The generative artwork "Self Miracle #555" was sold for $140,000, exploring a new dimension of the flow of time and Liquidity.

Generative art makes another appearance at the auction, with "The Miracle #555" exploring the liquidity of time, selling for $140,000.

The work "Self-Miracle #555," created by contemporary Chinese visual and cross-media artist Cheng Ran in collaboration with generative art platform and applied science artist Sun Bohan, was sold for $144,000 at a digital art auction on December 18. This piece is part of the "Self-Miracle" series, which will be exhibited for the first time in Seoul, South Korea in September 2024.

The inspiration for "Self-Miracle" comes from Cheng Ran's 2015 film "Finding Miracle." This 9-hour-long film premiered at the Istanbul Biennial in 2015 and tells the story of three events that end mysteriously as the film progresses, receiving widespread acclaim.

In this generative art project, Cheng Ran uses experimental film imagery as a visual basis and collaborates with Sun Bohan to explore algorithmic and generative coding techniques. They deconstruct and regenerate the temporal elements of film, reducing images to their simplest forms, patterns, and color fields. This innovative approach breaks traditional temporal boundaries, allowing each snapshot to be rearranged and generated, constructing a brand new temporal landscape.

Cheng Ran, born in China in 1981, completed the residency artist program at the Netherlands Institute for Art in 2014. He focuses on new media, with works primarily including video and film. Cheng Ran's works often revolve around unresolved issues in life, such as identity and death. He has received several "Best Video Artist" awards, and his works have been exhibited in many renowned venues worldwide.

Sun Bohan, born in 1992 in China, is an applied science artist and curator. He is dedicated to promoting the exchange and cooperation of art, technology, and culture between the East and the West, focusing on the integration of technology, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and art. Sun Bohan has curated several important exhibitions, including the world's first large-scale offline crypto art exhibition and China's first large-scale generative art exhibition.

"Miracle #555" was also exhibited at the "Art & Culture Hong Kong" International Art Fair on December 19, and offered a listening experience. It is worth mentioning that Sun Bohan's other work, Neural Drift, also sold at the same auction for $13,200.

Neural Drift is an interactive NFT artwork that combines dynamic effects of neural networks with internet culture. By receiving specific token staking, this piece can adjust its visual display in real-time, reflecting the popularity and volatility of these tokens. This work cleverly captures the ever-changing nature of the cryptocurrency market and its cultural impact, creating a fluid on-chain conceptual artwork.

The successful auction of these works not only showcases the position of generative art in the contemporary art market, but also reflects the artists' exploration of the integration of new technologies and traditional art forms. By combining film, algorithms, and blockchain technology, artists like Cheng Ran and Sun Bo-Han are pioneering a new era of digital art, challenging our understanding of time, interactivity, and the nature of art.