on Toshareproject.it - curated by Bruce Sterling
*There’s been a lot going on.
Feral File Year in Review
With 2023 winding down, we’re looking back on a year full of big things for Feral File. We successfully launched the ambitious MoMA Postcard, an experiment in borderless co-creation initiated through the ongoing collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art and Bitmark. Earlier this year, we turned two years old and launched a major Retrospective looking back at the artists we’ve worked with and the artwork we’ve shown. On the heels of the Retrospective, we entered a new phase of Feral File, FF 2.0, with a new model and timeline for exhibitions and a refreshed look for our website. And we’ve documented it all with a new series of video interviews, recorded talks, and exhibition walkthroughs available on the Feral File YouTube channel. Let’s dig into it.
MoMA Postcard
In October, we launched the MoMA postcard project, a new experiment in borderless co-creation on the blockchain, in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. Akin to a digital chain letter, each postcard is designed collaboratively—stamp by stamp, person by person—as it moves from one destination to the next. Everyone is invited to participate using the Autonomy app.
The NFT project kicked off with the First 15, a celebrated group of artists whose practices include generative art, choreography, poetry, and digital world building. Each artist created a Postcard prompt, designed their first stamp, and sent it along to the next artist until all 15 Postcards had been stamped by each of the 15 artists. Special thanks to the First 15 artists Anna Lucia, Anna Lucia, Casey Reas, Dmitri Cherniak, Grant Yun, IX Shells, Kim Asendorf, Linda Dounia Rebeiz, Lovid, Operator, Osinachi, p1xelfool, Peter Burr, Sarah Friend, Sasha Stiles, Ykxotkx.
“Embrace nature. Use the field to draw landscapes.”
Prompted by Grant Yun
Stamped by Grant Yun, Peter Burr, ykxotkx, Dmitri Cherniak, LoVid, Operator, p1xelfool, Kim Asendorf, Casey Reas, Linda Dounia, Osinachi, Sarah Friend, Sasha Stiles, Anna Lucia, IX Shells
More than 10,000 people signed up for early access to the project, and now anyone can join in by minting a blank Postcard both at the museum and online. On MoMA’s website, you can find all Postcards made by the First 15 and see the leaderboard and see which shows the total distance traveled of each Postcard.
To embark on your MoMA Postcard journey, we suggest gathering a group of 14 co-creators (15 total), deciding on a theme or a prompt, and have fun!
Scan this QR code to download the Autonomy app and get started today!
Read more about the project in The Art Newspaper, Right Click Save, Outland, Fake Whale, and nftnow.
The Retrospective
This summer, Feral File celebrated our second birthday with a two-show Retrospective, FF 1.0 and a2p, and a conversation series showcasing our community of artists and curators. More than 16 artists and 5 curators participated in the series of talks, which was attended by over 1,400 people. The recordings are on our Feral File YouTube channel, which we also launched this year and where you can find playlists for all of our Exhibition Walkthroughs. Be sure to check out the On Generative Art discussion hosted in collaboration with Right Click Save and the Conversation with Curators.
This year we also launched Feral File 2.0, a new model for experiencing and collecting exhibitions (and a totally refreshed look for our website). Casey Reas and Bitmark CEO, Sean Moss-Pultz explain more about this new iteration of Feral File in this video.
Feral File Co-Founder Casey Reas and Bitmark CEO, Sean Moss-Pultz, explore the vision behind the new version of Feral File debuting in July 2023.
2023 Feral File Exhibitions
Alongside the Retrospective, we’re so proud of all our exhibitions this year, which ranged from a solo show with the works of renowned painter and computer art pioneer Lee Mullican to the lauded group shows In/Visible and N=12, curated by Linda Dounia Rebeiz and Aaron Penne respectively.
Collaborating with and supporting artists is Feral File’s bread and butter; we’re grateful for the artists, curators, and partner artist spaces and institutions we were lucky enough to work with this year, which include Christiane Paul, curator at the Whitney; Alice Scope and Barry Threw from Vellum LA and Fabricatorz Foundation; Adam Berninger of TENDER; Kate Parsons and Janna Avner of FEMMEBIT; and Giorgio Vitale of Synthesis Gallery; among others. Here’s a full list of the exhibitions we held this year.
I KNOW
In our current post-truth society, in which veracity and accuracy are sacrificed on the altar of hyperbole and misinformation, I Know invited artists to reexamine historical moments and to evoke images of the past in order to claim a place within it. Curated by Giorgio Vitale of Synthesis Gallery.
Lu Yang, Material World Knight (2023)
Exhibiting in Material Wonderland. Curated by Alice Scope & Barry Threw
Material Wonderland
Curated by Alice Scope and Barry Threw, in partnership with Vellum LA and Fabricatorz Foundation, Material Wonderland is the first solo NFT exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed Chinese multimedia artist Lu Yang.
Chain Reaction
Curated by Christiane Paul, renowned curator of digital art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Chain Reaction strived to underscore the inherent connections between the blockchain as a list of data blocks facilitating the recording of transactions and tracking of assets, and the generative social, aesthetic, and environmental contexts and networks in which these assets are embedded.
Lee Mullican, LMG4.PCX (2023)
Exhibiting in LeeMullican.PCX. Curated by Anika Meier
LeeMullican.PCX
Curated by Anika Meier and put on in partnership with the Estate of Lee Mullican, this exhibition presented 12 NFTs of the work of Lee Mullican, a renowned painter and pioneer of computer art.
FeralVerse
Curated by theVERSEverse, FeralVerse was Feral File’s first poetry exhibition. Published as non-fungible Tezos tokens, each piece was a collaboration between a poet and an artist at the avant-garde of web3 poetry, including some of the planet’s most renowned voices.
BLOOMCORE
In the spring of 2022, Rick Silva took a road trip along the Pacific Northwest and 3D scanned hundreds of blooming plants to create the work in his series BLOOMCORE, curated by Claire L Evans.
COLORS OF NOISE
In his solo show with Feral File, Kim Asendorf turns the entire spectrum of noise into an artistic experience with his series COLORS OF NOISE. The mesmerizing display of visual and auditory art in this series subtly allows the audience to become the object of the work.
Serwah Attafuah, PERCEIVED (2023)
Exhibiting in In/Visible. Curated by Linda Dounia
In/Visible
“Black people are accustomed to being unseen. When we are seen, we are accustomed to being misrepresented,” writes Linda Dounia Rebeiz in the curator’s note for In/Visible. This extremely well-received exhibition brought together a group of artists telling their stories using AI, while at the same time acknowledging its inherent biases and shortcomings.
The Experiment
In 2019, Casey Reas, Rick Silva, Addie Wagenknecht, and artist duo exonemo (SEMBO Kensuke and AKAIWA Yae) curated an exhibition called a2p, which stands for artist-to-peer. The curators asked artists to make a piece of digital art, mint editions the work, and swap with each other. That experiment was the genesis of Feral File, which launched with Bitmark in June 2020. For Feral File’s second birthday, we brought a2p back into focus to celebrate how it started.
Feral File 1.0
Part of the Retrospective earlier this year, Feral File 1.0 included one artwork from every Feral File exhibition to date, starting with Social Codes, which opened March 19, 2021, and ending with In/Visible, curated by Linda Dounia Rebeiz and released June 12, 2023.
Nicole Vella, Text Me When You Get Home (2023)
N=12
Curated by Aaron Penne, N=12 is an experiment in building intentional community, with 12 artists collaborating across seven time zones. Elected by a group of their peers, the artists convened and collaborated online over several months, sharing their code and artistic processes while fostering a co-creative microcosm enriched by weekly meetings, aesthetic critiques, code reviews, and vibrant discussion.
In Medias Res
Curated by FEMMEBIT (Kate Parsons and Janna Avner), In Medias Res is an exhibition celebrating the contributions of feminist and post-cyberfeminist artists with ties to the vibrant city of Los Angeles.
SOURCE
Curated by Operator, 0xDEAFBEEF, and Casey Reas, SOURCE is a non-commercial exhibition of previously minted artworks which use software as a medium. SOURCE is both a reference to “source code” and also the “source” of something that’s rapidly emerging and evolving.
Truth
Featuring 8 emerging artists, the works in Truth portray the different types of universal building blocks that each artist uses — cells, threads, light, and forces — which, taken together, abstract the range and scale of what’s possible. Curated by Adam Berninger of TENDER.
Iskra Velitchkova, ANATOMY of a rabbit but bird (2023)
Exhibiting in +GRAPH. Curated by Casey Reas
+GRAPH
Like its predecessor –GRAPH, the exhibition +GRAPH features generative software that is capable of making limitless new drawings, with each artist selecting 30 of these variations to render as plotter drawings. Curated by Casey Reas.
Right Click Save x Feral File
This year saw the start of an editorial partnership with online magazine Right Click Save, one of the most rigorous and thoughtful publications out there covering art on the blockchain. Alongside each Feral File exhibition, RCS published an article, artist interview, curator interview, or transcribed talk. We’ve gathered them all together below.
THE INTERVIEW | PITER PASMA
As the Generative Artists Club inaugurates Feral File 2.0, one of its stars speaks to Alex Estorick
WHEN TYLER HOBBS MET 0XDEAFBEEF
During Feral File’s Retrospective, the artists discuss the physical craft of generative art with Elisabeth Sweet and Alex Estorick
FEMMEBIT AND THE NEW CALIFORNIA
The Feral File exhibition celebrates a collective of digital artists upending Hollywood fantasy
THE EDGES OF CODE
Iskra Velitchkova and Zach Lieberman discuss their collaboration, “horizon(te)s,” part of Feral File exhibition SOURCE.
THE TRUTH OF GENERATIVE ART
Adam Berninger shares his curatorial vision for Feral File’s TRUTH with artist Emily Edelman
THE POWER OF THE PLOTTER
Feral File’s exhibition, +GRAPH celebrates the art of generative drawing
Feral File in the News
Feral File and our exhibitions were grateful to receive some truly outstanding press coverage this year. There are too many mentions to list them all here, but we’ll share some of our favorites.
Digital Art Platform Feral File Turns Two With a Starry Retrospective
A great piece in Artnet about the Feral File Retrospective, which featured 33 works gathered from our past shows.
Feral File in the News
Feral File and our exhibitions were grateful to receive some truly outstanding press coverage this year. There are too many mentions to list them all here, but we’ll share some of our favorites.
Digital Art Platform Feral File Turns Two With a Starry Retrospective
A great piece in Artnet about the Feral File Retrospective, which featured 33 works gathered from our past shows.
Black Artists Say A.I. Shows Bias, With Algorithms Erasing Their History
In The New York Times, both Linda Dounia Rebeiz and Minne Atairu, as well as the exhibition In/Visible, were prominently featured in an article on algorithmic bias.
Minne Atairu, Blonde Braids Study IV, The New York Times
Is AI generating an ‘averaged’, one-sided, view of art history?
A wonderfully thorough and insightful article in The Art Newspaper on AI bias and misrepresentation, featuring In/Visible.
Feral File in ArtReview
Casey Reas and Art After the Crypto Crash
In ArtReview, an in-depth interview with Feral File co-founder Casey Reas about why there’s still so much momentum in the wider digital art community even after the market for NFTs has largely collapsed.
Curating Software with Casey Reas
Zora Zine also published an excellent and wide-ranging longform interview with Casey Reas.
8 NFT Artists Building Their Own Crypto Communities
Casey Reas was featured in Forbes as one of eight artists fostering meaningful communities.
The T Predictor: What We’ll Be Obsessing Over in 2024
Adaeze Okaro’s “Planet Hibiscus” from the In/Visible exhibition was featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
From The Idunnos by Jah, on the cover of Damn
Damn magazine also ran a big feature in print on In/Visible and Jah’s “The Idunnos” was the cover art. The exhibition is also mentioned and Linda is quoted in a recent article on Refinery29.
Thank you for your support this year!
To the artists, curators, and partners we’ve had the privilege of working with this year, thank you.
To our collectors, your support is invaluable.
Exciting things are in store for 2024 and beyond. We look forward to continuing this journey with you!