A hacker in the Pampas

This project is a revival of Martín Fierro, a classic of international literature by José Hernández (1834-1886). Martín Fierro is a gaucho living in the pampas during times of great transformations.

He embodies values that are national – and at the same time universal – such as courage, friendship, resilience, and the value of one's word. One hundred years after the first edition, Tomás Ditaranto illustrated a special multilingual edition with watercolors, which was widely distributed among a thriving Argentine society.

A Hacker in the Pampas draws from the text and Ditaranto's illustrations for the poem Martín Fierro, as well as AI-generated landscapes based on them. In each iteration, the algorithm randomly selects one out of the 100 images and a stanza from the poem; both inputs trigger a new image, built from color and text, resulting in an abstraction of visual poetry.

This generative token celebrates 190 years since José Hernández's birth, linking the classic to the present and towards the future.

Each iteration is revealed randomly after minting, with a unique stanza from the poem.

Developed by:
Helio Santos, the creator of the generative collection
Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tomas Ditaranto´s family
Gabriela Serkin, the curator