# Twos by Emily Edelman

## The work and its context

Twos is project 469 on the Art Blocks V2 core contract 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, published under the canonical slug twos-by-emily-edelman and credited to Emily Edelman. The indexed project record reports a completed edition of 64 of 64 invocations, runtime p5@1.0.0, and the official description: When I was working in graphic design and immersed in typography, I spent a year and a half designing this “2”. A personal obsession, I drew and redrew it hundreds of times until I felt it reached the perfect form in balance, weight, and drama.  This generative series revisits my captivation with this character object, using the algorithm as a tool for continued obsession and exploration. I want people to experience this collection and never see a “2” in the same way again. I also want to remind viewers that exquisiteness can exist in any mundane thing.  My background in graphic design and typography is ingrained in how I think. Regardless of medium, I have always been a designer of iteration, exhaustively trialing possibilities within a set of constraints to uncover the best way, or the most ways. Twos takes a “perfected” form and puts it to a further test. Different outputs situate the form in different contexts, look at it askew, or emphasize isolated parts of it for endless results.  The texture within the collection is inspired by low resolution effects (pixelation) and textures that arise from analog printmaking techniques and pen lines. It blends the hand-drawn nature of my original “2” with the power of obsessive exploration only possible with computer generative iteration. Layers of tiny squares, under and above the characters, are used to mimic the texture of a pen or a stamp. Found in much of my work, these “visible pixels” represent the physical module upon which digital art is created - and by calling back to pixel art, act as a reminder that code is still a craft, and the generated image isn’t far from the artist’s hand.  Beyond the beauty of the form, the number two is a special quantity because it implies possibilities beyond itself. A system containing zero or one elements is inert. Two creates an interaction, a dyad, and implies the possibility of more than two ,  an expanding system. In computer programming, this is expressed as the "zero, one, infinity" rule. The two represents a potentially endless continuation.  Each feature in the collection represents either the analog or the digital journey of this character. Some compositions render each symbol as linework, reminiscent of its earliest hand drawn form. Others render it as the solid numeral, completed after its long journey of iteration. Some compositions are gridded, others are organic and loose. Some are contained by a frame, others are open and unrestrained.  Color enters a few outputs: the mark of new technological tools like the first colored ink in printing, or the move from black and white to digital screens. The brightest hues used depend on light emittance of the screen and wouldn’t translate exactly when printed in standard inks. But in a further application of constraint, most outputs are neutral in color, keeping the focus on the formal obsession with this small, beautiful character. [^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 0.833333333. Website https://www.emilyedelman.com/art/twos.

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. When I was working in graphic design and immersed in typography, I spent a year and a half designing this “2”. A personal obsession, I drew and redrew it hundreds of times until I felt it reached the perfect form in balance, weight, and drama.  This generative series revisits my captivation with this character object, using the algorithm as a tool for continued obsession and exploration. I want pe

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 Twos 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 twos-by-emily-edelman was retrieved from projects_metadata.script filtered by that exact slug. The UTF-8 payload is 72557 bytes with SHA-256 335c7d1f30493341287ef361b9835a738abef6ce1e722120c316e3cc84335d05. 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 72557 bytes, SHA-256 335c7d1f30493341287ef361b9835a738abef6ce1e722120c316e3cc84335d05, runtime p5@1.0.0. Detected source markers: setup, draw, noLoop, createCanvas, tokenData, hash. Named functions include A, AA, B, BB, BIGBorderOptions, BIGBorderOptionsNoShift, BIGBorderOptionsSCALE, BIGMarginOptions, BIGheightToScale, BIGwidthToScale. tokenData.hash is read in source. Output then follows the drawing path those functions implement. Token 0 observation: Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2000x2400px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 223,223,223). File size 1304324 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Sketched; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered

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 469 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069 is as follows. First token minted_at is 2023-09-15T17:58:47+00:00. activated_at is 2023-09-18T18:48:35+00:00. start_datetime is 2023-10-30T17:00:00+00:00. completed_at is 2023-10-30T17:24:35+00:00. Invocations stand at 64 of a maximum 64, with complete=true on the retrieved row. [^S02][^S04]

Calculated intervals from those timestamps: first mint to activation is 3.03 days; activation to start_datetime is 41.92 days; start_datetime to completion is 24.6 minutes; first mint to completion is 44.98 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 2023-09-15T17:58:47+00:00, activated 2023-09-18T18:48:35+00:00, start 2023-10-30T17:00:00+00:00, completed 2023-10-30T17:24:35+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 'Copyright 2023'. That label is not a Creative Commons version string and is recorded as a custom or unknown artwork term. 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 'Copyright 2023'.

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

Twos #0 is token 469000000 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-09-15T17:58:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2000x2400px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 223,223,223). File size 1304324 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Sketched; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Sketched; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Twos #1 is token 469000001 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-10-29T16:04:35+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2000x2400px, light and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 197,197,195). File size 895158 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Solid; Perimeter Open; Structure Organic Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Solid; Perimeter Open; Structure Organic.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Twos #10 is token 469000010 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-10-29T19:26:47+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2000x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 91,91,91). File size 672660 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Solid; Perimeter Contained; Structure Organic Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Solid; Perimeter Contained; Structure Organic.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

Twos #20 is token 469000020 on 0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069, minted 2023-10-30T05:40:59+00:00. The canonical token page returned HTTP 200. The inspected media-proxy PNG is a static frame. Inspected media-proxy PNG is 2000x2400px, dark and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 55,55,55). File size 1024929 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Signed; Color Neutral; Style Sketched; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered Indexed features returned for this V2 token: Mark Signed; Color Neutral; Style Sketched; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered.  [^S04][^S05][^S09]

The AB5D header candidate is token 469000063 (edition 63), 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 2000x2400px, mid-tone and muted or near-neutral (mean RGB 86,86,86). File size 2522186 bytes. Indexed features: Mark Unsigned; Color Neutral; Style Solid; Perimeter Contained; Structure Ordered [^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

Twos is project 469 by Emily Edelman 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. [Twos by Emily Edelman collection page](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/twos-by-emily-edelman). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S02]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [projects_metadata record for twos-by-emily-edelman](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S03]: Emily Edelman. [Twos on-chain artist program](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S04]: Art Blocks Hasura index. [tokens_metadata for sampled Twos token IDs](https://artblocks-mainnet.hasura.app/v1/graphql). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S05]: Art Blocks. [Canonical token pages for sampled Twos outputs](https://www.artblocks.io/token/1/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/469000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S06]: Art Blocks project record. [Reported artwork licence label Copyright 2023](https://www.artblocks.io/collection/twos-by-emily-edelman). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S07]: Emily Edelman. [Twos official description](https://www.emilyedelman.com/art/twos). 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 Twos tokens](https://media-proxy.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/469000000.png). Accessed 2026-09-19.
[^S10]: Art Blocks. [Live generator renderer for Twos](https://generator.artblocks.io/0x99a9b7c1116f9ceeb1652de04d5969cce509b069/469000000). Accessed 2026-09-19.