Quine
Shaping the Canon of Generative Art as One Era Ends and Another BeginsQuine is a generative artwork by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, known as Larva Labs, the pioneering studio behind CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, and Meebits, and among the most significant artists working with code today. Their work is held in the permanent collections of MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, and ICA Miami.
Released as the final project in Art Blocks Curated, Quine marked the close of a defining chapter in generative art. Built on the computer science concept of a program that outputs its own source code, each work embeds the instructions for its own existence directly into a fixed grid, collapsing source and output into a single form. Some works reproduce themselves exactly. Others cycle through multiple generations before returning to their origin. A rare few generate endlessly without looping. The project draws on ideas ranging from Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem to Hofstadter’s strange loops, situating code as both medium and subject.
The release generated over $15M in primary sales within 24 hours, reflecting significant collector demand and broad cultural attention as a milestone for both Larva Labs and Art Blocks.
The project culminated in a presentation at both Marfa and Art Basel Miami Beach’s inaugural Zero 10 sector, the fair’s new global initiative for art of the digital era. The Zero10 presentation featured ten hand selected works from the artist reserve, presented as archival pigment prints, alongside the complete collection of 487 Quines displayed on a custom designed vitrine table and a programmatic visualization of the code itself. The presentation emphasized the relationship between algorithmic process, individual output, and the totality of a generative system.
I worked as a close collaborator throughout the project’s development - partnering with the artists on conceptual framing, visual direction, artist statements, and public language. I served as both an art advisor and producer, representing Larva Labs in communications with press and collectors, and leading marketing strategy for the release. This work extended through the Art Basel, where I curated the presentation and critical framing of the project within Zero 10.
Role: Collaborator & Art Advisor
Comms, Production, and Curation for Art Basel Zero 10 Presentation