Hello and welcome back to ONBD’s AudioVisual Art newsletter! It’s only been a few weeks since the first edition but as with all things in Web3, it feels like it’s been months. I thought things were supposed to slow down during a bear market… 😅 Anyway, in AVA land, the biggest news is that ONBD has partnered with objkt on a very special Open Call for audiovisual artworks! The selected pieces will be featured in our exhibition called Sound + Vision, a not-so-subtle nod to the great one himself, David Bowie. If you’re reading this and hearing about it for the first time, you can submit to the open call at this link: sound+vision
Ok so before getting to the artworks, I do want to quickly talk about the criteria that ONBD has for audiovisual art, since it has come up in a lot of our recent conversations with artists. Put simply: any artwork in which the audio component AND the visual component are essential to the piece — that is, the artwork would be incomplete without both parts, we consider to be AudioVisual Art. That’s it. Collaborations, works that look like stylized music videos, short films, AI generated visuals or sound, static images set to music — they’re all fair game. I truly believe we will be seeing more and more AVA artworks both on-chain and IRL, even to the point where some sub-genres will become useful. But for now, we’re taking it all in. This is a good spot to dive into my favorite pieces from the last few weeks.
First up is an artist who many of you may recognize: Everfresh, aka Sebastian Pfeifer. I’ve been mesmerized with his instantly recognizable animation style for some time now, and somehow his audiovisual pieces keep getting better. I was going to talk about a slightly older artwork but then all of a sudden he dropped this gem:
“The Magician”: yet another level up for this amazing artist. Everfresh hails from Buedingen, Germany, and describes himself as a Digital Artist / Musician. If I were to use one word to describe his work, it would be fluid. The “homemade” beats are chill, have an infectious swing to them, and incorporate sound effects that match the animation. As for the visuals — he says whimsical, I say trippy, haha. But also, there’s a retro feel to the works (perhaps the color palette?) that is offset by the slick, precise movement of his figures, in this case a kind of mushroom wizard/shaman who morphs into a yin/yang symbol before diving into an inky eyeball. It’s magical.
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The next piece I want to highlight is GŁOWA’s genesis piece on SuperRare. This is another artist who handles both the audio and visual with equal adeptness and artfulness. I urge anyone who’s reading this to follow him on twitter immediately https://twitter.com/_GLOWA_ .
GŁOWA describes Relics as “An ode to the physical artefacts that held formative experiences for many of my generation. Shaping who we are today.” The piece depicts objects floating in space under a dimly lit overpass or bridge: VHS and cassette tapes, floppy disks, skate decks and vintage computer monitors; every one of them an ‘artefact’ from my formative years, that’s for sure.
What is striking to me about this piece are two moments: 1. when the animation zooms out to show the setting under a bridge — a familiar setting yet completely otherworldly with the mass of floating objects, almost as if this were a corner of your mind where these relics of the past are stored — it’s very effective in its storytelling. 2. the moment that the higher register synth chords drop into the track, along with the filtered beat, and the computer screens suddenly light up in a pinkish purple hue, reflected in the floating objects around them… it’s like a memory that has become activated.
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Ok switching gears here a bit, to a series of abstract works called Limbo, by Joëlle https://twitter.com/joellesnaith. I was introduced to her work by Ana Maria Caballero, who included a piece on theVERSEverse Space on SuperRare, and I was intrigued by the visual style immediately. Then I turned on the sound, and HOLY. SHIT. An hour later I emerged from the rabbit hole of Joëlle’s artwork a new superfan.
Joëlle describes herself as “an artist & designer exploring the relationship between sound and form.” And, as a Canadian coming of age during the Toronto 90s rave scene (dating myself here), this one gives her additional points: “Visual artist for Richie Hawtin” !!!
Ok so I’m focusing on her Limbo series here, but seriously you all need to check out all of her work. I could devote an entire article to her work. Maybe I will at some point, come to think of it.
Artwork description: Limbo is a collection of four audiovisual works “exploring the monotony of the lockdown loop.” The description continues: “Made using Vuo, a node based visual programming environment and captured in real-time using VDMX. Sound design by Eaton Crous (www.500mills.com).”
Since this was captured in real-time, the visuals must be reacting to the audio, meaning Eaton Crous’s dubby, glitched out track was fed into her visual program. Essentially built around a rotating, glowing cube outlined against a black background, the audio causes the shape to distort, fold in itself, expand, and ‘explode’, with no two instances repeating. Ambient sounds in the track are more diffused, and louder bass hits seem to wreak havoc on the cube. It’s remarkable.
Ok, F it — here’s another one: Sound Painting #08
Artwork description: Sound Paintings is a series of audiovisual compositions exploring frequency driven paintings designed to amplify the sonic details of the audio within a set of constraints. The works are created in Vuo using a live audio input and captured in real-time. Audio: Variants 2 by Jorge Ciccioli & Max Donato, released on Voices Records.
It’s almost like I can feel the little drips of dopamine hitting the back of my brain as I take this in. Not much else to say :)
Til next time. Audiovisual Art.
