One of the many learning curves for me with LIFT was figuring out how to get some of my early classical guitar compositions into the game. Couldn’t use a recording because storage cost would have been prohibitive. Instead learned to use tracker software (like MIDI but totally different and alien interface to me as a musician) and python scripts to convert note and tempo data into C code that can be interpreted by the Gameboy Advance instead of just played. One of many facets of the project that land squarely in the category of digitally instructed physicals which I have now dedicated the last few years of my life exploring both functionally and artistically. This is the “tinkering” and this is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Friendship Bracelets (in collaboration with @MacTuitui) built step by step instructions on how to twist and fold string to make your 1/1/x friendship bracelet into the algorithm (just click the screen in live view). Heart + Craft (in collaboration with @JordanLyall) built step by step instructions on how to 3d print (including the STL files), mix paint, and assemble blocks to produce your 1/1/x exact output into the algorithm. /// (forward slash) built industrial grade machine embroidery instructions derived from the algorithm to have your 1/1/x /// embroidered professionally onto your clothing (and became the basis for all that @generativegoods has focused on for the last couple of years). And now LIFT which builds a custom 1/1/x physical hardware compatible ROM (game file) directly inside the algorithm with all assets in the game built from scratch, including the music. All 100% on chain. Exploring the relationship between the digital and the physical is consistently driving my work. I believe it is a one way street (digital instructs but does not attempt to verify authenticity of the physical) and I’m excited about the long term implications of this as a medium of expression. While it can be hard to find blueprints for valuable things (like a home) over time, the blueprints for the work that I’ve released will be around as long as the Ethereum blockchain is able to be read. I’m really really proud of that. Really really proud to get to release this into the same protocol (@artblocks_io) that has hosts and preserves the work of hundreds of other artists, building groundwork for preservation simply due to the amount of people that have a vested interest (whether as artists, collectors or institutions) for the data to persist combined with the consistency of the protocol. There’s a reason why I can release a Gameboy Advance title today and not only be able to play it on the original consoles but across a smorgasbord of newly released devices. We nostalgic nerds continue to value the joy that playing on those consoles brings to us. And so we continue to build cultural durability for these experiences. Anyways. This is where I tinker. Tinkering is why Art Blocks exists in the first place. And this is why I think long term there is something fundamentally interesting about what we are doing on chain. LIFT is built on a culturally durable technology, both on and off chain. I hope you enjoy tinkering with it as much as I enjoyed figuring it out.