Drawings for a Monument

The work and its context

Drawings for a Monument is project 3 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070, published under the canonical slug drawings-for-a-monument-by-jeff-davis and credited to Jeff Davis. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 1000 of 1000 invocations, runtime p5@1.9.0, and the official description: Drawings for a Monument is a generative series exploring the development of a minimalist monument to Art Blocks. Each drawing pays tribute to a different project from the Curated collection, examining its color expression within a linear framework. The algorithm translates the chromatic identity of each Curated project into hand-drawn geometric studies with pencil guidelines, painted rectangles, and black outlines. In addition to being a creative endeavor, Drawings for a Monument is a personal reflection on my role at Art Blocks and the opportunities I've had to work with other generative artists on the platform. The drawings are equal parts technical investigation and emotional introspection as a way to more fully understand my history with Art Blocks over the last five years. Drawings for a Monument also marks a full circle moment in my own artistic career, connecting the digital techniques I use today with where I started as an artist , as a painter working with traditional materials. The digital outputs replicate how I work by hand, using rulers and flat brushes for precision and methodically mixing colors from a core set of paints. In the end, the full series of drawings becomes the monument itself. Together, they form both a personal archive and a collective tribute to the first five years of Art Blocks and its Curated collection. 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 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070. Aspect ratio indexed as 1.333333333. Website https://www.jeffgdavis.com/dfam.

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. Drawings for a Monument is a generative series exploring the development of a minimalist monument to Art Blocks. Each drawing pays tribute to a different project from the Curated collection, examining its color expression within a linear framework. The algorithm translates the chromatic identity of each Curated project into hand-drawn geometric studies with pencil guidelines, painted rectangles, a

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 Drawings for a Monument 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 drawings-for-a-monument-by-jeff-davis was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 185567 bytes with SHA-256 4a201c80a7f405b70550a8ac2ed9b607e714c96ba6afcf4a853934161b473739. Runtime on the project record is p5@1.9.0. The script was read in full; it was not executed in this research session. ⁶

The stored generator is 185567 bytes, SHA-256 4a201c80a7f405b70550a8ac2ed9b607e714c96ba6afcf4a853934161b473739, runtime p5@1.9.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, noLoop, createCanvas, keyPressed, tokenData, hash, colorMode. Named functions include betterLerp, betterLerpHSB, convertToLines, draw, hsbToRgb, keyPressed, labToRgb, mergeSegments, outlineLine, paintColor. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 245,239,232). File size 229286 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute Dipolar

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. 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 3 on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2025-11-27T15:58:11+00:00. activated_at is 2025-11-26T20:14:11+00:00. start_datetime is 2025-12-01T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2025-12-03T17:00:23+00:00. Invocations stand at 1000 of a maximum 1000, with complete=true on the retrieved row. ²³

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is -19.73 hours; activation to start_datetime is 4.87 days; start_datetime to completion is 2.00 days; first mint to completion is 6.04 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 2025-11-27T15:58:11+00:00, activated 2025-11-26T20:14:11+00:00, start 2025-12-01T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2025-12-03T17:00:23+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 '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. ²⁸

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

Third-party runtime p5@1.9.0 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

Drawings for a Monument #0 is token 3000000 on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070, minted 2025-11-27T15:58:11+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 245,239,232). File size 229286 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute Dipolar Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Drawing Available; Tribute Dipolar. ³⁹⁴

Drawings for a Monument #1 is token 3000001 on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070, minted 2025-12-01T17:00:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 233,221,207). File size 238229 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute Aerial View Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Drawing Available; Tribute Aerial View. ³⁹⁴

Drawings for a Monument #10 is token 3000010 on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070, minted 2025-12-01T17:00:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 223,220,209). File size 348338 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute Tide Predictor Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Drawing Available; Tribute Tide Predictor. ³⁹⁴

Drawings for a Monument #20 is token 3000020 on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070, minted 2025-12-01T17:00:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 236,230,223). File size 192315 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute This Is Not A Rock Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Drawing Available; Tribute This Is Not A Rock. ³⁹⁴

The AB5D header candidate is token 3000744 (edition 744), 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 2400x1801px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 238,233,226). File size 375466 bytes. Indexed features: Drawing Available; Tribute Ignition ¹⁰³⁴

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. ⁴⁷⁶

Significance and limitations

Drawings for a Monument is project 3 by Jeff Davis on 0xababababab20053426ad1c782de9ea8444358070. 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.