# marfaMESH by Harvey Rayner

## The work and its context

marfaMESH is project 2 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a, published under the canonical slug marfamesh-by-harvey-rayner and credited to Harvey Rayner. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 343 of 343 invocations, runtime js@na, and the official description: marfaMESH is an event-driven generative art experiment that took place over the course of Marfa 2023, Sept 21st to 24th. To participate attendees were required to download the marfaMESH app developed by Shane Richardson (Breath You, Ouroboros) and wear a NFC Card lanyard powered by IYK. Scanning other peoples lanyards built a social graph of interactions that created personalized artworks for each participant that evolved throughout the event. When scanning, the app prompted users to take a picture from which colors and basic forms were abstracted and fed into the emerging artwork. Interactions ‘nodes’ are clustered based on eleven key geo locations and there is a night day mode based on time of last interaction.  The project’s primary objective was to serve as an icebreaker to help bring about connections between people that wouldn’t have met otherwise.   It is hoped that this project is an example of how generative art can be used to create highly personalized art chronicles of an event. Art that helps to preserve memories and create a treasured artifact that’s an extension of the ticket stub or merch item we are all familiar with. It's my belief that generative art has inherent properties that enable it to provide a new class of art that is part infographic; memorabilia; social graph; personal story and proof of participation. I can see a future in which a person's inner and outer worlds can be expressed in an evolving, responsive and interactive artwork. These life-artworks may meld in real time with life-artworks from friends and family or as large community expressions.   A global expression of all the data collected will be created and auctioned as a one of one in the coming year. While it might seem that the individual outputs in this series will have the greatest value and meaning to the co-creators, a single collective expression of the event may have more value and meaning to art culture as a whole. Profits from this auction will be reinvested into the continued exploration of this approach of which marfaMESH has served as a compelling early proof-of-concept. [^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 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a. Aspect ratio indexed as 0.5625. Website https://marfamesh.art/.

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. marfaMESH is an event-driven generative art experiment that took place over the course of Marfa 2023, Sept 21st to 24th. To participate attendees were required to download the marfaMESH app developed by Shane Richardson (Breath You, Ouroboros) and wear a NFC Card lanyard powered by IYK. Scanning other peoples lanyards built a social graph of interactions that created personalized artworks for each

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 marfaMESH 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 marfamesh-by-harvey-rayner was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 223960 bytes with SHA-256 994cfe334b97b689951e232e570766fe585be228a64e7d40281fb5dc41add258. Runtime on the project record is js@na. The script was read in full; it was not executed in this research session. [^S03]

The stored generator is 223960 bytes, SHA-256 994cfe334b97b689951e232e570766fe585be228a64e7d40281fb5dc41add258, runtime js@na. Detected source markers: draw, tokenData, hash. Named functions include aSVG, base64Decode, buildBorder, buildFilaments, buildImgCell, buildLayout, buildNode, buildPattern, buildSVGroot, buildScribble. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 155,149,128). File size 5579159 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 34; Total Photos Taken 34; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 2; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 0; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0

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. [^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 2 on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-10-12T18:00:35+00:00. activated_at is 2023-10-12T19:13:11+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-10-13T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2024-06-13T15:04:23+00:00. Invocations stand at 343 of a maximum 343, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 1.21 hours; activation to start_datetime is 21.78 hours; start_datetime to completion is 243.92 days; first mint to completion is 244.88 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 2023-10-12T18:00:35+00:00, activated 2023-10-12T19:13:11+00:00, start 2023-10-13T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2024-06-13T15:04:23+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. [^S01][^S02]

## Copyright and licensing

The project record stores the artwork licence label 'CC BY-NC-ND 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-ND 4.0'.

Third-party runtime js@na 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

marfaMESH #0 is token 2000000 on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a, minted 2023-10-12T18:00:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 155,149,128). File size 5579159 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 34; Total Photos Taken 34; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 2; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 0; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0 Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Total Interactions 34; Total Photos Taken 34; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 2; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 0; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

marfaMESH #1 is token 2000001 on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a, minted 2023-10-12T19:47:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 105,100,73). File size 6057961 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 55; Total Photos Taken 47; Int's @ Planet Marfa 1; Int's @ The Sentinel 1; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 2; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 2; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 1 Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Total Interactions 55; Total Photos Taken 47; Int's @ Planet Marfa 1; Int's @ The Sentinel 1; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 2; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 2; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 1.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

marfaMESH #10 is token 2000010 on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a, minted 2023-10-13T18:29:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 136,160,143). File size 5862318 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 16; Total Photos Taken 16; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 1; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 0; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0 Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Total Interactions 16; Total Photos Taken 16; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 1; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 0; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

marfaMESH #20 is token 2000020 on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a, minted 2023-10-13T18:29:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 71,61,79). File size 5702979 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 19; Total Photos Taken 15; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 0; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 7; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0 Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Total Interactions 19; Total Photos Taken 15; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 0; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 7; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 2000274 (edition 274), 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 1350x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 72,86,73). File size 5550966 bytes. Indexed features: Total Interactions 12; Total Photos Taken 11; Int's @ Planet Marfa 0; Int's @ The Sentinel 0; Int's @ Glitch Gallery 3; Int's @ Marfa Burritos 0; Int's @ Crowley Theater 0; Int's @ Marfa Spirit Co 0 [^S08][^S04][^S09]

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. [^S09][^S10][^S03]

## Significance and limitations

marfaMESH is project 2 by Harvey Rayner on 0x942bc2d3e7a589fe5bd4a5c6ef9727dfd82f5c8a. 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. [marfaMESH by Harvey Rayner collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/marfamesh-by-harvey-rayner). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for marfamesh-by-harvey-rayner](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: Harvey Rayner. [marfaMESH on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled marfaMESH token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled marfaMESH outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/2000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S06]: Creative Commons. [Reported artwork licence label CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S07]: Harvey Rayner. [marfaMESH official description](https://marfamesh.art/). 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 marfaMESH tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/2000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for marfaMESH](https://generator.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/2000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.