The creative process of “SyntheticPortraits” (April-October2023)
Since May 2021, I’m a member of the crypto art community and I have been producing digital art minted on the blockchain as NFTs.In early 2023, after having the chance of attending in person many crypto art events and having constant dialogues on social media with fellow crypto artists and members of the crypto community, I wanted to learn more about who were these people. What was the common story of all these individuals, coming from all over the World, who decided to use the blockchain as a tool to share their artworks, create businesses, and use it as a cultural symbol?
Since May 2021, I’m a member of the crypto art community and I have been producing digital art minted on the blockchain as NFTs.In early 2023, after having the chance of attending in person many crypto art events and having constant dialogues on social media with fellow crypto artists and members of the crypto community, I wanted to learn more about who were these people. What was the common story of all these individuals, coming from all over the World, who decided to use the blockchain as a tool to share their artworks, create businesses, and use it as a cultural symbol?
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I decided to create a gallery of portraits of members of the crypto-community to investigate further. To do so, I hired a cinematographer, and on April 13, 2023, during the last day of the NFT NYC conference (A major in-person event about crypto) in New York City, I stayed in the lobby of the conference venue and asked to conference participants if they would like to answer, on camera, to a series of questions. I clearly identified myself as an artist. Here are the questions that were asked to all interviewees: First and last name Year of birth City & country of birth Current city & country of residence Mother’s job Father’s job Maternal Grandmother’s job Maternal Grandfather’s job Paternal Grandmother’s job Paternal Grandfather’s job Describe the outer layer of the clothes you are wearing now (top) Describe the bottom clothes you are wearing now
Describe the type of shoes you are wearing now From noon to six pm, I interviewed 65 people. Only one person walked away mid-interview, saying that “It was obviously a scam attempt”...The cinematographer and I were once approached by a security guard inquiring about what we were doing (He thought we were trying to sell goods or services), and I clearly explained that I was conducting interviews for a future artwork, and he let us continue filming.The vast majority of interviewees were very comfortable to answer the questions, although a little bit surprised when they realized they were no questions about their jobs or projects. I would say about a quarter of them showed some level of discomfort to answer questions about the job of their parents or grandparents. Globally, all the interviews happened in a cordial atmosphere. After reviewing the interviews, I could keep only 44 of them, as some interviewees declined to give several answers (In particular their year of birth and city of birth), and I needed to have a consistent set of data before proceeding further in their |
analysis. I wanted to create individual portraits purely based on facts, and removing any subjective characterization of these individuals. Very quickly, I decided not to use the questions about clothing, as it would have overcomplicated the portraits and was not necessary. Then, I finally decided to make fully anonymous portraits, and neither use the images of the interviewees nor their name.I also wanted to create a dynamic way of arranging the portraits in a specific order, based on statistics that I could generate from all the data.I decided to use the US Census data (And international economic databases for cities outside the U.S.) and find the annual median income per capita in the cities of birth and cities of residence.
Then I calculated the percentage difference from the city of birth to the current city of residence. Using this percentage, I organized the interviews from the higher percentage increase to the lowest percentage decrease. I finished processing all the data in August 2023 and started to work on the visual aspect of each portrait. As an artist using language, I knew I wanted to create text-based portraits with no physical representation of the bodies of the interviewees. I also wanted to introduce a dynamic elements in the display of the text and have the letter reveal one after another. After experimenting with different designs and colors, I came up with the final design in mid September 2023. I included the photograph of an asteroid from the NASA archives on each portrait to fully decontextualize each portrait and force the viewer to focus on the raw socio economic data and remove any subjective opinion or judgment.The perception of each portrait is entirely up to the spectator, as the artwork does not attempt to give clues for interpretation.
Pierre Gervois October 2023
Then I calculated the percentage difference from the city of birth to the current city of residence. Using this percentage, I organized the interviews from the higher percentage increase to the lowest percentage decrease. I finished processing all the data in August 2023 and started to work on the visual aspect of each portrait. As an artist using language, I knew I wanted to create text-based portraits with no physical representation of the bodies of the interviewees. I also wanted to introduce a dynamic elements in the display of the text and have the letter reveal one after another. After experimenting with different designs and colors, I came up with the final design in mid September 2023. I included the photograph of an asteroid from the NASA archives on each portrait to fully decontextualize each portrait and force the viewer to focus on the raw socio economic data and remove any subjective opinion or judgment.The perception of each portrait is entirely up to the spectator, as the artwork does not attempt to give clues for interpretation.
Pierre Gervois October 2023
Artist Statement:
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