Flows

The work and its context

Flows is project 435 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, published under the canonical slug flows-by-ryley-oeth and credited to ryley-o.eth. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 100 of 100 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: Flows uses the mathematics of aerodynamics to animate colorful particles and forms that move through underlying flow fields. Potential Flow Theory, a cornerstone of traditional aerodynamic analysis, is the basis for all outputs in this project. From an aerospace engineer's perspective, these functions are powerful tools to simulate airflow on the wing of an airplane or weather patterns over a geographical area, but rarely are we given the freedom to explore the potential for beauty. Generative art is a wonderful platform to showcase this because it is simply math and physics given shape and color. Subtle nods to my background in the aerospace industry are given throughout the project. Outputs include particles that traverse along pathlines, simulating particle tracer analysis methods. Some palettes limit their colors to the conventional analytical color spectrum of red to blue. Regions of smooth color gradients are broken up by discontinuities, inspired by Schlieren photographs of shockwaves. Flows, however, intentionally breaks away from many analytical conventions. This is largely representative of my personal journey out of the aerospace industry and into the world of generative art. Streamlines are replaced by winding, spiraling forms that twist through underlying scalar potential fields instead of aligning with them. Pixelated, analytical graphs are replaced with smooth GPU animations rendered in real-time. For a more detailed overview of this project, including more details about the choices behind each color palette, a breakdown of the underlying aerodynamics, and a summary of how shaders are being used, please see ryley-o.com/flows. An extra personal touch is given to this project, inspired by my son born with Down syndrome. Token #21 will have a unique blue and yellow palette titled "Inclusion". 100% of artist royalties from sales of that token will be donated to Down syndrome related charities, in perpetuity. 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 1.777778. Website https://ryley-o.com/flows.

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. Flows uses the mathematics of aerodynamics to animate colorful particles and forms that move through underlying flow fields. Potential Flow Theory, a cornerstone of traditional aerodynamic analysis, is the basis for all outputs in this project. From an aerospace engineer's perspective, these functions are powerful tools to simulate airflow on the wing of an airplane or weather patterns over a geo

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 Flows 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 flows-by-ryley-oeth was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 28439 bytes with SHA-256 5e89b8c00d354f6ba85c643f957544d9b04118d4f479c1bcf16510312cacc3bf. Runtime on the project record is p5@1.0.0. The script was read in full; it was not executed in this research session. ⁶

The stored generator is 28439 bytes, SHA-256 5e89b8c00d354f6ba85c643f957544d9b04118d4f479c1bcf16510312cacc3bf, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, WEBGL, createCanvas, tokenData, hash. Named functions include M, Mx, My, draw, getPaletteOrDefault, getVelocityAtPoint, getWeightedChoice, randInterp, setup, time_. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 141,221,102). File size 1217200 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Skip; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Small

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 435 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-06-01T14:40:11+00:00. activated_at is 2023-06-06T17:35:23+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-06-13T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2023-06-20T06:28:23+00:00. Invocations stand at 100 of a maximum 100, with complete=true on the retrieved row. ²³

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 5.12 days; activation to start_datetime is 6.98 days; start_datetime to completion is 6.56 days; first mint to completion is 18.66 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 2023-06-01T14:40:11+00:00, activated 2023-06-06T17:35:23+00:00, start 2023-06-13T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2023-06-20T06:28:23+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 '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 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. 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

Flows #0 is token 435000000 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-06-01T14:40:11+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 141,221,102). File size 1217200 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Skip; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Small Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Palette Skip; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Small. ³⁹⁴

Flows #1 is token 435000001 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-06-13T17:12:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 188,160,188). File size 1301360 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Overload; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles False; ParticleSize None Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Palette Overload; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles False; ParticleSize None. ³⁹⁴

Flows #10 is token 435000010 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-06-13T17:30:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 68,83,45). File size 3028755 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Step; Migraine False; NumElements 2; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Normal Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Palette Step; Migraine False; NumElements 2; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Normal. ³⁹⁴

Flows #20 is token 435000020 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-06-13T18:11:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 147,155,153). File size 1371025 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Rainbow; Migraine False; NumElements 4; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Normal Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Palette Rainbow; Migraine False; NumElements 4; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Normal. ³⁹⁴

The AB5D header candidate is token 435000088 (edition 88), 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 2400x1350px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 157,223,93). File size 1270411 bytes. Indexed features: Palette Skip; Migraine False; NumElements 3; HasParticles True; ParticleSize Normal 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

Flows is project 435 by ryley-o.eth 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.