Pointila

The work and its context

Pointila is project 353 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, published under the canonical slug pointila-by-phaust and credited to Phaust. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 200 of 200 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: Pointila explores what happens when you combine the meticulous dots reminiscent of Pointillistic painting techniques with the channelled randomness of generative art, whilst also examining how subtle changes in parameters can paint similar forms in different styles. Pointila is designed for display and interaction. Clicking on a live mint will trigger an animation loop between the primary and secondary palettes, click again to pause. Press 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 on your keyboard to change glitch state. Press S to download a high resolution print. Pointillism emerged from a collision of art and science in late 19th century French painting. Developed by Georges Seurat, his appeal to science, rigour and order built upon the broken brushstrokes of the Impressionists, as painting began to reckon with the emergence of the new technology of photography. Unbeknownst to Seurat, this response to one technology would foreshadow another , that of digital displays and pixels. Rigour and order was manifest in the distinct dots of colour that give Pointillism its name. From a distance, the eye mixes these dots into vibrant, luminous scenes. This optical mixing bears a striking similarity to the way pixels work to display images on screen for us today. “It’s done mechanically?” was a question posed at an 1894 Neo-Impressionist exhibition. The answer then was no. Pointila is both more and less mechanical than the Pointillist work that provoked the question. More, in that the hand of the artist has been replaced by the work of the computer , an extension of Seurat's efforts to remove the free hand of the artist. Yet less, with the ultimate position of each of the millions of dots decided randomly, unknown to the hand of the coder. The Pointila algorithm first divides the canvas into columns. It then traverses the canvas dropping dots along those columns. From just a handful of layers, landscapes emerge. They take on a variety of forms: from rolling plains and steep canyons to jagged peaks and dreamy moors. Some are sharp and tense, others hazy and ethereal. They are coloured with handpicked palettes and animated with bold glitches , a nod to the shared optics of Pointillism and pixels. Subtle changes in initial parameters give rise to similar landscapes painted in different styles. Faint echos, perhaps, of the different styles we see from Seurat in the numerous studies related to his masterpiece Un dimanche à la Grande Jatte. 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 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270. Aspect ratio indexed as 1.77778. Website https://www.phaust.art/pointila.

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. Pointila explores what happens when you combine the meticulous dots reminiscent of Pointillistic painting techniques with the channelled randomness of generative art, whilst also examining how subtle changes in parameters can paint similar forms in different styles. Pointila is designed for display and interaction. Clicking on a live mint will trigger an animation loop between the primary and sec

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 Pointila 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 pointila-by-phaust was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 21701 bytes with SHA-256 482361a458ef92ff2c8aa2f418aad731d4b1f602aa20199b1a89f85b36b0083a. 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 21701 bytes, SHA-256 482361a458ef92ff2c8aa2f418aad731d4b1f602aa20199b1a89f85b36b0083a, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, noLoop, createCanvas, mouseClicked, keyPressed, tokenData, hash, colorMode. Named functions include N, O, T, W, Y, a, c, d, e, h. 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 9,148,128). File size 5542545 bytes. Indexed features: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Plains; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Right Break; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Fishermen; Secondary Palette Mower

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 353 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2022-08-24T20:30:52+00:00. activated_at is 2022-08-24T23:31:42+00:00. start_datetime is 2022-09-09T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2022-09-09T17:15:34+00:00. Invocations stand at 200 of a maximum 200, with complete=true on the retrieved row. ²³

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 3.01 hours; activation to start_datetime is 15.73 days; start_datetime to completion is 15.6 minutes; first mint to completion is 15.86 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 2022-08-24T20:30:52+00:00, activated 2022-08-24T23:31:42+00:00, start 2022-09-09T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2022-09-09T17:15:34+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-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. ²⁸

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

Pointila #0 is token 353000000 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-08-24T20:30:52+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 9,148,128). File size 5542545 bytes. Indexed features: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Plains; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Right Break; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Fishermen; Secondary Palette Mower Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Plains; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Right Break; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Fishermen; Secondary Palette Mower. ³⁹⁴

Pointila #1 is token 353000001 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-09T17:13:46+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 218,209,224). File size 7046714 bytes. Indexed features: Style Dense; Luminary None; Landscape Mountains; Colour Mode Linear Gradient; Composition Diptych; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Wintry; Secondary Palette Sideshow Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Style Dense; Luminary None; Landscape Mountains; Colour Mode Linear Gradient; Composition Diptych; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Wintry; Secondary Palette Sideshow. ³⁹⁴

Pointila #10 is token 353000010 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-09T17:14:15+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 64,72,84). File size 5467170 bytes. Indexed features: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Cliffs; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Panorama; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Dark Horse; Secondary Palette Clown Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Cliffs; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Panorama; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Dark Horse; Secondary Palette Clown. ³⁹⁴

Pointila #20 is token 353000020 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-09T17:14:47+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 86,86,86). File size 5821716 bytes. Indexed features: Style Hazy; Luminary Crescent; Landscape Forests; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Panorama; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Moonlight; Secondary Palette Sideshow Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Style Hazy; Luminary Crescent; Landscape Forests; Colour Mode Layer; Composition Panorama; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Moonlight; Secondary Palette Sideshow. ³⁹⁴

The AB5D header candidate is token 353000032 (edition 32), 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, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 252,228,233). File size 4401588 bytes. Indexed features: Style Grainy; Luminary None; Landscape Mountains; Colour Mode Linear Gradient; Composition Panorama; Initial State Zero Glitch; Primary Palette Models; Secondary Palette Stone Breaker 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

Pointila is project 353 by Phaust on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270. 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.