From VCA: Weekly Curatorial Picks
Week of December 27th 2021 — by Harry Martin
Welcome back to the second edition of VerticalCrypto Art Curatorial Picks. Today, we are delighted to introduce another four excellent crypto and digital artists from the VCA community: 0xDEAFBEEF, Felipe Filgueiras, Auriea Harvey and Ikaro Cavalcante.
These artists are all unique in their respective approaches to digital and physical mark-making. Through uses of audio, 2D/3D software and generative elements, they create pieces which highlight topics and aesthetics related to gamification, ethereal dreamscapes and analogue accidents.
This is a really exciting edition of Curatorial Pick, and we sincerely hope you enjoy. Let’s dive in! 🏁
Artist #1–0xDEAFBEEF — “Advection: 220” 💾
0xDEAFBEEF is a generative audiovisual artist, who uses nothing but a C compiler.
Art series and nom-de-plume, 0xDEAFBEEF, is a generative and audiovisual project which began in 2020. 0xDEAFBEEF creates finely tuned experiments from random hash values in code, which outputs and encodes numerical data to execute sound and visual media.
Proposing a new method for storing NFTs on the blockchain, the 0xDEAFBEEF project codes audiovisual artworks written in C — a procedural programming language. He applies this method to emphasise the importance of devising more permanent NFTs; independent from external libraries, isolated reference hashes and browser technologies that blockchains rely on to display content.
0xDEAFBEEF has been creating artwork on the blockchain since early 2020, whilst having a background and interest in electrical engineering, coding, sound recording and music for much longer. Taking a seven year break from modular synthesizers, 0xDEAFBEEF returned last year with an ‘alternative ascetic approach’: using “nothing” to make music.
Opting for software instead of hardware and using a 10 year-old Linux laptop, emacs text editor and a C compiler, 0xDEAFBEEF today calls on his formative experiences of terminal, 90s games such as Nethack and programming and procedural generation in shaping his generative art.
‘Advection’ is 0xDEAFBEEF’s latest generative series. ‘An aesthetic study of fluid motion’, it forms a commentary on the ongoing relationships between nature, mathematics and generative art. The series exhibits ‘programmable media with shared utility for a community.’
‘Advection’ has been chosen for this week’s curatorial pick thanks to the series’ meticulous execution of research conducted over the last ten years. Combining visual art with sound, noises of struck percussion are synthesized to feel foreign and absent of mood. This compliments the piece’s fluid motion while addressing the beauty found in nature from both art and science praxes.
Artist #2 — Felipe Filgueiras — “hyperainbow_ structural burst” 🍭
Felipe Filgueiras is a physical and digital artist from Brazil.
Felipe visualizes ‘paths of the cosmic and the unknown’ through constructed narratives which fluctuate between ‘artificial and biological’ realities. Inspired by the biomechanical genre and its subsequent artists (such as H.R. Giger), Filguerias combines physical and digital mediums (such as spray paints and photoshop) to distort, manipulate and render unique, co-related and abstract artworks.
Felipe’s artwork is completely abstract, with no set compass to any specific subject matter. In conversation with VCA, he states that his work instead expresses a feeling of a ‘leap of faith’; attempting to fuse nature and technology together and allowing his work to be open to interpretation from audiences.
Filgueiras is an emerging creator within the Crypto Art community. As a current resident artist of VerticalCrypto Art Residency Programme, he conducts his ongoing research and experiments within Cohort II of the VCA programme on Hicetnunc and OBJKT.com platforms. Felipe has been creating digital artworks since the early days of the internet, developing alongside projects such as ‘The Wrong Biennale’, ‘Avakin Open Call’, ‘Hold Residency’, ‘Interface 01’, ‘Solo Show’ and other internet-based art collectives.
‘Hyperainbow_ structural burst’ is an artwork that attempts to ‘unpack an influx of immaterial energies and systems in a rhizomatic way’.
Captured on DOS computer emulated software (1991), Hyperainbow_ structural burst is constructed from a generative loop altered on live parameters, visualizing a cellular, inter-connected macro burst of expansion. The results are almost psychedelic, with abstract forms blending, flashing, vanishing and mutating simultaneously.
‘Hyperainbow_ structural burst’ has been chosen for this week’s Curatorial Pick thanks to the immersive experience it conveys. As an artist concerned with the advancement and preservation of digital art, ‘Hyperainbow_ structural burst’ captures the playful essence of the genre and use of digital mediums over the past 30 years.
This piece is just a glimpse into Felipe’s excellent multicolored practice. Indulge yourself, and see the rest of his work below! 👇
Artist #3 — Auriea Harvey — “RAM v2-dv1” 🐏
Auriea Harvey is a digital sculptor and artist from Indianapolis, IN, currently residing in Rome, Italy.
Producing simulations and objects that bridge physical and virtual spaces together through sculpture, 3D printing and mixed reality, Harvey combines handmade production with her interests in net art and video games. Specifically, she collages physical and digital mediums to create what is known as the ‘art video game’; a mode of interactive media designed to emphasize art within a virtual space.
Auriea creates art video games in collaboration with her husband, Michaël Samyn of Entropy8Zuper!, also forming duos with Tale of Tales and Song of Songs in internet art and XR (‘cross reality’) mediums. Harvey is currently represented by Bitforms gallery — NYC, and is a Professor of Games at Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany.
‘RAM v2-dv1’ is one of Auriea Harvey’s latest AR works depicting a small, broken sculpture of a ram. Originally created from Japanese porcelain and repaired using the kintsugi method (the art of repairing broken pottery), Harvey has rendered lined red silk to its fragmented body with gold at the seams. Traditionally, the ram has one eye intact; however, in RAM v2-dv1, both eyes are missing.
‘RAM v2-dv1’ has been selected for this week’s Curatorial Pick thanks to its ability to tell its mysterious story through Harvey’s art video game format. Upon closer inspection of the porcelain sculpture, viewers are confronted with an object that has been ornately rendered to highlight different stages of the kintsugi method, and question the significance of the ram’s hollowed sockets.
Auriea’s work is seemingly everywhere — from Miami to the wilds of Canada, the Metaverse and beyond. Fortunately, you can see her entire oeuvre for yourself by visiting her socials below! 👇👁️👁️👇
Artist #4 — Ikaro Cavalcante — “Hurricane Dreams” 🌀
Ikaro Cavalcante (aka. ‘Occulted’) is a non-binary, multi-disciplinary visual artist from São Paulo, Brazil.
Ikaro creates artwork that explores feelings of achievement and reward in relation to their formative experiences and relationships. Using art as a medium for ‘digital healing’, Cavalcante addresses childhood and adolescent trauma by means of artistic production. Originally ‘born from the internet’, their work is rich in allusions to digital culture over the past 25 years, collaging elements of graphic design (such as HUDs) with 3D graphics (ray tracing), tattoo design and performance art.
Cavalcante’s artworks appear in collections such as MAI.art, Coeval, Fact, Love mag, AVYSS and Daze. The artist joined the Crypto Art community in December 2020, and has since exhibited pieces in notable NFT exhibitions such as RobertAlice’s/Sotheby’s ‘Natively Digital’ auction in June, 2021 and invited to join invite-only NFT platforms like Foundation.
‘Hurricane Dreams’ is one of Ikaro’s latest artworks, minted on the Foundation platform.
Depicting a shimmering landscape set within an imagined fantasy engine, ‘Hurricane Dreams’ lends itself to an emerging creative retort to art direction sought from video games in recent years. Through glitchy frame rates/movements, ray-tracing and an abstract debug HUD made across Blender, Zbrush, After Effects and Photoshop programmes, Cavalcante’s creation is spectacular in a way that perhaps only younger generations can comprehend.
Adopting a view of an environment that is entirely fictional, Ikaro communicates an immaterial adventure through the navigation of an ethereal space. ‘Hurricane Dreams’ is as far away from reality as can be, and conveys the artist’s notion of ‘digital healing’ in deviating from the limitations and consequences of a physical world.
‘Hurricane Dreams’ has been chosen for this week’s Curatorial Pick thanks to its profound ability to convey joy found in adventure (and perhaps also escapism) within digital spaces.
Ikaro’s work is incredibly cool. You would be sorely missing out if you did not visit their channels below! Send some love their way. 🧡
That’s a (Festive) Wrap! 🙏🎄
Thanks again for joining us for another round of VerticalCrypto Art Curatorial Picks! We look forward to seeing you in the New Year — take care, stay safe and enjoy your festive break! 🎅
Love, VCA ✨
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