Maxand98

A #digitalart manifesto v0.1

The following can be said about the state of digital art at the time of this tweet 11/3/2021

What follows are binary statements that define a boundary for those that wish to be included

Updated at intervals/to be expanded

updated ab5d.xyz essay on Portal by @jeffgdavis

added lore where Mr703 rage burnt Portal #4 because it was displayed at Bright moments without permission

h/t @Punk9512 for the tip

ab5d.xyz/series/portal-…

#7 and #8 remain in unidentified anon wallets

@matdryhurst mails it. there are a few irrational plans i have waiting on that check 😂

@punk6529 validating

it was a comment by @seedphrase that put the idea in my head shortly after the AB[500] was announced

like a lot of things in life, there was a serendipitous alignment of threads: I had been thinking about time and epochs and 5 years seemed to be an elegant number.

I have spent a lot of time in science and am amused by the historical motif that many scientific trials in medicine are cut off at 5 years. This mainly reflects the realistic career timeframe of the researchers to obtain a publishable result, not what actually happens in the real world.

So it is a neat assumption to say that if generative art survives 5 years, we can assume it will live forever!

Second, I had watched Peggy Guggenheim Art Addict documentary and I was thinking about what a modern version of that institution would look like (not that I am comparing my own modest efforts to hers, but you get what i mean) [1] This is why it is framed as a separate collection from my own personal NFT collection. I hope that these works as a collection out survive me.

Lastly I became interested in AI personhood, and experiments in aesthetic appreciation by their emergent consciousness, and artblocks seems to be the perfect machine readable candidate for those kind of bridge works [2], the last work made by humans but the first and most easily parsable by current AI. There is reflexivity at play here too. [3]

When talking to people about doing something like this, a common response is a kind of chuckle-it-can't-be-done-but-nice-idea, but there are two motifs here.

One is a Lawrence of Arabia type inevitability: IT IS WRITTEN, once you state it out loud. The second is that you have to PAY THE PRICE to get it done, let go of works you did not want to part with, make sacrifices elsewhere, ask people for help when you don't want to. There is always a price.

Collecting started 25th April 2025 and concluded October 28 2026 at Marfa, Texas. Total cost for 1011 works 215.16 ETH / $713, 615 USD (est based on conversion at time of purchase)

I am eternally grateful for the counsel and guidance of @eli_schein, part time counsellor, recipient of about 1000 messages from me, but always professional, it could not have been done without him.

Finally, I am not the first of course. @ArtOnBlockchain completed his set on 16 Dec 2025.

Anon OG collector Trying quietly completed his set on 29 March 2026, I am happy to have thunder stolen by such a phenomenal collector.

There are many things I intend to try from here in a curatorial sense, many will fail, perhaps some will succeed, if IT IS WRITTEN.

Extremely grateful to Snowfro for his vision, and to all 308 artist whose work and contribution I have only begun to appreciate.

♥️

[1] tv.apple.com/us/movie/peggy…

[2] maxand98.com/writing/on-bri…

[3] in the Soros sense of the word