Nov 27, 2025
send/receive is a continuously changing on-chain artwork operating across a network of 10,000 objects.
Each object can be redesigned as a 64 × 64 pixel sprite, after which its owner may choose to send, receive, or inhabit both states at once.
As Ethereum blocks are appended over time, the balance of these choices alters the network’s visual behavior, producing a shifting portrait of communal design.
Receiving
Click the artwork to focus it, then use the arrow keys to play.
On a touch screen, use these buttons instead.
This is a live artwork. Its cast and pace change as people update the network.
The idea started with the phrase 'sending thoughts and prayers.' I'm not religious, but I understood the part about letting somebody know you care. I wanted to see if that gesture could become an artwork.
Each person can draw a character and give it a four-track tune. Sending puts that character into the network; receiving lets other people's characters into your work. The two choices are independent, and everybody's choices affect what the others see.
Make something
Making it move
A character can be a single drawing or a little animation. This one, from #316, plays four drawings in a loop.
Leave the two middle rows and columns of the 64×64 image blank. The artwork recognizes that empty cross and plays the 31×31 corners as animation frames. Use two, three, or four frames.
Try a tune
Start with a tune somebody has made. Open it in the tracker, press Play, then change a few notes and hear what happens.
The tracker's PLAY button is near the top. Spacebar works too once you are inside it.
Changes in these editors are local experiments; they do not change the original artwork. To keep a sprite or tune on a send/receive you own, copy the editor's exported data, then open your artwork on Art Blocks.
Sign in, paste that data into the matching customization setting and confirm the on-chain update. That owner-approved step saves it to your artwork and changes what other people see in the network. A downloaded PNG or music file is a separate copy to keep or share, not the data you paste into the artwork.
Open the collection on Art Blocks ↗Choosing who comes through
You don’t have to receive from everyone. For #426, I chose a group of artworks with Punk and Meeb characters. The result is a Send/Receive with its own particular crowd.
This is the artwork itself, running with that selection. It’s an example of ReceiveFrom: choosing which artwork numbers to listen to, rather than receiving from the whole shared network.
The list is chosen by hand; it isn’t an automatic image or ownership filter. The characters in it can still change.
Why I made #426 ↗A supporting project
I made Family Portrait as a separate website for Send/Receive. It centers your character and slowly gathers the incoming characters around it. Leave it running over time and the portrait keeps growing.
This is that website, embedded here. Choose an artwork, press GO inside the viewer, and give it time. Drag to look around or use its zoom controls to get closer.
The portrait follows this artwork’s existing connections. It doesn’t change who it sends to or receives from—it lets you see those arrivals collect in one place.
Artwork #0 on Art Blocks ↗This is the original viewer at fp.srlink.xyz, embedded here without a separate set of controls. Not every artwork is configured to receive; the viewer will explain when a different setting is needed. Anyone can look—opening a portrait does not change its artwork.
Watch the original introduction ↗One network, many choices
More sending makes the arrivals quicker. More receiving spreads them out. Everyone’s choices change the rhythm of the work.
An artwork can do both. These figures count settings, not people online.
Connecting to the network. Updates automatically while visible.
For an individual artwork’s incoming activity and sprites on screen, use the Network status / N button in the live viewer.
Send your character into other artworks. Receive theirs in yours. You can do either, both, or take a break—and change your mind later.
Try the two switches. Each direction is your choice.
An illustration, not a live artwork. These switches don’t change or save anything to a token.
You can also choose whose characters you receive, instead of listening to everyone. See how I did that with #426 ↑
Your part of the network
Your artwork gives you a place in the network, not just a picture to watch. Make a drawing, give it a tune, and decide whether to send, receive, or both.
If you already have one, open it on Art Blocks to save what you make. Trying the editors here doesn’t change an owned artwork.
Only the owner or an authorized delegate can confirm and save an on-chain change. Some numbers in the original range were never minted.
An archived preview; the live character and network can change.
Start with a 64×64 drawing. For animation, leave the full two-pixel cross through the middle blank and draw up to four 31×31 frames in the corners. The artwork detects that cross and plays the frames in sequence.
That character, and any sound you give it, can appear inside other people's artworks. Each artwork can store five versions, with one active at a time.
I built SendTo for pointing a sprite toward particular artworks, ReceiveFrom for listening to selected artworks, and ReceiveTo for catching sprites aimed directly at yours. I wanted to be able to say, this one is for you.
Those modes are supported by the underlying system but aren't exposed on the Art Blocks website yet. The current controls work with the general network.
I made a separate prototype interface for those controls, but it still requires a wallet connection and the process is clunky. I wanted to make the steps clearer before sending people into it.
There is a four-track music editor inside each artwork. I wanted enough room for someone to make a recognizable tune for their character.
When a sprite appears in a receiving work, its music comes with it. Click an incoming character to hear what its owner made.
These are the examples in the live viewer above. Their saved previews do not track the current network; open the viewer to see the receiving layouts and play their games.
Receiving layout: Grid · Snake
Receiving layout: Column · Falling blocks
Receiving layout: Fall · Galaga-ish
Receiving layout: Bounce · Bounce shooter
More senders give the receiving works more sprites to cycle through. More receivers spread those senders across more places. That balance changes the pace of the work.
Leave an artwork running to see that pace change as it draws from the network.
Sometimes I just want somebody to know I'm thinking about them. I kept coming back to how small that gesture can be, and how much it can mean when you need it.
send/receive was one of the final Art Blocks 500 projects in Full Circle. Mint Zero happened on November 27, 2025, and the collection opened on December 15.
Five years after Chromie Squiggle, I wanted to come back with a work that people could keep changing together. What each person makes becomes part of what everyone else experiences.
Leave an artwork running, click the incoming sprites, and try the games. The Art Blocks page has the controls for saving your own sprite and changing how your artwork participates.
Each character was drawn by somebody and may carry its own tune. An artwork gives you one view into the shared network, shaped by choices made throughout the collection.
A shared network where you draw yourself in pixels and choose whether to send support, receive it, do both, or take a break.
Make a sprite, add music, and watch how people's choices change the artwork.
send/receive #8506: a collector-authored pixel sprite participating in the shared network. Held by ZKM.
Image and live view served by the official Art Blocks media and generator services.
0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070send/receive lives on Art Blocks. ZKM holds #8506, and I linked that record plus the AB500 / Full Circle story below.
The official send/receive reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full textThe official send/receive reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full textThe official send/receive reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full textThe official send/receive reference for project facts and public links.
Useful for: project-facts · official-links
official project · primary · full textInstitutional record: collection or exhibition evidence and provenance context.
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institution record · primary · full text