In January, we put out an open call for visual artists to take part in a unique grants program.
Created in collaboration with the LUKSO Grants Program, this project provided mentorship and financial support to nine artists interested in pioneering new art forms and creative works on the blockchain.
The curatorial theme was Abstracted Parameters. We live in a world where the boundaries between our digital and physical lives feel increasingly blurred. In response to this, we encouraged artists to experiment with distortion and new forms, and to play with the boundaries between the real and virtual. We hope this art prompts you to consider how technology shapes how we view our reality, and even how we view ourselves.
All of the Abstracted Parameters artworks have been minted on the blockchain, and are available to collect on Universal Page, a social marketplace for digital collectibles on LUKSO.
Rehearsal for a Building (Amorph/Alloy) is a phygital object that exists simultaneously in the physical and virtual worlds.
The physical object continues Barrow’s ongoing exploration of materiality and production techniques; combining a milled aluminium block with a colourful, amorphous, cast Jesmonite form. The tension between precision and fluidity becomes a central gesture in the work’s material language.
Its digital counterpart emerges as a metamorphosing entity: the small, sculptural object re-contextualised as a monolithic building, set within a sparse desert landscape beneath distant mountains.
In its final iteration, the work reveals the imagined building’s internal architecture - an intricate network of rooms, corridors, and stairwells.
Engaging with the LUKSO ecosystem through the integration of Universal Profiles and Universal Pages presented an opportunity to explore identity, provenance, and digital presence through an artistic lens. While not central to the making process, these tools offered a valuable framework for reflecting on how digital objects can live, evolve, and be represented on-chain.
This project explores courage as a transformative force. Through a deeply personal journey, it reflects on the confrontation with inner wounds, self-destructive tendencies, and the chaos that often accompanies them. The work asks: Where does courage come from? By embodying courage, the piece delves into the reclaiming of power, the ignition of life force, and the continuous process of self-realization. It invites the viewer to confront their own vulnerability and discover strength through their actions.
The idea for this piece emerged from a difficult moment when I felt broken—an experience that unearthed old wounds and shook my sense of stability. In the midst of that turmoil, I found myself questioning how I would move forward. It was then that I remembered my own power, my trust in myself. I saw this as an opportunity to reaffirm my resilience, to back myself up, and to transform hardship into something meaningful—not just for me, but for others who might connect with it through my art. Every piece I create is deeply tied to a personal story, and this one, in particular, will always remind me that I can face anything and turn it into something powerful.
I began by creating a mutant orb, representing the power of courage. I designed it to resemble the sun, a universal symbol of strength and light, also deeply significant in Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism. I experimented with parameters, running various simulations to visualize how the feeling in my heart might take shape as it rises.
My work is created using digital collage, photo manipulation, and digital drawing, with most of the process done in Procreate and Photoshop. This piece is a commentary on 45 years of freedom—yet we remain prisoners to the rules inherited from our colonial masters. It explores how we have not truly found our own path and how our heroes are always martyrs.
"Off For New Shores" by Konchord is a song about the courage to open new doors to the inner pathways of the soul. The release is paired with an exploration of cutting-edge GLSL shader technology, which transforms the original cover artwork into a naturalistic yet otherworldly animated visual experience.
This collection harnesses the mathematical elegance of Simplex noise—known for its natural-looking randomness—alongside Worley noise, famous for creating organic cellular patterns resembling natural textures like stone, water, and biological surfaces. Together, these algorithmic foundations generate fluid, evolving landscapes that both complement and reimagine the original cover art.
Off For New Shores" serves as both title and invitation, reflecting the collection's innovative character and its home on the forward-thinking LUKSO blockchain. This technological frontier enables unprecedented possibilities for digital art ownership and interaction, opening a space to redefine the traditional boundaries between music, visual art, and code. This collection is a step onto this new shore of creative expression and is asking the audience: “Are you, too, taking off for new shores?
Afterlight by Connie Bakshi
Afterlight presents a series of sensual, impossible textures, depicted in shades of black. Water, bubbles, powder and smoke float across a shifting, disorienting landscape, unimpeded by gravity, before being swept aside by a revelatory, blinding white light.
the sun hangs unnaturally still. i’ve walked for what feels like hours, yet its position remains fixed. perhaps time works differently here... or perhaps time is working perfectly, and i am what's different.
Simulations of the Hyperreal by Tuukzs
Through glitch-like undulating forms and surreal color schemes, these digital artworks embody Baudrillard’s perspective that what we perceive as "real" are essentially simulations—copies devoid of genuine originals. The rhythmic, algorithmic repetition emphasizes the notion that even human culture and society have become self-referential codes. Detached from explicit representation, the mesmerizing abstractions pulsate with their own hyperreal energy, independent from tangible reality. Engaging with these pieces offers viewers an immersive, disorienting experience reminiscent of Baudrillard’s "loss of distinction" between reality and unreality in our contemporary, media-driven landscape. This series challenges viewers to reflect deeply on the essence of reality itself in our digitally mediated existence.
LUKSO provides truly distinctive tools for creators, and having access to these innovative resources has been profoundly inspiring. I'm eager to continue exploring and experimenting further, as this is only the beginning of what’s possible. I'm excited to push these tools creatively, knowing I've barely scratched the surface.
Vanishing Point Protocol by Muriel Lherm
Vanishing Point Protocol is a visual meditation on perception, chaos, and the layered complexity of identity in the digital age. I generated over 100 variations through AI, searching for a dynamic balance of abstraction and narrative tension. After carefully curating the composition, I refined and animated it, creating a seamless loop that evokes movement within stillness.
1. coral and 2. Jellyfish. by dada boipelo
In azure darkness, drifting through the ocean's endless night.
Jellyfish pulses like phantoms and coral gardens bloom.
This collection is made using Touchdesigner, a new tool in my artillery bag. Its node-based architecture allows me to seamlessly blend real-time graphics, data visualization with sound. Working on TD, which is extremely different from my previous styles e.g. collage and multimedia art, has allowed me to trust the process of creation without focusing on beautiful input and output. Just by playing around with a few operators I am able to create abstract and surreal pieces that represent a bigger picture. I needed to break free from conventional mediums and this platform has supported my perspective as a visual creator.
“I've enjoyed using LUKSO’s tools, everything is seamless and the gasless nature has allowed me to explore the ecosystem easily, I still have a long way to go around this chain but to say the least, I am very inspired and empowered by what the LUKSO team is building for creators.”
Over the past year, concurrently with my Master's studies, I've been investigating the creation of an AI database model based on my work (digital illustration that utilizes the use of ‘abandonware’, software abandoned or vintage). Through a process of experimentation and refinement, I've discovered a range of tools that have been instrumental in perfecting these models. My current exploration, and most interesting yet, involves a platform called Exactly.Ai.
Exactly allows you to train models with up to 50 different images, and prompt new images from the style given. From my perspective, the most compelling feature of Exactly, is the fact that
you work over a “canvas”, where you can draw anything you want. The drawing is re-interpreted to the model style. My models are trained 100% with my own work, so I find this a very collaborative way of working with AI. You have the freedom to illustrate in your own style, just using different technologies and obtaining different results.
Following the narrative of a short poem/story written during the Refraction-LUKSO grant, titled 'Chain Empire', I aimed to visualize the potential look and feel of this 'Chain Empire'. Many of the poem's words were utilized as prompts, a tool from Exactly that allows you to combine prompts with each drawing, enabling the AI to understand the intended vision of the artist. I employed this tool in a more 'poetic' and conceptual manner, to explore whether the machine could grasp abstract terms such as greed or envy.
The collection is thought of as a five-panel artwork, which is meant to show the geography of the Chain Empire.
Memory Traces by Jan Ove Hennig
Memory Traces functions as an instrument of perception, like a stethoscope that reveals what was always present but previously imperceptible through careful calibration of its algorithmic rules.
I'm fascinated by exploring the space between digital identity and sonic art, specifically how Universal Profiles can become generative instruments for sound creation. This creates a unique relationship between digital identity and abstract sound, where the artwork becomes a living reflection of the collector's blockchain presence; an extension of LUKSO's vision of digital expression and ownership.
TMYL TMYL is a piece that plays with the albúr, a form of Mexican wordplay that twists meanings and creates double entendres. The main text “Entre más amas, más duras” (which translates to “The more you love, the more you last”) reflects my belief that love is essential for a long life. When broken into segments, the words take on new meanings and turn into puns of their own.
Typography is at the heart of the design. Letters are more than just syntax—they function as graphic elements that guide the eye through the composition. Using glyphs from the same typeface, I created shapes that interact with the text and add movement. Digitized textures and complementary colors bring depth, making the artwork visually dynamic and conceptually playful. It’s a mix of structure and abstraction, meaning and mischief.
TMYL TMYL is a fun take on a core belief of mine that love and language are active and evolving forces that keep us going. This piece invites you to look closer, read between the lines, and find new meaning in unexpected places.
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