# Staccato by Philip Bell

## The work and its context

Staccato is project 351 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, published under the canonical slug staccato-by-philip-bell and credited to Philip Bell. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 200 of 200 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: Staccato practices capturing space with elemental geometry. Positive and negative ground dissolve as the eye reads the rows and columns as if distinguishing sheet music. Rhythm emerges from the space between the shapes that tie them together.  The emergent forms of Staccato result from the perception of the collection of shapes as a whole.  High contrast monochrome rendering maximize this psychological effect as the eye groups similar shapes and patterns into subdivisions.   The process of Staccato stems from letterpress printmaking experiments with decorative typographic material. The process involves filling the letterpress with decorative borders and shapes, inking by hand, pulling a print, inspecting the result, making a small adjustment and repeating. [^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 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270. Aspect ratio indexed as 0.722. Website https://twitter.com/philipbell_.

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. Staccato practices capturing space with elemental geometry. Positive and negative ground dissolve as the eye reads the rows and columns as if distinguishing sheet music. Rhythm emerges from the space between the shapes that tie them together.  The emergent forms of Staccato result from the perception of the collection of shapes as a whole.  High contrast monochrome rendering maximize this psycholo

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 Staccato 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 staccato-by-philip-bell was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 5238 bytes with SHA-256 52667939bf6a837b92655f7736a1f6aac160c42682fadfa8430c5d61a7890af3. 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 5238 bytes, SHA-256 52667939bf6a837b92655f7736a1f6aac160c42682fadfa8430c5d61a7890af3, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, noLoop, createCanvas, tokenData, hash. Named functions include F, dar, darInv, dpt, dtri, nearest, ppprt, setup. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1733x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 127,123,116). File size 5598154 bytes. Indexed features: mode light; cell density extra high; margin unlock start; max cell size 0.34; pressure axis y

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. [^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 351 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2022-08-29T18:34:50+00:00. activated_at is 2022-08-31T23:31:29+00:00. start_datetime is 2022-09-16T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2022-09-16T17:22:11+00:00. Invocations stand at 200 of a maximum 200, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 2.21 days; activation to start_datetime is 15.73 days; start_datetime to completion is 22.2 minutes; first mint to completion is 17.95 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 2022-08-29T18:34:50+00:00, activated 2022-08-31T23:31:29+00:00, start 2022-09-16T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2022-09-16T17:22:11+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 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

Staccato #0 is token 351000000 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-08-29T18:34:50+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1733x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 127,123,116). File size 5598154 bytes. Indexed features: mode light; cell density extra high; margin unlock start; max cell size 0.34; pressure axis y Indexed features returned for this V2 token: mode light; cell density extra high; margin unlock start; max cell size 0.34; pressure axis y.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Staccato #1 is token 351000001 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-16T17:00:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1733x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 187,118,88). File size 6700457 bytes. Indexed features: mode chroma; cell density low; margin unlock squared; max cell size 0.74; pressure axis y Indexed features returned for this V2 token: mode chroma; cell density low; margin unlock squared; max cell size 0.74; pressure axis y.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Staccato #10 is token 351000010 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-16T17:16:11+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1733x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 118,115,109). File size 6004336 bytes. Indexed features: mode dark; cell density low; margin unlock squared; max cell size 0.37; pressure axis y Indexed features returned for this V2 token: mode dark; cell density low; margin unlock squared; max cell size 0.37; pressure axis y.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Staccato #20 is token 351000020 on 0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270, minted 2022-09-16T17:18:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 1733x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 146,141,133). File size 5645160 bytes. Indexed features: mode light; cell density low; margin unlock both; max cell size 0.21; pressure axis x Indexed features returned for this V2 token: mode light; cell density low; margin unlock both; max cell size 0.21; pressure axis x.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 351000162 (edition 162), 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 1733x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 148,143,135). File size 6566135 bytes. Indexed features: mode dark; cell density medium; margin unlock start; max cell size 0.29; pressure axis x [^S08][^S04][^S09]

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

## Significance and limitations

Staccato is project 351 by Philip Bell 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? [^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. [Staccato by Philip Bell collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/staccato-by-philip-bell). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for staccato-by-philip-bell](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: Philip Bell. [Staccato on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled Staccato token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled Staccato outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/351000000). 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]: Philip Bell. [Staccato official description](https://twitter.com/philipbell_). 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 Staccato tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/351000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for Staccato](https://generator.artblocks.io/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/351000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.