As a unit we began to learn about the vast world of animation. This was done by receiving a presentation from an animator from Jersey, Liam Nunn.
Liam Nunn has spent over a decade smashing the creative industry with precision, energy and finesse. Working with many brilliant people on oodles of ravishing campaigns – including multiple locally and nationally award-winning ones. A multi-disciplined media monster, Liam was once described by a colleague as “quite good but sometimes a bit bizarre.” Wait…
Fact #1 Liam once illustrated an award-winning dog poo.
Fact #2 Liam is a three-time professional wrestling tag team champion of the world and he probably owns more spandex than you do. Gosh!
Fact #3 Liam produced a whopping 52 weekly self-portraits over the course of a year just for larks. You can see them here.
He began by giving an in-depth power-point regarding the basics of what animation is. From this I learnt about the intrecacies of animation in as a carreer in the industry and the different types of animators, for example;
2D animator.
3D animator.
Background artist.
Character animator.
Clean-up artist.
Digital ink and paint artist.
Image editor.
Key frame animator.
I gained a unique point of knowledge regarding the nature of how something can be made to look natural when being animated
Liam then proceeded to further my knowledge on Adobe After Effects, an important piece of software for any kind of animation.
He created a template for us to start experimenting with called a rig. I then learnt how to keyframe an animation together using the stopwatch tool
And the rig controls Liam set up for us
The following is my experiment with this animation template:
A storyboard is a collection of images that tell a story. Basically it is a sketch of the ideas a person is trying to portray. It is another way of showing a game plan to an individual with interest on what is going on. The visual elements along with the captions allow for the story to be seen by the person reading it. Disney is to be credited with the creation of storyboards since 1920. Ever since then, it has been a great way to share information.
The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. We were tasked with producing a poster based on one of the following themes :
Constitution & Citizenship Communities International Economy Education & Sport Heritage, Culture & the Arts Environment
RESEARCH
‘Heritage is not confined to looking backwards in time but is an essential part of the present we live in and the future we build. It is the extraordinary range of landscape, monuments, experiences and stories that characterise Jersey, and it also encompasses our contemporary interactions with this inheritance and the meanings we ascribe to it. Heritage gives the Island its distinctive look and feel, attracts tourists, and can inspire both intercultural dialogue and a shared sense of place and belonging.Jersey is unusually rich in tangible heritage assets, some of which (such as the prehistoric site at La Cotte and Le Câtillon Bronze Age hoard) are of international significance. Fourteen thousand Islanders – one seventh of the population – are members of Jersey Heritage. However, the sector has suffered from chronic underfunding, a lack of dedicated Ministerial input, and the lack of a coherent Heritage Strategy for the Island, all of which the Board suggest be rectified as soon as possible.’
‘Jersey has a rich tradition of artistic endeavour, and an enviable intangible cultural heritage. This is not just historical; contemporary Islanders are producing high-quality work often inspired by the character of the distinctive place in which they live. From music to filmmaking, from painting to poetry, scores of Jersey citizens are now making careers and reputations at international level. The Board celebrated the fact that creative people and entrepreneurs clearly feel a sense of attachment and pride in the Island, and noted that some excellent organisations (such as ArtHouse Jersey) and events (such as the Festival of Words and the ‘Weekender’) are helping to put the Island on the global cultural map. However, given the extraordinary potential of art and culture to achieve almost all of the objectives associated with Identity – domestic and international – it felt that even more could be done in this sphere. The Board singled out the Battle of Flowers as an exemplum of the enormous power of cultural activity to express identity and provide an important social ritual. Its real value should be recognised by Government not as a tourist attraction as something which unites our communities in a creative, artistic endeavour. If le Carnaval de Granville can achieve UNESCO Intangible Heritage status, why not the Battle?’
WHAT MAKES JERSEY SPECIAL AND WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOU?
I think that what makes Jersey special is the widespread diversity which can be seen throughout the island, and the strong sense of kinship and community which fuels everybody to interact with each other in a kind and friendly way. Additionally, as the island is so small, people tend to interrelate more closely with each other, both in their working environment and their social lives.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ‘JERSEY’, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE?
Being ‘Jersey’ means living in a close, tight-knit community full of various cultures and ethnic backgrounds, which will hopefully grow and flourish. In the future, I would like to see more representation of our diversity through different mediums, such as the arts.
WHAT CAN WE ALL DO TO SOLIDIFY A COHESIVE AND POSITIVE ISLAND IDENTITY?
In order to solidify a cohesive and positive island identity I think that Jersey should aim to be more welcoming to those who are different from ourselves (i.e different backgrounds and cultures). If we want to create a positive place for everyone to live then we as an island need to ensure that everyone, no matter where they may come from, feels comfortable, safe, and happy.
ARE THERE BARRIERS TO A POSITIVE AND INCLUSIVE ISLAND IDENTITY? (WHAT REQUIRES A GREATER FOCUS AND WHAT IS BEING MISSED?)
I think that there will always be barriers to a completely positive and inclusive island, as some people may not share the collective mindset that everyone is welcome. In order to combat this, we need to ensure that there are places people can go if they ever feel unsafe. In addition, school-age children should be offered a more in detail education about different cultures around the world, not just their own.
For my groups NFT Film, we decided to use animation as a part of our video. I made all the aminated clips in Blender. I started off by finding low-poly art models of Sketchfab. then imported them into blender. Once in Blender I used simple animations to move the location of the scene, to give off the impression of the character walking.
This screenshot shows the timeline for the character walking. Every dot/diamond is a different movement of the character to make him walk. The character doesn’t actually move, it just walks on the spot. So I would have to animate the background. He walks on the spot as it makes it easier to only move the direction of the arms, legs etc, instead of the movement and lactation of everything. So the character and camera are stationary.
This is the scene, everything highlighted in orange is what is animated and included in the scene. I added 2 keyframes to the timeline. The first keyframe is where the buildings start, and the second is where they will end after the move and slide backwards. It slides backwards to give off the effect that the character is walking forwards. Each 2-3 second scene takes an estimated 8 hours to render.
This is the node setup for the lighting. I used a HDRI which is a spherical photo taken in real life, and the program works out where is sun is and creates the same lighting situation for inside the workspace. The orange box is the HDRI which is connected to the right two default boxes, then I added a remapping node to make the horizon of the world line up with the horizon I made in the workspace, so there aren’t photos of trees floating in the sky.
The Street Scene
Overall, the street scene is quite small. The scene is colourful which adds lots of contrast. All the scenes use depth of field to blur the background more as the character walks forward.
The left side is the object view, without the colour. Where as, the right side is the rendered, with colour.
The Farm Scene
This scene is more complex, as there is more shapes and objects. There is also larger range of colours, ranging from red to green, etc.
The Mansion Scene
This is one of my favourite scenes, as it features our main character walking outside his mansion. It is visually pleasing as uses a lot of dynamic shapes and contour.
The Beach Scene
This is one of the most colourful scenes as it uses mostly topical/beach colours. It contributes to having a diverse location for the 5 scenes.
The Space Scene
This was one of the harder scenes to make as I had to add a space helmet to him, however it is the most extreme scene as the character is in outer space.
The Zoom Out/In Animated House Scene
This animation was made to replace the original shot idea, to use a drone to zoom into a house, but we couldn’t do it due to privacy rules. So we used amination as a replacement as it fits in with the online/offline format and style.
This is what the scene looks in blender. The greyed out screenshots are the view in shader view, where as the coloured view is the rendered view, which is what it looks like when it is finished.
The camera is animated with 3 keyframes, both for location and rotation. It ends still to let the clouds move in, which allows for a clean transition from this clip to another, using a white fade transition. Overall, this clip took 12 hours to fully render 120 frames in blender.
Overall, this scene is good as it ends with a clean transition, of the clouds covering the screen. The camera is mostly smooth which follows the exponential curve, which allows for fluid movement.
A storyboard is a visual outline for the video you are planning to make, they are usually hand drawn, however in recent times storyboards have been created digitally in computer software. The format of a storyboard is usually chronological, helping the creators visualise the video before filming begins. Storyboards also include notes about what is meant to happen in the video, like little captions describing the process from beginning to end. A completed storyboard may look similar to a comic strip, it is like a visual script for the production team to fully plan how they want the video to look. Click here for more on storyboards.
Storyboard Examples;
Our Storyboard;
Our group created the storyboard below to help us plan how we wanted our video shoot to go, describing the different shots and how we imagined them playing out on screen. Firstly, we started with the simple title of ‘Women’ for our NFT film – however, later in the process we changed out idea to the title ‘WomanKind’; a sort of play on words to mankind while also hinting at the stereotypes of women needing to be sweet and innocent, in other words ‘kind’. Our opening shot is planned to be of a wooden door, large and imposing, taking up the entire frame. We plan on having someone open the door from the other side to lead the camera into the first room, we also aim to edit this first sequence with a black and white filter to represent the timeline it portrays. We plan for our second scene to show a woman, dressed in typical early 1900’s attire with an apron, whisking something in a bowl walking through her kitchen. We will set the camera on a tri-pod in the centre of the room and follow the woman as she moves, before seeing her stop to put on a ‘Votes for Women’ protest sash. We want the satire of the ‘innocent housewife’ to juxtapose with her later fierce and strong mood as she walks off through a different door on the other side of the room. Our third and forth scenes will follow the same filming format, however in the second our model will pick up a ‘Women’s Rights’ sign before leaving, wearing a 60’s/70’s inspired dress and edited with a dull saturation (colour appearing as time moves on, and more rights for women are put in place). Our last shot is planned to show our model in a idealistic world of freedom, walking into frame and looking at herself in a mirror, feeling confident within her femininity and loving herself without it needing to be sexualised for the male gaze. We plan for our model to look straight at the camera lens and smile before leaving through a final door into a world where she can feel confident and comfortable.
Video Shoot Planning
Who – The model we are using for this video shoot is the same woman we had in our initial photoshoot images. Caitlin has a timeless look about her, she is also an actress who is comfortable in front of the camera and has confidence in portraying the different emotions we want to convey; eg, sadness, anxiety, excitement, happiness.
Where – We plan on using one of our group member’s grandmother’s home for our video shoot due to its vast space, rooms, doorways and availability for use. The house we aim to film in is also decorated with similar regal furniture and wallpaper as the work of Lissa Rivera, who is our main source of inspiration for the project.
When – We aim to conduct this video shoot on Thursday October 14th as the weather is meant to be bright and sunny, resulting in perfect natural lighting for the shots we want to film in the kitchen (a room with very big windows). Additionally, on this day we all have a free period last lesson which provides the perfect time to film before it gets too dark.
How – We are planning to film using my Canon camera and tri-pod so all the footage is in one place and it is easy to find for editing. We will attempt to create transitions between doorway to room – however if this is not possible in the space we are in, we have a plan B on how to film our video, using a simpler format.
Why – We want to create this video to shed light on the decades of struggle that women have gone through to get equal rights, we know that we are lucky enough to live on an island where equality is noticed and seen, for the most part, however we also realize there are many countries and areas where women do not have the same rights as men and still need to fight everyday for the privileges that should be theirs for free. We want to create a video showing a timeline of women’s rights activists during the different waves of feminism, connoting ideas of freedom and passion for what they believe in.
Cindy Sherman (1954-present) is an American filmmaker and photographer who focuses her work on critiquing themes of gender and identity. In her early years Sherman created fine art, however abandoned painting for photography while attending the State University of New York at Buffalo, and in 1976, moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer. Her work has been the subject of many museum exhibitions, including those at The Museum of Modern Art in 2019, and at the National Portrait Gallery, in London during 2019. Sherman captures self portraits, her most notable body of work are her ‘Untitled Film Stills’ which feature the artist herself as a model in various costumes and poses, and are her portrayals of female stereotypes found in film, television, and advertising – all captured in black and white. In the film stills, rather than quoting from recognizable movies, Sherman suggests genres, resulting in characters that emerge as personality types instead of specific actresses. The first six images of the series depict the same blonde actress at various stages of her career. Later, the character appears as a seductress, waiting at home for her lover – then afterwards Sherman might be seen as the trope of the diligent, stay-at-home wife who remains attractive and available to her husband.
Sherman’s Film Stills have been described as “a hybrid of photography and performance art that reveals femininity to be an effect of representation.”. Sherman states “I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colourful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you’re looking at is something totally opposite,” she reflected. “It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It’s more challenging to look at the other side.” Sherman on being a female photographer; “There’s a theory that there were so many women photographers at the time because we felt nobody else was doing it. We couldn’t or didn’t really want to go into the male-dominated painting world, so since there weren’t any artists who were using photographs, we thought, ‘well, yeah, let’s just play with that.’ “
I love the way Sherman can create such a strong narrative in her images, each one tells a story and forms some sort of message towards the representation of women. Her style of photography is so interesting to me, her images are intimate and close, allowing the observer to feel connected to her scene. The black and white filter also evokes a sense of melancholy in her work, and her exaggerated ‘feminine poses’ seem to mock the portrayal of women in a patriarchal society. Her work holds strong links to feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, and her ideas on ‘The Male Gaze’ stating; visual media that respond to masculine voyeurism tends to sexualise women for a male viewer. This sexism within the film industry is what Sherman has captured in her Untitled Film Stills, shedding light on the negativity of some feminine stereotypes.
In our project, we really want to take inspiration from Sherman’s series of images by replicating her stereotypical style and narratives. The ‘house-wife’ character is one we wish to represent in our NFT film, using ideas surrounding what stereotypically ‘should be a woman’s place’ and filming in the setting of a kitchen. We plan on our images holding hints towards a woman’s innocence eg, wearing white flowing dresses etc to show her purity and goodness. As we plan on using these shots in the early stages of our project, the timeline will begin in the first wave of feminism and will hold reference to the suffragette/suffragist movement of the late 1800’s – mid 1900’s.
Clare Rae – Never Standing On Two Feet
Clare Rae is an artist and photographer from Melbourne Australia, in her photographic practice Clare explores ideas of performance and gesture to interrogate and subvert dominant modes of representation. Her work is informed by the feminist theory, and presents an alternate and often awkward experience of subjectivity and the female body, usually the artists’ own. In 2017, Rae undertook an artist’s residency with Archisle: the Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme to research the archive of Claude Cahun works held by Jersey Heritage. It was during this time that she created the photographic series ‘Never Standing on Two Feet’, paying a homage to avant-garde artist Claude Cahun (1894-1954), drawing upon Cahun’s photographic archive to explore the female body, self-hood, ritual and the male gaze in cultural and geographical landscapes.
A quote from Clare Rae, on ‘Never Standing on Two Feet’ – “My series, Never standing on two feet, considers Cahun’s engagement with the physical and cultural landscapes of Jersey, an aspect of her work that has received little analysis to date. The photographs Cahun produced in Jersey are intimate. They explore an idea of self within the immediate environment and were produced in collaboration with her lover, Marcel Moore. Many threads of inquiry emerged for me while viewing the archive: Cahun’s performative photographic gestures; the nature of photographic performance for a lover; and the repercussions of imaging a woman’s body aging over time, to name a few.”
I really enjoy the way Rae’s self-portraits explore the coastal geography and Neolithic monuments of Jersey, relating body to place and creating a sense of mystery. Similar to how Cahun used self-portraiture to subvert the dominance of the male gaze, Rae has created a series of images that tease at the idea of women’s bodies being objectified, and women fighting back against this. As her portraits show parts of her body hidden away by the landscape, it conveys the ideas of 3rd Wave Feminism and the fighting women did for equal rights (including pay, reproductive rights, the ERA etc) during the early 90’s and 2000’s. The monochrome filter on these photographs creates an interesting atmosphere of mystery and sadness, representing the oppression of women still holding significance in society as time moves on.
For our community NFT project, we wish to take inspiration from Clare Rae’s ideas on women standing up for what they believe in and taking action towards their oppression. We have the idea to represent Women’s Rights Activism throughout the late 20th Century, using Rae’s technique of hiding parts of a woman’s body to make a statement on its constant sexualisation. We wish to do this by using a woman’s rights poster in shot, which will be lifted to hide our models torso as she walks past the camera – demonstrating activism, and hinting towards the exploitation of women.
Lissa Rivera – Beautiful Boy
Lissa Rivera is a photographer based in New York, she received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, where she became fascinated with the social history of photography and the evolution of identity, sexuality and gender in relationship to material culture. Rivera grew up in a small town, without much excitement or things to do, therefore she had to create this excitement and wonder herself in order to capture images of meaning and significance. Most of Rivera’s images are staged and hold an almost regal atmosphere to them – her style of photography is expressive and vibrant, something our group wants to portray during our NFT film. Our group discovered Rivera from her project ‘Beautiful Boy’, where Rivera and her domestic partner use staged portraiture as an expressive way to explore male/female identity and reclaim a personal definition of beauty.
A statement Lissa Rivera made about her project in ‘Metal Magazine’; “Beautiful boy was born out of a series of conversations between my friend BJ and I about femininity, fantasy and gender. At the time we were not in a romantic relationship and had no idea of the future. On a subway ride home from a queer film screening, BJ (who is now my sweetheart) confessed that they preferred to be feminine and often wore dresses. In college he was able to be open about his gender expression, but since moving to the city and taking on a new job, it had become more complicated. We spoke about the struggles that we both felt with femininity, how femininity is still considered weaker and less valuable in our culture. I offered to take BJ’s portrait, so that he could see himself.” Additionally, Rivera states “It is important to show his femininity as strength. I want to feel empowered as well, and to have an intimate muse. Together we investigate feminine fantasies presented throughout the history of photography and cinema. The project is a way to “step inside” images that we have found alluring and examine what it is like to live each scenario out. We explore both our captivation and our ambivalence towards these depictions of femininity. By presenting my partner within the lineage of great beauties and populating the media with our images, we are reclaiming in our voice what is attractive and beautiful.”
I love the way that Rivera can capture such innocence and bravery in these images – they inspire and break gender norms that societies have created over the years. The compositions of her photographs hold symmetry and leading lines which draw the observers view towards the main subject. I really enjoy Rivera’s use of monochrome colours in her images, the blocky pinks, blues and browns hint at ideas of simplicity in a world of chaos – where one can truly be themselves without judgement or oppression. This theme is one we wish to take from Rivera’s work, the idea of being free as yourself, feeling comfortable in your femininity and allowing yourself to feel confident without the need for it to be sexualised.
For our NFT project, we are aiming to take inspiration from Rivera’s regal setting and style of photography. The curtains, chandeliers and extravagant wallpapers are all aspects we wish to replicate during our photoshoot due to their link with confidence, power and authority – all of which a woman must fight hard to have. We have the idea to use Rivera-style videos/images at the end of our community project, representing the timeline of women’s rights with this ending demonstrating empowerment and luxury.
Davy Evans is an award winning multi-disciplinary artist and designer based in Brighton. With a background in graphic design, Evans fuses practical effects and digital techniques to create ethereal abstract imagery. He often manipulates light and liquid to replicate colour, form, and distortions inspired by natural phenomena. His work is combined into beautiful still, eyewatering creations:
And also animated distortive art visuals:
His works combine real life natural elements such as flowers with hyper realistic and futuristic astrophysical elements into one hypnotic visual. His work makes me use big words like I just did; to describe what is to be seen in Davy’s work is quite a challenge as it is so out of this world. Davys work sets a bar for what is possible for the future of digital art and the world of NFT’s.
His work inspires th efuture of art, not only for how evolutianary and digitaly advanced it is but also for how he creates it, remembering the basics of the creative process.
“I try to play with new materials and photography techniques whenever I can, allowing for happy accidents to form organically,” he says. “I like the challenge of making something out of nothing; for example, I’ll often try to use everyday household items to create effects.”
I want to include the digital design and colourful abstract elements of Davy’s work into my NFT project.
The above image is from Evans latest series during the UK’s lockdown from the Covid Pandemic. He created this work using the simplicity of flowers, water and glass. The simplicity of the arrangement adds to the absurdity of the artwork. Turning simple elements into such a complex looking, hypnotic piece.
The composition of the piece is chaotic with many elements for the eye to take in. The water droplets forming perfect cell like structure in the foreground combined with the colour they adapt taken from the flower in the background, make for a staggering piece. The image looks like a digital artwork with how supernatural it looks. Colour leaks into every corner of the composition, leaving no pixel monochrome. For how abstract the image is, Davy still manages to include tonal elements, some of the pink/salmon areas of the flower are bright and highlighted, while in the centre of the composition and the frames of the waterdrops, we see shading. I also like the blend of cool and warm temperatures in the same composition.
William is an artist from my hometown Johannesburg, South Africa. Unlike the majority of successful white South Africans, he still lives there, and operates out of the heart of ‘Jozi’. He makes drawings which he often turns into animated films. Sometimes there are also performers in front of the animated film and his work integrates into a theatrical piece. He describes this as a ‘drawing in four dimensions’. His process all starts from charcoal drawings. He uses charcoal for a varied number of reasons but mainly its flexibility, room for change and experimentation in the animation process. “You can change charcoal as quickly as you can change your mind”.
Charcoal is easy to erase and it has an abundant granularity to it. Its tonal range is good for photographing. It is also not as meticulous as other art mediums and has a speed and flow that the artist can adopt. William creates his animations frame by frame. This means his process involves making slight adjustments, step by step, and making photographs in between each adjustment. This proves to be a timely method and therefore the speed the charcoal adapts it important.
Williams normal animation setup in his studios include a physical walk from the camera to the canvas where his drawings are made. His frame by frame process involves his walking between the camera and the canvas hundreds of times. He describes this process as a physical but also mental process when new ideas are suggested.
William believes that art needs an initial impulse which has to be enough to get the first drawing done and then in the physical activity of making the drawings, new ideas emerge and new possibilities engaged with until the piece takes shape.
Williams position as an artist is one of self awareness, this is prevalent in every piece from start to finish. Williams art holds political and polemic weight. He describes himself as a child of privilege – he grew up a white middle-class South African who had the first 40 years of his life under the white privileging apartheid regime and the other 20 living in the South African democracy. He is highly aware of his privilege and also the lack of privilege the majority of South Africans experience. His work highlights both his insider and outsider aspects. This is why he choses to stay in South Africa and not flee the madness of it, is envelopes him in his work focusing on the community.
These two artists have two different takes on digital art. Davy’s work encapsulates a movement of new ideas and forward thinking. This is represented in his very colourful and digitally advanced work. His work is much more futuristic and out of this world. His work is very much a part of the metaphysical and futuristic aesthetic that is emerging in modern times. Williams work, however, uses a much more tactile form of art, and one that is very much a classic method of expression dating back to when cavemen would draw on walls. He uses this dated method and gives it new life by going through a digitisation process and animating it. Unlike Davy, his art reflects on events that have already, or are currently raking place, instead of focusing on movement into the future. His work is a lot less colourful; for the most part William only works black on white.
Before embarking in the research of my NFT project I want to recap on the foundations of the project: community in Jersey.
The Government of Jersey is currently consulting the public about what makes Jersey special through a project called Island Identity.
I brainstormed a reaction to what the above question was asking to set a foundation for my NFT project.
The ISLAND IDENTITY project has produced a website and a report that has identified distinctive qualities of island life in Jersey. It discusses:
Constitution & Citizenship Communities International Economy Education & Sport Heritage, Culture & the Arts Environment
I want to keep these themes prevalent throughout our NFT project.
What is an NFT
An NFT is a “one-of-a-kind” digital asset that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property. As with crypto-currency, a record of who owns what is stored on a shared ledger known as the blockchain and maintained by thousands of computers around the world.
NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files. This therefore marries the art and photography with the digital, crypto realm.
CryptoPunks – one of the first non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The project was developed by American studio Larva Labs.
In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged – like money.
With money, you can swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.
However, if something is non-fungible, this is impossible – it means it has unique properties so it can’t be interchanged with something else.
It could be a house, or a painting such as the Mona Lisa, which is one of a kind. You can take a photo of the painting or buy a print but there will only ever be one original painting.
NFTs are “one-of-a-kind” assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own.
The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable precisely because they are one of a kind.
But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.
With NFTs, artwork can be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold.
The idea theme that this digital art exhibition is going to fixate on, is the idea that we all live two lives and these lives co-exist between tangible and virtual worlds.
2 Lives was created by Francesco Vincenti & Claudia Runcio
Beeple is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator, known for using various mediums in creating comical, illusive works that makes political, social commentary while using pop culture figures as references.
Beeple sold a piece of work for $69 million called ‘The First 5000 Days’. It is a collage of his work starting at the beginning of his project over 13 years. This sale positions him “among the top three most valuable living artists”, according to the place his NFT was auctioned at. Vignesh Sundaresan, known to the cryptocurrency community as ‘MetaKovan’, purchased his NFT.
Beeple says – ” I do view this as the next chapter of art history”
Beeple’s work has become so popular and valuable due to his large fan base of 2.5 million followers across social media platforms.
Grimes
In her NFT’s, she explores the theme of Anthropocene, this is where relating to the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
Grimes made a video called ‘Delete Forever’. The video includes a queen counting jewels as the world burns around her
Grimes has sold $6 million worth of digital artworks as NFT’s. She auctioned her WarNymph digital collection featuring a total of 10 artworks created in collaboration with her brother Mac Boucher on a platform named Nifty Gateway. – “This past year, grimes put a piece of her soul up for sale, and developed her ‘WarNymph’ avatar, a completely digital version of herself. “- Gateway. Some digital artworks in the WarNymph collection by Grimes were accompanied by exclusive music created by the artist herself: ‘earth’ features the unreleased Æryth, ‘mars’ has its own mars theme, and ‘death of the old’ carries a demo of anhedonia. The collection was divided into seven limited editions and two open editions – ‘earth’ and ‘mars’ which sold around 700 copies for USD $7,500 each.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
It tells the story of the events surrounding the conquest of England in 1066 by the Duke of Normandy. Crossing the sea in longships, long cavalcades on horseback, shields and coats of mail, fantastic creatures and battlefields.
It is a masterpiece of 11th century Romanesque art, which was probably commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, to embellish his newly-built cathedral in Bayeux in 1077.
This picture really shows how long the tapestry is, as it spans the entire room.
Michael Compton
Michael Crompton has been weaving since the early 1960’s. he had twenty six solo exhibitions throughout the UK and abroad, and his first tapestry studio was in the Weardale, Co Durham village of Ireshopeburn in 1977 until he moved to the area of Morecambe bay in 2004.
His work has developed continually from these early years but has always been inspired by nature, its cycles and seasons with associated colour and textual changes. He uses curved lines to emphasise movement and the passing of time.
In recent years he’s spent more and more time in researching, reading, writing, drawing and painting before moving to high warp frame looms.
As you can see, Compton really makes use of the seasonal colours. For example, the orange correlates to autumn. The impressive factor is how the lines are curved and have a flow like attribute to them. Even thought Compton’s work is more abstract it still embraces the story telling aspect through the use of colours.
