dundo

One Heart₿eat

Updated: Jun 27, 2023

During Bitcoin block 795,424 we co-created music and art, there and then.

On 22nd of June 2023, at the "Art Of Bitcoin" event at Oshi Gallery, after an art exhibition, and a panel discussion, attendees participated in an art & music experiment - The One Heart₿eat.

With a bunch of instruments and microphones I'd set up, at exactly 8:50:03 PM, we started a music jam that lasted for 11 minutes and 29 seconds. This happened during block 795,424, which was longer than the average block, at 17 minutes and 2 seconds.

Whatever was played, sung, or spoken during this time was recorded.

The full musical piece is minted on the Stacks blockchain, and can be collected by anyone who was there on the night.

The art piece will become an Ordinal Inscription.

Both will happen with the help of Gamma.io.

“One Heart₿eat” art piece

As we were creating the music, a dynamic art-piece was evolving in the background. Different components of the artwork were generated by, or reacted to different parts of the music such as frequency, loudness, and tone. The final piece is below.

If you'd like to see how the entire piece was evolving and changing with music, you can check it out on YouTube:

It was messy & imperfect, and a few unexpected hiccups happened - but was fun af, and, whatever we created on the day, will represent one little Heart₿eat that happened in a "little" gallery in Melbourne, where a bunch of people came together to celebrate Art on Bitcoin.

The Event

Art on Bitcoin was a celebration of art, music, and experimentation on the Bitcoin blockchain, and as such was the first of its kind in Melbourne, at least for a very long time... something Kieran Nolan, a Bitcoin educator, would know very well.

Madame Love, who was both the featured artist at the exhibition and one of the panelists, wrote a wonderful thread covering the event.

My personal connection to Bitcoin

When I first went down the Bitcoin rabbit hole in 2017, I wasn’t thinking about music or art.

I was thinking about how fucked our financial system is, and how much we need Bitcoin as an alternative - open, permissionless, decentralised internet money for the people.

The main benchmark for this battle was price, so when it dumped, I almost left. I'm grateful I didn’t.

I stuck around, because I met good people and made some friends. In 2021 Bitcoin was back, but after a few experiences, I just didn’t feel I belonged in this community anymore. Too strict, dogmatic, and really not that much fun.

In 2023 I feel a pulse of new energy in Bitcoin - enthusiastic and colourful. After all, when an idea starts manifesting itself through art, music, and culture, it is truly unstoppable.

I am also very grateful to have been invited to contibute my art for Art on Bitcoin exhibition.

For this occasion I've contributed two pieces: "The Burn Notice" and "Crypto is a Disco".

The Burn Notice

NFT minted on the Stacks blockchain via Gamma.io