What are Crypto Krispies?

Crypto Krispies are a few different things: A whimsical take on Mondrian’s Compositions and the De Stijl aesthetic. A comment on the cryptocurrency community. 30-second movies of unpredictable movement. At the end, a still composition of shapes and colors.

Getting technical, there are (10) 1/1 Crypto Krispies pieces in the series. Each Crypto Krispy is an entirely unique 1080x1080 movie in MP4 format, approximately 30 seconds in length. Each was generated by my own custom code, running my own custom algorithms alongside a 2D physics engine. As in all my work, no Crypto Krispies piece is retouched in any way. What you get is exactly what was output by my code.

Like my previous drop, Crypto Krispies are an homage to one of my favorite artists, Piet Mondrian. As I promised in the write-up of that drop, I’m moving away from a strict interpretation of Mondrian’s work, and injecting some motion, whimsy, and commentary into the base of shapes and colors that he provides.

What’s the Story behind Crypto Krispies?

After finishing up my previous drop, Neondrians, I started thinking about what to do next. I had jotted down a lot of ideas during the development of Neondrians, and I knew that I wanted to pick one that moved a bit further away from Mondrian’s “Compositions”. I also knew that I wanted some animation and a wider variety of shapes.

Another thing that was important to me was to sneak in some commentary about the cryptocurrency space that I’ve inhabited for many years. I wanted to draw some attention to the fact that there’s a huge amount of innovation out there in the crypto space, technically, financially, and even socially, and yet we only seem to discuss two or three “big coins” most of the time.

My final goal was to make this piece a bit whimsical, in a departure from the rather austere De Stijl style. That’s how the piece became a cereal bowl. The idea of cereal came kind of out of left field for me, but the more I played with it, the more I thought it was a nice look, a fun way to animate a collection of shapes, and good vehicle for a modest message. We love the marshmallows, but the flakes are really good for us!

What Are the Variations?

Each piece in the Crypto Krispies series uses a randomly generated set of shapes and “marshmallows,” ensuring that each piece will be completely unique. Additionally, the number of marshmallows in each piece is also random.

There are also three main variations for Crypto Krispies:

Palette: Classic or Alternate. The classic palette is the same Mondrian-esque primary-color palette used in my previous drop. The alternate palette is made up of secondary colors.

Background: Classic or Inverse. Most Crypto Krispies use the classic white background with a black bowl. A few of the pieces use a black background and a white bowl.

Handedness: Left or Right. The side the cereal pours in from!

Where Can I Find Crypto Krispies?

All ten pieces in the series are available in my Algorithmic Art collection on OpenSea: https://opensea.io/collection/zyzzyvas-algorithmic-art. You’ll also find the pieces from my Neondrians drop there.

What’s Next?

You certainly haven’t seen the last of me! Crypto Krispies took me almost a month of coding and tweaking in my spare time, so I’ll probably take a short break. After that, I’ve got some good ideas cooking for my next series of algorithmic art — which may or may not be Mondrian-inspired. Stay tuned and follow me on Twitter for updates.