Mike Winkelmann- Beeple

Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator. He is known for using various mediums in creating comical, phantasmagoric works that makes political, social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. He uses software such as the program Cinema 4D. The sale of his work ‘Everdays- The First 5000 Days’ marked two industry firsts. Christie’s is the first major auction house to offer a purely digital work with a unique NFT (Non-fungible token) — effectively a guarantee of its authenticity — and to accept cryptocurrency, in this case Ether, in addition to standard forms of payment for the singular lot.

From Simple Drawings to Life in 3D

Consumers of internet culture will already be familiar with the South Carolina-based graphic designer and motion artist known as Beeple. His visionary and often irreverent digital pictures have propelled him to the top of the digital art world, winning him 1.8 million followers on Instagram and high-profile collaborations with global brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Nike, as well as performing artists from Katy Perry to Childish Gambino. In EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, the artist has stitched together recurring themes and colour schemes into an aesthetic whole. The individual pieces are organised in loose chronological order: zooming in reveals pictures by turn abstract, fantastical, grotesque or absurd, deeply personal or representative of current events. Recurring themes include society’s obsession with and fear of technology; the desire for and resentment of wealth; and America’s recent political turbulence. The notable differences between the early and later pictures reveal Beeple’s enormous evolution as an artist. At the project’s inception, ‘everydays’ were basic drawings. When Beeple started working in 3D, however, they took on abstract themes, colour, form and repetition. Over the past five years, they have became increasingly timely, reacting to current events. ‘I almost look at it now as though I’m a political cartoonist,’ Beeple explains. ‘Except instead of doing sketches, I’m using the most advanced 3D tools to make comments on current events, almost in real time.’

Above are some examples of Beeple’s work that is reactive to things that were going on in the world at the time of making. Such as the BLM movement that was sparked after the death of George Floyd and the riots that happened afterwards.

NFT’s and Digital Art

Digital art has long been undervalued, in large part because it’s so freely available. To help artists create financial value for their work, NFTs add the crucial ingredient of scarcity. For some collectors, if they know the original version of something exists, they’re more likely to crave the “authentic” piece. It can be hard to understand why digital art has value. Some digital-art collectors say they’re paying not just for pixels but also for digital artists’ labor–in part, the movement is an effort to economically legitimise an emerging art form. “I want you to go on my collection and be like, ‘Oh, these are all unique things that stand out,’” says Shaylin Wallace, a 22-year-old NFT artist and collector. “The artist put so much work into it–and it was sold for the price that it deserved.” The movement is also taking shape after many of us have spent most of the past year online. If nearly your whole world is virtual, it makes sense to spend money on virtual stuff.

NFTs are having their big-bang moment: collectors and speculators have spent more than $200 million on an array of NFT-based artwork, memes and GIFs in the past month alone, according to market tracker NonFungible.com, compared with $250 million throughout all of 2020. And that was before the digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, sold a piece for a record-setting $69 million at famed auction house Christie’s on March 11—the third highest price ever fetched by any currently living artist, after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

Everydays- The First 5000 Days

Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100. This was until, his piece ‘Everydays- The First 5000 Days’ sold for a record setting $69 million. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique files that live on a blockchain and are able to verify ownership of a work of digital art. Buyers typically get limited rights to display the digital artwork they represent, but in many ways, they’re just buying bragging rights and an asset they may be able to resell later. The technology has absolutely exploded over the past few weeks — and Winkelmann, more than anyone else, has been at the forefront of its rapid rise. A few factors explain why Beeple’s work has become so valuable. For one, he’s developed a large fan base, with around 2.5 million followers across social channels. And he’s famously prolific: as part of a project called “Everydays,” Winkelmann creates and publishes a new digital artwork every day. The project is now in its 14th year.

Planning

Film Making

We will use a projector and a screen to project a still image as our background found from photo archives of jersey or the Internet matching the era that shot is focusing on. For the present and future we will take our own images. We will have someone walking physically in front of the projected screen.

Story Board

Shot types and mise-en-scene:

Shot type: Long shot

Location: studio with projector background of image from archives

Props: Phone/object from the specific era

People: Same

Summary:

Our 30 second clip will consist of someone walking in front of a screen where a background to match that era will appear and they will be wearing iconic clothes to match. The clip will cut from different eras while the model walks looing like they are continuing to walk through the different eras. The end will have short cuts from each scene with new outfits from alternative eras then suddenly stop while the model turns towards the camera dressed in all black with a plain white background.

Mind Map

Mood Board

Statement of Intent

Class in Education: Class is a defining factor in British culture, especially evident when looked through with the micro lens of schooling. School is compulsory in jersey from ages 5-16 and is a shared experience for all jersey citizens however the experience itself is often completely different and varies depending on class and financial status which seems unfair when considering how our education sets us up for later life, whether we are a success or a failure. There is a dramatic difference in the top schools and the bottom which we would like to study through photography and film. In the UK the best universities and schools are mostly only available to the most high-class pupils with the only exceptions for the academically gifted who push through class creating elitist segregation through education that continue to later life. We wish to bring to light this issue by photographing different types of students and schools.

The Occupation Tapestry was the biggest community art project ever undertaken in Jersey, and made by Islanders for Islanders. It was conceived in order to tell the story of what life was like during the five years of German occupation

The original idea about creating a tapestry came about when, in the lead-up to the 50th anniversary of the Liberation, suitable projects were sought which would have a enduring life after the anniversary.

In a collaboration between Doug Ford, who worked for the Jersey Museum, and Wayne Audrain, a local artist, the tapestry evolved from a single panel to the twelve panels, each of which depicted a scene of local life during the German Occupation. Each of these panels was designed by Wayne who gave guidelines on colours to be used on the key elements of the panels to ensure consistency.

Each panel was then woven by one of the twelve parishes which make up the Island, following those guidelines set by Wayne. They did, however, have a degree of flexibility, and could use their own artistic talent in the colours used in the skies and sea .

What is amazing about the project is that although there were a core of “stitchers” in each parish, over the few years that it took for all the panels to be completed, thousands of Islanders, as well as visitors to Jersey, put a few stitches in the Occupation Tapestry panels.

here’s a link for more info about the making of it; https://www.historyalive.je/2017/05/13/occupation-tapestry-jersey-channel-islands-commemorating-liberation-5-years-nazi-rule/#:~:text=The%20Occupation%20Tapestry%20was%20the,five%20years%20of%20German%20occupation.

As each panel measures 72 inches by 34 inches, there are 626,688 stitches per panel. In all, the twelve panels contain 7,520,256 stitches!!

some images of the tapestry;

For this photo-shoot, we decided to take some simple full body portraits with a plain backdrop to avoid anything in the background as we wanted the models to be the main focus.

We took photos of two friends who were our models for this shoot in the studio. In order to successfully complete this shoot we used a big white backdrop so that there was nothing in the background and we could easily edit over them. We took mostly full body shots as our topic is fashion and therefore this will allow us to edit different clothes and outfits over them and stitch into the images when printed.