrouded in mystery, it went ahead to achieve an initial sales volume of $70 million when it launched in September 2021.
Solvency
Another high-profile generative NFT artwork that has emerged is Solvency by Ezra Miller. The Solvency project incorporates dynamic WebGL simulations to create textured feedback loops that are drawn from a GAN trained on 35 mm photographs as well as layered colors that rely on information from its minting transaction. As an ongoing project, Solvency is supported by top collectors such as 888, Seedphrase, and Pranksy, which could mean that the project has a potentially bright future.
Should You Consider Putting Generative Art NFTs Into Your NFT Collection?
Truth be told, it’s difficult to know what the future holds for generative art NFTs as the process of generating art using AI is still a trial-and-error process. However, if history has taught us anything it’s not to side-line new technologies. We’ve seen it with Bitcoin and, more recently, with NFTs.
Moreover, generative art NFT projects are already experiencing growth going by the total sales volume achieved so far, highlighting the potential for crypto art that is more artistic than JPEGs of apes.
While generative art isn’t new and has been around for years, the incorporation of NFTs makes it appear slightly new. And while it might be a minute before generative art NFTs reach the success that some NFT projects or even traditional artists such as Picasso have, there is no denying the potential that it has seen how NFTs exploded back in 2021.
However, it’s imperative that collectors pay great attention to the market trends and carry out extensive research on their own before purchasing generative art NFTs. While generative art may stand out from the like wave of monkey-based NFT “art” drops, its values will still move along with crypto prices and the NFT market.