Insomnia
10 of 10 available. After the last one, this seed never runs again.
Two inks that never quite meet.
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Two inks plotted stroke by stroke on black paper, Tabloid format. Numbered and UV-signed on the back.
Insomnia is a grid that refuses to close. Thousands of horizontal and vertical strokes share the same space without ever meeting — two colours, two passes, two separate moments in the dark of the paper. The form didn't start from a photograph or a template: a set of rules decided, once, where every line would sit. I chose the seed, set what disappears, then let the robot lay down ink, one colour after the other. Everything rides on the registration between those two passes: a few tenths of a millimetre decide whether the grid holds or falls apart. Ten copies will come off this seed. Not one more. And no two will match: on every mount, the alignment between the layers shifts a little. That's where the machine stops being a copying machine. On the back: a serial number and the date, laid down in UV ink in the same pass as the drawing. When the tenth one goes, the release is retired. A retired release doesn't come back.
At a Glance
- ◆Black paper, Tabloid format (11" x 17" / 27.9 × 43.2 cm)
- ◆Two inks, two passes aligned by hand
- ◆Edition of 10 — numbered
- ◆Serial number and date in UV ink on the back
- ◆After the tenth plot, the seed is retired
What the robot does, what a person does
The robot
- ◆runs the file
- ◆traces
- ◆lays down ink
- ◆repeats without tiring
A person
- ◆writes the growth rules
- ◆chooses the seed
- ◆aligns the two layers
- ◆sets pressure, speed, pen height
- ◆watches the hours
- ◆signs, numbers, packs
Plotted by a robot. Drawn by a person.
Included
Production timelapse included — every order · no extra cost
Watch your piece being plotted, line by line, by the studio's robot. A personal timelapse of your production is sent with every order — to share, or to keep as a record of how your piece came to be.
Hidden signature
Real footage — an early production piece, shown under blacklight.
A signature only UV light reveals
On the back of every piece, in the same pass as the drawing, we plot a signature invisible under normal light — codeink.art, the piece's name and serial number, the year, and Québec. Shine a blacklight on it and it glows.
“Two layers on black paper doesn't forgive. If the alignment drifts, the piece is lost and you start over. That's the kind of constraint a printer never had to face.”
A real process, not a printer
Each piece is physically plotted, pen on paper, in Québec City — watch the machine work.
Watch the process14-day returns
Real defects — shipping damage, wrong colour, missing lines — are replaced free of charge.
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Numbered and signed
A unique serial number and the date are plotted on the back in UV ink — invisible to the naked eye, laid down in the same pass as the drawing.
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Questions & Answers
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