Proof of Work, 2022 - Current
Executed in 2022, this work is unique and inscribed in May 2024.
Proof of Work is a series of introspective text-based artworks surrounding existence, labor and value. The artist Travis LeRoy Southworth uses computer programs, not just as a tool but as an entity with which he attempts to outsource personal grief and contemplation through ‘artificially intelligent' software and machine drawn messages. Each piece exists as a colorful code-based animation on the Bitcoin blockchain and a physically plotted drawing. Black and white plots are created on letter-sized paper, suggesting the possibility to be physically mailed, in hopes to initiate further communication.
The inaugural piece, Infinite Conjecture, captures the existential and often absurd pursuit of meaning. The text "I have a million ideas, they all point to certain death." is taken from the novel “The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. In it, Marvin, the paranoid android, utters the phrase during a moment of extreme despair to his non-robot counterparts. Southworth appropriates the musings of this highly intelligent fictional AI and invites viewers to reflect on moments where human and machine increasingly intermingle, especially when the lines of authorship and aura blur into one another. While the blockchain subtly underscores these interactions, ensuring that every bit of code is accounted for and immortalized, it is the paper and the plotted text that capture the essence of human fragility and creative persistence.
Machine Plotted ‘Letter Editions’
