100 days of date pixels

…and just like that, we’ve hit 100 days of date pixels! I wanted to do something special to celebrate, so it is with great pleasure that I present to you the 100 Days of Date Pixels gallery showcase! click the link or the image below to be transported to the gallery, where you can freely walk around and take your time viewing a selection of pieces from the date pixels collection so far, as well as a few of my favorite NFTs that I’ve collected over the last few months.

how it started… how it’s going [click the image to visit the gallery]

i hope you enjoy this metaverse experience. below, you’ll find some descriptions and thoughts for a deeper dive into what’s being presented here.. you know, if you’re into that sort of thing.

MARCH 12TH 2021/JUNE 19TH 2021 - here is the 1st piece next to the 100th piece in the collection so far. every day since starting date pixels has been a huge learning experience, both in the understanding and evolution of my own project as well as navigating the NFT space as a whole. can’t wait to keep it going!

MARCH 20TH 2021/JUNE 17TH 2021/MAY 25TH 2021 - these three pieces showcase a variety of styles that have been explored already, just over the last 100 days. it’s been important to me to find the balance between continuing to explore the possibilities while also making sure not to give away my full bag of tricks too early. after all, this is only the beginning. what will a date pixel look like in a year? in five years?

APRIL 15TH 2021 - [journal entry from april 15th, 2021]: Tried a new color scheme today that I’ve had in mind since the beginning. vaporwave mode. I spent the day yesterday listening to various lo-fi hiphop playlists and wanted to bask in it. it’s always a scary feeling to break out of a mold (even one you created yourself), and I felt unsure if I should go forward with my blue/pink datepixel. but it was exactly that fear that led me to do it. i’ve written about the idea of deciding to stick to the format — and I stand by that idea — but I feel today is significant in overcoming the hesitation to expand. even if everyone hates it, even if it is a mis-step, it is honest and it is now on the blockchain and a part of the date pixels oeuvre forever. I find that very exciting and I think the scope of the project is becoming clearer. I am so excited for the time when there are hundreds of these spanning months, years, styles. I can’t wait to start visiting new locations and continuing the project from there. new utility and benefits to collectors with systems I have yet to finish developing. with today’s small change, a wild future starts to reveal itself for this seemingly simple project!

APRIL 27TH 2021 - [journal entry from april 27th, 2021]: Felt the urge to make this 7 a ‘special’ one by coloring it, so I did one of the remaining pink/blue combos. turned out it lined up , again, with the others in the center of the grid on the website! something about the urge for change every few days, interesting…

MARCH 18TH 2021 - this piece has been written about before, as it was one of the pieces featured in the SXSW 2021 Crypto Art Gallery, presented by Miro Shot! you can read more about that here.

JUNE 1ST 2021/JUNE 11TH 2021 - I like the way these pieces look next to each other, 01 11. the 1’s this month were a significant design upgrade from the typical straight-line ones. here it feels like some kind of clock maybe, or a meta-date created by these two other dates… how deep does this thing go?!

APRIL 1ST 2021/APRIL 2ND 2021 - [journal entry from april 1st, 2021]: Experimented with a new layout since we have new lettering, bringing in the apr. i think I like it, though i may end up exploring other layouts for this month. i’ll sleep on it, but I’m probably going to settle into this one for a couple more days at least to get used to the new view. some personal news from today, april 1st marked the day of my first COVID-19 Vaccination shot! my arm feels a little weird, but mentally I feel GREAT right now. |

[journal entry from april 2nd, 2021]:Well, I slept on it and decided to amend the style a little bit. something wasn’t sitting totally right with me with april 1st, but it is still an important step in my artistic development as I explore ways to put down something seemingly so simple into such a small space. I’m happy with this new look and am going to live in it for a bit. 

MAY 29TH 2021/MAY 30TH 2021/MAY 31ST 2021 - these are the first (and so far only) date pixels created outside of New York City. as the world starts to open its doors, I look forward to traveling more and continuing to create these pieces all around the world. this is also an example of a piece that may not look too different from the others on the surface, but to those who want to look closer and explore the properties, can find the extra variables that make each piece unique.

MAY 7TH THROUGH MAY 12TH 2021 - this was my first ‘color week’, in which I wanted to explore more color combinations. for this one I felt like starting with the old classic ROYGBIV acronym sequentially from R through V. a couple weeks later, I did a reverse on this which created six more unique combinations. excited to learn more about color theory and discover more great combinations as the project continues!

FROM THE COLLECTION OF DEJA DEAD

SHINJUKU [UR] by Doki Doki Finance - the first NFT that I acquired.
one of my first thoughts when I learned about NFTs was, “how cool would an NFT capsule/gachapon-style machine be, where you can spend crypto to receive random NFTs?” a quick google search lead me straight to Doki Doki Finance, who it turns out had this thought a long time before I did! I was extremely excited by their mission and overall aesthetic and wanted to be involved. their updated machines hadn’t launched yet at the time, but I was able to get this card from the secondary market on OpenSea to start my NFT journey.

THE GOLDEN SUSHI by ElementBlocks - if you’ve ever read the description of date pixels, you’ve seen that ElementBlocks is one of the projects that inspired this collection in the first place. this is from their BeyondElements series, and is one of my favorite pieces because it presents a fascinating case for the power of NFTs in a tangible way. at any time, I can burn this NFT - of which only 13 still exist - in exchange for a physical 18 karat gold-plated necklace with an embedded Swarovski crystal. what does it mean that I’d kind of prefer to hold onto a jpg than redeem it for real gold?

CARTLAD #77 by pxlhns - I love the Cart Lads collection, first and foremost for their design but also because of the story that lead to their creation. when it was discovered that an (at the time very popular) NFT collection by another group had essentially ripped off the work of this artist, the NFT community banded together to encourage him to enter the space himself. Cart Lads is a story of the power of community collectively propping up the right heroes, and snuffing out the bad actors.

CRYPTOYANKI-0105 by CryptoYankiz

GEM COLLECTOR by Jeff Soto

melon pan メロンパン [SR] 002 by snack

Hic et Nunc #52434 by femiki

(in)visibles #01 by Shima

mood_0001 by mostlymood

Trololl by NickkyNick