Each of the 512+1 “specimens” released within the “Mutant Garden Seeder” series has a name and a probability to mutate. Tonda has mutated 617 times; Edyra has mutated 6 times; Lyne has only mutated once. Abirey was born on block 12884205 and has a 14% chance that it will mutate each month. In this case, to “mutate” means to change how the artwork looks. Within the frame of the larger history of visual art, this is a radical proposition that Harm van den Dorpel has created. At any moment, the way the art looks might be different from the moment before. Where does this leave the viewer, the collector? When “Mutant Garden Seeder” was released in 2021 with Folia, a Berlin-based online gallery, most people didn’t know what to think of it. Harm’s vision, however, was clear, and two years later this artwork has become an iconic example of how code and blockchains allow for new ideas to flow into the visual arts. In describing the project, Harm wrote, “In this blockchain-native work, I aim to show that with the advent of immutability we do not need to sacrifice the fluid and transformative potential of digital artifacts.” — Casey REAS