specture research

is anything new these days? when I had an idea a while ago to make a 'specture-world', a group of interconnected virtual spaces to explore different digital species, their habitats, architectures and environments in each one, and let others build / add on their versions to this (hopefully) ever-growing spatial hive of places, I hadn't already read or remembered (?!?) Marcos Novak's "Dancing with Virtual Dervish" virtual world project from the mid 1990s.

Howard Morphy writes about the Australian Aboriginal Yolngu peoples' concept of Bir'Yun – the transformation of a cultural painting from the rough, dull contour of the underpainting to the brilliance of the final work, which is filled with crosshatching to indicate “a shimmering quality of light which engenders an emotional response” [3]. Morphy suggests this idea operates cross-culturally [3]. Morphy and Deborah Bird Rose extend this concept to the shimmering pulses of life — seasons, new life, sun glistening on rippling water [3], streams of light in the landscape and the interconnections, emergence and withdrawal between interacting species, those termed as having symbiotic mutualism [4].

Shimmer requires a process of transformation – energy translating from one form to another, from dullness to brilliance. ​

"Nothing is connected to everything, everything is connected to something" notes Donna Haraway [1] via Thom van Dooren [5]. Mapping this to a network topology to see a visualization of it shows similarities with peer-to-peer networks and the topology of decentralized blockchain networks. These network maps or topologies of interconnections based on this idea can be seen in ecology also from high level view, such as species' interactions with each other and their environments as well as down to the low level view of cellular / organelle evolutionary mappings created via the symbiotic interconnections idea proposed by Lynn Margulis' 1960s serial endosymbiosis theory (SET)[2]. From a topological view, we can see that the decentralized network topology of ecology is similar to the decentralized topology of the blockchain.​

If landscapes in the physical world shimmer due to the interconnections and relationships between species, their habitats and the land in their physical environments, do digital landscapes on the blockchain shimmer as well? This exhibition is a speculative exploration of these ideas, using the underlying approach of placing extinct species onto the blockchain via my specture research project. In an attempt to de-centre the human, and see the species’ view: what would the landscape and habitats look like in their new digital environments; would they shimmer as well?​

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I interpret the term Everywhen as being related to First Australians’ concept of place, time and story aligning with Country and the Dreaming — everything existing in time forever, all at once (Neale and Kelly 2020; McGrath, Rademaker and Troy 2023; Perkins and Langton 2010).

In practical terms, my works are digital JavaScript code-based drawings recorded and securely validated on the Tezos blockchain and hosted on IPFS (public filesharing nodes/servers). They are viewable in a web browser via a computer, personal device, monitor or projector/screen. The drawings include 3D models of the species that I’ve either created from 2D contour line drawings extruded to 3D or physical handmade models which were lidar / 3D scanned to create their digital forms. By storing the species onto the blockchain, it is a type of archiving of them, which raises questions especially if their forms have been altered during the conversion to digital and/or upload/minting process — archives, whilst definitely useful, can never describe perfectly the original species / artifact, and also may introduce biases and errors into the understanding of the original. We should endeavour to save the species now, rather than letting them become extinct.

The code-based drawings containing digital species creates a new ecology for the species — a digital ecology, a queer ecology (Morton 2010; Seymour 2013). The species' form has changed from its original flesh-based form. At times it appears to us as uncanny, even cute, at other times it moves towards the grotesque. It is now free from the bounds of gravity and can move spatially in new ways and make new connections. Evolution's rules apply differently in the digital world — chemical-based DNA controlled features may no longer apply. A parent drawing is created containing the base algorithm, then child drawings are generated automatically once the drawing is collected/minted by the viewer. Digital features and capabilities appear based on the blockchain metadata values. Can the species continue to evolve once born / minted to the blockchain or are they fixed once the child version is created?

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there's a community art event happening this week, called #objkt4objkt #objkt4objkt4. I made a code based API drawing of blockchain metadata to continue the series from previous events, then used it to map / project onto a fly mushroom I've been watching emerge / grow over the past couple of weeks.

the second work is a video piece, "a fly in a blockchain ecology / blockchain landscape"

the drawing shows the progression of the fly (mushroom) scanned from nature, being digitised then becoming part of the blockchain ecology / blockchain landscape. the final stage has blockchain metadata from the first API drawing mapped onto the 3d model, live mixed to a video. part of my specture project, exploring putting extinct species onto the blockchain, and what their new digital habitats / landscapes could look like

links: https://teia.art/objkt/850935 & https://teia.art/objkt/850683

Earlier this month, I came across Estonian artist, Katja Novitskova's Post Internet work and love this more recent work: "Soft Approximation (Looking Glass Deers Kissing 04)", 2023 via https://www.instagram.com/p/CzBgKwRofU5 — the materiality of the glass as the fragility of ecology/species works well, and loving the use of colour. Forests of the future?

Richard Serra & Hal Foster - Conversations about Sculpture (2018) is one of my favourite books on sculpture. I really resonated with Serra's ideas on gravity — of course, his ideas are for physical materials and process art, but the ideas can be re-applied to digital art. It was a reminder and aha moment for me — obvious in hindsight — that digital art is not limited by gravity, so when making 3D models / worlds / scenes etc, you can do what you like.

Inspired by Gene McHugh's excellent Post Internet blog & writing project from 2009-2010, I'm attempting to write more often here. Deciding on which section has been the most difficult — the issue with too many sections / broad scope of interests. Specture is my overarching research and art making project, albeit with some sub-sections / topics along the way.