Salon 26 // Collab #2 Exhibition Opening Reception

Hello, hello, and welcome everyone to our Techspressionism Virtual Salon. Today we've got a bit of a different salon. It's actually going to be a little bit of a walkthrough slash, you know, opening for our second Techspressionism Virtual, ah, wow, I can't speak, our second Techspressionism Virtual Collab project. It's been in the works for quite a few months, a bit longer than what was originally intended, but such is the way of things because, you know, we're all kind of working on our own projects and things get pushed aside sometimes, but it's all good. Still care about you, still care about the work that you do, still care about this project.

Davonte Bradley

But if you are just tuning in or have no idea what the Techspressionism Collab project, is. It's a project that I kind of envisioned that was inspired by that famous collab all those years ago between Basquiat and Warhol. And I thought, you know, because this is the day, the day and age that we live in and that technology is already connecting us, to one another through things like Zoom and Discord and Facebook and all these other things. Why not create a...

Davonte Bradley

It was collaboration art project utilizing some of those same tools? Like we might not be able to physically be working alongside each other, but you know, virtual is kind of the next best thing. Especially in the context of no ongoing pandemic that still hasn't quite abated. So. No. Just wanting artists to be able to further connect with each other and produce great artwork. In a virtual context.

Davonte Bradley

So that gave rise to this project. And this is our second one. The first one was now several months ago. And this one actually technically concluded right around March of this year. But, you know, things got pushed aside and it's been long going, but it's finally here. And I'm finally glad to be able to show you guys all this wonderful work that has been created during that time period. And it's been a joy to work with the artists, a joy to work with, you know, Brandon and Colin on getting this together and getting this on the road. And yeah.

Davonte Bradley

So we have in this particular collaboration, there are seven pairings. You would think that also would mean there's 14 artists, but no, there's actually 13 artists. And because there was a little bit of, well, things happened as they do sometimes. And one pairing ended up getting paired off with two people, which there was nothing wrong with that. I thought that was actually pretty interesting to see what kind of work this same artist did with two other artists. So we'll get into that.

Davonte Bradley

But yeah. And with that, I think I can go ahead and start going into the exhibition, which is done virtually using a platform called Kunstmatrix. Which we have a digital partnership. And the name of this titled by Brandon Gellis is A Calling For Utopia. Who also he's the one that's responsible for, you know, actually how the exhibition itself looks. And he also did the write-up. So I'm going to give him his credit where credit is due, even though he doesn't feel like he's done a whole lot. So I'm putting you on the spot, Brandon. Take that praise.

Davonte Bradley

All right, let's go ahead and enter the exhibition. So first off, we'll see kind of an overview of the room here. I might be able to make this full screen.

Ah, yes, all right, cool. All right, and

We have our seven pairings here. A few of these are not, well, not a few, but there are actually members of, or one artist here who at least did a, was part of the project from the first time, and that's Negin. But this is all seven of our groups, our pairings, and the write-up, which I'm not sure if you guys want me to read from it, but I'll go ahead and narrate this. The Calling for Utopia.

Davonte Bradley

There seems to always be so much duress in the world. To cope, heal, and respond, artists often seek to create romantic notions of reality, fantasies, and wishes of utopia. The ability for artists to speak to others across physical and virtual spaces encourages new opportunities for dynamic and meaningful collaborations and explorations. The artwork presented in this exhibition serendipitously comes together as a series of idealized realities. Our Techspressionist artists harness mixed media and digital art to address concerns of ecology and conservation. Others have developed rich photographic compilations, considering real-time, virtual, and digital. Re-envisioned worlds, and some explore the coexistence of the digital and natural worlds. We are presenting work that questions social, political, and cultural norms through international, collaborative, and hopeful eyes.

Davonte Bradley

We are grateful and proud that you are here to join us today. And that was written by Brandon, who is one of the participants in this project. All right. Let's get a move on. Now, fair warning. The control scheme for this exhibition is limited. We're going to be working with the ities of the digital space.

Davonte Bradley

Now I want, let's see, can I get Michael and Darcy to speak a little bit about, you know, their collaboration?

You want to go first, Darcy? Well, okay.

I don't hear Darcy. You know, Darcy's work is so much about the interior, at least the work that we use to start this collaboration. And I wanted to bring the exterior to her interior. The emotional content of a home and how it expresses itself to the world and to the people who love it within the context of Darcy's wonderful colors and compositions of her interiors.

Darcy?

Well, actually, I had a series called The Inside and Outside Pictures and so it wasn't just inside, it was also outside and it's I have images that I have painted in a virtual world using tilt brush, so basically painting 3D light sculptures in a virtual world and I'm accustomed to taking snapshots of various pieces of those in the real world and so Michael and I looked at each other's work and we both do some stuff with photography. I'd say he's a really great photographer and so we used his photographic images and pieces of some of my light sculptures to overlay the color on a lot of his black and white work, which was kind of interesting.

Darcy Gerbarg

And it was fun for me to play with I think I will say that you're going to have to ambiguous space that existed in his more abstract photographs, which you'll see not on this picture, but on the right hand picture more than on this one. So this one started with one of Michael's photographs. I guess they both started with Michael's photographs.

Well, I think the one on the left was actually an interior that you did that I merged my black and white photograph of this house in Dodge City.

Yes, exactly. You can actually see the chair.

Yeah.

In that, from my interior to your exterior, yeah. Right. Which is a sort of different kind of way of collaging really. And then of course in Photoshop you can also work on it to do whatever you kind of can do in Photoshop.

Yeah, it was fun. I enjoyed it.

Yeah, it was fun. It was fun talking with Michael and, you know, we're kind of a couple of... Senior level artists and, you know, it was just fun talking to each other about our lives and what we've done and where we've come from and all that kind of stuff. So it's a nice way to connect with another person, another artist.

And that was one of the primary goals that I sought out with this project. So I'm glad that there were connections definitely made. Yeah, it was great.

I enjoyed it.

And the work looks absolutely lovely. And I just I keep finding myself zooming into various parts and just examining some of the like minor details that you can find within either the photography itself or just some of the elements that had been like layered over it in the collage. Like I'm not sure... Is there some... Was there something on the chair? Because it looks like there's something sitting on the chair here.

Oh yeah. When I do these... When I have... You know, I take my AR... Artworks and I put them in real environments. So the software I have, which was a custom software, allows me to go all around the AR object and inside of it and see the world through it and different sections of it and put it in different places and have it be different scales. And so I can take snapshots in that way. So I'm actually, it's also a kind of collage, I guess, of putting the virtual and the real together. So whatever is in the environment, I love the complexity and the chaos of it. So for sure, there could have been things all over everything.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I also like

To keep any artifacts of the technology itself that kind of show up like marks of a grid or something like that. All that kind of works for me as well.

Right. Yeah. I enjoy the artifacts a lot. That's what got me interested all the way back in 2010, which is new to most of you guys, but that's really kind of when I started playing with these artifacts. It intrigued me.

I think it's one of those things. It was mentioned, and I can't remember who mentioned this, but there's a couple of salons ago where there was a discussion about how to maintain the elements of the medium that you're working with and try not to fight really against it or try to get rid of it. And I think artifacts and digital mediums is kind of one of those things where you should be embracing them at times if you really want to, because it's an inherent part of the medium.

Davonte Bradley

Yeah.

I would go with saying should do something. I enjoy the visual complexity that it adds, and that's why I often keep that, you know, everything that happens in the environment.

Well, it's part of the process, you know, and it's one of those happy circumstances that's serendipitous in a way, but it also forms a node that you can pivot. You can pivot your creativity on.

Absolutely. Now, that being said, is there anyone in the audience that has any questions for Darcy or Michael about these two works or their process? See, there's a couple of comments about, well, praise. It's definitely praise that's gone throughout. Oh, Ra.

I think we both appreciated each other's work to begin with, and it just was, you know, it was a lot of fun. Yeah. It was fun and easy.

Yeah. I want to paint in VR.

Listen, I keep inviting you with your Oculus Quest goggles to come to my world and play in there and see what it's like to enjoy art when you're completely immersed and surrounded by it. It's a very different experience.

Yeah. Cynthia would like to know, were the elements layered in Photoshop,

Or were they just put together in Photoshop? Not exactly. The two different images were put together in Photoshop, I guess. Michael, I forget how we did this, actually.

Well, you know, it was a combination of things. I actually used PixArt to create negatives and erase that. I don't know. It's a real simple way to get a lot of things done. Photoshop doesn't work that fast. So part of that was on my phone. And then I kind of cleaned things up and added some things in Photoshop, like the circle, embedding the circle, broke it into layers and tried to make it a little more... I think it's a little bit more three-dimensional.

Yeah. I took one of my snapshots of one of my... I call them light sculptures. And I simplified it by making areas that are transparent. And then I put the whole thing on top of the photograph. And then I started playing with the space itself in the photograph. And emphasizing depth and space where I wanted it by color, basically.

Darcy Gerbarg

And by aggregating areas that maybe combine things to sort of pull out some kind of imagery that was not so obvious or dominant in the original photograph. Is that sort of clear? Yeah. No. No. The photographs were very rich. I thought the photographs were very rich. And it was a lot of fun for me to...

Darcy Gerbarg

And they were gray scale or sort of black and white. And so I could aggregate areas to flood them with color. Right. And then I started to paint them in various ways to create different space on the picture plane. Is that clear? No.

Yeah.

Best I can do.

Yeah. I think that was a great explanation. I think that works.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Darcy and Michael. And Michael, you'll be speaking again later. Okay. I'm right here. Got it. All right. Thank you very much. I guess we'll move right along to the right. And this is the collaboration between Malavika and Ryan. And I know I saw Malavika a bit earlier. And Ryan, are you here? Yeah, I'm here. I was going to let Malavika go first. All right.

Oh, you want me to talk? Okay. Hello, everyone. Okay. The day Devo announced about the selected artist for this collab too, I think the same day, we had the salon also. And in that, Ryan was presenting his artwork. And I like the part of how he was explaining to the sound, how he created the sound. And that's how I thought of approaching him for collaborating with me. And he said, okay, fine. He also saw my work and I hope I didn't force him. He liked it and he joined with me. So the thing started with understanding each other's technique.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

I tried to understand that how he develops because he's having some limitations. And definitely some plus points, which I don't have in my tools. I use generally photographs. And after that, through Photoshop or CorelDRAW, I'm developing the work. And Ryan generally using his own music algorithm for creating the work. So we did first two. I mean, the top two we did first and the bottom two we did second.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

Each one sending each one's work. Now, best part, I liked it. He told me that I have to send a song. So I thought, okay, whether he able to manage my Bengali song or not. But still, I thought of, okay, let me give him three different songs. And from that, he selected the Bengali one. That's the best part. And that song was related with the rains. And I find it so beautiful that he tried to understand the song. And as for that, he developed the work. He tried to use the colors which is explained in the song. The name was Mono Mor Megyo Shungi. It's related with the rain. So our work is basically.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

Related with a joy and happiness and blooming. So I understood that he cannot work on already ready space. So whatever work I give him, I try to give a little bit of empty space where he can combine something. Because I think that is the part of the collaborative to understand each other's technique, the plus points. And as for that, if you work, it's, it's come something. You know, there's things that are better. So that's how we did. I think. Can you please share something? Sure.

Sure. So first I'll say it was an absolute pleasure to work with you. And you know, having never done this type of thing before, it was just great to have another artist perspective on just how to do things. Cause I'm. I'm just totally new coming into this. So I'm so glad I got to work with you. So as she was kind of talking about, my limitations are I have algorithms that process these songs into different forms of what you're seeing. And that's it. I can't really take a still image or anything like that and kind of shape it how I want. It's just kind of based on the data of the song. And so what we kind of came up with was Malavika would kind of give me that black empty space around. And I would use, you know, I have hundreds of algorithms that I can kind of see like, oh, I can kind of fit this one around in this direction.

Ryan Henderson

So I would use the song that she picked and then kind of use that data to shape it around the black space.

Can you explain your algorithms a little bit more? Like what software do you use to do this?

Yeah. So algorithms in general, I create. It's the plotting or the software that does the visualization part of it. That's kind of MATLAB, kind of Python, that kind of stuff. But all the algorithms I've done myself. So kind of doing the processing. Of the music that's just using a lot of math to kind of figure out how to pick out the data. And then, yeah, the algorithms are just kind of shaping that data in certain ways.

There were actually some requests to know what songs explicitly were used to create some of the works here. So I guess when you guys have time, you can go ahead and share the. Sure. The. Links to the songs that were used because I'm actually curious myself.

As Malavika said, she gave me a couple of songs to try. And I said, I just love hearing different like foreign music to me. Right. I have no idea what they're saying, but it sounds.

No, but I've seen that you try to find the meaning. I mean, you have taken that word also for giving the title also. Both the songs. I mean, I think the songs are from a group of the. He's a great poet, writer and artist also. So both the songs are by him. And one song is related with the rain. The other one is related with the spring.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

So I find it the way he has picked up. I mean, Dan picked up the forms and the colors. I really appreciate. And another thing. What? About the. Why I thought of. Is my subjects are all related with five elements of life. And he was using sound. So that first thing attracted me to work with him.

I remember. I actually remember Ryan's presentation. And that is really cool. And if I knew, I knew somebody was going to want to work with him at, at some point, because. It. It. It was really neat. Oh, and one, one thing that I want to ask, because I actually forgot to ask the previous pairing, you know, I guess I can circle back to them at some point.

Davonte Bradley

How did you come up with your titling for some of these pieces? Does this one is blue, blue horizons. Blue horizon nature's delight. The left is it possible pursuits. And then the one on top, on the left is moving with the wind. And the top right is a vibration of silence.

So as I, they, and we give his one, but I can tell my one, my, I have given the, though vibration word I added because, as I said, my, I have used the joy and the blooming. And, the song. Is related with the. And the spring. So which gives life. And, the sound is the part which added by the on. So that's how I thought of. He, using these two names and what you don't use is again, I think it's from the picture from the song on the, am I right? Yeah.

Yeah. Though I think it was part of the lyrics or what I understood of it. Got it.

Because Neil D. Gontay is the meaning of blue sky. I mean, when, when the, when the blooming starts, when the, spring starts, it's so it's just the leaf starts coming out. So need because there's the blooming sky and, the other one, I'm sorry. I just, blue eyes. And it's also the, they take it, dance.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

So it's all picked up from the, our, our songs.

Got it. All right. Well, thank you. Does anyone have any questions for Ryan or Malika about their work?

Scrolling through the chat in case I missed something. I have a question., Ryan said that, he, could not understand the songs. He did not, did not have access to the language and interpretation of the songs. So I wanted to know, from Malavika's perspective, given that he did not have, access to a native language in hearing the music, hearing the songs, is there any evidence or are the evidences, of understanding that he picked up, intuitively? Do you see this in the works that were finalized? Do you see an understanding that he could not, have access to by reason of understanding the language?

Oh, can I, can I interrupt real quick? So I, I definitely looked up the lyrics, and, and had it translated.

Okay. I wanted to explore the intuitive component if you had not.

Well,

Okay.

I cheated a little, sorry.

No, it's not a cheat. It's not a cheat, but it would have been interesting. It would have been. If you had revealed an understanding that you would not otherwise have access to, you know, but, but it's cool. It's cool. Thanks.

Oh, I did. I did catch a question from earlier from Cynthia. I keep losing it though. Hold on. Oh, so this is about blue horizon. Again, Cynthia wants to know who, started the piece first.

Yeah.

Orion started it first.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was those, those colors. I was trying to do a, a sunrise and a, and a kind of a, a sky there with the blue. So those are the colors. It fits very well.

And who added, who added that, plateau that's in the background. That's I, I did. Melvi. It's just, it, piece is stunning. I think the, the work between you and Ryan just, is stunning indeed.

Actually speaking, that is the last work. I mean, slowly, slowly we start understanding maybe that's the reason that's the last work we did. And, and these are the photographs I have taken. I mean, this is a mixed photograph. It's not one. I think some four or five photographs are there in this, when I created this, landscape. And, it's having, there's a place called the dark here. Then there is a place., is that the

Two

If I'm

Not mistaken, in

The space? The light that you're using. I thought it's been, I feel like it's been like five months or so.

It's been a while. Yeah. Wonderful collaboration.

It really is.

Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. And I think giving, giving that much time in between doing it and then seeing it again after all this time, it gives you a little bit of a different perspective too. Just being able to look back like that. Oh, Colin wants to know, is each of the four pieces based on a different song or some different takes on the same audio track? Yeah, it's, it's, I think the two top ones are the same and two bottom ones are the same.

Is that right, Malika? Yeah, correct. Okay.

But I didn't, I didn't take the song as my inspiration. I just took the subject as inspiration. The two processes, the blue horizon and the top one, the longer one moving with the wind. These two are based on song. I mean, which we are developed first. And then I have worked on that. The other two.

Malavika Mandal Andrew

I have developed first and then we have worked on that.

All right.

We have followed the war. We have totally followed the rules. What you have told us.

I mean, the rules that I gave were like, just no, but I tell

You one thing somewhere we felt that we did both the way. I mean, there was one where you have written up that one work and go to and through again. So in the song one, we were feeling that way that I'm sending this, he asked me the song and I sent the song. Then he did that. Then again, I have worked on that. So there, the process was as for that concept, but other ways, if I see, so it is like one artist is giving to other artists and then working on that. Yeah.

That's, that's actually how I originally envisioned the project work, like on it's a base level, but that's kind of how I felt like it was going to be almost like maybe artists playing catch with each other. It's like they throw a ball and then you scribble on it. And then the person that receives it scribbles back and throws it back and goes back and forth like that. But on a, that's kind of how it was on a base level in my mind anyway. But of course other people are going to have their own interpretations of how it's going to work. And you know, it, I'm not going to stop you from doing it.

Davonte Bradley

I'm not going to say that's wrong, but it's, it's been wonderful seeing the interpretations and spins that you guys have taken on just the collaboration project itself. Like I, I feel like I'm just providing the baseline. Like you can build whatever you want on top of it.

But thank you for this collaborative idea. We really enjoyed it.

Good. Glad to hear it. And we, this, this will not be the last one. I promise. Definitely won't be. All right. So moving right along, we have another work that's actually our first triptych in the collab. Between So moving right along, we have C and Michael Price. And I'm not sure if C was able to make it today. I know her schedule's pretty darn busy.

Davonte Bradley

But I think Michael, Michael Price is here.

Yes, I'm here.

Ah, Roz apparently knew your work before

I moved you here before you even seeing it. Yeah. Are you going to say something first or do you want me to just, just get right into it?

I was actually just kind of looking at it again.

Oh, okay.

So I, I love, I love this one. I, I love the fact that it's a triptych for one. And I know it. There's. There's an emotion that it's evoking that I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but it's very, it's very, very interesting. Yeah. I, presuplegacy was sort of where we left off about how many volume contracts had gone missing from four major theaters as soon as some sort of contemporary presuplegacy issue hit the kwwo visio

End up happening at two windows at night and, And I was really fascinated by C's work that she was taking, modernizing, if you will, sort of old, religious, thematic, kind of Renaissance-type pieces. Like she had the Virgin Mary in one piece with a cell phone, with a TV, and she was doing it in a respectful way. She wasn't doing things in any sort of mocking tone, but she was looking, it seemed to me that she was coming from a place of wanting to modernize sort of the feeling that art had been, that was really important back then for religious themes. Obviously the church was the sponsorship of most of the artists back then.

Michael Pierre Price

And there was something about her work that really resonated with me. Even though my aesthetic is different than hers, I felt a real connection. So I contacted her, we decided to do the partnership. And I liked the idea of the old work, but I also liked the idea of the religious triptychs. And she was a big fan of that as well. And I said, okay, well, let's try to come up with our own triptych. And so we did our collaboration a little bit differently than others, I have to say. Our collaboration was primarily brainstorming and then doing preliminary, doing preliminary sketches, me doing preliminary sort of mockups of using some of my AI software.

Michael Pierre Price

And we looked to see kind of where we were going. So we did a back and forth that way. We had a number of Zoom meetings between the two of us. And what I settled on with the modern, you know, going the modern route, I said, why don't we do a crucifixion, a modern crucifixion, where the instead of the Gutenberg Bible, now we have today cell towers, televangelists, the medium of the Internet. And so now this becomes our new mode of sharing. So what we decided on, I was going to do the central imagery, and she was going to do the two smaller side panels. And so our collaborative element is we did our own work on the panels, but we reviewed each other's progress and we gave each other feedback. And so the thing that, the thing for me that sort of represented the crucifixion, if you will, in one way was this notion of using the cell tower as kind of the central pillar of the cross.

Michael Pierre Price

And then the TV symbols with the two hands that C came up with was kind of like the Christ figure, if you will, and the tears were like the blood flowing. And so some of it's rather overt. But you'll see that. You'll see that figure at the base of the cell tower, the mannequin figure there. That was my. I wanted to have kind of a Buddhist representation of this that took it away from pure Christianity and added a sense of spirituality more so than religion. So even though we kind of use religion as the gateway into it, our message is more universal and personal at the same time. That's what we were really going for. That even though this exists in a modern mass media environment, people are looking for things beyond just the spoon fed. Unfortunately, I hate to, you know, I'm not trying to be negative on religion, but I think we were going for something that took it beyond that, to be both universal and personal at the same time.

Michael Pierre Price

Whether we succeeded or not, who knows? But that's kind of the motivation that we had. And it was really challenging for us. We both felt uncomfortable work, physically working on the other person's work. The actual, the actual. Imagery, but we worked on each other's work creatively from a distance and from our evaluations of what we were seeing and what we were feeling.

Michael Pierre Price

And originally the color palette for C's to side panels was different. It was more of a magenta background. That blue is magenta. And I was trying to make the central pillar more complimentary and not. It was more of a magenta background. Of the same palette, but to, to kind of compliment it. She didn't really. She, she felt like that was. Uncomfortable with that. So she decided to go with my central color palette instead. I tried to convince her not to do that. But I respected her decision. And so, you know, we have something that, that has a very.

Michael Pierre Price

Uniform sort of color palette. So. You know, we're trying to make it look more like a magenta. So that's, that's, that's my story and that's I'm sticking to it.

That's a really great. I actually, I love this one. A lot. Now there is quite a bit of chatter on regarding. I'm sure you've guessed the, the numbers and formulas that. Appear at various points, like right around here. Yes.

At the top.

Yes.

So. I'm sure there's significance at some level, what those are.

Yes. And some of it. So. So some of it, I want it to be completely random and obtuse. Because. Again. I didn't want it to be completely identifiable. I don't want it to be completely random. That I guess for me, I'm part of my rebellion on all of this. Is that. There are no easy answers. For me, spirituality is a very singular path. And one that everybody chooses to walk in whatever way is, is most.

Michael Pierre Price

Beneficial for them, whether or not they're. Following their religion or not. And. So I wanted some of this. To make people's. Head scratch a bit to see what meaning they might derive in there. There are a couple of formulas. The one, the one that's up to the left. Yeah. The one that's got the integral with X to the MDX. Yep.

Michael Pierre Price

There's. There are a number of neuroscientists that are looking. For. The. World to understand. Really hard science. Notions of consciousness. And. That's part. That's part of that equation and. Some of the others I threw in. I scrambled some numbers like pie and a few other things like that. That the numbers are changed around.

Michael Pierre Price

So there are some things to find in there. But there's just a lot of nonsense as well. And that was my kind of Dadaist commentary on modern religion at times. So I didn't want to be completely overt about it, but now I'm telling you my secret behind the scenes, I guess.

I feel the same way with some of my art sometimes because there are times there's just like, no, I want to see what you interpret first. And then I'll come with what I was thinking.

Yes. And I think as artists, we often do that.

Cynthia wants to know why the division with the purple segment in the central tower?

Ah, okay. Yes.

So for me, it's the difference between, if you looked at the towers like a human body, the torso, the head and the torso, this splits it off between the legs. And to me, this is the challenge that I see in front of established religion today versus coming to grips with modern science. And the insistence, that old texts must be interpreted literally by a lot of people in the world. And that cuts the body in half because it's unrealistic. It's taking something that was metaphorical, symbolic, and trying to make it literal. And so for me, I was literally cutting the body in half to say that, no, you can't do that. You have to deal with the world today. It's not, it's otherwise you're living in two different disparate worlds that can't come together and it needs to come together. So that's, that was the reason for that.

Michael Pierre Price

And the color purple in a lot of traditions is the color of the high spiritual color. It's the color of God, if you will, or, or, or the, you know, the high, the high self. Right.

Fascinating, Michael. Oh, thank you.

Thank you. This was a challenge for both of, for both C and myself. This was not easy, but we were really, really grateful with how the end turned out. So I think every pairing had, I'm sure had its own challenges as we've heard previously. But the rewards are so much, so much you couldn't have predicted it. You know, I couldn't have predicted how this would have turned out. I had no idea we were going to go this route.

Michael Pierre Price

But I knew that the heart would be there. I just didn't know what the embodiment would be.

Sorry.

I'm still, oh, I, this is one of the ones that I like to come back to and just look at it sometimes because.

And, and thanks to you Davo for, for the impetus to do this.

Thank you. Yeah.

Thanks for running with it. I wanted to be in the first one, but I was too timid. So I just said, okay, maybe I'll wait till later. And when the second one came about, I said, oh hell, I'm just going to go for it.

Well, I mean, that kind of sounds like how, how our interactions kind of date back to the start of our interactions with the movement. So, but it's great. I really love this piece or these pieces rather. Thank you. And. There's a lot of people reading all sorts of interpretations for, for this particular piece. Yeah. References like the tower of Babel.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

So much. And like there, there is a lot that this is communicating.

And I think that's, and, and the one tier that's from the hand, that's kind of like, you know, the nail in the hand for Christ, but then from that, that the other hand, it's kind of pointing, you've got three, those are tears. And so that you've got kind of the, you've got the double edged sword sometimes of what religion can be for people and how it's also been used as a weapon. Right. And, and I think, you know, you know, both, both see, and I have very spiritual, but at the same time, we've seen how, how spiritual matters have also been weaponized. And I think for both of us, we were trying to be very cautious about that. And I think part of the imagery was just wanting to be hopeful, but at the same time tempered so that it wouldn't be a blatant beat over the head of people. So.

Got it. Got it. Got it. All right. Scanning through the chat. See if there were any other questions that I may have missed. I don't think so. Unless anybody has any questions they'd like to speak before we move on. Does anybody have anything?

Well, I have an observation. Sure. The. Radiating circles that. Represent. You know, communication in our age. Given the overall feel of the presence of the stigmata. And. The tower of Babel. Configuration. Symbolism. I think that. That those radiating communication. Symbols. Reflect. The great commission. And you, you may not know what the great commission is, but. It is the capstone of the new Testament. In which.

Verneda Lights

Christ tells his disciples. To go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Okay. To spread the message. The good news of his death and resurrection. So I find that. It has a very modern. Contemporary. Connotation. That symbol. But also. An ancient embodiment. And something that really is at the core. Of Christianity.

Verneda Lights

As it is written in, as it is practiced. So I just wanted to add that.

Yeah. Thanks for not.

Bernadette. You're welcome. You're welcome. I apologize. No worries. No worries.

All right. Well, it's unfortunate that see, you couldn't actually be here today, but.

I know. I know.

Yeah. But I'm going to definitely like once the video goes live, I'm going to message her the YouTube link. It was like, Hey, this, you should watch this. Just, just, just go ahead and watch it.

I hope I didn't misrepresent her. I really tried my best not to. So, right.

Well, maybe, maybe she'll have a chance to make her own comments a little bit later.

I hope so.

I really do.

But all right. Well, thank you. Thank you, Michael. For, for your time and your part of this amazing project. And I hope you get a chance to participate later. Like I think that's one of the things. I love, I would love to see your work with other artists as well. All right. Let's move right along. Cause I'm realizing that we are now an hour in. And. We are at just under halfway through everything.

Davonte Bradley

So sorry about that folks. I'm going to try to speed things up a little bit. But. So we have the collaboration between Michael Pointer again, and Carol Ramon. Or Ramon D Ramon.

Ramon.

Ramon. See, that's actually fairly close to my middle name. Cause my middle name is Ramon. Yeah. But so Carol Ramon day.

Yeah.

And Michael. So what do you. Who wants to speak first? Go ahead, Carol.

Okay. Okay. It was a very interesting collaborating with Michael. It was hard at first to combine our artworks as it was kind of our. Our babies and touching it doesn't feel appropriate. You know, to change the, the, the way it was made. My, my artworks is that with oil paintings and then I use tech to change it. And Michael sent me his artworks and I.

Caro Ramonde

I did a kind of. A more. My work was on the gray one that it was more dystopian reality. I really love his, his piece as a starting piece. That is the planet and the people like screaming like zombies with. So I add my, my serpent that it was made on oil painting and then. A. Intervened with, with the, some programs. And I think I love the result.

One of the interesting things about that piece is that the, I, I traveled with a mind company with you mind. Those people are, are mimes performing a piece called angels rise. So it. Did it. It works really well. In that context.

Does.

Because the serpent. The artwork in the name of the, the artwork is serpent of creation. And it's kind of. The meaning of reborn. And. A deep inside. A deep meaning in the alchemical art. That I love. So it bonded really well with Michael artwork. And I love the result. It was a perfect collaboration. Thank you for inviting us. Of doing this. To do this because otherwise this shouldn't ever happen. Yeah.

Right. Well, it wouldn't have happened without you too. Like this needed your input as well.

Thank you.

Yeah. This will be perfect as an NFT also. It will be really successful. I think.

I remember when I first saw that I was almost getting like, like the serpent from the Genesis story. That was, that was what immediately came to mind.

Yeah.

And then just Michael adding on the context of the, what the, the mimes were doing was. Was it angels rising was the performance that we're doing. Right. So yeah, that, that fits.

We don't wear, we don't wear white face. All right.

Now what about this one? There's, there's a lot of textures going on with this one.

Well, that was, you know, Carol sent me a painting. That, that was kind of a. Yeah. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. It's a little bit of a different kind of thing.

Michael Pointer

It's a little bit of a different kind of thing. So I'm just part of the yeah. Realities within things we don't understand.

The original painting I did, the oil painting, the name was Omnipresence. And it's a sky with a female face all over. And it has something strange that after I finished the painting, I was like on a break and I look at it from far away and I looked that there was another face if you turn it upwards.

Caro Ramonde

But I didn't make it on purpose. So it has something mystical on that painting. And I like it to share it with Michael for the collaboration and he did a great work adding all the texture and colors. And it's, yeah. Something great and unusual.

It's interesting choice for, to use like geometric shapes to try to make sense of what might appear to be chaos, I guess, like as a way to organize and compartmentalize and break it down into different parts. One thing I did notice though, I'm not sure if, this was on purpose or not, but whatever you use for like this grid, these boxes are not actually even on both sides, the ones on this side are bigger than the ones on this side. Absolutely. So was that, was that on purpose? Yes. Oh, okay.

Because, you know, sometimes it's interesting to just put a grid over everything and let the grid begin to define the composition. Like I didn't, I didn't know that I was going to have to do that. I didn't want that. I think there were a lot of, a lot of, there are many approaches to answering questions within an enigmatic composition.

Michael Pointer

And I tried to shore that up and at the same time show different perspectives.

And the result is kind of a Medusa medallion, I see it. And I think that it's with the, the things that Michael added, it, it, it in game that, that feeling and kind of a Greek with the column was a great that addition with the green. I know that.

That's another thing. Like the, the grid slash it's well, great. Almost like mesh structure compliment. It's not a problem. The like scaliness of this central figure here, which I think that's where one of the faces you said is like, if I'm looking at this correctly, is that where one of the faces is this top part here, the circle?

Yeah, yeah, it was. But you need to see the original image and it's not so, so easy to see it. Gotcha. You're not going to find it here. All right. Yeah, but it's kind of, yeah, it's a great combination of our artworks. Right.

All right. Now, did anyone have any questions for Caro or Michael about these two pieces or comments, thoughts, any such thing?

The colored piece looks a lot like images sent from, say, the photographing of the moon Titan, you know, the outer space photos and how you're looking at oftentimes you, they superimpose this NASA schematics from their monitoring devices. They sometimes superimpose that upon the images, the photographs being taken of a moon surface or planetary surface or something like that. And it looks like a combination of the monitoring schematics and that superimposed upon something going on another planet or on another moon beside our own and the face actually brings to mind the man in the moon

I can definitely see that yeah

For the woman in the moon the woman in the moon yeah the person in the moon person yeah to me the whatever whatever the gender may be of this person they almost look pained or is that just me it

Looks mocking to me and somewhat clownish okay sort of a winky wink type of way it definitely draws the eyes in that's for sure yeah it reminds me of the illustrations for books like Gulliver's Travels you know yeah it's

Fascinating yeah I agree it will

Be interesting if for next time maybe to add the original pieces that we blend to finish that

That could be a thing yeah because that's the only thing we only see the finished products not necessarily behind the scenes that goes on with making these yeah and how technology changes

Everything right yeah it's really interesting

All right did anyone else have any questions or comments that they'd like to share with Carol or Michael I

Think both images are very dynamic and I like that a lot they don't feel static to me at all and I agree I just saw Roz made a comment that there's a mythological element to them yeah they it has that vibe and feeling to me the snake looks like it's coming down to devour the scenery to me it's really cool looking and they are very textural but I like the dynamism of both pieces so well done thank

You Michael I wanted to achieve that feeling that the snake was hunting the people and the planet and all that it's a mysterious vibe thank you

All right well thank you for that Michael

I think the artwork was perfect it was an unusual combination but it matched perfectly

Yes yeah I'd say it meshed very well yeah all right well thank you too and thank you Michael again for your for your second thank

You thank you for working so hard for doing two collaborations instead of one my

Pleasure thank

You all

Right our next up we havebes we have going to havearazally we have Negin and brandon's I believe yes yep yes like

That up we have Negin and brandon's I believe yes yep yes if I if I may I made a mistake when placing these parallel or horizontally may I share my screen for a moment and share the original parallel or horizontally may I share my screen for a moment and share the original composition and

Then

We can talk about that yeah and then later on I'll update it on the website yeah thank you me and Negin and brandon's I believe yes yep yes if I if I may I made a mistake when placing these parallel or horizontally may I share my screen for a moment and share the original composition and then we can talk about that yeah and then later on I'll update it on the website yeah thank you And Negin, do you want to jump in first and talk?

No, no, you go ahead.

Oh, okay.

Well, so Negin and I, I have to be honest, like this was really great, Davo, that you set this up. This is, Negin and I have formed a really, really beautiful friendship and collaboration, and we're already, we've been talking since working on this about next stage collaborations and also bringing in Negin's partner into that as well. And so that's been really fantastic.

Brandon S Gellis

So we designed these as when you put them together in the frame that they would make virtually a perfect square. And so there are four pieces. They're extremely, can everyone see what's on my screen?

Thank you.

They're extremely inorganic in their posturing, but very organic in their composition and their thinking. And so we started talking about just general idea of conservation and species that are being harmed by people. And it came together from a series of conversations we had about different topics of interest to us and things we care about in our own countries. And I'm in Wyoming in the U.S. And Negin currently, if I'm correct, Negin is in Tehran in Iran, formerly in the U.S. And I'm in the UAE.

Brandon S Gellis

And I started talking about my concerns about animal life in our oceans and in our river systems. I'm married to an ecology-based scientist. And I've been doing a lot of work around the use of plastics in the natural landscape and how it's affecting different species. So that's really where I started from. And so I made the very top one to start. And then, Negin augmented that one significantly. And then she made the second one. And I augmented that.

Brandon S Gellis

And then I think I made the third one. And then she augmented that, if that's correct. I'm having trouble remembering. And Negin made the fourth one. Yeah, go ahead.

I think we made one half work done. Yes. And we sweep the work. And then we finished ourselves, our half done, and finished the other part.

Thank you. Yes. So we each created one. We each then augmented another. Yes. So that's four pieces. So I'm going to stop talking for now. And I'll let Negin jump in about this.

Yes. It was an honor and pleasure to know Brandon. And I think the collaboration is the best part of this community because it really gives you a very new point of view to the way you work. And you see the process. So we find a shared interest, one of the shared interests, that was environmental issues. And I choose the flamingos because in 2020, some 6,000 migratory birds died mysteriously in Miankale Peninsula.

Negin Ehtesabian

And the cause of that has not yet been announced. So they think maybe it is him. Maybe it's human cause or poison or environmental change. So that's why you see the flamingos upside down because that was a very sad event that, I mean, it was like a summer. And we saw very sad pictures of them. So yeah.

And if I remember correctly, Negin, you sent me a lot of the information from the media about the flamingos. And part of it was that they were migrating through and then they were poisoned ultimately, inadvertently but recklessly. Yes.

I mean, they guess, but they haven't definitely found a reason. They're not sure what happened. So I think on my part, I was working on the mother earth that she could clean her. She would eventually clean herself up and we would be the one who we lost. So there's no human in this collaboration piece. Yeah.

For me, I've been doing a lot of moving into doing a lot of collage work with content that I gather, whether it's from drone footage or video or just imagery I take. Some of the trash heaps in the upper two pictures are actually wet collages. So I've been using a lot of wet plate collodion pieces that I did using Civil War era photography at our local trash dump. And so it's using this specifically using photographic technology from the Industrial Revolution or leading up to the Industrial Revolution type period. And so thinking about using this very challenging and hard work to photograph.

Brandon S Gellis

But so those are actually like the landfill where I live, where and getting geeky about it from a scientific perspective. Conservationists talk about how our biomarker on the human, on the world, on the globe will be the layer of plastics that are left past humankind or past humankind as we know it. And so for me, it's really important to talk about the toxicology of things and how everything starts organically becomes utilitarian, but then also ends up. Not really going back into organics because the way we use it, but it ends up harming organic matter and organic life. And so it's this idea of Industrial Revolution. And then in the 1950s, like using of lots of chemicals to for mass production that we use now in contemporary life. And so how that leaches into the soil and leaches into all the animals and species and the plants and they change and how it leaches into water, and then it changes into waterways and wipes out whole colonies of birds, for example.

Brandon S Gellis

So while they might be beautiful and uplifting, I'm seeing in the comments as we go, they're also dire. I think for both of us, we're really concerned about the animal species. So that was the drive for me. At least. Rather heavy, I realize.

So I'll stop.

I'll unshare. It's rather heavy, but we're trying to address it through a discussion through digital media as an approach to create dialogue around it or for people to see it. So after this, since I made a mistake, I'll re-upload the image correctly into here, if that's okay.

It is fine. And going forward, if you are actually interested in participating in the collaboration project after this, please let me know how you would like to see it. I'm not sure if you want your work displayed in this virtual space. I mean, of course there are limitations, but I want this, the work that you show to be how you're envisioning it, or at least as close to that as possible.

Davonte Bradley

So if you feel like you have to break it up or break it down to make it work, you might not actually have to do that. Just keep it all in one and we'll try to work something out. Like with C and Michael's, this was a triptych and I wasn't exactly sure how it was going to work because I wasn't sure how thick the borders were going to be for the frame.

Davonte Bradley

And just the grid structure that the platform has, I wasn't sure, but ended up working out, I think, fairly well. And yeah, just a little going forward. Does anybody have any questions for Brandon or Negin? Scrolling through the chat and I don't think there's a lot of praise as usual. There's definitely a lot of praise in the chat.

Davonte Bradley

Poetic work. Gives a scroll painting feeling. The aesthetic is very cohesive. It has a lot of synergy. It's very It has a calligraphic feeling. A narrative that flows. And under the sea, unnatural, but beautiful and scary. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess you wouldn't be able to get like the full breadth of the experience looking at them side to side like this.

Davonte Bradley

But this version will not be the final version. So just keep that in mind if you're tuning in.

I appreciate that a heavy subject can be dealt with in a beautiful artistic manner. I don't think they need to be oppositional to one another. So I appreciate the success of this approach of this collaboration. So thanks to Brennan and Negin for this. I think these would be perfect for any number of environmental organizations to utilize because these are stunning. So thank

You.

With what we have, I'm trying to give like a closer look of what's actually in these because there's little details that you wouldn't be able to necessarily get. But there's, I think this text, right? Negin? Are those words? Yes.

Okay, so those are words. Oh, Negin, you're muted.

Yes, that's word.

It's hard to get a wrinkle in this sometimes. And the words are, I'm sure they have some meaning, but in this particular one, what is this saying?

It says, where the birds are gone.

Where the birds are gone?

Yes.

Is there text? Okay, it doesn't look like there's text in all of them. But I know there's some in the last two. Yeah, this one. If I can get stop scrolling. Hold on.

Technical difficulties they happen. Oh, Lord.

Well, that's different. Remember how I said that? Yeah. Well, that's different. Remember how I said that? Earlier I said I accidentally flew through a wall? This is one of those moments. Yep, I think that's exactly what happened. Oh. You're on the outside now. Yeah.

I apologize.

I might actually have to reload it. I apologize. I have to leave to go to class. But thank you, everyone. And thank you very much, Davo and Negin and Colin.

Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you.

Thanks, Brandon. All right. Now we're back inside. Okay. See, I jinxed myself early on. I should have just never said I was going to fly through a wall. Okay. So this last one, this also has text. And what does this one say?

It's the same text.

Oh, it's the same thing? Okay.

Yes.

All right. That's all I wanted to get a closer look at. Sorry for spending extra time with that. But thank you very much, Negin. And I was also going to thank Brandon, but he had to bounce.

Thank you, everyone, for kind words.

Yeah. This is a wonderful piece.

Thank you.

All right. I'm moving right along. We have Diane and Friedrich. Am I pronouncing your first name correctly?

Yes.

All right.

Hi, everybody. I don't think Diane is here. I haven't seen her.

Yeah. I haven't seen her either. So it might just be you today. Okay. Okay.

So our work with Diane, we decided to explore the solar system because we are both science fiction nerds. So we did four pieces. Our process was to both start a piece at the same time and then switch canvas. And that's how we did it. So our first stop was on Mars. So it's this piece on the very left.

Oh, on the very left.

Yeah. Sorry. The controls are a little crazy sometimes.

It's okay. So this one is set on Demio, one of Mars' satellites. So I provided the first draw, and Diane, she responded to it. So we envisioned this like some kind of a satellite. So we did a little bit of a I don't know, like there's some kind of feverish space inside of Demio. And the other piece, it's the one on the top, the red one, and it's called the Battleformer.

Sorry.

It's fighting me right now. Hold on. Okay. There we go.

And I think it's a little bit of a I think that's interesting because, Davo, you said something earlier about how we choose to title the pieces. So when I received Diane's piece, it was called the Battleformer. And I really think, at least for me, I cannot speak for her, but the name of the pieces that were translated really had an influence on my answer to her work. I don't think I would have gone in that direction. I think it's a little bit like the Akira explosion, nuclear blast field, if it wasn't called the Battleformer. Right.

Frédéric Pons

And the two other pieces, we continue to travel to Jupiter on one moon for each piece. So there's one that is set on Io. CGA. And the other one is on Europa. So the purple one is Europa and the yellowish one is on Io. And what I like is that we didn't, that's my opinion. I cannot speak for Diane, but I think that our collaboration was getting, better on the second round. We learned to, I like the result better in the second round because I don't know, something, something happened and we understood each other more. And I think the results are, I enjoyed the results more. And yeah, I know it's not very logical when you think of it, to see Jupiter like that. But, yeah. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to do it. And one other thing that I loved about this collab is to meet Diane and to do that with her.

Frédéric Pons

And to, we had a lot of laughter and we keep meeting on a regular basis. And we have more, we are of Saturn to explore, even if we slow down our pace a little bit, because there was no deadline anymore.

But, right.

Anyway, it was a super, super experience. And I, I love the idea and the opportunity to do it.

Thank you. And I'm sorry if earlier, if it seemed like you weren't going to get it, there was, there was a little bit of confusion that happened, but.

It's okay.

Yeah. But these, these are really great. Like I, as also a fan of the show. I'm a fan of space and what goes on in it. I was actually particularly fascinated by just there's one thing that you don't really see about space is that nothing else really has texture aside from the planets.

But with

These works, you're, you're providing like extra feeling almost like a tactile nature to the fabric. Of space itself. To the point where the fabric of space almost seems like it's fluid in some cases. Yeah. And I really, really appreciate that. That's really cool.

On this one on the right. Like on the other side. It's a nice moon, and there are a lot of cases. Yeah. So, there is this gator and suddenly. This kind of. I don't know. Space monster appeal and. And the energy. I don't know. It's funny that. Some kind of. Entity. Appears. When it's not expected. Anyway.

Frédéric Pons

I'm rambling. I think.

I mean, as, as artists we often ramble so it happens. So now. It's to be expected. I think. We're talking about our work. All right. Still struggling to like actually have the. The movement behave the way I wanted to. But did anyone have any questions for Frederick while he's here? So I'm seeing scrolling chats.

Yeah. I had a question about software used. If you could talk a little bit about what type of software you used. That'd be great. Thanks. Oh yeah.

So with Diane, we both use Photoshop. And also there was some. Mandelbulber involved. Cinema 4d. And.

Very cool. Thanks.

I really liked these. They looked like they could be covers to science fiction novels. They. They got the right energy. And I think. They're not. They're not your normal interpretation. And I find that really cool. So. Really like the work a lot.

Thanks. Michael.

Center one on the bottom is really ambiguous and interesting. Yeah, I can agree with that. Like that's. Yeah. I think. Like there are three levels there and then one kind of sticks out at that level and then will slow down with time and stuff like that.

Oh my gosh. Is there another

Question from Diane on math for science fiction? One thing is really interesting about math is if it doesn't require scaling up your macro logistic forces and letters of conformity and presupolar relationships and disaggregated I also like to try and like allow a little bit of room for people to process what they're seeing. As I know the movement can be a little erratic sometimes as I'm trying to navigate Kunstmatrix. But yeah, it's there's a lot to take in with a lot of this work in this exhibition. So I suggest do zoom in once you actually get into the zoom in as close as you can sometimes and it's worth it.

So this one's almost Baroque. I don't know.

And this one, it reminded me of space that was actually like enclosed in a room somewhere that was trying to break out like these, these structures are actually trying to break out of a room or breaking into a room one of the two.

Okay. I think that's

Actually it for now. As far as questions go, you have plenty of praise. In the comments.

Yeah, thank you, everybody. Yeah.

The lighting elements. Lighting effects elements are great.

Yeah, I think the options dimension and trans dimensional

Portals. Yep. All right. Thank you, Frederick. Thank you so much. I'm glad that you're a part of this.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks.

All right. And last but not

Least, we have Deanne and Tommy's collab. Which actually includes text on two the four or three of the four? Two? Yes.

I'll let Tommy go. Are you still here, Tommy? Because he has to go to class at four. Oh, he's still here.

Yeah. I'm not sure if my microphone's been working at all. So I'm just trying to it has not because this is the first time I've heard your voice.

Oh, good. Well, I wasn't trying to talk until now. So it's totally fine. Yeah, I mean, I do have to run. I have like five more minutes before I gotta go. So I'll just maybe say how great this was, first of all, as a process. Deanne, this is like a wonderful kind of thing to look back on now. This is it feels like it was a long time ago. Right? We had a bunch of Wow. Yeah. Conversations that we were sort of I feel like this was the depths of Covid pandemic that we were working together in and talking about place and the sort of effect of what was going on in the places we were in.

Tommy Mintz

And similarities, both in our experience and also then the visual things that we were talking about. Finding in each other's work. The shapes that, yeah, I think we're looking at here, we're begun, we send stuff back and forth a lot. And gosh, do you know, do you remember how many times we exchanged?

Yeah, so I would just play around with different things. We were using Sketches Pro to share our work back and forth. And I would just bombard Tommy with a whole bunch of stuff. He would take it and make sense of it. A lot of the time. We were coming from two different places. Like I was reading a book called The Midnight Library, which was talking about like alternate versions of your own life, like infinite versions of your own life. And then in context with the pandemic, and then so I in talking Tommy sent me these really amazing images of like from his algorithm. One was an accordion player and then one was of a streetscape. And I was completely obsessed with the accordion player. I'm sure he was like, all right, give me a card and play a rest already.

The accordion player is me. So I'm flattered that you picked it. Embarrassingly enough.

And actually, the accordion motif shows up a bunch. Right?

Because you chose that. Yeah. Sort of shape and expanded it. And I think it's up there on the upper left. In that top picture, top left picture, the horizontal stripes came from the accordion event and we sort of push things to a very abstract extreme, which is not something that I do in my work. But it was really interesting place to go. And then so the text.

Tommy Mintz

I had a cousin that passed away from COVID. And, you know, we're just processing that. And here's a quote of his that I think is poignant. He was a famous anarchist anthropologist. So, look him up. So, I think that kind of sense of trying to make meaning out of the chaos is what both of us were sort of talking about a lot, you know, with our own very personal So, I think that kind of sense of trying to make meaning out of the chaos is what both of us were sort of talking about a lot, you know, with our own very personal experiences and how similar they were in this moment and how I mean it was great to be able to converse through this project you know and process that I think that just looking back on these it really makes me kind of smile that we're able to make something of it yeah

And I think you know that we never really decided any of these things were done we just sort of it was sort of like you are done now because you need to give us your images we probably could have worked on them like kept exchanging back and forth for you know quite a while longer we were having really a lot of fun with the process I think was what it came down to so and

You know what if you if you guys wanted to continue I'm not gonna stop here like this is just I just needed stuff to be able to put in this exhibition like if you wanted to keep going by all means continue to collaborate like as I get as I said before I just laid the foundation you guys build whatever on top of that foundation that you see fit and it can go as high or for as long as you wanted to but this my favorite one of these I think it's this one that actually doesn't have any text on it but there is so much here there is so much here and my eyes were immediately you're drawn to like the two well the only two words that I could say anyway like or rejoice up here at the top and then live down here in the bottom left corner

Yeah we're inspired by the accordion player yeah that

Accordion player who may not actually be Tommy himself

That's me wrapped in the depths of winter when I go out to the river and spare my life and my family accordion practicing and actually this is a really interesting one to me I'm looking back on it now I remember Deanne sent me a version that had sort of some repetition going on in the right hand side that we retained above this bicyclist that we were discussing you know sort of in negative form there in the lower right hand there's what appears to me right now sort of within sort of recent conversation in the media especially are the twin towers seeming to burn in the distance and actually this picture is of barrack street which is lower seventh avenue seven avenue south right sort of looking south it was haunting because this picture didn't have that in it with the one I sent but somehow Deanne with this sort of process it popped up in there when she sent me a version so that was really cool yeah

I mean if he has enough credit I mean I could probably write about it but I don't know if he has enough credit but I think he's probably going to write about it in the future and the pixelation

Aspect of this couple of them that was just an accident I was trying to copy and paste from one app to another and ended up copying this like blown up one small section that gave me these really interesting pixelations and then I just kind of and then we just kind of went with it and started layering that into the images as well so you know it was sort of a series of you know just go with the flow and see what comes of it which I really enjoyed I really enjoyed the whole process

Good and that goes back to the whole thing about artifacts earlier like they pop up you can you can run with them if they pop up and they'll produce all sorts of interesting things and the pixelation stuff is just it's kind of along the same lines of that where it's it can be unexpected with you know just changes in resolution or changing from a program can produce all sorts of interesting effects

Exactly it's just really and then Tommy I love this one that Tommy did because he took a whole bunch of different images and really collaged them in a really interesting way to me then we layered on the pixelation parts and I think it came together really well

I inclined to agree one thing too that I noticed this shape right up here at the top left like the left of rejoice is that a str like what is that it's

A traffic light okay

That's why I thought it was I was like it looks like a traffic light but I'm not entirely sure but okay yeah

The streetscape image that Tommy sent was really interesting and I was trying to because I was reading the book about the midnight library in the alternate worlds I was almost trying to double up on certain images within that one image trying to make almost like two worlds sort of running in parallel to each other but you're just not aware of it right the traffic light was part of that and then it just sort of became part of the of the overall collage together

And the traffic light is repeated I think on the right hand side yeah it is once you

Notice it you see it showing up again so

On the bottom right corner like down here right yeah it's

The same traffic light same traffic light and actually next to the one all the way on the right you can see the current world trade center in sort of a white outline the I think one of the original images for this were was a what I'd call an alpha channel or a layer mask that I generated for my work that is just black and white and often has these strange outlines that pop up and yeah you can make out the current world trade center there and that's why I was so strange to see the other one ghosted in front of it right I've been listening to ghost stories too much there's

Quite a few people definitely getting Rauschenberg vibes from this yeah there's quite a few people

Before you have to leave I have to say that both your work and the Anne's work that I really been drawn to are your black and whites so I'm curious as to I mean I see black and white elements in some of these but that there's color in each of these images so I'm curious did that just sort of organically come about or did you not want to do a black and white the collaborative image

We never really discussed it actually I think it just sort of happened organically okay

A lot of them started black and white though I think yeah adding you had certain elements like that yellow Blotch was something in the beginning right we kept using it in different ways I forget where that came from but that was one of your pieces I think that we were sort of pixelating and abstracting further as we sent it back and forth so Michael it's interesting I mean as Dan said we didn't consciously add color but I think we definitely were looking at each other's black and white pictures as starting points. And you could see them being very dominant in this. And honestly, maybe we picked, we had so many more, Dan, that we sent back and forth. And we were continuing to go and then we're like, oh, wait, we got to send in four. And so we might have picked the most colorful ones. I don't know.

Tommy Mintz

You know, it's an interesting question.

Okay. Well, thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Does anybody else have any questions or comments for Dan or Tommy while he's still here? Because he's got to go to class very soon. If not, I can go ahead and start wrapping things up with us all. Seeing more comments, more praise, because that's the norm here. Another salon that takes my breath away. Nice.

Davonte Bradley

Very strong, provocative show.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you all for participating. And I think with that, I think I will start wrapping things up. If nothing else needs to be shared or asked, I'm going to do one real quick fly around of everything. So we can see majority of this exhibition. But if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at the chat box. All right.

Davonte Bradley

Well, with that, I think that we are done, everyone. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Thank you so much for being a viewer, adding your input. Thank you to all of our artists, all 13 of you, including the ones that weren't able to make it today. I know you're probably with us in spirit, unless you just didn't want to be part of this, but it's okay. I'm not saying it's not really not going to be.

Davonte Bradley

But thank you so much, everyone, for being a part of this and, you know, making, again, I know I've probably repeated myself several times at this point. But thank you so much, everyone, for being a part of this and, you know, making, again, I know I've probably repeated myself several times at this point. But these meetings, these exhibitions, these shows, they would not be what they are without all of you. You are the ones that are making all these things wonderful experiences for everyone involved.

Davonte Bradley

And yes, let us actually give the artists involved all a hand. Because I think you definitely deserve it.

Unmute. Unmute. Excellent. Woo! Woo!

And I would like to pop a champagne. Hey, Davo, could you unshare your screen real quick so we could see everyone at the end so we could all give a round of applause for everyone? Yeah, there we go. Sorry. There we go. Let's give a hand for everyone.

And I want to thank you, Davo, you know, for coming up with this idea, you know, which has really kind of blossomed into something really cool. And also, you know, to Bradley for helping with the install and the essay. And it's just really, you know, amazing to see this. And coming together in this way and all the dialogue. It's all part of this, you know. I mean, the more that I think about the idea of social sculpture, the more I like that as a way to describe what this is. Because, like, you know, other sort of terms don't seem to fit quite as well. And it's something that, like, all the different artists involved are contributing to. You know, and there's so many possibilities. And when I see a salon like this where there's so many different people. People actively participating. It makes me think, you know, maybe there's other formats that we can play around with, like, some sort of an interactive platform where everyone that's there live can, like, work on a piece at the same time and re-record it.

Colin Goldberg

Or something like that, you know. And it got me thinking about why wouldn't it be cool to do a collab with artists who just work with time-based media and video, passing video files back and forth. That could be an interesting show in and of itself, you know. So. And one other thing that I thought of while this was all going on was, like, you know, people were having their own sort of explanations talking about the work and everything else like that. And if people want to, you know, put something out on YouTube that relates to their collab or their project, you know, I'm happy to, you know, post it to the YouTube channel or whatever else. Like, I think that the more sort of bottom-up and participatory this is, the more interesting it is. So. That's my two cents. But thanks again, everyone.

Colin Goldberg

The show looks great.

Thank you.

And it's live on the homepage, by the way, also.

Thanks, Colin. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone.

I think we can go ahead and wrap up this recording, even though we've got, like, five-ish minutes to spare, because I don't have anything left to say.

Oh, Dava, do you know who is on the lineup for the next one by any chance?

Not off the top of my head.

Okay.

I know we do have people booked.

Like, I believe for the next two. So, you know, we'll let you guys know ahead of time. But, yeah, I think, you know, it's definitely really interesting. And the first collab show is also archived, you know, so that's something that is available on the site. And I wasn't sure if, you know, it was past the date on Kunstmatrix where the show dates, you know, we put in there. Yeah. If it would still be available. But they are both the collab. One and the NFT now show is still viewable through the exhibitions tab on the website.

Colin and Dava with one more minute. Just the interview series. Also want to encourage people to interview each other. I'm going to be interviewing Malavika pretty soon. And we'll be posting that. But just encouraging other people to do this because there's such a great dialogue going, especially with the collaborative people. I would think. The people who collaborated. With each other. You might want to interview one another.

That was actually originally part of it. And then it kind of dropped that because extra work. But, you know, if people want to still do it, by all means. Yeah. But anyway, thank you all so much for being here. And I think we can call it a call it a salon. All right.

Everybody have a good one. Everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye, everyone. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. You want to give us a countdown to shut down Dava? Sure.

And we are signing out in five, four, three, two, one. And.