# Schema by DRIFT with Jeff Davis

## The work and its context

Schema is project 7 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36, published under the canonical slug schema-by-drift-with-jeff-davis and credited to DRIFT with Jeff Davis. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 300 of 300 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: DRIFT artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, known for their explorations of natural phenomena through technologically minded artworks, and artist Jeff Davis, known for his explorations of color and form through algorithmic systems, have joined forces to produce a new generative art project titled Schema. Taking DRIFT’s widely exhibited Meadow installation as a point of departure, Schema comprises 300 unique, generative, and animated artworks uniting DRIFT and Davis’s artistic visions.   This collaborative new project is inspired by the beauty and simplicity of DRIFT’s two-dimensional schematic designs for Meadow, an upside-down landscape in which illuminated mechanical flowers open and close as part of a poetic choreography. Hung from a ceiling, this mesmeric work examines the impermanence of the changing seasons and the phenomenology of nature.  At its core, Schema is a love letter to the preliminary work that goes into realizing any large-scale art installation, in this case, diagram-making. Together, Gordijn, Nauta, and Davis developed a custom algorithm that brings the physical sculpture’s details and idiosyncrasies to life, recasting its diagrammatic origins in four possible styles: Diagram, the style that most closely resembles DRIFT’s preliminary diagrams for Meadow; Color Study, which strips out the structural elements of the diagrams and express the flowers as abstract rings of color; Sketch, which renders the flowers as line drawings with chalk-like accents; and Blueprint, which resembles the style of a blueprint.  In addition to these four different drawing styles, the project’s algorithmic system chooses two parent colors for each artwork, which may result in a wide spectrum of colors appearing across the composition from left to right or, alternatively, a more monochromatic scheme. The flowers themselves also have their own color systems that determine the relationship between their physical color and the color of their internal lights, creating gradient effects as the cast light blends with the local color.   Variable traits in any given Schema artwork also include: the total number and location of the flowers; day and night modes that impact ambient light effects; each flower’s apparent position relative to the viewer; and the frequency and speed at which each flower opens and closes. Flowers in these artworks also run on their own cycles, deliberately avoiding synchronization and giving the whole scene a sense of organic motion. Once the viewer clicks on a static Schema composition to activate its motion, the animations in the artwork evolve endlessly. [^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 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36. Aspect ratio indexed as 1.777777778. Website https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/drift-with-jeff-davis-schema/.

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. DRIFT artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, known for their explorations of natural phenomena through technologically minded artworks, and artist Jeff Davis, known for his explorations of color and form through algorithmic systems, have joined forces to produce a new generative art project titled Schema. Taking DRIFT’s widely exhibited Meadow installation as a point of departure, Schema compris

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 Schema 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 schema-by-drift-with-jeff-davis was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 10488 bytes with SHA-256 93825ee61eaa5ee8e174005ed88903aa1309b50a57e3ae3574cb892864bd5f73. 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 10488 bytes, SHA-256 93825ee61eaa5ee8e174005ed88903aa1309b50a57e3ae3574cb892864bd5f73, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, createCanvas, Tone, tokenData, hash, colorMode. Named functions include altSine, draw, flower, scramble, setup, star, touchStarted. 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 muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 172,147,158). File size 278004 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Night; Flowers 19; Drawing Style Color Study

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 a continuing-draw or audio/WebGL constructor. The inspected PNG is one frame. Live timing and soundtrack were not captured this session. 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 7 on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-10-17T17:43:23+00:00. activated_at is 2023-10-19T16:46:35+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-11-13T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2023-11-13T17:21:47+00:00. Invocations stand at 300 of a maximum 300, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 47.05 hours; activation to start_datetime is 25.01 days; start_datetime to completion is 21.8 minutes; first mint to completion is 26.98 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 2023-10-17T17:43:23+00:00, activated 2023-10-19T16:46:35+00:00, start 2023-11-13T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2023-11-13T17:21:47+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

Schema #0 is token 7000000 on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36, minted 2023-10-17T17:43:23+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 172,147,158). File size 278004 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Night; Flowers 19; Drawing Style Color Study Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mode Night; Flowers 19; Drawing Style Color Study.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Schema #1 is token 7000001 on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36, minted 2023-10-17T17:44:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 239,228,203). File size 707509 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Day; Flowers 14; Drawing Style Diagram Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mode Day; Flowers 14; Drawing Style Diagram.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Schema #10 is token 7000010 on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36, minted 2023-11-13T17:18:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x1350px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 223,243,212). File size 750606 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Day; Flowers 19; Drawing Style Diagram Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mode Day; Flowers 19; Drawing Style Diagram.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Schema #20 is token 7000020 on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36, minted 2023-11-13T17:19:47+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 163,158,133). File size 228912 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Night; Flowers 14; Drawing Style Color Study Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mode Night; Flowers 14; Drawing Style Color Study.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 7000295 (edition 295), 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 221,209,248). File size 748423 bytes. Indexed features: Mode Day; Flowers 15; Drawing Style Diagram [^S08][^S04][^S09]

Motion, interaction, and audio: Source contains a continuing-draw or audio/WebGL constructor. The inspected PNG is one frame. Live timing and soundtrack were not captured this session. 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

Schema is project 7 by DRIFT with Jeff Davis on 0xea698596b6009a622c3ed00dd5a8b5d1cae4fc36. 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. [Schema by DRIFT with Jeff Davis collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/schema-by-drift-with-jeff-davis). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for schema-by-drift-with-jeff-davis](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: DRIFT with Jeff Davis. [Schema on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled Schema token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled Schema outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/7000000). 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]: DRIFT with Jeff Davis. [Schema official description](https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/drift-with-jeff-davis-schema/). 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 Schema tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/7000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for Schema](https://generator.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/7000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.