555 Unique Titles
Together the titles can be seen as the tragic inner-monologue of an insecure, self-scathing and neurotic Jankist artist battling against a world of AI-uncertainty, hyper-distraction and attention-economics. Jankpop taps into the chaotic brokenness and fragile loneliness of souls that become too deeply dependent on online communities and anesthetized by the endless torrent of information consumption. There might be a real cost to the experiment many of us are participating in, which will not be revealed for generations to come.
Jankpop, Avant Gay and AbEx
Avant Gay
Avant Gay might be where the real punk movement within digital art is emerging right now. It is raw, expressively powerful and is proud of its lack of etiquette. It's playing by its own rules. To me, it feels like it's being created by real grassroots artists, not by market strategists or tech nerds. Nor does the culture feel corrupted by inflated pricing, or overly lofty curation.
Jankpop and Avant Gay
Without pretending to be Avant Gay, Jankpop is my own code-art response to this evolving creative energy blended with my long held fascination with mid 20th Century Abstract Expressionism. I want to make work that reflects the frenetic turbulence and hyper-distraction of being a human in the age of digital information with all its challenges. I feel the Avant Gay movement also reflects this uncharted challenge and assault on our psyche. Gay NFTs however are layered with rich internet references, cultural artifacts and esoteric knowledge.
Jankpop and AbEx
Although I tackled figurative symbolism with chatFUKR I wanted this project to remain principally abstract because of my deep affinity for Mid Century Abstract Expressionism. Although AbEx said what it had to say over half a century ago I feel code-art offers a new way to revisit the core energy of that movement. The context and conceptual framing is of course different, but the raw visual violence of that period is something I feel has relevance again today. In a sense I see myself as an AbEx revivalist on a course of hard Gay NFT steroids.
Practice Notes
Code Painting as Old School Technology
JavaScript, the programming language I use to make art, is now over 30 years old. Code based algorithmic art emerged 50 years prior to that.
Paint, brushes and canvas is a technology that’s been around for centuries and yet painters continue to extend the possibility space of the medium.
I feel there is beauty and even an artistic advantage to using well established or even obsolete technology to make art. Personally, not chasing the ever changing cutting edge of technology enables me to just think about picture-making which is really 90% of what I care about.
Thoughts on Code as a Direct Craft and AI
The most direct way for me to think about my art is algorithmically. Code is the most direct way for me to craft mark-making and composition. There is no way for me to explain to AI in natural language what it is I want to do. Besides, the actual act of coding has never been a bottle neck in my practice. It's also a process I love so there is not even a desire to offload it even if AI could do it for me.
A craft is a feedback loop. The medium an artist works with provides feedback about how to proceed. Art is a product of a dance between artist and medium. If I used AI then there would be a black box in between me and my intention. I touch the canvas through the code. This is a direct craft just like drawing and painting.
When I used to paint, I loved the act of painting. When I make ceramics I love the interaction with the clay. I use AI to help automate printing and learn more about efficient coding, but thus far I've had no desire to invite it into my real practice.
Making art has nothing to do with increasing productivity, it is about slowing down and becoming intimate with your process and medium.
BTW, I don't see AI art as being more or less inferior. It's just a different medium. Luckily, every artist is free to find the mediums that resonate with them.
Art and the False Reward of Productivity
Anyone who spends a lot of time creating will know deeply how limitation and constraint are keys to expression. They will know how slowness, meditation and contemplation are powerful gateways to understanding ourselves and what it is we actually want to say through our creativity.
People who get excited by the promise of 10x productivity offered by AI, I imagine see this as translating to 10x profit. Maybe that’s true if you are in the business of mass production or scaling generic services.
10x productivity however, to many true creatives will seem like the very antithesis of what they want from their practice. Having 100 fingers would not be a guarantee of making more meaningful and beautiful music on the piano. More choice offered by more powerful tools can often be paralyzing and fundamentally unnavigable. It’s much better to have a clear sense of what it is you want to say than endless options of how to say it.
Art of the Age of Code
Every age has its own art. For me, the age of the Internet, algorithms, AI and the blockchain can most directly be encapsulated with code. Code is the operational layer of all these technologies. Working directly in this layer seems to be the most obvious place to open new frontiers in the space of conceivable art.
Just Looking — Thinking is Overrated
The technicalities of my work are not the hard part or even the time consuming part of my practice. Probably over half of my time in my studio is spent just looking and building an intuition of how to proceed. ‘Just looking’ is the key to my practice. This means looking without thinking, without intention, without judgement — nothing to gain, nothing to lose, just looking.
Programming is always subservient to visual intuition and emotional impulse.
My practice isn't an intellectual exercise in the same way falling in love isn't an intellectual exercise. You cannot reason yourself into or out of love, and you cannot reason yourself into making images that genuinely move you.
The Internet as Medium
Long-form generative art is often described as code.
But code is only part of the story.
The medium exists because of the accumulated evolution of the internet itself.
Web1: HTML, Canvas, JS, WebGL, SVG, Gif
Web2: Online community participation, social media, modern browsers, simple UIs and UX
Web3: NFT protocols and markets
Long-form generative art is the product of all three.
It represents, to me, one of the purest artistic expressions of the internet age.
