# Dendro by Vebjørn Isaksen

## The work and its context

Dendro is project 443 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, published under the canonical slug dendro-by-vebjorn-isaksen and credited to Vebjørn Isaksen. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 275 of 275 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: **Dendro** is a generative art project inspired by the beauty of tree rings. Each year, trees add a new ring to their trunks, recording their growth and responding to the changing seasons and environmental conditions. These rings tell a story of the tree's life. By replicating these patterns, the project captures the rhythmic and organic qualities of nature.  In this project, I wanted to explore the aesthetic and conceptual possibilities of tree rings through code-based art. I used a generative algorithm to simulate the growth of virtual trees, generating patterns that resemble the annual rings of real trees, but with a twist. Instead of using traditional circular or oval shapes, I experimented with different geometric forms and noise. I also played with colors and instead of using earthy and realistic colours, the palettes are inspired by the richness and diversity of the natural world.  The algorithm works by starting with the outer most ring, which over time grows towards an arbitrary chose center according to certain rules and parameters. Each iteration adds a new layer of shapes inside the previous one, mimicking the accumulation of tree rings. I introduced random mutations and variations, which introduce unexpected and unpredictable outputs, evoking the unpredictability of natural processes.  Each artwork is inviting the viewer to contemplate the complexity and diversity of nature. I hope that this project will inspire others to explore the wonders of nature and to experiment with code-based art as a means of expression and exploration. [^S01][^S02]

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. [^S01][^S02]

Contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069. Aspect ratio indexed as 0.7071. Website https://vebits.codes/dendro.

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. [^S04][^S09]

## 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. **Dendro** is a generative art project inspired by the beauty of tree rings. Each year, trees add a new ring to their trunks, recording their growth and responding to the changing seasons and environmental conditions. These rings tell a story of the tree's life. By replicating these patterns, the project captures the rhythmic and organic qualities of nature.  In this project, I wanted to explore t

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 Dendro are the ones relied on. [^S07][^S01]

Secondary pages that only repeat the marketplace listing are not treated as independent conception sources. [^S02][^S07]

## How the work was constructed

The complete artist program for slug dendro-by-vebjorn-isaksen was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 12477 bytes with SHA-256 0ae2a8a0062e0b040523b3ad2264a79e2c1203c6d66f453d0e436a22c7c37c20. Runtime on the project record is p5@1.0.0. The script was read in full; it was not executed in this research session. [^S03]

The stored generator is 12477 bytes, SHA-256 0ae2a8a0062e0b040523b3ad2264a79e2c1203c6d66f453d0e436a22c7c37c20, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, noLoop, createCanvas, keyPressed, tokenData, hash, colorMode. Named functions include contrast, draw, draw_bg, draw_poly, e, getPalettes, get_lerps, get_mono_color, get_point, get_rnd_color. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1698x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 38,45,54). File size 5722018 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Circles; Edges Rough; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Bluewood; Background From 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: Source contains noLoop. The inspected PNG is a finished still. Live motion was not stopwatched. 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. [^S03][^S10]

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. [^S03][^S06]

## The mint

Indexed chronology for project 443 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-05-03T20:14:23+00:00. activated_at is 2023-05-10T03:58:11+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-08-21T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2023-08-21T17:30:47+00:00. Invocations stand at 275 of a maximum 275, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 6.32 days; activation to start_datetime is 103.54 days; start_datetime to completion is 30.8 minutes; first mint to completion is 109.89 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. [^S02][^S04]

Indexed clocks: first 2023-05-03T20:14:23+00:00, activated 2023-05-10T03:58:11+00:00, start 2023-08-21T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2023-08-21T17:30:47+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. [^S01][^S02]

## Copyright and licensing

The project record stores the artwork licence label 'CC BY-NC 4.0'. That string includes an explicit 4.0 version and is treated as Creative Commons version 4.0. 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. [^S02][^S06]

Artwork label copied exactly as 'CC BY-NC 4.0'.

Third-party runtime p5@1.0.0 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. [^S03][^S06]

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

Dendro #0 is token 443000000 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-05-03T20:14:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1698x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 38,45,54). File size 5722018 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Circles; Edges Rough; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Bluewood; Background From palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Bug No; Brush Circles; Edges Rough; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Bluewood; Background From palette.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Dendro #1 is token 443000001 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-08-21T17:00:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1698x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 73,44,52). File size 6673999 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Lines; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density High; Palette Grey Alder; Background From palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Bug No; Brush Lines; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density High; Palette Grey Alder; Background From palette.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Dendro #10 is token 443000010 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-08-21T17:21:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1698x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 63,54,40). File size 4693040 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Lines; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Yellowwood; Background From palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Bug No; Brush Lines; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Yellowwood; Background From palette.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Dendro #20 is token 443000020 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-08-21T17:25:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1698x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 242,124,136). File size 6616908 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Circles; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Riso; Background From palette Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Bug No; Brush Circles; Edges Out of Control; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Medium; Palette Riso; Background From palette.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 443000168 (edition 168), 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 1698x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 32,29,28). File size 5176635 bytes. Indexed features: Bug No; Brush Points; Edges Crisp; Canvas None; Margin Yes; Density Low; Palette Purplewood; Background From palette [^S08][^S04][^S09]

Motion, interaction, and audio: Source contains noLoop. The inspected PNG is a finished still. Live motion was not stopwatched. 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. [^S09][^S10][^S03]

## Significance and limitations

Dendro is project 443 by Vebjørn Isaksen 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? [^S02][^S08][^S10]

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

[^S01]: Art Blocks. [Dendro by Vebjørn Isaksen collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/dendro-by-vebjorn-isaksen). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for dendro-by-vebjorn-isaksen](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: Vebjørn Isaksen. [Dendro on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled Dendro token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled Dendro outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/443000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S06]: Creative Commons. [Reported artwork licence label CC BY-NC 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S07]: Vebjørn Isaksen. [Dendro official description](https://vebits.codes/dendro). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S08]: Art Blocks. [AB5D linked wallet set and profile index](https://www.artblocks.io/profile/ab5d). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S09]: Art Blocks media proxy. [Static PNG renders of sampled Dendro tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/443000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for Dendro](https://generator.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/443000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.