Project 10 of 11
LIFT (a self portrait)
A self-portrait where you have to keep a little pixel person from being crushed by a rock, ideally for a month or three. It is also a real GBA game.
Start with one actual artwork
Pull it apart, press things, then read around it
The square render is just the front door. Pick a LIFT and the rest of this page follows it through the game, cast, music, splash screen, embroidery, and physical files.
One artwork at a time
Unpacking LIFT #147…
Only this artwork is loading. Nothing else on the page has to wait for it.
The idea, without making you wait for it
The portrait is everything around the little guy too
LIFT is a self-portrait, although the little pixel guy under the rock is only the obvious part. I was trying to put the pressure, fatigue, criticism, support, and the very boring act of getting up again into the portrait too.
At first it looks like a pixel figure holding up a rock. Then it turns out every artwork has its own Game Boy Advance game, 20 supporters, a detractor, a pile of weird items, physical game packaging, and a record of the people who somehow make it all the way through.
Playable Artifact
Every artwork makes its own GBA ROM with a generated character, supporters, scenery, items, and a target number of days to survive.
Supporter Cast
324 people made tiny two-frame self-portraits. Each game randomly gets 20 of them, so every artwork has a different group showing up for it.
Long Duration
A run takes roughly 30 to 90 days. You have to keep lifting the rock and, importantly, not accidentally kill the game session for several months.
Physical Bridge
The software can become a GBA cartridge, box, booklet, poster, embroidery file, and a game you play on an actual handheld.
The soundtrack is separate
Loading the actual notes…
The artwork explorer does not have to wait for this.
What you are actually doing
Keep the rock up. Keep coming back.
It is fragile and repetitive on purpose. I realize that is not a normal game sales pitch.
The Rock
You have to keep the rock up. Leave it alone for about 24 hours and it crushes the character, which is not subtle but it is accurate.
Daily Lift
Tap A to lift. It works out to around a hundred taps a day, depending on what your supporters and items are doing to you.
Continuous Run
If the GBA, flash cart, emulator, or computer loses the session, the run is gone and you start over. Yes, even if you were very far along.
Real hardware and a careful setup help. So does not unplugging the wrong thing.Items
Bear markets, hacks, energy drinks, fairy dust, and other things can make the run easier or harder. A lot of them come from my own life or the very strange few years around Art Blocks.
Countdown And Endurance
Countdown mode lasts somewhere around 30 to 90 days. There is also an Endurance mode for the people who finish and, for some reason, decide they would like more rock.
Victory
Finishing is supposed to feel earned. I am not putting the ending here because if you keep a pixel guy alive for months, you should at least get to discover that part yourself.
The people in the game
A cast of 324 people
The supporters are what made this stop being a drawing of me and turn into something much bigger.
I asked collectors, artists, family, friends, and people who had been around the community for a long time to make tiny pixel self-portraits. Some people spent hours on sixteen by thirty-two pixels, which I love.
Every copy of the game gets 20 supporters. Finish it and the whole cast can appear—all 324 tiny animated people at once.
The full supporter wall and finisher record live on lift.snowfro.com ↗
Portrait Mode
You can put the live NFT into Pixel Man portrait mode, flip the little guy between flat and 3D, and then put the regular view back when you are done messing with it.
It keeps going after the screen
I really do want you to play it on a Game Boy
The cartridge and box are part of the artwork, not merch hovering around it.
Cartridge And Box
I wanted the physical package to feel like a real Game Boy Advance release, not an NFT prop that happens to be shaped like one.
Generated Goods
Every artwork can make its own box art, stickers, booklet graphics, posters, thumbnails, and embroidery files. The generative system keeps going after the screen ends.
Intended Play
You can emulate LIFT, but I really made it to be played on a handheld with the cartridge in it. That is the version that feels right to me.
In The Bigger Picture
Where this one goes
- Surface
- Pixel self-portrait / GBA game
- Deeper Layer
- A months-long game full of supporters, a detractor, one-of-one ROMs, physical objects, and actual finishers
- Builds On
- My Pixel Man doodles, Squiggle interaction, and all the earlier physical experiments
- Sets Up
- The support language and shared living state inside send/receive
Sources
Where this came from
I filled in some of this through longer interviews about the project. These are the public links I used to check the dates and the rest of the details.
Official / primary
- Art Blocks collection
The official LIFT (a self portrait) reference for project facts and public links.
- Glitch Marfa LIFT essay
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
- Right Click Save interview
My own voice and interpretation of the project.
Institution / gallery / side site
- ZKM LIFT #147
Institutional record: collection or exhibition evidence and provenance context.
- Glitch 30 Days in Marfa
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
- Glitch OT 2: The Pixel Man
Curatorial framing and exhibition context for the work.
- LIFT side site
The project's own public side-site, with read-only context and tools.