Hash

digital art gallery

[Hash @hash_gallery]

BALLOONS IN THE SKY by @BardIonson

OPENS IN 4 DAYS

4-6 June @NFCsummit in Lisbon

The third and final act of 'The Simulation Trilogy' by @BardIonson - following 'Painting With Fire' and 'Bones In The Sky' (shown at Art Blocks Marfa Weekend 2025).

Presented by Hash Gallery, the self-sustaining generative installation is built on a smart contract designed to fund its own maintenance, shipping, and educational programming indefinitely.

https://t.co/LQmIJ9MM9p

[Hash @hash_gallery]

The artist and the set up. A snippet.

Balloons In The Sky

Art Factory @NFCsummit

https://t.co/eICCG2a8xX

[Hash @hash_gallery]

The work premieres at @NFCsummit Lisbon, June 4-6, presented by @hash_gallery.

It is geographically locked - you can only collect by being in the room.

Institutional and collector enquiries open now.

https://t.co/eICCG2a8xX

[Hash @hash_gallery]

Media art has an institutional problem. Museums want it. But the maintenance costs, shipping logistics, and tech updates make long-term stewardship economically unsustainable.

Most works end up in storage.

Balloons In The Sky by @BardIonson proposes a different model. 🧵

1/

[Hash @hash_gallery]

This is structurally new. Legacy media art asks institutions to absorb a cost.

Balloons In The Sky offers a revenue-generating asset - one that grows more valuable the more people interact with it.

The AI model weights are stored on Arweave, cryptographically attached to the deed.

No central server dependency. Archival grade.

4/

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

Have just arrived in Lisbon for @NFCsummit

Proud to be showcasing @BardIonson’s installation Balloons In The Sky through @hash_gallery here this week.

Will also be on a panel with @borgetsebastien @musicalnetta and @jmpailhon discussing patronage, funding and social value in digital art.

And giving my own talk on the Kawaii stage about how everybody hates NFTs (or do they?)

Incredible week ahead!

[𝙱å𝚛𝚍 𝙸𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗 @BardIonson]

Balloons on the tile in Lisbon
@NFCsummit

[Hash @hash_gallery]

BALLOONS IN THE SKY - HOW TO MINT

If you're attending @NFCsummit in Lisbon from 4-6 June and would like to learn how to mint and print a Balloons In The Sky 1/1, we've got you.

Opens in 3 days.

@BardIonson

[𝙱å𝚛𝚍 𝙸𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗 @BardIonson]

Did you know Balloons In The Sky installation uses four Ai models?
Three are for the orientations - landscape, portrait, square
The fourth one gives each digital artifact a name and description by "looking" at the image
Like this one
Walled City Of Gold
When you wander alone along the streets of a city where every house is walled and impenetrable by your presence, it seems as though you have entered another realm entirely – this version of the borderless self-portrait presents itself to us through its own locked door.
@hash_gallery @NFCsummit

[Hash @hash_gallery]

Yes, we have a leaderboard!

Here are the current Top 20 Eigenfolds collectors.

We’ll be taking snapshots every few days until June 16.

The final Top 20 collectors then will join a FCFS collectors’ claim list for a very special Double Take #2 release on June 18.

[𝙱å𝚛𝚍 𝙸𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗 @BardIonson]

Thank you to the great supporters who made Balloons In The Sky possible and delivered to Lisbon for @NFCsummit
shortcut @unityofmulti
Kelly LeValley @LeValleyKelly
Judith @judithESSS
John of Arq @ArtizenEth
ArtCrush Gallery @artcrush
artonymousartifakt @artonymousartifakt
Thais Portilho / Selkie @hash_gallery

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

Every Pisot fractal in this parameter space exists exactly once.

The token ID encodes the four parameters directly making every piece's ID also its mathematical address.

I made a complete map of a small mathematical world, and the size of the world chose its own final number.

All 9,600 combinations can be explored on the visualiser:

https://t.co/5e4xNMYrGB

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

Then the multiplication happened on its own.

4 families × 100 variations × 6 palettes × 4 densities = 9600 pieces.

The number was the byproduct of four small decisions that made sense.

If the collection's premise is ‘show what Rauzy fractals look like when you project them’, it seemed wrong to map the parameter space and then keep only 50. Or 500. Or some "good" subset.

(Zoom in) ↓

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

Then density. The substitution iteration can be cut short at different point counts.

Same shape, different visual texture, from a sparse ~22,000-point cloud you can see through, to a dense ~800,000-point solid you can't.

I found that four levels covered the range well. ↓

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

Then colour. Six palettes were a good enough amount to give each family an emotional range without feeling arbitrary:

Aurora
Sunset
Ocean
Ember
Forest
Bone

Each palette assigns one colour per letter (a, b, c, d), so the fractal's four interlocking pieces stay distinguishable inside it. ↓

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

I went looking for polynomials that admitted at least 100 distinct valid 4×4 non-negative integer matrices. The filter was strict, but four families passed:

Tetranacci · β ≈ 1.93
Pillar · β ≈ 2.11
Hawthorn · β ≈ 2.47
Bowed · β ≈ 2.59

↓

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

It started with one rule: each family had to have 100 distinct variations.

No two variations would feel alike and there were few enough that the set could still feel coherent.

A "family" of Rauzy fractals is defined by a characteristic polynomial: x⁴ − x³ − x² − x − 1.

Many different 4×4 matrices share the same polynomial. Each matrix gives the same eigenvalues but different eigenvectors, so the same Pisot algebra, but a completely different shape. ↓

[Selkie @madam_selkie]

WHY 9600 EIGENFOLDS?

I wasn’t aiming for any number, but this is what fell out while I was creating the collection and let four small decisions about Rauzy fractals run their course.

A thread on how the count of Eigenfolds composed itself ↓

[Hash @hash_gallery]

BALLOONS IN THE SKY by @BardIonson

OPENS IN 4 DAYS

4-6 June @NFCsummit in Lisbon

The third and final act of 'The Simulation Trilogy' by @BardIonson - following 'Painting With Fire' and 'Bones In The Sky' (shown at Art Blocks Marfa Weekend 2025).

Presented by Hash Gallery, the self-sustaining generative installation is built on a smart contract designed to fund its own maintenance, shipping, and educational programming indefinitely.

https://t.co/LQmIJ9MM9p