A transaction becomes an artwork. An algorithm, a co-author.
ETicketArte is an autonomous thermal printing device —a reprogrammed box-office ticket printer— that materializes, in a matter of seconds, generative works co-created between artificial intelligence and human authors.
Each time a viewer presses its single button, the system randomly selects one of the prompts, algorithms or rule sets loaded in its memory and sends them to a generative model or program. The result —a text, an image, a score, an instruction for action— is printed immediately on thermal paper: a unique, unrepeatable piece, destined to disappear.
System mechanics
How it works
The core of the device is a single-board computer running custom software. The whole system operates autonomously, equipped with a single physical button. When pressed, the program randomly selects one of the algorithms loaded in its memory and sends the instruction to a generative model —via API— or runs a locally encapsulated algorithm, without going online.
The limit as power
Far from chasing the high definition of contemporary screens, the system leans on the extreme limitation of its hardware: monochrome resolution of 203 DPI and only two colours. That restriction is a poetic strength: it forces every author —human or artificial— into absolute visual and conceptual synthesis. The technical limit becomes a curatorial device in itself.
The ephemeral and thermal ink
Thermal paper is doomed to degrade under light and heat. That condition is not a defect: it is its conceptual core. The viewer receives an instant of human-algorithmic lucidity that will fade, which invites treasuring the moment in memory rather than in the object. Producing to lose, printing to forget, and in that forgetting, remembering better.
The device in operation: the piece comes out already printed.
Open authorship architecture
The conceptual core of ETicketArte is not a closed catalogue of authors, but an architecture completed by those who inhabit it. There is a founding line, but it works as a seed, not as a limit.
Every artist, researcher, teacher or institution taking part can design their own prompt, their own set of generative rules or their own dataset, and load it into the system under the same technical conditions: a button, a random selection, a thermal printer. The device does not hierarchize authorship: all participants are represented by the same output format —the 203 DPI ticket— which levels different disciplinary origins under one shared material and temporal condition.
The final work is, literally, the sum of those who chose to intervene in the system.
Open disciplines
Poetry and literature. Visual arts and drawing. Music and sound composition. Architecture and speculative design. Bioart and science. Performance and action. Dance and choreography. Film and expanded photography. Conceptual gastronomy. Philosophy and critical thought. Graphic design and typography. Communication and new media.
An indicative, non-exhaustive menu of the profiles that can take the system as a support. Each discipline brings its own question about the algorithm, not a closed answer.
Archive of outputs
Every press of the button produces a different piece. These are some of the outputs: naturalist records, generative patterns, gestural strokes, instructions for action. All of them share the same material condition —203 DPI, two values, thermal paper— and the same fate.
Contextual versatility
ETicketArte does not need a gallery: it needs a box office, a counter, or any point where an everyday transaction —buying a ticket, a book, a coffee— can be interrupted by an instant of art. The system is deliberately portable, low-cost and modular: any institution with a point of sale or access can host it, feed it with its own authors, and turn its flow of visitors into an audience for generative art without meaning to.
Museums and art centres
The ticket stops being a receipt and becomes an artwork. A generative layer accompanying the visit.
Theatres and cultural centres
The box office becomes a laboratory. Every performance leaves an unrepeatable archive.
Art and technology festivals
A portable device at high-traffic points. Continuous production throughout the programme.
Universities and labs
A teaching tool on accessible hardware, creative coding and generative AI.
Libraries and bookshops
Every loan or purchase includes a short piece. Literature and algorithm converge.
Residencies and gatherings
Authorship distributed among participants. Installed capacity that outlives the event.
Gastronomy and retail
The receipt is reconfigured as an aesthetic object. An artwork alongside each purchase.
Transit spaces
Stations, fairs, conferences. Art that interrupts the flow without asking permission.
Brand activations
A free gesture in the middle of the transaction. Material memory, not disposable.
Technical sheet
Each ticket records its own metadata: number, date, source file.
Collaborate
Artists, researchers, curators, museums, festivals and cultural institutions: ETicketArte is an open platform. If your venue has a point of access —a box office, a counter, an entrance— the system can be hosted there and fed with your own authors.
Write to us to propose an activation, a workshop or a residency.
oliverio.duhalde@gmail.com