#11 From Operator's Award and Mapan's Childlike Sketchbook to Abosch's Exhibition
#11 From Operator's Award and Mapan's Childlike Sketchbook to Abosch's Exhibition
👋 Hello, we are Julian and Marcel, and welcome to our weekly edition of The Curious Collector. Each week we humbly curate what’s happening in the digital art realm. ✨
It is a subscriber-only newsletter, delivered every Sunday, highlighting mainly digital and sometimes physical art news.
Welcome to this issue of our newsletter. From Operator's award-winning blend of choreography and blockchain to Kevin Abosch's challenge to our perceptions of digital media. Discover the nuanced world of William Mapan's "Sketchbook A," which offers an intriguing blend of digital precision and childlike wonder.
As highlighted in our Notable Insight, immerse yourself in a profound exploration of how the digital age has reshaped the very fabric of artistic creation, emphasizing dynamism and interactive experiences.
News Digest
Lumen Prize: The Generative Art Award was won by "Operator" for their three-act artwork "Human Unreadable." It blends choreography, blockchain, generative art, and cryptography. This marks their second Lumen Prize win, with their first being in 2021.
Art Blocks: Melissa Wiederrecht's "Bakhoor Assandal" is an animated generative art series inspired by personal memories and the recent civil conflict in Sudan. The work symbolizes life's impermanence and the fleeting nature of memories.
Exhibition: Curated by Eleonora Brizi, Kevin Abosch's "1337" debuted at the NFT Factory in Paris. Using 50 screens, the exhibition challenges viewers' perceptions of digital media through AI-infused art.
Digital Highlight
According to curator Arthemort, Joe Pease, an Australian artist residing in California, combines romantic surrealism with videography, drawing inspiration from analog net art and lo-fi aesthetics.
His 47-second video captures a series of evocative scenes, culminating in a representation of life.
Notable Insight
“Historically, most art was static for no other reason than that it couldn’t be anything else. There’s very little reason that digital art should orient around the canvas / print as its core structure and I expect things to be default animated, not default static going forward.”
(Adam, Generative Light)
This observation underscores the profound shift art has undergone in the digital age. Historically, the physical limitations of mediums — such as canvas, sculpture, and print — defined the “boundaries” of art. In the digital realm, these constraints disappear, allowing artists to fully embrace dynamism in their creations.
This shift isn't solely about the final form of the artwork, as showcased by Refik Anadol's pieces. The entire creation process, along with the surrounding experience as exemplified by "Human Unreadable" from Operator, can also be imbued with rich interactivity and fluid evolution.
Sale Spotlight
“Sketchbook A” by William Mapan appears, at first glance, to be childlike drawings made with colored pencils. The artwork uses computer-generated techniques to emulate traditional textures, invoking a sense of childhood creativity. This approach diverges from the sleek aesthetics typically associated with digital art, adding a layer of genuine warmth and originality.
Before purchasing the art, enthusiasts were given the opportunity to generate artworks using the algorithm. Out of the 1,160 enthusiasts, they produced 1,255,662 drawings and saved 247,632 of them. The highest bid reached $10,777, resulting in a total sale of $646,520. This enabled 60 artworks to be minted on the blockchain.
Artist to Watch
Kelly Milligan, a generative artist from New Zealand, has created a collection titled 'StackSlash' that highlights the imbalance in the exploitation of natural resources.
In this collection, 2D rectangular bodies guided by physics settle into a resting state. All textures adjust responsively to any viewport size.
Tech & Texture
Generative Tattoos: Blackdot's automated platform delivers precise and durable tattoos with reduced pain. Collaborating with artist Tyler Hobbs, they produce generative designs that blend hand-drawn and algorithmic elements, thereby broadening the horizons for digital artists.
Gestures of the Generative Painter: In generative art, the emphasis is on creating systems rather than merely replicating painterly gestures. Artists like Licia He and Andrew Benson demonstrate that the essence of the art resides in the parameters set by the artist, not just in the digital brushstrokes.
Closing Remarks
In the constantly evolving universe of digital and generative art, this edition underscores the fusion of technologies, personal memories, and traditional aesthetics.
Artists are not only presenting new visual oeuvres but also reshaping how we interact with, and perceive, the very essence of art.