# Systems Madness by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton

## The work and its context

Systems Madness is project 442 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, published under the canonical slug systems-madness-by-claudia-hart-and-andrew-blanton and credited to Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 42 of 42 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: 'Systems Madness' is a collaborative project by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton that explores what happens when reason meets unreason. Inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the project uses AI tools to transform literary language into a library of visual tropes, a translation of emotional expression into code. Together Hart and Blanton reconstruct the pattern language of romantic era wallpapers using warm, off-primary colors, noises, gradients, blurrings, layerings, and apply different fractal formations, repeated irregularly, pushing beyond the human desire to create order out of chaos. 'Systems Madness' is a mesmerizing interactive artwork that extends ‘beyond the wallet’ into our domestic spaces.  Exhibition Description: ‘Systems Madness’ from Claudia Hart is a conceptual artwork that extends beyond the screen. Collectors can interact with the work minted on Art Blocks, and they can also access a set of instructions for how to install the artwork as an interactive floor-to-ceiling wallpaper at home or in a public exhibition.  Artist Statement: "Together we framed a question - what happens when reason meets unreason? The response: the all too human desire to create order out of the chaos of this world; and identically - the truth - that too much order can actually drive you mad!"  More information at https://madness.systems  After the allowlisted fixed price sale ends, there will be an auction starting at 1pm ET with a starting price of 2 ETH, and decreasing over the span of 30 mins to a final resting price of .1 ETH  The artists will donate a percentage of profits from the sale of this collection to the Center for Reproductive Rights. [^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 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069. Aspect ratio indexed as 1.0. Website https://www.madness.systems/.

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. 'Systems Madness' is a collaborative project by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton that explores what happens when reason meets unreason. Inspired by the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the project uses AI tools to transform literary language into a library of visual tropes, a translation of emotional expression into code. Together Hart and Blanton reconstruct t

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 Systems Madness 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 systems-madness-by-claudia-hart-and-andrew-blanton was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 23651 bytes with SHA-256 901ca525bdb4faee5d568734cb23c3e154f1c172394a5ecca8f663ca1af7e4bf. 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 23651 bytes, SHA-256 901ca525bdb4faee5d568734cb23c3e154f1c172394a5ecca8f663ca1af7e4bf, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, WEBGL, createCanvas, tokenData, hash. Named functions include aFlowerInTheMoonlight, bgNoise, draw, setup, windowResized. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 122,115,137). File size 3319484 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded

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 442 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-04-07T21:34:23+00:00. activated_at is 2023-04-11T01:10:35+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-04-14T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2024-03-30T00:15:47+00:00. Invocations stand at 42 of a maximum 42, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 3.15 days; activation to start_datetime is 3.66 days; start_datetime to completion is 350.30 days; first mint to completion is 357.11 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 2023-04-07T21:34:23+00:00, activated 2023-04-11T01:10:35+00:00, start 2023-04-14T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2024-03-30T00:15:47+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

Systems Madness #0 is token 442000000 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-04-07T21:34:23+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 122,115,137). File size 3319484 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded Indexed features returned for this V2 token: none recorded.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Systems Madness #1 is token 442000001 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-04-13T14:20:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 149,44,35). File size 4266757 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded Indexed features returned for this V2 token: none recorded.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Systems Madness #10 is token 442000010 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-04-14T17:29:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 129,108,124). File size 3956547 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded Indexed features returned for this V2 token: none recorded.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Systems Madness #20 is token 442000020 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-04-14T20:18:11+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2400x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 61,18,14). File size 2857745 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded Indexed features returned for this V2 token: none recorded.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 442000019 (edition 19), 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 2400x2400px, mid-tone and strongly coloured (mean RGB 42,120,123). File size 3506247 bytes. Indexed features: none recorded [^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

Systems Madness is project 442 by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton 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? [^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. [Systems Madness by Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/systems-madness-by-claudia-hart-and-andrew-blanton). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for systems-madness-by-claudia-hart-and-andrew-blanton](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton. [Systems Madness on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled Systems Madness token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled Systems Madness outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/442000000). 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]: Claudia Hart and Andrew Blanton. [Systems Madness official description](https://www.madness.systems/). 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 Systems Madness tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/442000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for Systems Madness](https://generator.artblocks.io/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/442000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.