Pre-mint: March 9, 2022 5:00pm EST
Public mint: March 10, 2022 5:00pm EST
Collection: 2,750 NFT
Mint price: ETH 0.18
My Minted ChipArts
Hidden World of Art
For the past 25 years, Dr. Antoine Bercovici, a.k.a. Siliconinsider, has made it his life's work to dig deep into computer chips to see what's hidden inside; and the results are truly mind-blowing.
Siliconinsider, a researcher by profession, specializes in microscope photography. By dismantling chips often only a few millimeters in size, he reveals their true beauty under a microscope. Some chips are so detailed and tiny that it's necessary to take hundreds of photos per die, which are then digitally stitched together to form one single large image. It often takes days to prepare one detailed image using this process, but the results are stunning.
The bright colors, level of detail, and interesting patterns make each image a beautiful piece of art. Some images make you think of contemporary art, while others have an industrial vibe or vintage edge to them. Each of the 2,750 NFTs is unique and tells its own story.
Hidden Inside the Chips
When chips increased in size in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, some empty space was left on them. This presented the perfect opportunity for engineers to have some fun…
Often without management knowing, chip designers set out to create all sorts of chip art utilizing unused space on integrated circuit boards. This was a cool way for them to both express their creativity and place their signature on their work.
The chip art contains random objects or doodles generated by the chip designers, ranging from a ketchup bottle to a spaceship or even a cartoon character. Siliconinsider has found many interesting pieces, and most of them have never been released to the public.
Integrated circuit chip art is quite rare. Most companies in fact banned the practice in the late ‘90s because it delayed initial production efforts. Therefore, only about 4% of chips include this amazing art. In some rare cases, Siliconinsider has found as many as five pieces of artwork on a single chip.
Invisible to
the naked eye
Half the size of a grain of salt and invisible to the naked eye, these pieces of chip art found on the surface of computer chips are magnified from 200-500x.
Computer
Computer
Printed Circuit-Board
Printed Circuit-Board
Silicon Chip
Silicon Chip
Chip Art
Chip Art
About the Project
Many milestones have shaken up humanity over time, such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc. Today could perhaps be known as the "Silicon Age,” wherein we have learned to craft one of the most common elements found on the surface of the Earth into a highly complex technological achievement.
Billions of silicon chips are manufactured every month, shaping how we communicate, work, trade, and entertain ourselves: from deep within your pocket inside your mobile phone and credit card to outside our solar system aboard the NASA Voyager 1 probe. The insatiable race toward improved performance means that devices quickly become obsolete.
Old hardware is scrapped and recycled, making old chips increasingly harder to find and erasing the history of our modern society written in silicon. Thankfully, this NFT project will build and preserve a historic database for fans of computer chip history—and their hidden artwork—on IPFS.
Siliconinsider has amassed one of the world's largest collections of computer chips from gaming consoles, personal computers, crypto mining servers, and other electronic devices. It has taken him five years to photograph each and every one, with his efforts resulting in a stunning photo collection.
Now, Siliconinsider is teaming up with Art of Science to release this compelling database into an NFT collection. The drop will contain 2,750 NTFs minted on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-721 tokens. Each holder will be assigned a unique image photographed by a digital microscope, with some containing chip art hidden inside.
Roadmap
Art Reveal
The artwork will be revealed on March 11, 2022 5:00pm EST.
Pre-mint: March 9, 2022 5:00pm EST
Public mint: March 10, 2022 5:00pm EST
Charity
As soon as the project sells out, we will send ten percent of initial sales to the following four charities that work to preserve computer history:
Chip Info Reveal
Post-reveal, we will start adding more NFT properties to Opensea, giving hardcore geeks a few days to scour the internet and research chip topography prior to the chip art reveal.
March 14th: Architecture and function reveal
March 13th: Part number reveal
March 12th: Chip manufacturer reveal
Chip Art Reveal
One day after all chip info is revealed, we will announce which silicon chips in fact contain the rare chip art. The community will then enjoy some time to locate said art and trade/buy their favorite chip art NFTs on the secondary market.
Airdrop
After revealing the lucky owners of the NFTs that contain chip art, we will prepare an airdrop with a chip art NFT. This NFT can either be used as a free mint pass for the second Art of Science drop or as different currency; we will let the community decide.
Community
Next to a dedicated Discord channel, Art of Science will build a reference website containing detailed information about the chips. Wherever possible, we will then update this platform with the experiences of the designers behind the chip art and look forward to sharing their unique stories.
Full-Resolution Images
Finally, we will upload full-resolution images of the NFTs to IPFS. This will allow token holders to download full-res images and transform their NFTs into fantastic pieces of wall art. Some images are over 500 megapixels, allowing for large-scale prints in high resolution.
About The Art of Science
Art is all around us, but nature's glory isn’t always visible to the human eye. This is exactly why Art of Science challenges scientists, nature photographers, researchers, and inventors to share their unique views of the world.
Some of this artwork has never been available to the public but can help improve the world and how we view science. With respect to the creators themselves, some have won international competitions and prizes, and their spectacular work has graced covers of scientific magazines. You can now help preserve and support scientific progress by minting one of 2,750 unique NFTs.
NFT Collection
Each NFT is minted on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-721 token. Every NFT is unique and has its own impactful history in the advancement of scientific research.
Art Curation
Together with researchers, scientists, and art curators, we carefully examine each project in order to deliver beautiful pieces of art that boast a meaningful history.
Support Science
Art of Science will dedicate a portion of the proceeds to support scientists, researchers, and/or universities that helped create the artwork or are linked to the project.
Team
Professional micro paleontologist by day, computer historian and collector by night: connecting two universes with a deep passion for microscopy and revealing invisible treasures from our past and current world.
Two tech nerds who enjoy pushing Solidity boundaries, artistically and otherwise. Collections / collabs include PROOF OF {ART}WORK, Brotchain, The Kiss, Every Icon and Proof Collective.
Entrepreneur and NFT collector focused on building Web3 communities spanning watch, blockchain, and tech.
Principal engineer and full-stack web developer. Food, car, and watch enthusiast.
Graphic designer from the Netherlands. Astronaut without a diploma. Beer enthusiast.
IP-attorney possessing a close-to-obsessive fascination with emerging art.
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