Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 10: On-Chain Era (2020s)
2023
MoMA Postcard Launched

In October, MoMA introduced the MoMA Postcard project, an enormous stamp of approval from a global modern art museum on the creative application of emerging technologies. The blockchain-based initiative encouraged global collaboration in digital art through the creation of free art works. The project began with 15 artists creating digital postcards, each evolving as it traveled across continents. This collective effort highlighted the potential of web3 technologies to foster co-creativity, community, and new forms of artistic expression. MoMA Postcard was an encouraging sign that major institutions would not take decades to begin taking these emergent art forms seriously. The participative element also highlighted blockchain art’s ability to engage globally in simple yet meaningful ways, emphasizing the accessibility and collaborative spirit at the core of the digital art movement.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
Movements
Blockchain Art, Participatory Art, NFT Art
Filed under
- Ideas
- accessibility, co creation, collaboration, community, digital art, institutions, museums, participation
- Technologies
- blockchain, Web3
- Works
- MoMA Postcard, Postcard
- Organisations
- MoMA, October
Echoes across time
- 1971 · Graffiti Emerges as an Art Form
- 1996 · Traffic, CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux
- 1968 · "On the Path to Computer Art” by the Parallel Group
Le Random editorials
- Matt DesLauriers on a Generative World, Peter Bauman, November 19, 2024
- Sasha Stiles and Martha Joseph on Language as Technology, Peter Bauman, September 10, 2025
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 10—On-Chain Era (2020s) with Erick Calderon, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Itzel Yard & Rafael Lozano-Hemmer — listen with transcript on Le Random (02 Sep 2024, 63 min). Chapter 10’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify