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Inspired in Morpheus and Iris, painted in 1811 by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. This painting most probably relates to the Roman poet Ovid’s version of the tale of Alcyone and Ceyx. Ceyx dies during a storm at sea, and so the goddess Juno decides that his wife, Alcyone, must be informed of his passing with all haste. Iris, the messenger goddess, is dispatched by Juno to Somnus, the personification of sleep, with instructions that Alcyone should be told that very night in a dream. Somnus sends forth his son, Morpheus, god of sleep and dreams, who changes his appearance to match that of Ceyx, and enters the dream world of Alcyone. Dripping with seawater, Morpheus, as Ceyx, tells Alcyone of his passing, and commands that funeral rites are undertaken. In her dream, Alcyone attempts to grab hold of her husband, but as she goes to touch Morpheus, so she awakens; but Morpheus has done his job, for Alcyone now knows that she is a widow. For all Matrix fans this is how the character Morpheus’ name was chosen, in reference to the god of dreams, as the Matrix world was merely a form of dream.

The idea for this piece was borne out of a tweet of mine that caused a bit of a stir. I’d posted a link to a blog article I’d written a number of months previous titled ‘Who is the Creator’ discussing various types of creative collaborations and why I hire people to work on my animations. It generated a lot of debate around creation and attribution with the community split on whether it’s right or wrong for an artist to hire other professionals to help them realize their art projects. I decided to push the boundaries even further and see how the cryptoart community responded. What if I quite literally had nothing to do with the physical or digital elements of the work other than coming up with the concept and coordinating it? I decided there was one artist in the space who could add huge value to this idea on levels that none other could and so I gathered my courage and contacted the great José Delbo to ask him if he’d be interested in a very unique collaboration. I explained to him that to make this piece ‘work’ he couldn't have any say in what I produced and moreover, he wouldn’t even be allowed to see the animation until it was dropped on MakersPlace. To my surprise, Mr Delbo agreed to my proposal. The animation tells the story of the creative process, which includes my roles as writer, director, and producer working with a team and making edits and changes ‘in real time’. The dialogue between myself and my ‘hired guns’ plays out in front of the viewer. The music written for the piece adds to the nostalgia of the comic book superhero theme but other elements such as the snapping and kicking of the pencil and the signing of my signature at the bottom incorporates further layers and challenges the viewer to ask important questions, such as, is the ‘Art’ the final animation (the creation) or is the ‘Art’ the concept/credit for the creation itself?

The Switch is a unique, “one of one” NFT that demonstrates the evolution of artwork in the digital realm. The Switch is developed to change form at a specific point of time in the future, known by Pak. The evolution is determined and rendered immutable by smart contracts, or self-executing code on the Ethereum blockchain.

By OthersideDeployer