Highlight has curated work from four esteemed generative artists: James Merrill, Melissa Wiederrecht, Leander Herzog, and Holger Lippmann — brought onchain. Nat Emodi, founder of Highlight, joined us to discuss the vision behind the drop and how Base is setting the stage for the future of onchain art.

“Code-based art has existed for decades,” says Nat Emodi, co-founder of Highlight, “Pretty much ever since computer screens were invented.” Even though the artform isn’t new, it has been difficult to collect. While many passionate fans would run code in-browser, there was a lack of permanence — and also a lack of clarity around output. When the very nature of the work is interconnected with its ability to produce different artwork each time, what exactly is the art?

“That’s what NFTs and the blockchain have made clear,” says Emodi.

As generative art has become a core component of onchain art, Highlight emphasizes co-creation between collectors and artists, where various aspects of the minting experience can influence the output of the art itself. The tools which they give creators enable this by allowing different data elements from the minting experience (such as the time of day or the collector’s wallet address) to play a role in the finished result.

“An incredible thing about generative art is the fact that in most cases the artist has never seen your specific artwork until the moment it’s minted,” says Emodi. “The second it's revealed, you are the first person in the world to ever see that artwork, even before the artist. Of course, the artist has spent time designing a system and an algorithm that’s been carefully crafted, but your mint is as much a surprise to them as it is to you. It’s electric.”

Highlight’s ultimate vision is to break down technical barriers that hinder artistic expression, and allow artists to create whatever they want onchain. James Merrill, a multi-disciplinary artist who resides in Vermont, USA, said that his collection for Onchain Summer  is “all about breaking the rules.” “Instead of cohesion across the collection,” Merrill said on Twitter, “I am specifically trying to make the most diverse set of outputs from a single autonomous generative system to date on the blockchain.”

Emodi envisions two significant trends for the future of the internet. The first is an increasing focus on digital ownership, which could redefine the nature of collecting art and culture. The second is for new systems that will make digital assets become generative. Instead of static assets, Emodi believes NFTs will increasingly be unique, personalized, dynamic and co-created., “This will be reminiscent of how the first wave of the internet unlocked new realms of creative expression over the past few decades.” Emodi anticipates a future where platforms like Highlight empower artists to create unique works while introducing millions of new collectors to generative experiences.

Highlight believes that the reduced transaction costs on Base make it an interesting playground for artists to experiment with in comparison to Ethereum mainnet, which Emodi says can be prohibitive not just for collectors, but also for artists.

“Hopefully,” says Emodi, “this means we'll see thousands of artists creating fascinating, beautiful art and millions of new collectors being introduced to generative works for the first time.”