Aug 24, 2023
Heart + Craft
Jordan Lyall and I took the block hearts I had been making by hand and worked out a way for other people to make their own. Turn one around, pick out a block, see how it fits together.
Turn a heart around
Loading artwork…#2,667
Blocks, colors & making details
The Block Types
How the blocks are painted
Type controls the faces of a block. These are the three possibilities behind the Blocks choice above.
The Color Strategies
Eleven color strategies
A strategy moves through the palette, while Spread and Speed decide how much and how quickly. Confetti can interrupt most of them with a contrasting color family.
- X-Gradient
- Color travels from column to column across the heart.
- Y-Gradient
- Color travels row by row from top to bottom.
- Linear Gradient
- The palette advances in the order the blocks are laid out.
- Radial Gradient
- Color changes with distance from a generated point in the heart.
- Random Mix
- Colors are sampled around a starting place in the palette instead of following a direction.
- Outline
- The outside edge and inner body are treated as separate color regions.
- Glisten
- Two small highlights appear in a mostly solid heart.
- Solid
- Spread and speed are zero, giving the heart one base color.
- Hyper
- Every block gets one random color on all six faces.
- Hyper+
- Each block chooses one color for the face and another for its sides.
- Hyper++
- Every one of a block's six faces may choose its own color.
Exactly Six Heights
One footprint, six heights
Each occupied spot in the heart gets one block with a 1-inch / 25.4 mm square footprint, and the algorithm chooses one of these six heights. Color is a separate decision: any height can be painted any color the output calls for.
A zero in the shape data means an empty spot, with no block there. Those empty spots give the rectangular grid its heart outline; zero is not a seventh block height.
XS1/4" · 6.35 mm
S3/8" · 9.53 mm
M1/2" · 12.70 mm
L5/8" · 15.88 mm
XL3/4" · 19.05 mm
XXL7/8" · 22.23 mm
The Paint Shelf
Thirty-three named colors, plus grayscale
These are the colors used by the algorithm. Paint, surfaces, and room lighting will affect how they look when you make a physical heart.
Zangief
Noel
Webslinger
Kern
Ducreux
Ronin
Stoic
Mamba
Police Cap
Kootenai
Gwei
Outatime
Koufax
Skyler
Smint
Aurelius
Napali
Vandelay
Discovery
Topo
Slice
Brinkman
Anana
Del Rey
Tiara
Clemente
Tangerine
Satoshi
Fullerton
Melte
Unagi
Valencia
Clown Nose
Black
Dark Gray
Medium Gray
Light Gray
Very Light Gray
White
A pixel version
Make it 64 × 64
The heart you selected above also becomes a 64 × 64 image, using its block colors and heights.
Download the transparent image, or bring it into the send/receive pixel editor and draw on it.
Open the send/receive studio →Generating pixel heart…
One heart, two places
This hand-painted and assembled Heart + Craft #0 belongs to Jordan Lyall. It traveled to space in coordination with Axiom Space.
The same physical #0, photographed in Marfa.
Making one by hand
The files give you the blocks and the colors for this exact heart. Then you have to print them, paint them, and glue the rows together.
I like what happens when somebody makes their own version. Different paint, surfaces, and hands change what comes out, even when everyone starts with the same instructions.
From the screen to your hands
Every occupied spot on the grid gets one of six block heights. A separate color system decides how to paint its faces. The live artwork includes the block files and a paint-and-build sheet for that heart.
Generate
The algorithm chooses Small or Large, gives every occupied spot one of six heights, and then runs a separate color strategy over the blocks.
Read The Blueprint
The live work and instructions turn that output into blocks, colors, and a plan you can follow.
Print And Prepare
Print the six block sizes in the quantities listed, and prepare the paints.
Paint And Assemble
Paint the blocks and glue the rows together. Now the same artwork exists as something you made.
The Inclusive Edition
We kept the price low and started with room for a large supply, without a predetermined closing date. We called it an Inclusive Edition. The point was to give people time to find the work and participate.
We also left the option to reduce the supply later. The edition has since closed at 32,574 hearts.
The same heart can show up a few different ways
The work can be a live 3D heart, an image, a stack of unpainted blocks, something half assembled, or a finished object. Printing and painting introduce differences along the way.
The files cover several ways of using the work: the six printable block heights, a CSV with the paint and assembly information, the full 3D heart, a printable signature, and an image.
Double-click a block in the live view to see its height and face colors. That's a useful place to start before printing anything.
- Generated 3D heart
- Artwork-specific making information
- Print, mix, paint, and assemble
- Whatever happens when you make it yourself
Before assembly
The paint plan, the colors, and the individual blocks. Each heart takes time at the table.
A painted Heart + Craft before assembly, with its color plan beside it.
For a time, Generative Goods offered Heart + Craft paint kits so people could make their own at home. These are the colors together.
Painted blocks sorted by color before they become a heart.
Another Heart + Craft's worth of painted blocks, ready for assembly.
Look at the faces of the blocks
The block type changes how color is assigned to the faces. These examples are also available through the mixer above.
Each block has one color on all six faces. Colors can vary across the heart.
Each block has one color on its front face and another on its sides.
Hyper assigns random colors by block. Hyper+ separates the front and sides; Hyper++ assigns a color to each face.
A physical idea, worked out together in code
Random Mix — color is assigned block by block.
I brought the physical block-heart idea, the color system, and the 3D blocks. Jordan and his team developed the algorithm, and we worked out the project together.
Jordan founded Prohibition to make generative art easier and less expensive to get into. It gave us a place to try the Inclusive Edition on Arbitrum.
Before Heart + Craft
The physical work came first. These are earlier sculptures, not outputs from the generative collection.
One of my original block sculptures that led to Heart + Craft.
I made this before Heart + Craft and installed it near the front door soon after buying the Marfa house that became Art Blocks headquarters.
This one kept opening doors
Heart + Craft pulled together a lot of things I already cared about: color, tiles and cubes, accessible editions, physical objects, and letting the person who owns something participate in it.
From here I kept going. /// generates embroidery files. LIFT generates software and physical game objects. I even made a tool that can turn a Heart + Craft into a sprite for send/receive.
Making them together
Dave (left) and Benny (right). While filming a short documentary about digital art in Marfa, we made hearts together and added them to the wall at the Art Blocks house.
A large hand-painted Heart + Craft, assembled.
See the work in both directions
The official site explains the Inclusive Edition and the making process.
Connections to the other work
- What you see
- A heart made from blocks
- What it contains
- Six block heights, a color plan, and files for making it
- What came before
- The physical block hearts I had already been making
- Where it leads
- Fabrication experiments and the Heart + Craft converter for send/receive
A few more details
- Digital And Physical
- Every heart works as a digital piece and as a plan for making a physical version.
- Made With Jordan Lyall
- I brought the old physical block-heart idea, and Jordan and his team built the algorithm. We worked through the artwork and release together.
- Built On Arbitrum
- We used Arbitrum so the release could be large and much less expensive to participate in.
- Inclusive Edition
- We kept the price low and the supply flexible because we didn't want the main feeling to be 'hurry up or miss it.'
The instructions are in the artwork
The digital heart is a finished artwork. Its files also provide a route to a physical version: double-click blocks to read their heights and colors, open the making guide, and download the six printable heights and paint CSV.
Jordan Lyall and I made a collection of block hearts. Each artwork includes the files and color plan to build it.
Explore the sizes and color rules, move a heart around, and download its making files.
Original project example
Heart + Craft #0: a generated block heart whose geometry doubles as a physical making plan.
Image and live view served by the official Art Blocks media and generator services.
Edition, dates & provenance
- Release / first mintsourced
- Art Blocks / Prohibition · Arbitrum
0x47a91457a3a1f700097199fd63c039c4784384ab
The Heart + Craft site, Prohibition / Art Blocks records, and the Generative Goods maker-space project are linked below.
Sources & research notes
Official / primary
- Heart + Craft official site ↗
The official Heart + Craft reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full text - Art Blocks Prohibition partner page ↗
The official Heart + Craft reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full text - Art Blocks API docs ↗
Official documentation for Heart + Craft mechanics and technical context.
Useful for: mechanics · technical-context
official doc · primary · full text
Press / context
- Decrypt Heart + Craft article ↗
Additional Press / context context for Heart + Craft; primary sources carry the core facts.
Useful for: press-context · project-context
press profile · supporting · full text - NFTNow Inclusive Edition article ↗
Additional Press / context context for Heart + Craft; primary sources carry the core facts.
Useful for: press-context · project-context
press profile · supporting · full text
Generative Goods context
- Heart + Craft school maker-space kits ↗
Additional Generative Goods context context for Heart + Craft; primary sources carry the core facts.
Useful for: project-context
press profile · supporting · full text - SXSW x Generative Goods ↗
Additional Generative Goods context context for Heart + Craft; primary sources carry the core facts.
Useful for: project-context
press profile · supporting · full text