Contrast Agent

The work and its context

Contrast Agent is project 391 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, published under the canonical slug contrast-agent-by-tim-richardson-sean-zellmer and credited to Tim Richardson + Sean Zellmer. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 14 of 14 invocations, runtime regl@2.1.0, and the official description: Contrast Agent is a collaboration between artist Tim Richardson and creative technologist Sean Zellmer. The title refers to chemical agents used in CT scans that make soft tissue visible in x-ray imaging. We were inspired by the ways this process reveals our interior physiology, making the connection between our exterior and interior bodies transparent. Drawing on CT imaging, we explored fractal geometry as a visualization of human physiology. The geometry is constructed with cylindrical orbit traps that possess an inherent self-similarity. Much like the vascular system of the body, the orbit traps have a nested symmetric structure with finer details mirroring the overall structure. This symmetric structure became the core motif for the edition and is embodied as an infinite visual loop. Each unique artwork is bound to this temporal cycle, creating an animated ‘liquid physiology’ emblematic of the shifting realities we engage with on a daily basis. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Artist - Tim Richardson https://www.instagram.com/timrichardsontv Richardson's work has been exhibited internationally and is in the Collections of Deutsche Bank and Sir Elton John. Three books have been published on his work, most recently the monograph Spiritual Machine by Prestel UK. Creative Technologist - Sean Zellmer https://www.instagram.com/lejeunerenard/ Sean Zellmer has made a piece everyday for 5+ years focusing on shaders. His work has been exhibited in Times Square as part of Decode Experiential and in São Paulo for FILE Festival 2018. He has collaborated with brands such as Lush and Vans. ¹²

Those figures are current index observations retrieved on 2026-09-19, not a reconstruction of the original public sale announcement. Atlas position is a catalogue ordinal and is not the on-chain project ID. The live collection page and the Hasura projects_metadata row agree on title, slug, contract, and project ID after a filtered query that used the exact slug. ¹²

Contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069. Aspect ratio indexed as 0.785. Website none indexed.

This essay treats the stored artist program, four independently identified outputs, and a freshly checked AB5D holding (or an explicit collection gap) as primary evidence. Metadata traits are cited only when they were returned for the same V2 contract token IDs that were visually inspected. They do not replace looking at the pictures. ³⁴

Conception and development

The official project description is the development account used here. Interview or dossier sentences that name a different slug are not treated as statements about this series. Contrast Agent is a collaboration between artist Tim Richardson and creative technologist Sean Zellmer. The title refers to chemical agents used in CT scans that make soft tissue visible in x-ray imaging. We were inspired by the ways this process reveals our interior physiology, making the connection between our exterior and interior bodies transparent. Drawing on CT imaging, we explored fractal

The development account used here is the specific source named in the citations, not a paraphrase of an artist-dossier page. Where that account is an official project description written in the artist's voice, that limit is stated rather than upgraded into an unpublished studio diary. Where an interview exists, the sentences that actually name Contrast Agent are the ones relied on. ⁵¹

Secondary pages that only repeat the marketplace listing are not treated as independent conception sources. ²⁵

How the work was constructed

The complete artist program for slug contrast-agent-by-tim-richardson-sean-zellmer was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 20277 bytes with SHA-256 e64a5d3d0eeec3328d1cda9d716bd43b9d71a71f9334af3a8601df8224cfa062. Runtime on the project record is regl@2.1.0. The script was read in full; it was not executed in this research session. ⁶

The stored generator is 20277 bytes, SHA-256 e64a5d3d0eeec3328d1cda9d716bd43b9d71a71f9334af3a8601df8224cfa062, runtime regl@2.1.0. Detected source markers: draw, tokenData, hash, colorMode. Named functions include e, o, r, t. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 92,37,128). File size 4158900 bytes. Indexed features: Surge Off; Species Fluxus; Behavior Exogenesis; Spectrum Fast; Displacement 5; Background Style Palette

Visual claims come from inspected media-proxy PNGs plus indexed token features.

Seed handling is visible in the retrieved program: tokenData.hash is read in source. Time and interaction behaviour in code is: Loop behaviour inferred only from source keywords. The inspected PNG is a static frame. A handler found in source is not the same thing as a control that was pressed in a live renderer during this session; tested controls are listed only when an actual key or pointer action was performed. ⁶⁷

External dependencies are those declared by script_type_and_version plus any library identifiers inside the file. Public visibility of the stored script does not grant a right to redistribute the raw artist source in this package, so the analysis cites functions and byte length rather than reprinting the program. ⁶⁸

The mint

Indexed chronology for project 391 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-02-03T17:33:47+00:00. activated_at is 2023-02-09T05:55:59+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-03-10T18:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2024-03-27T20:20:35+00:00. Invocations stand at 14 of a maximum 14, with complete=true on the retrieved row. ²³

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 5.52 days; activation to start_datetime is 29.50 days; start_datetime to completion is 383.10 days; first mint to completion is 418.12 days. These are differences of indexed clock fields, not a claim about when a web storefront button became visible to every collector. A first mint that precedes start_datetime is treated as an early or reserved mint unless a separate allocation record is produced. ²³

Indexed clocks: first 2023-02-03T17:33:47+00:00, activated 2023-02-09T05:55:59+00:00, start 2023-03-10T18:00:00+00:00, completed 2024-03-27T20:20:35+00:00. Early first-mint timestamps are not labelled reserved without a separate allocation record.

Historic per-token ETH prices for the original public sale were not recovered from a primary price table during this session and remain unresolved. Any floor price visible on a marketplace page in 2026 is a current listing observation, not the 2021 ask. ¹²

Copyright and licensing

The project record stores the artwork licence label 'NFT License 2.0'. That label is not a Creative Commons version string and is recorded as a custom or unknown artwork term. Code rights for the artist program are not separately labelled on the same field; they are treated as unknown rather than assumed identical to the artwork deed. ²⁸

Artwork label copied exactly as 'NFT License 2.0'.

Third-party runtime regl@2.1.0 is a separate rights object from both the artwork outputs and the artist source. p5.js, three.js, and ordinary browser JavaScript each keep their own licence texts. This package does not redistribute those libraries. ⁶⁸

Original essay prose in this package is dedicated CC0-1.0 by the research operator. That dedication does not change the artwork, code, or dependency licences.

Close reading of examples

Contrast Agent #0 is token 391000000 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-02-03T17:33:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 92,37,128). File size 4158900 bytes. Indexed features: Surge Off; Species Fluxus; Behavior Exogenesis; Spectrum Fast; Displacement 5; Background Style Palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Surge Off; Species Fluxus; Behavior Exogenesis; Spectrum Fast; Displacement 5; Background Style Palette. ³⁹⁴

Contrast Agent #1 is token 391000001 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-03-10T18:28:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 94,94,94). File size 1875611 bytes. Indexed features: Surge Off; Species Giger; Behavior Monofusion; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 1; Background Style Black Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Surge Off; Species Giger; Behavior Monofusion; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 1; Background Style Black. ³⁹⁴

Contrast Agent #10 is token 391000010 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-03-15T02:30:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 166,162,157). File size 3917781 bytes. Indexed features: Surge On; Species Fluxus; Behavior Synesthesia; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 9; Background Style Palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Surge On; Species Fluxus; Behavior Synesthesia; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 9; Background Style Palette. ³⁹⁴

Contrast Agent #2 is token 391000002 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-03-10T18:31:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 164,57,44). File size 1744178 bytes. Indexed features: Surge Off; Species Monofusion; Behavior Multiversal; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 1; Background Style Black Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Surge Off; Species Monofusion; Behavior Multiversal; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 1; Background Style Black. ³⁹⁴

The AB5D header candidate is token 391000011 (edition 11), currently indexed to 0xdd19308a9731cdecb67e0d80ca6823394208c045, which is one of the three linked addresses returned for username ab5d on 2026-09-19. That ownership match is a present-tense index observation, not proof of continuous custody since mint. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1884x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 101,174,160). File size 3743332 bytes. Indexed features: Surge Off; Species Synesthesia; Behavior Giger; Spectrum Normal; Displacement 9; Background Style Palette ¹⁰³⁴

Motion, interaction, and audio: Loop behaviour inferred only from source keywords. The inspected PNG is a static frame. The static PNGs document halt or preview states. They are not by themselves proof that a live loop is still running, nor proof that a work is silent. No soundtrack was heard from these pages during this session. ⁴⁷⁶

Significance and limitations

Contrast Agent is project 391 by Tim Richardson + Sean Zellmer on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069. The close readings above are the evidence for what the stored program outputs.

Unresolved research questions that remain after this pass: (1) What was the exact public-sale unit price in ETH at start_datetime, supported by a contemporaneous primary source rather than a later floor? (2) For tokens whose live renderer was not stopwatch-timed, what is the measured wall-clock period of one full cycle or one completed progressive draw? (3) What contemporaneous primary source records the original public unit price in ETH? (4) Incomplete Control aside, do any of the three current AB5D wallets later acquire or dispose of the header token used above after 2026-09-19? ²¹⁰⁷

This package is a draft for human review. Structural validation tests file shape, not the truth of seeing or of licence interpretation.