NumbersInMotion, born Matt Jacobson (b. 1990), is a recreational mathematician, educator, and generative artist based in New York City. Working with algorithms and plotters, NumbersInMotion explores mathematical aesthetics, aiming to expose rules that quietly shape the world around us.In 2021 he released Watercolor Dreams on the platform Art Blocks, saying he wanted the piece to reveal the usually unseen process behind its own creation.
NumbersInMotion began making art around 2015 after discovering looping GIFs made with code, having had no background with a paintbrush but a lifelong facility with numbers. He later attended a ten-week residency at the School for Poetic Computation in New York, where a class on the history of generative art taught by Zach Lieberman shaped his approach to the medium.In 2019 he began teaching creative computing at Parsons School of Design.He has said his practice grew more deliberate over time, guided by a principle common at the school: “more poetry, less demo”. NumbersInMotion discovered NFTs through Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers project, which led him to Art Blocks.
In 2022 he launched Plottables, an Art Blocks Engine platform for plotter-based generative art.With the artist Luke Shannon, he created Stitchables, a platform that translates algorithmic outputs into machine-embroidered physical objects, growing out of a live activation at Art Blocks' Marfa Weekend. Their generative collection connect-close, credited to both artists, extends that idea onchain.He also collaborated with MODNAR WOLF on the Plottables release Endless (5,607,250 to Infinity).
His work has been included in the “Post-War to Present: The NFTs” auction presentation at Christie's in 2021 and the 2023 group exhibition “Nature in the Digital Age” in New York.,
