Deafbeef

Generative audiovisual art. Nothing but a C compiler. Pushing the limits of multimedia stored completely on-chain.

DEAFBEEF is a generative audiovisual artist who pushes the limits of what can be created on the blockchain with nothing but a 10-year-old computer, a C compiler, and the human imagination.

Motivated by the importance of maximum permanence for NFT art, Deafbeef propose a new method for efficient on chain storage of media files expressable as the output of a model and parameters. Typical NFTs store media on IPFS with only a reference hash stored on the blockchain. Existing methods store model code and parameters onchain to be rendered in a browser, or with an external library. This introduces a dependency on browser technology(which is fast changing), and in some cases external libraries. I propose instead to store self contained code written in C language that directly outputs raw numerical data encodable to sound and visual media. As the Ethereum is already dependent on C compilers, writing model code in C does not introduce a new dependency, increasing the confidence the media will be well preserved for the life of the Ethereum network. Additionally, Deafbeef present series of generative audiovisual artworks making use of this technique.