Alfred Presents · Artist Showcase Anticyclone (2022) — WILLIAM MAPAN

WILLIAM MAPAN

generative, textural · Ethereum · x.com/williamapan

“It's a bit like alchemy — you have your ingredients, your table of molecules, and you take a bit of this and a bit of that to see what happens. I know that combining two things makes a third, and that becomes the whole series.”

— William Mapan, “Translating Hand to Code,” Waiting To Be Signed, October 2023

Anticyclone, works
800
Anticyclone floor
2.19ETH
Anticyclone volume
6,842ETH
Dragons, works
502
On-chain since
2021
Anticyclone figures from the OpenSea /stats endpoint, HTTP 200, 17 August 2026: floor 2.19 ETH, volume 6,842 ETH, 1,588 sales, 421 owners. Supply of 800 from the OpenSea collection endpoint, same date. Dragons supply of 502 from the OpenSea collection endpoint, HTTP 200, same date. Dragons market figures (volume, floor, sales) were not measured — the /stats endpoint returned HTTP 429 on three attempts with 10–20 s back-off; no figure is shown that was not measured.
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Floor, sales and new listings across William Mapan's collections — as they happen.
The work · 2021 – present

Two collections, one question: can a computer draw like a human?

2022Anticyclone by William Mapan
The question posed in code

Anticyclone by William Mapan

Anticyclones are a weather phenomena. They pierce through darkness to instill peace and calm. Their planetary scale reminds us of how little we are and how powerful they can be. High pressure, rotation, air flow… The “Anticyclone” series is an artistic exploration and interpretation of those concepts. The rendering borrows its aesthetics from traditional and organic media like paper and crayons, to lend an analog/archival look.

Anticyclone project description, Art Blocks Curated
800 worksFloor 2.19 ETH6,842 ETH volume1,588 sales421 owners
OpenSea
The dragon on paper

Dragons by William Mapan

A grid of many lines forming a dragon crafted on paper. They all have their own personality… Be sure to name and take care of them.

Dragons collection description, OpenSea
502 works
OpenSea

He trained as a painter before discovering code, and the tension shows in every output — works that look like crayon on paper but were never touched by hand. Dragons proved the algorithm could have personality. Anticyclone asked whether the machine could be organic. Both questions are still open.

In his words

On algorithm, surprise, and what it means to let go of control

It's a bit like alchemy — you have your ingredients, your table of molecules, and you take a bit of this and a bit of that to see what happens. I know that combining two things makes a third, and that becomes the whole series. But sometimes I'll grab something I don't fully understand and put it in, and something happens — that's usually how the best things happen.

“Translating Hand to Code,” Waiting To Be Signed, October 2023

I actually try to surprise myself when I make an algorithm now. Dragons was almost fully controlled. But now, with this most recent project, I made a lot of iterations, and still at 250 outputs in I saw one I'd never seen before. That's what excites me now — discovering things in the algorithm I created.

“Translating Hand to Code,” Waiting To Be Signed, October 2023

Follow this practice as it moves.

Alfred watches the floor, sales and new listings across William Mapan's collections — and tells you when something moves.

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