ICONIC is collaborating with renowned digital artist Professor Jun to release Batailles, a generative art collection that will be released as physical prints, a first for Prof Jun, and digital artifacts (NFTs), literally “curated” by the buyer to deliver a personalized, unique work of art.
Coming out of the success of his previous collection Threads, which was received with wide-spread acclaim and sold out in a matter of minutes, Batailles takes Professor Jun’s passion for generative coding even deeper. The Batailles mint will allow purchasers the chance to generate multiple iterations, giving collectors the ability to curate uniquely personalized visual pieces before committing the NFTs permanently to the blockchain.
“We are excited for people to interact with our minting UI. Essentially, you will be able to “refresh” a single piece as many times as you would like until your perfect visual output is achieved. At that point you can submit the transaction to the blockchain and receive your NFT, which can then be used to claim a physical print. Imagine being able to have three canvases that you can generate a different expression on each, allowing the user to curate a truly personalized collection. That is what we are bringing to market with the Batailles collection, giving the curative power to the user” said Paul Rose, Iconic’s Web3 & NFT Strategist.
When asked about the inspiration for the Batailles collection, Professor Jun responded:
“For the past year or so, I’ve been exploring one process in particular: folding. More precisely: painting by folding. “Batailles” is the result of this research. My main inspiration is a Franco-Hungarian painter from the second half of the 20th century: Simon Hantaï. For several months, I only practiced physical tests, following what I understood or thought I understood of Hantaï’s practice: I crumpled, knotted and folded the paper before painting it,“blind”, and let the color reveal itself when unfolding.”
He continued, "I chose to call the collection “Batailles” because the name evokes the state that precedes the act of painting. I’m at a point in my career where I’m wondering a lot about the act of creation – it’s become something of an obsession. I always experience it as a catastrophic moment, as I don’t know what’s going to come out of it. I’m not interested in the military connotations of the word battle. Rather, I’m fascinated by the identity of opposites. Everything that opposes ends up either annihilating itself or uniting. That’s why, in Batailles, white, the absence of color, is essential. In a space saturated with power struggles, it’s the intermittence of color that organizes surfaces and allows form to emerge. At a deeper level, I find in Batailles, the idea that a set of forces that confront each other become one."
Professor Jun, who is currently pursuing his doctoral thesis that focuses on high performance computing and designing algorithms for aerospace analysis tools, uses complex algorithms to draw parallels between philosophical and scientific knowledge.
“The medium I use – code – allows me to generate a unique work with each iteration. In a generative art collection, each piece is absolutely singular and at the same time possesses a set of traits in common with all the others. For Batailles, the palettes, tools, motions, gradients, scales, etc. are variables that enable me to have a strongly differentiated visual identity without losing the spirit or soul of the collection.” said Professor Jun.
In addition to Batailles being Professor Jun’s first physical print collection, the generative code Professor Jun created for this collection is completely on-chain, meaning the foundation for the visual output will live on the blockchain forever, offering future generations the ability to view the artist’s pieces online long after the collection has been released.
A select few buyers will also have the ability to purchase a complete set of three Batailles pieces that are generated personally by Professor Jun. This bespoke offering gives those lucky enough to secure an “artist's set” the ability to purchase a series of works curated by the artist himself. Additionally, these artist's sets will feature a unique collection identifier, making them very rare within the collection as a whole.
The release for Batailles is set for January 23rd, 2024. Iconic will release additional collection details, including collection size, mint price and how purchasers can claim their museum-quality print that will match their digital NFT, over the coming weeks.
Working closely with Iconic’s development team, Batailles is another example of a successful global digital artist trusting Iconic to release their very first physical art print release. In December, Iconic released Monster Soup, which sold out in under 20 minutes and was the first physical print collection from iconic digital artist Des Lucréce, who has sold works at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s.
Make sure to follow Iconic on X/Twitter for collection access and release information.
