off-meta

off-meta reminds us that our imperfections are not flaws to be hidden but aspects to be celebrated. By embracing the off-meta, we celebrate our true selves - messy, beautiful, and wonderfully human.

Released on Base in 2024 and stored fully on-chain: the generator, its libraries, every line of it, written into the chain itself rather than hosted anywhere. Mint it here, straight from my contract, or find minted pieces on OpenSea.

about

Exploring what it means to be human, off-meta challenges the pursuit of perfection, conformity, and meeting others' expectations. It embraces life's happy mistakes and finds joy in the imperfect, the minimal, and the worn - the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the allure of being just a little off-meta.

artist statement

off-meta is my personal challenge to let go of the prevailing trends and create art that resonates deeply with me. It eschews bright colors and picturesque scenes of sunsets, flowers, mountains, and waterfalls, embracing beauty in other forms. In off-meta, everything is intentionally broken, tired, and worn, serving as a metaphor for life. Within imperfection I discover the most inspiring aspects of life - the fun, quirky moments shared with family and friends, unforgettable and cherished. Life is hard enough; let's give ourselves some grace and embrace the off-meta.

I am grateful to my collectors for their support throughout this journey.

the system

off-meta weaves the golden ratio into the essence of every output. Each piece is composed of thousands of quadrilaterals, their sizes and placements governed by the Fibonacci sequence within a structured grid. Every object begins strictly in its designated place; as the piece develops, noise and randomness grow more pronounced, breaking down and distorting the forms. Further distress arrives through erasure, gradually obscuring the initial shapes.

Outlines, or walls, appear as integral parts of the form or as hollow, subtractive elements. Marks follow, on a grid aligned to the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence, serving as background elements or turning subtractive depending on the balance between black objects and negative space. Color is minimal: never more than one hue beyond black, applied only to add weight or energy. Occasionally a piece carries memetic features, proof marks, or membership privileges.

marks

Seven types of marks, each with its own probability, stand in for frames of mind: indecisiveness (on/off), immortality (skulls), love (xo), zen (kanji), beauty (Fibonacci), and kin. The absence of marks signifies clarity, or a void in thought.

color

Color is used sparingly and never accompanied by another hue - a rare highlight to the state of mind in each work. The intention is minimal and monochromatic; restraint carries the message.

traits

trait	distribution
temperature	cool (50%), warm (50%)
background color	11-4800 (50%), 11-4300 (50%)
background texture	vertical noise (20%), horizontal noise (20%), pebble noise (25%), pixel noise (25%), clean (10%)
background intensity	light (85%), medium (10%), dark (5%)
border	none (5%), phi4 (50%), phi5 (40%), phi6 (5%)
hour	12:00 (20%), 1:30 (20%), 4:20 (20%), 7:30 (20%), 10:30 (20%)
structure	Fibonacci 00 (22.5%), Fibonacci 01 (22.5%), Fibonacci 02 (22.5%), Fibonacci 03 (22.5%), false (10%)
walls	solid (70%), hollow (25%), naked (5%)
focus	macro (60%), meta (30%), micro (10%)
marks	off meta (5%), on/off (10%), binary (15%), Fibonacci (15%), kanji (15%), skulls (5%), xo (10%), false (25%)
palette	monotone (70%), pantone (30%)
production	proof (15%), final (85%)
foreground color	17-3938, 17-5104, 19-4052, 18-3838, 15-0343, 15-3919, 18-3224, 17-5641, 15-5519, 13-1023, 18-1750, 13-0647, 16-1546, 13-1520, 18-1438, 17-1463, 18-2120, Cool Gray 1, 11-4800, 19-0201, 19-0000, 19-4006, black, Warm Gray 1, 19-0812, 19-1102, 19-4203
signature	michael anthony (7%), false (93%)
edition	memetic (6%), false (94%)
memetic	69/420 (40%), 0.4 (20%), gm gm (20%), on chain (20%), hodl (20%)
membership	member (98%), friday regular member (2%)