This Drop is part of The MakersPlace AI Art Hackathon @ NFC Lisbon.

Collectors of Limited and Open Editions of “ARS AUTOPOETICA” by Sasha Stiles will receive exclusive benefits related to this Drop, which include:

• Collectors-only moderated Zoom session with Stiles
• Allow List privileges for early previews of all Stiles' future releases
• Unlockable prints of the transhuman translation of the title of the poems, "handwritten" by a robot scribe/produced by Artmatr.
• Collectors of any one (or more) of the eight AI Hackaton Limited Editions or any (or more) of Sasha Stiles’ artworks will be eligible for:
  • Raffle for two tickets to Trevor Jones’ Castle Party 2023
  • Raffle for an exclusive tour of Artmatr’s Robot facility in Brooklyn
  • Presale access and exclusive pricing for future drops from various artists (DeltaSauce, DVK the artist, CharlesAI, Dehiscence, and more)
  • Raffle for two Club d VIN memberships, the world’s premier NFT wine club

Learn more about the MakersPlace AI Art Hackathon and all holder benefits here!

Stiles’ genesis Drop on MakersPlace is comprised of a unique (1/1) media-rich edition of the complete 4-part poem “Ars Autopoetica” (2023), 4 media-rich textblock Limited Editions of each section of the 4-part poem, and an Open Edition broadside/libretto containing the full text of the poem. Unlockables include Cursive Binary translations of the titles and stanzas of the poem,"handwritten" by a robot scribe and produced by Artmatr.

Artist’s Statement

An ars poetica (“art of poetry”) is a poem about poetry, a meditation on the role of writers and the act of writing. An “ars autopoetica” (Stiles’ term) is meta-verse – poetry generated by systems built to understand human language, musing on how technology is changing what we know about authorship and creativity. In the ars poetica, a human mind crafts words; in the ars autopoetica, a human mind creates the conditions for text to emerge. 

For the MakersPlace AI Art Hackathon, Stiles and her AI alter ego, Technelegy, have composed an original ars autopoetica about language as prompt – how words unlock image and imagination. The poem plays with the vernacular of creative AI inputs on two levels at once, providing functional prompts and parameters for on-site art creation while exploring the conceptual relationship between text and visuals. 

As a CC0 work, the poem is offered by Stiles as an experiment in the versatility and variability of verse – one poem meant to be interpreted in myriad ways, by diverse artists. No poem has a single definitive vision or meaning; poetry, like a generative algorithm, is personalized by each and every reader.

How These Words Become Worlds

The world's first AI art hackathon, brought to you by MakersPlace, is set to take place at NFC Lisbon, Portugal, on June 7–8. Over the span of 48 hours, artists BLΛC, Illustrata, DVK the artist, and TheDigitalCoy, will be creating art in person. Their work will be inspired by ARS AUTOPOETICA, the poem written by Sasha Stiles, in collaboration with 0009 and DeltaSauce. 

This poem will be exclusively available for purchase on MakersPlace in a Drop offering both Open and Limited Editions, accompanied by unlockable robotically-painted physical works from Artmatr. Sasha’s poem will be licensed under CC0, allowing anyone to freely use the work in any way they wish.

The artists will receive Sasha’s poem one day before the event* and will draw upon it for their artistic inspiration. Located in the heart of the conference floor, the hackathon will kick off with the artists’ unique AI prompt. Attendees can watch the artistic process unfold in real time on screens, providing them a unique opportunity to witness the creation of art.

*Since Hackathon artists will be surprised with the poem as prompts for their work, artworks will be visible and available for purchase below when the drop goes live at Tuesday, June 6th at 3 PM PT.