BUSY (Prototype #3), 2024
Archival Ink on Paper, Algorithmic
76.2 × 55.9 cm
Signed and dated
Collection of Bre Pettis
CA.2024.026
Description
Prototype #3 of BUSY, acquired in July 2024 while the algorithm was still most of a year from release. Art Blocks Curated released the finished series in April 2025 — fifty works, a ranked auction where the top forty-nine bidders paid the lowest winning bid — and every token was claimable as a 22 × 30 inch pen plot, with the five biggest "BUSIEST" works drawn on a prototype Bantam Tools ArtFrame. This sheet precedes all of that: the system caught mid-becoming. The BUSY plots are wild and full of so many loving, caring details that an entire world feels represented on the page.
Sources: https://www.artblocks.io/exhibitions/busy-by-james-merrill · https://lostpixels.io/writings/creating-busy