In November 2024, the world’s first exhibition on a smart contract, “World Computer Sculpture Garden,” was unveiled. The curation was done by an artist 0xFFF. This showcase presented a collection of works deployed on Ethereum’s mainnet, with a title incorporating the metaphor proposed by 0x113d of Mathcastles—envisioning the World Computer (Ethereum) as a garden of computational art pieces (Sculpture Garden) that continuously evolve over time.

This exhibition has no physical gallery; the Ethereum mainnet smart contract (0x2a362fF002f7ce62D3468509dD2A4a9f5A8EBBb0) itself functions as the exhibition space. The website used to view the works is merely an interface—all exhibition information is recorded on the blockchain and will persist as long as Ethereum operates. This concept itself is proposed as a practice of “protocol art,” distinct from traditional art exhibitions.

In January 2025, at a meetup held at NEORT++ in Tokyo, 0xFFF explained the structure of the exhibition and its background, while sharing thoughts on “protocol art” as a new art movement. Participants engaged in discussions about this new approach to art. The meetup opened with 0xFFF reading the invitation letter reportedly sent to the seven artists who participated in the exhibition.

I invite you into the garden of many running sculptures – an open ground for all to visit. This is an encouragement to move forward, to go beyond the white cube VR-replica spaces and ignore the stratifying forces that seek to mummify New Art. Dare things. Disregard the pleas for commodification. Reconsider this durable, distributed, computational substrate as a canvas for aesthetic, poetic, philosophical, and practical explorations. Open to surprise. Open to delight. Purposefully non-standard. I welcome you to the World Computer Sculpture Garden.

Performance Art and Smart Contract Art

When visiting the World Computer Sculpture Garden site, only monospaced text information on a white background is displayed, with no images or flashy visuals whatsoever. Regarding this approach that strips away visual elements to foreground the concept, curator/researcher maltefr states the following in the introductory essay:

Protocol art in general, and “World Computer Sculpture Garden” in particular, continue the anti-retinal tradition that originates with Duchamp and extends through conceptual art. “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” The experience of art in this context is no longer one of aisthesis—a sensory perception—but rather one of conceptual imagination. The works presented in this exhibition engage the viewer not as a passive consumer of visual imagery encountered on marketplaces, but instead as an active, software-literate agent, curious to interact with and explore the pieces.

“World Computer Sculpture Garden” is also an attempt to reconstruct artworks and exhibition rules using unique smart contracts rather than relying on existing token standards such as ERC-20 or ERC-721. For example, instead of buying and selling works, it encourages ETH donations through a procedure called “planting flowers.” While the proceeds are distributed to the artists, there’s a feeling of old internet culture, with visitors leaving records on the site similar to a guestbook. It might be described as a relaxed participatory space reminiscent of the net art era.

The participating artists include 0xhaiku, Loucas Braconnier, Material Protocol Arts, Sarah Friend, Paul Seidler and Rhea Myers, all of whom are active at the forefront of on-chain art. Each artist’s work is deployed as a smart contract, and viewers can access them through Ethereum block explorers or the dedicated website.

What’s particularly noteworthy is the “exhibition mechanism” itself, where the curation and exhibition process is controlled by smart contracts. For example, adding new works or changing their state is done through the contract, with all history recorded on the blockchain. This is an exhibition format with unprecedented transparency in art history and could be described as a “museum that continues to move forever.”

0xFFF, who created this exhibition, continues to present works that embody the concept that “code itself is art,” including on-chain generative art that eliminates visual elements to the extreme — such as “You Are Here,” which transforms shapes by bridging between different blockchains, and “Honest Work,” where an endless to-do list is continuously updated based on token transfer conditions. Although not exhibiting their own work, this exhibition can be considered their latest creation exploring the possibilities of Ethereum as the world computer.

During the presentation, references were made to the “Xerox Book” (1968), an exhibition on paper featuring contributions from artists, as well as attempts to establish works by registering performance dates and times on a calendar and “executing” them at the specified times. Incorporating time, place, and the very presence of participants as elements of the work, with the moment of implementation becoming art — the 1960s was a period when such methods were actively practiced.

Performance art of the 1960s was characterized by “not fixing the work to a specific physical space or material, but placing the actions and time of the participants themselves at its core.” Similarly, World Computer Sculpture Garden doesn’t depend on a physical gallery, instead centering on smart contracts as a site for “action and recording.” This format could be considered a contemporary version of “exhibitions on paper” or “calendar-based performances.” World Computer Sculpture Garden might be described as an attempt to reinterpret the conceptual art movement on the blockchain.

What is Protocol Art?

For this exhibition, maltefr authored an introductory essay titled “Computation in the Expanded Field,” presenting the definition and theoretical background of protocol art. First acknowledging that these new works have been variously called “on-chain art,” “runtime art,” “blockchain-native art,” and so on, he proposes calling this new art form “protocol art.” His reasoning is that these artists share, above all else, an interest in the “fundamental structures and rules that predefine computational environments.” In other words, protocol art is an exploration of “protocols” that precede creation and determine its possible range.

A pioneer of protocol art is artist and legal scholar Primavera De Filippi. In 2015, she presented “Plantoid,” a mechanical flower that autonomously grows and reproduces using crypto, and subsequently proposed the concept of “Protocolism” as a process-oriented, participatory framework. Protocolism refers to an approach that uses the rules and procedures (protocols) behind the work, rather than the work itself, as the medium and material of art. It is a framework that enables “open and collective co-creation,” and even the reproduction of works—traditionally viewed negatively as copying or imitation—is considered part of a developmental “co-production” based on protocols.

Protocolism revolves around the creation of ‘artistic protocols.’ These protocols consist of a series of instructions and constraints meticulously crafted to guide the production of unique artistic works. These protocols function as a bridge between the artist (i.e., the protocol artist) and various executors (both human and non-human) who embody these protocols into concrete works considered distinct artistic pieces.”
– Primavera De Filippi, “Protocolism: The Evolution of Art in the AI Era”

Protocol artists reimagine the set of technical constraints themselves as new sculptural material. And as the next phase of the internet era, they view blockchain infrastructure as a new medium for art. Their work provides viewers with a meta-experience that makes them conscious of the existence of programs and protocols. Furthermore, in this approach, viewers are not mere onlookers but become part of the work’s transformation through online operations and donations. In other words, the work itself functions as a system of rules connecting creator and audience. Works like 0xFFF’s portfolio, which trim visual expression and focus on operations on smart contracts, are typical examples, and World Computer Sculpture Garden is a comprehensive attempt to properly contextualize this scattered protocol art scene.

Meanwhile, 0xFFF themself emphasizes that “taking time to observe and contemplate the works” is more important than strict definitions of terms. The quiet demeanor of World Computer Sculpture Garden seems to carry an intention to build “a space for quiet dialogue” where experiments and critiques independent of the market can be shared.

From an artist’s perspective, I recently realized ‘what I’m truly interested in is computation itself’ and began creating works centered around the context of ‘computation.’ Even while being in the art world before, something didn’t quite fit. And finally I realized ‘this is it.’ Through this exhibition, I wanted to secure a place where artists, including myself, could show work in our own context without being bound by the market. (0xFFF)

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From here I’d like to take you through the exhibited works in the World Computer Sculpture Garden. Please visit the site and experience this new form of art for yourself.

0xhaiku – Echoes

A work of collaborative poetry creation that continues infinitely on the blockchain. Under the constraint of using only limited words pre-selected by the artist, anyone can add words to the poem by sending a transaction. It’s an ever-evolving collaborative piece woven by all participants, perpetually in the process of generation.

hehehe

The most minimal and enigmatic piece among the exhibited works. On the website, only the text “hehehe,” resembling laughter, is displayed beside the title, with no explicit explanation. At first glance, it appears to be a work that merely displays a monotonous string of characters. However, lurking behind it is the question of “how is the work recognized, and through what kind of interaction is it activated?” There are no pre-prepared specific operating methods; simply refreshing the web page generates slight, subtle changes as part of the work.

In reality, when sending a message to a smart contract, the words written there are technically trivial. However, as this “seemingly uninteresting” information chains together, it generates the overall flow of the work. The essence of “hehehe” is supported by what’s called a state of “cross-reference” or “shared communication.” The foundation for long-term collaboration is formed when multiple works cite each other or incorporate different contracts.

Artist 0x113d explains this with the concept of “Extimacy,” proposing to allow “enjoying change itself” within irreversible rules — such as freely hacking the work itself or inviting other artists. Since the artist doesn’t strongly control “when and how changes occur,” the work contains the potential to continue moving autonomously “while absorbing others” over a long passage of time.
“hehehe” superficially just outputs the characters of “laughter,” and doesn’t seem to appear technically complex either. However, what lies behind it is a foundation for actions of both audience and artists to overlap and continue a certain type of collaboration long-term. Though running as immutable smart contracts, the conceptual intrigue 0x113d presents lies precisely in this form of “multi-layered interaction” that enables mutual connection and intervention.

Loucas Braconnier/Figure31 – Dear God, Layer of Roads (Travelers)

A work themed around journeying through the blockchain’s timeline. It envisions Ethereum’s consecutive blocks as a single “road,” expressing travelers walking along this path toward the past or future. Participants join the journey by sending transactions, discovering new “lands” along the flow of time. “Monuments” remain at points where each traveler has paused, serving as a mechanism to show traces to other travelers who come later. It’s an attempt to generate a topography of time and memory on the blockchain, sharing stories of journeys that transcend time and space.

Sarah Friend – Yesbot

A work that answers the meta-question “Is this art?” on the blockchain. Inspired by “Is Art,” a piece Rhea Myers released in 2014-2015 where the contract proves whether or not it itself is art, Sarah Friend’s Yesbot functions as a bot that continually affirms “Yes (this is art).” Through a kind of cross-referential humor that actually references the “Is Art” contract, it embodies the concept of works on the blockchain mutually endorsing each other as “being art.” This can be interpreted as satire of the debates around “Is this art/does it have value?” that have become prevalent since the NFT boom.

Material Protocol Arts – Modulation Studies

The artist composes new “studies” of sound by slightly editing the settings of a code-operated synthesizer each day. During this process, every gesture of the editing work (keystroke history) and short text messages accompanying each day are all recorded. With the concept of “integration of production (performance) and documentation,” this work transforms the daily accumulating records into a piece that serves as evidence of the artist’s labor.

Rhea Myers – Critique of This Show

A participatory work that encourages viewers themselves to become critics of the exhibition. This “critique protocol” set up on the blockchain allows anyone to leave comments (critique text) on any work in the exhibition through transactions. However, the content must be chosen from pre-prepared positive evaluation texts, and it’s not possible to write negative criticism. While satirically commemorating the era, this work allows viewers to experience the strangeness of a “critical space where only positive words fly about.”

Paul Seidler – Real Abstraction (A Line Made by Proofs)

A work themed around the invisible structures created by cryptographic protocols. Beginning with the simple act of drawing a line between two points in digital space, invisible wall-like and maze-like structures are generated during the process of drawing this line. As participants engage, walls appear along the line’s path, causing it to bend and twist to avoid them. Eventually, after sufficient interactions accumulate, the structure formed in the background becomes concealed by zero-knowledge proofs, making it unknowable from the outside. In the end, only a single line remains visible, with the origins of how this line was drawn under various conditions embedded as a secret indecipherable to anyone except those directly involved. Through zero-knowledge proof technology, this work poetically expresses the essence of blockchain: “the existence of vast invisible logic behind phenomena.”