As much as decentralised blockchains such as Bitcoin offer freedom, they also come with conditions and structures of control. RECALL is a series of dynamic artworks that also have conditionality built in.

Adapting visual cues from the utopian forms of modernism and futurism, this series connects them to the blockchain. The 77 dynamic artworks react to live Bitcoin mempool data, altering their composition in response. They change constantly and evolve over long periods of block time.

The mempool is a waiting room for Bitcoin transactions, an in-between state where every send, buy or sell is held temporarily in memory. The pool grows as activity increases on the blockchain, it shrinks as relative demand decreases.

Although RECALL reacts to mempool data as it happens, to see more changes, the artwork must be left open. Some changes happen after one block, others take hundreds or thousands of blocks to emerge. RECALL must be kept running to see them.

All the imagery is derived from a single directional arrow. The geometry of the shape is processed and distorted many times, until the original arrow takes on other forms.

Every change in RECALL is subjective for a viewer. Changes are measured relative to blockchain conditions at the time the viewer opened the piece. Restarting the artwork means restarting the process.

RECALL sustains a constant in-between state, like the mempool. There is no final or fixed form for the artworks. As long as there are more transactions waiting to be processed, the artwork will continue to develop.

The number of shapes, the speed at which they update and the speed they fade changes dynamically in response to the bitcoin mempool. It is common to see a 20% change in the mempool size over a matter of minutes, so these conditional changes happen frequently.

Each piece has a clustering mode which defines the composition of the images when the artwork is opened. A reloaded artwork will appear different, but within the bounds of its preset clustering. However, after it has been open for 1 block, the clustering will change completely. 2 blocks after that it will change again. 4 blocks after that again. The number of blocks continues to double for changes in clustering, if the piece is left open.

The scale of the images in the artwork changes every 3 blocks. To see these changes the viewer must leave the artwork running. Every 23 blocks the shades in the artwork will change. The colour will stay the same but the greys may change from light to dark, or towards whites or blacks. Every 111 blocks the background shade will also change. That’s around a day.

The visual and behavioural complexity is built into RECALL as an incentive for viewers to keep the pieces open for long time periods. Restarting the artwork means restarting the process.

RECALL is a series of on-chain dynamic ordinals inscribed onto Bitcoin in March 2023. Press 'R' while viewing to change to a Bitcoin node of your choice.