Floor Is Rising: P1xelfool – Lo-fi conceptual generative artist
Primer: Find out more about P1xelfool, a generative artist from Brazil, as he shares his thoughts about NFTs and his philosophy about his art in this episode of Floor is Rising.
How did he get into NFTs?
Had been an artist for 16 to 17 years
Been doing graphic and design works in the past for some companies in the US
He’s from Brazil and the fastest way to transfer money is through Bitcoin
Banks will take 15 days to make a transaction with lots of fees
Using Bitcoin will be faster and cheaper
Hence he had been watching the crypto market for a while but was not aware of NFTs until late 2020
Minted his first work in Dec 2020 on Rarible but did not really know how to market it
Stopped for a few months and restarted again when Hic Et Nunc was launched in March
How did he become a generative artist?
3 years ago he worked with a curator to try putting up his works for sales in galleries and institutions
Met the curator 2 years ago and told her that he wanted to pursue a career in painting instead of generative art despite having played around with it for 10 years or so
Wanted to study classical painting because he thought that painting would be a better path
All the galleries are full of paintings
She advised him not to pursue it
“But then she said to me something like Oh, I really don't think you should go that path. I think you should really focus your attention on generative art because this is avant-garde.”
- P1xelfool
He loves the idea of playing with obsolete technologies, such as low-resolution displays or mechanical displays
Had a few works with this medium, along with other modern works
At that time, Hic Et Nunc do not allow one to have different collections, so he started P1xelfool to share these works and it became his main practice
Market having a better appreciation of generative art?
If we remove the speculative elements of Cryptopunks, it is just creative technologists trying out a new medium through generative art
Thinks that there is a growing interest in generative art
Processing Foundation, by Ben Fry and Casey Reas, had received more donations now than it had received in its whole history
Sotheby’s auction featuring Vera Molnar had her biggest sale in history
Tools used to create artwork
“So one of the things that I like about low-resolution works is that I think it's very restrictive. And I see that as a challenge.”
- P1xelfool
The process is a mix of conceptual thinking and working on the code
Sitting down to code and process is 99% of the whole process
After creating the code and exporting a sequence of images out, he’ll transform them into a GIF in Photoshop to have more control over the palette and other aspects
He used p5.js for some projects that run in real-time, which is basically the JavaScript version of processing
When he is coding something in processing he is using a framework but he is also creating his own tools
About his works being abstract
Been researching for some time on time perception, consciousness and phenomenology
He is deeply interested in trying to understand our relationship to nature without attributing any sort of meaning to it
The reason why his works are usually very abstract is that he tries not to represent anything but to somehow evoke feelings or try to examine the feelings that the works bring in
He feels that most of the works on platforms are done for sale and not for art appreciation
Will be hard to expect the market to appreciate the art when there is too much noise in the marketplace
A lot of works are also very visual and non-visual work seems to be under-represented
How does he produce work to capture viewers’ attention?
Digital art is seen through a mediator which is the screen, but the screen is made for many purposes and not for art, hence we have a lot of distractions that are competing for the viewer’s attention
He likes working with chunky pixels because this will make it stand out
He also works with highly saturated colours because it enhances the perception of the work being digital native instead of replicating other mediums like paper or canvas
He wants his pieces to make a statement that the work is really digital and it’s his attempt to create a real experience instead of just representing something
His career and direction he wants to pursue in this line
For an artist trying to sell works, you somehow have to work the way the market wants you to work
NFT is his main source of income, so it’s hard not to think about the market and what it wants you to work
Last year he was doing a lot of unique works and releasing a lot of them. This year, he wants to take his time to work on bigger projects
This will give him more time to reflect and think about his works
Wants people to see his work in a deeper way in places where people can have the best possible experience with the art e.g. exhibitions
He acknowledged that the sales are part of the job because he needs to pay for bills but he also wants his audience to be connected with his works
His favourite artist
Nicolas Sassoon
Had been an inspiration before NFTs and he is a role model
How to be more generous
How to appreciate the work of other artists
How to collect the works of other artists
Learnt a lot from him not only as an artist but as a person
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