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1/ Autoglyphs are the 1st on-chain generative artworks on Ethereum

Here is everything you need to know in

The Autoglyph Almanack

A 🧵

2/Creators

Larva Labs founders @Matthall2000 and @Pents90 launched Autoglyphs in 2019.

Autoglyphs is their 2nd project after CryptoPunks.

Consisting of 512 pieces, each is a unique arrangement of characters created by code deployed on Ethereum.
3/Mint

The glyphs were created with a fee of 0.2 ETH (around $35 at the time).

All proceeds (76.8 ETH) from Autoglyph sales went to @350 as a charitable donation.

After 512 glyphs were made, the generator was shut off forever.

4/Distribution

Larva Labs kept the first 128 Autoglyphs and set 0% royalties.

It looks like they originally intended to keep 64, judging by the comments in the code:
5/Fun Facts

The transaction fee for creating an Autoglyph is nearly half an Ethereum block (3m/8m Gas).

OG Whale Sales:

@Natealexnft sold 20+ between 1 ETH and 2 ETH
@Pranksy sold 25 Autoglyphs for 1 ETH or less, including one for 0.2.
6/Token as Art

Autoglyphs are clever: the art is not an image, but the instructions for creating an image, the token is also the art.

"Art on the Blockchain"
7/ASCII Art

Autoglyphs are effectively “ASCII art”, so Larva Labs made a set of 9 custom fonts

Here is an example of the "Autoglyphs 100 & 800" font.
8/Add-ons

Larva Labs decided to make a custom font that renders the raw text of glyphs directly.
9/Inspiration

Having the blockchain give ‘instructions’ for rendered art was inspired by Sol LeWitt’s ‘Wall Drawings.’

His pieces are instructions for creating an installation.

The art is not about the hand of the artist; the idea behind each work surpasses the work itself.
10/The Story

Matt and John attended a show at the Whitney.

There was a Sol LeWitt piece on display that had been executed by an assistant at the gallery,

this was in keeping with the intention of the artwork and the instructions of the artist.
11/Story Continued

Matt immediately saw how this could apply to Autoglyphs:

"It was perfect, because we can't do a lot of things we want to do directly on the blockchain, but we can have the spirit of it be completely self-contained"
12/Image Generation

There are instructions on how to draw every ASCII art character

The idea is anyone can generate it - kind of like a Sol LeWitt instruction set for creating a drawing.

Owners can make it at any scale, with any materials they want.
13/Paying Homage

Matt and John had been getting into the early pioneering digital art of the '60s and early '70s.

They acknolwedged the glyphs were also a homage to Michael Noll and Ken Knowlton and

"that kind of stuff, which we really love"
14/Why 512 Autoglyphs?

Matt and John felt this was the right amount in order to fully explore the generator without creating too many similar outputs.

This would also allow for cool surprises.
15/Why 512 Autoglyphs continued

The powers-of-two theme shows up across the project:

Instructions are 64x64 ascii diagrams, 512 total Autoglyphs and 128 artist copies.
16/Creators Favourite Outputs

John is a fan of Autoglyphs made out of diagonal lines

Matt enjoys outputs that:

1. Give a sense that there is an imaginary pattern
2. Look like there are curves
3. Look different at different scales
17/@Plutoniumfitzg - Curated Tour

Here is a pleasing showcase of Plutonium's personal favourites


18/Plotter optimised SVG

Owners can generate SVGs optimised for printing on plotters like AxiDraw.

The generated SVG combines contiguous lines and minimises "pen up" movement to reduce draw times.

19/Generative Midi Music

Owners have the ability to generate MIDI music files based on their Autoglyph

Controlling note length and mapping various pitches to symbols in the glyph.

Here's an example combining glyphs 42 and 91: youtube.com/watch?v=TNAM3_BzZRo
20/Holders

The glyph owner page includes breakdowns by account and type,

along with easy links to OpenSea for each account

www.larvalabs.com/autoglyphs/details
21/Sales

There have been multiple $1m+ Autoglyph sales and the entire collection can be found on OS.


23/TL;DR

1. Creators
2. Mint
3. Distribution
4. Fun Facts
5. Token as Art
6. ASCII Art
7. Inspiration
8. Image Generation
9. Paying Homage
24/TL;DR Continued

10. Why 512 Autoglyphs?
11. Creators Favourite Outputs
12. Plutonium - Curated Tour
13. Plotter optimised SVG
14. Generative Midi Music
15. Holders
16. Sales
25/Thanks for reading❤❤❤

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