Larva Labs (Matt Hall, John Watkinson)

Quine #93

2025

Description: "Quine" is Larva Labs' contribution to the final Art Blocks Curated series, a project that underscores that all the works on the Art Blocks platform are generated directly from code with no artist supervision. Drawing from the computer science concept of a quine (a computer program that produces a copy of its own source code as its output), the work incorporates its own code into the visuals it creates. Rather than hiding the generative process, "Quine" makes code alive as both medium and subject, creating a strange loop where the artwork contains the instructions for its own existence. This is closely analogous to how biological life reproduces itself: the DNA in the living cell is a type of "program" that can produce all the mechanisms of life, one of which is making a reproduction of itself upon cell reproduction. Each "Quine" functions simultaneously as executable code (the DNA) and typographic composition (the cell). While some are "Perfect-Quines" that reproduce themselves exactly, others cycle through multiple generations – its "quintity"– before returning to its origin state.\n\nAs opposed to creating the artwork directly, the main generator constructs a much smaller, specialized program that produces the visual output, including a layout of its own source code into the work, as well as the mechanism to reproduce itself. In this way, "Quines" are both program listings and artworks

Larva Labs (Matt Hall, John Watkinson), »Quine #93«, 2025, NFT, installation dimensions variable, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

© Matt Hall, John Watkinson ; photo © ZKM | Center for Art and Media