Sweet Dream #87/571

A new World where nothing shocks but everything is a mess. Bringing together everything in a mix media piece, re-working forgotten portraits and my contemporary street art to bring a maximal piece to question ourselves. PNG 1860 x 2600.

The #PendingGerbil drew his breath nervously. Fail Dropped Dropped and Replaced There were nothing in this world he feared more. He looked at the chords that crossed the abyss in front of him. They were loaded with pending gerbils, clinging for their life. No open space to be seen. The world machine creaked under the load. As the wheel turned and settled on a new block with a load bang, the chords vibrated, and short shrieks were heard as tired paws lost their grip and the gerbils fell into oblivion. #PendingGerbil closed his eyes, sent a short prayer to @VitalikButerin, and took the leap. Written by: @Werekitty1 Pending Gerbil is a very special collaboration with NonFunGerbils (https://nonfungerbils.com/pendinggerbil)

This unique, signed work combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden. Produced using open source software. This auction is on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/appeals-court-strikes-down-nsa-phone-spying-program-aclu-lawsuit

∾ 2160 x 2160 px, Video (46.5 MB)

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?

Just as the book speaks to intelligence, the image in all its muteness speaks to the heart.