923 Empty Rooms is the second collaboration between Art Blocks and Bright Moments, created by Casey REAS.

923 Empty Rooms is an evolution of An Empty Room, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for the Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982 exhibition.

"Casey was the perfect choice for revisiting Victor Vasarely's unrealized proposal for LACMA's original Art & Technology Program (1967-1971). His ability to grasp Vasarely's concepts and respond to them in his own language for An Empty Room is inspiring."

- Joel Ferree, LACMA


THE
FUNDAMENTAL COLORFORMS

Each Bright Moments gallery is associated with a fundamental colorform. Together, these six colorforms create 923 unique combinations that define the simulation.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

923 Empty Rooms will be minted and revealed IRL over the course of six days. Each day at 12pm EDT, 150 new outputs will become available to mint via a dutch auction on artblocks.io.

Edition size

924

Release dates

August 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

12:00 EDT

THE EXHIBITIONs

Starting Monday August 14 in Tokyo, and concluding Saturday August 19 in Los Angeles, six galleries will gradually be filled with the presence of 923 Empty Rooms art works. 


HOW IT WORKS

With six total colorforms, there are 923 combinations using the combination with replacement algorithm. The full mint is every possible combination of colorforms.

Colorforms are abstract representations of their underlying mathematical composition. Each colorform can be represented as a still life, diagram, or colorform code.

Still Life

Diagram

3,4,5,6,0,0

Colorform Code

The colorform code represents the combination of forms that make up each piece.

The example shown is a London mint that contains 4 different colorforms - Cargo (London), Hive (New York), Pyramid (Mexico City), and Moon (Los Angeles).

The number of possible combinations are associated with the number of forms represented in a piece. The fewer forms, the fewer possible combinations.

The collection mints in order, starting with the simpler and rarer combinations in each city.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Reas’ software, prints, and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums, galleries, and online. His work ranges from generative art in the browser to urban-scale installations, and he balances solo work in the studio with collaborations with architects and musicians. Reas’ work is in a range of private and public collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Reas is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Sciences and a bachelor's degree from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. With Ben Fry, Reas initiated Processing in 2001; Processing is an open-source programming language and environment for the visual arts.

  • Starting on August 14th, the collection will be minted over the course of six days. Each day at 12:00pm EDT, 150 new outputs will become available to mint via dutch auction on ​Art Blocks​.

    You can mint the city colorforms you like, by participating in the respective dutch auction.

    Learn more about the schedule & sale details.

  • Due to the algorithmic nature of the project, the mint order of the 923 combinations is predetermined. The pieces with fewer shapes and more rarity for each city will mint first. View the online explorer to see the minting order.

  • At the end of the 6 auctions, holders of one piece from each city will be eligible to claim a custom 7th piece by Casey REAS called ‘Bright x Empty Room

    Every Bright × Empty Room contains each shape from the collectors set of 6 Empty Rooms. This will be between 12 and 36 shapes, depending if they’ve collected Rooms with 6 shapes, or Rooms with fewer total shapes.

  • All the mints need to be in a single wallet for the snapshot.

    Collector will receive 1 Bright x Empty Room for each full set held within the wallet.

    If there’s more than one mint from a city in the wallet, Casey will make the decision about which shapes to include for the seventh mint.

  • Snapshot taken 48 hours after the conclusion of the Los Angeles auction, 10am PDT on August 21st.

  • No, you will mint your piece when you purchase in the dutch auction, no need to attend the event IRL.

  • You can RSVP with the links above.

  • The events are open to anyone! Bring your friends!

FAQ