Kim Asendorf’s PXL DEX is more than just a series of generative digital artworks. It’s a microcosm of the entire crypto economy: a dynamic collection of tokens and delicate, ephemeral jewelboxes in which to collect them. Deck 55 appears as a blue, pink, and magenta rectangular volume, floating over a black background and seen at an angle in isometric perspective. The box is translucent, almost blurry, and animated; the particles that trace its form alternate between movement and rest.
Each work in the series of 256 is a pulsing box of colored pixels floating in the black void of a browser window. The viewer can click and drag to rotate the virtual object—or zoom in and out— to manipulate the perspective from which a deck is viewed. The number of pixels that make up each form is not random. Rather, the pixels are purchased along with the NFT as a separate token called PXL. Up to 500,000 can be included with the initial mint, and collectors have the option to add more later. The works are rendered entirely on-chain, and reinforce the idea at the heart of Asendorf’s work that the pixel is the atomic unit of digital art. Here, the pixel and the token become one.