Fundamental Mechanics series
52+20 .gif animations, 360px × 639px, March 16, 2019 - April 17, 2020. Minted as NFTs on the #tezos blockchain between April 10 and August 6, 2021.
This series was made on a mediocre iPhone 5 using the Instagram stories feature while researching 16th century visual culture for the design of The Three Motions of Loom tapestries (‘Fundamental’ or ‘primary mechanics’ is a loom term). I discovered that the rebus-like late Medieval (alchemy) emblema resembled compositions of equally modular emoji and .gif stickers.
The enigmatic ‘hole’ emoji – one of the few emojis that actually has some depth – turned out to be the perfect portal, simulating space in a flat screen.
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These ultrashort animations were a quick way to investigate the artistic possibilities of consumer technology and prefab components.
At first, I used existing .gifs from the Giphy database, which is integrated in Instagram. After a while, though, I started missing elements, and applied for my own Giphy artist account.
Between August 2019 and May 2020 my Giphy account accumulated a whopping 195.1 million views, with one of my unicorns accounting for about 31 million of them. I closed my account in May 2020 when Facebook bought the platform. I didn’t feel good about providing free content for that company.
A selection of 37 animations from the series was turned into a 3-edition video work, presented on a small, open frame screen.
When NFTs entered my field of view in February 2021, I realized the series seemed made for the NFT medium.
I turned the animations – originally saved as mp4s – into low res .gifs; a choice made for several reasons (compatibility, for instance, and to honour the original format of the stickers that were used).
After careful (ecological) consideration, I decided to publish the series on the now defunct platform Hic et Nunc (*).
The series was minted between April 10 and August 6, 2021.
(* Update Nov 2021: the series can be accessed through objkt.com)
Check out @acrwrs Fundamental Mechanics's NFTs on objkt.com, the largest NFT marketplace on Tezos.