Location: 1145 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY

Featuring: artists from ONBD & Artcrush

“I Prompt, Therefore I Am” is a group exhibition and party featuring physical, immersive installations from ONBD’s artist collective, including works from Shlumper, Yasuo Nomura, Nao Kondo, and Shinji Murakami. The exhibition will also showcase selected digital works from the “City Pop” open call and projections of works by renowned international NFT artists from the inaugural Artcrush World Tour (listed below,) which will also be shown on the billboards in Times Square during NFT NYC. The AR wall mural will be on view starting April 11. The event takes place on Friday to celebrate the closing of NFT NYC, with sound by Discokid.

Drink Sponsor: Whiner Beer Co. / Brooklyn Kura / Robert Murphy

About the exhibition:

Welcome to “I Prompt, Therefore I Am,” an exhibition that delves into the evolving relationship between creativity and machine thinking in the modern world. As our lives become more intertwined with technology, we question what it means to be creative and how we can harness the power of machines to enhance our artistic expression. Through a range of works in new media, algorithms, digital art, conceptualism, energy, dimensions, and perspectives, this exhibition invites you to explore the complex interplay between human creativity and the capabilities of artificial intelligence. From provocative digital installations to immersive audiovisual experiences, “I Prompt Therefore I Am” challenges you to contemplate the future of art and its relationship with technology. Don’t miss this thought-provoking exhibition that blurs the boundaries between human and machine creativity.

“City Pop” open call selected artists on view — 
Alex Deer / ANIMÆ / mamaralic / Ōishi Kaijū / Carolina Patricia / YO-CO / Reri / Nygilia/ Ann Chou / Thorium / SouthernFried / Shimizu Wakako / Dantrix / Choen Lee / Qiao Muzi / Hiroki Otsuka / Nico Sun / Aoyoko / TENTENDOU / naozo / 𝑱𝒖𝒏-𝑲𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒊 / YAMA / ThisisaRobot / Tiger Cai / PapaBearded / Roots of Vanadis / Pondering / Fumeiji / MørkNingen / guruguruhyena / Yomu Yakadashi / Gokusai

We are thrilled to have Artcrush as our partner for this special occasion. They will be exhibiting selected works from ONBD artists on digital signages in the vicinity for the evening, as well as showcasing them in Manhattan during NFT NYC. We are grateful for their support and collaboration in bringing these incredible works to a wider audience.

More on Artcrush here

Artcrush Gallery, World Tour, Season 1 artists include:
Hackatao
Trevor Jones
0009
bongdoe
Dolce Paganne
Laurent Castellani
Michael Kutsche
Sasha Stiles
Mr Richi
RedruM
Skilux
East
Cem Hasimu
DotPigeon
Jake Fried
tjo
Vexx
Reuben Wu
Gabe Weis
Zhuk
Richard Nadler
Lucréce
Tania Rivilis
sabet
Jenni Pasanen
Singlezer0
Jæn
Arne Spangereid
FelixFelixFelix
Nicolas Bets
Shavonne Wong
ROBNESS
ripcache
Farrah Carbonell
foodmasku
mobotato
Bloo Woods
Ottis
Lisa Fogarty
Theo Chronis
Max Taquet
Negar Sepehraeen
Anna Condo
GT Sewell
Mr Misang

Click for Event Details

We are excited to announce that ONBD Gallery has been added to OM Museum District at Oncyber! Special Thanks to @punk6529, @DarrenSRS, and @mysteriovision for making this happen.

Click the embed link to visit ONBD Gallery:

6529 Museum District

What is OM?

OM stands for Open Metaverse. Spearheaded by Punk 6529, the aim is to create a decentralized Metaverse, bridging virtual and physical spaces, that people use in their day-to-day lives

What is OM Museum District?

The [6529 Museum District] is the first district of the first city — Genesis City — in what we hope will be a vast decentralized world — OM. Its goal is to be the top location in the world for people to learn about NFTs.

About ONBD Gallery:

ONBD Gallery was designed by the incredible dream maker - The Sid. The gallery has 3 floors, with 10+ exhibition halls, and new portals coming soon. All the spaces will showcase artwork from the ONBD community.

What can we offer to Artists?

ONBD will mount an ongoing series of exhibitions for our artist community that will be shown in our gallery in the 6529 Museum District. We plan to rotate artworks monthly, to give as many artists as possible a chance for their work to be seen.

How To Apply?

1. Follow @onbd_art on Twitter

2. Join ONBD.ART on Telegram and make a post that contains

a. your art

b. little about yourself and your art

c. Tag #om100

Our curators will look over the submissions and be as inclusive as possible with their selections. Harmful or hateful content will not be considered. As our Telegram community grows, we will add an artist channel dedicated to this project.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because the one thing that I haven’t kept up on is this AVA Spotlight article, which is supposed to published once a month. With all this ‘busy work’ I’ve been doing, I’ve neglected the more fulfilling pastime of writing this newsletter. Hence, this entry has become a mega-entry, fair warning. I don’t expect you to read it all in one sitting. Later on I might split this into two posts, but for now… Audiovisual Art mega-thread incoming.

Parsa Mostaghim

I’m starting with an artist who can do it all: Parsa Mostaghim, from Tehran, Iran. He creates partially fantastical, somewhat realistic 3D scenes, in a kind of wobbly, grotesque yet appealing visual style, all backed by his own music. Parsa has a multi-step process when creating his work: he first sculpts the scene in VR, using his Metaquest 2 headset. He then imports the 3D files into Blender, where he fine-tunes the composition, adds lighting, and creates the animation. Finally, he fires up his synthesizers and composes the music for the piece.

Out of Gas and Desperate for Love | Foundation

This work is called Out of Gas and Desperate for Love, and the more I look at it, the more I love it. The perspectives are strangely collapsed but still three-dimensional; I keep seeing new details like windshield washer fluid in mid-stream, the Nike swoosh on a squished green shoe of one of the characters in the piece, and of course the cute little dog nodding its head over a pink bone...

All the while, this square wave synth melody is bouncing along to the scene, with the sound of birds and passing cars completing the weirdness. The sound effects actually make the scene seem more real, as if your really looking at a couple and their dog stranded on the side of the road, trying to get out of their predicament. And speaking of synths, Parsa seems to have a setup that is the REAL DEAL — look at his still life painting of his studio:

If you haven’t checked out Parsa’s work, go have a look. His twitter handle is https://twitter.com/parsa_mostaghim. It’s always great to find an artist with a unique, consistent style, and Parsa’s audiovisual skills are an added bonus.

Saeko Ehara and Xiaolin

The next piece that I want to highlight comes courtesy of OpenLab, a platform ‘showcasing the best in innovative and alternative music and art’. They broadcast from our Hangar8289 Ibiza hub and internationally online at OpenLab.fm; they’ve been around since 2013, founded by the composer and DJ Robert Miles. OpenLab was conceived specifically to showcase the best in innovative yet accessible music and visual art, and so it’s natural that they are pioneers in the world of audiovisual art (and NFTs) as well.

I know and admire the work of Saeko Ehara, and so was happy to see her part of the recent OpenLab collaboration series New Mycelium Network.

Sonata | Foundation

The piece is linked above, and it’s best to just give the full artwork description here:

‘Sonata’ is a collaboration between digital artist Saeko Ehara and producer, DJ and instrumentalist Xiaolin. To create the extraordinary sound composition, Xiaolin used acid sound design, mirroring water bubbles and mostly analog synths, imitating natural textures with white noise. Everything is played by hand and she has layered real violin recordings on top. Ehara’s visuals are inspired by the ‘Monotropastrum humile’ plant — a plant with a unique ecology that is parasitic of fungi. Thriving in difficult conditions, it produces colour without chlorophyll and as such becomes a symbol of hope and survival.

Visuals: Saeko Ehara
Audio: Xiaolin
Title: Sonata
Date: 2022
Format: MP4
Dimensions: 1280 x 720 px
Duration: 1:13
Unique Edition 1/1

It’s difficult to pull off a good collaborative piece — I know this from experience. Sometimes one party is too overbearing, sometimes both are too passive, not wanting to step on each others’ toes; but the feeling that I get from this piece is that both artists felt comfortable enough with each other to give it their all. These artists weren’t just phoning it in. Creating a piece of music this layered (recording real violin) takes a lot of time, and the 3D visuals, with the various scenes, animation and lighting — this is truly a piece that elevates both artists’ contributions and takes them to a new level.

As an aside — I had to google Monotropastrum humile because, you know, ‘self-education’, and to save you the trouble, here is your new scientific knowledge of the day:

Monotropastrum humile is a species of myco-heterotrophic plant of the family Ericaceae, distributed throughout eastern Asia, from the Himalayas to the Islands of Japan. It lacks chlorophyll and is therefore unable to perform photosynthesis as most plants do; instead it gains sugars and nutrients from mycorrhizal fungi.

Raphaël Erba

I’ve seen the work of Raphaël Erba (twitter: @pipouz01) pop up every so often on my twitter feed, so I’ve known for some time that he’s an artist that I wanted to take a closer look at. I procrastinated, and missed his open edition on Manifold by just a day(!), and so, kicking myself, decided to write about his work in the newsletter, finally. First off — here is his Manifold OE:

Make the stars fly away

As I mentioned above the mint period has passed, but you can still find some on secondary of course. Raphaël Erba is a dad (like me) with a little girl (like me) who “inspires me every day…” (also like me). He even composes his own music! But that’s where the similarities between us end, because he’s French, he’s a poet, and a ridiculously talented 3D animator, all of which are qualities/skills that I lack. This piece is clearly inspired by his daughter, and if you go to his various profiles on Foundation and SuperRare you’ll see more works on the subject; I love them all and I can completely relate to them (especially the one of his girl riding her bike for the first time).

I took a dive into Raphaël’s portfolio and dug out a few gems; there is an acrobatic ninja theme that runs through his works, which I love very much, but the one that stood out to me is more quiet and instrospective. I imagine it to be like a self-portrait, with his ninja persona creating art, called The Release. The music sets the tone, along with the artwork description:

Every blank page promises the release of new ideas, fragile and light as paper… Open the cages of your minds and let them fly away.

Authentic Digital Art - The Release | SuperRare

Another piece (a series, really) is Raphaël’s Mind Flow series — the animation is spotless, with a flow that reminds me of Sebastian Pfeifer (Everfresh), and crisp music production to match. His loops are short but seamless, and you can zone out to them, which is probably part of their point — finding a meditative balance.

Mind Flow | Foundation

Ykha Amelz x Discokid909

“There are paintings in our mind Creatures that we can’t control And it’s our dream to paint them That’s the only thing we want to do When they’re out on display People look at them like they’re in a dream It’s as if they’re not humans but just some kind of creatures that we made Painting dreams all night long”

For my final entry this month, I am bringing you to the dancefloor. My favorite duo from Indonesia created a 3-part Audiovisual Odyssey for Living System, a Tezos Exhbition at S.E.A. Focus 2023, the anchor event of Singapore Art Week last month. You can find out more about the artist duo at the link above, as there’s a great interview with the two of them, but in a nutshell — they are two of the most high profile artists in Jakarta, working with brands in Web2 including Vans, Coach, and Netflix, and at the same time selling out NFT collections like project by Ykha that was published by artist Brian Brinkman on Nifty Gateway. I asked them separately to be part of ONBD’s Sound and Vision exhibition objkt.com last year, not knowing at the time that they worked as a duo (and are married, actually), and they both accepted, graciously!

Anyway, on to the artworks. Entitled ‘One Frequency’, the piece is broken up into three parts, each one minted separately on Tezos. The music could easily be spliced back together into one longer track — in fact I’d love to have a version like this — but when blended with the visuals, they really make sense as three separate movements, which I’ll attempt to describe below:

Part 1: The trio of works begins with Peputo’s Intro. A warm, synthy chord progression fades in and we see Ykha’s signature pink pear-shaped character rotating to the music, holding a glowing white puffball that looks like it’s ‘singing’ the higher up melody that comes in…

Peputo's Intro

Part 2: A Distant Voice, the same chords repeat but are played by different instruments and DiscoKid makes them more rhythmic, while adding vocals that echo unintelligible lyrics. The visuals are more psychedelic, with some of the ‘stage lights’ still visible but now the background has become multicolored universe, with shooting stars that leave rainbow trails behind them. The main character in this piece is a floating figure underneath a white blanket, wearing the same socks as the previous pink character…perhaps Ykhan has names for these characters, and perhaps I’ll ask her one of these days.

A Distant Voice

Part 3: is called D-909 Groove Arcade, and musically it sounds like a direct continuation of the previous track, but with some drums added in the background. Fairly quickly, DiscoKid drops the lowpass filter and the drums come in full force, along with one of the funkiest basslines I’ve heard in about a decade, and we’re watching a 3-headed, 6-armed, zebra striped creature grooving to my new favorite track.

D-909 Groove Arcade

The artists write that with these works, they want “to achieve an overall sense of wholeness in our visuals by creating a frequency through sounds. The use of positive melodies and visuals with tones that range from light to dark are meant to cradle the viewer to relax. An escape from the everyday and a celebration of now.”

That’s dancefloor ethos right there.

Ok, this article has gone on long enough. Maybe I should have split them into two entries after all. If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with it and please stay tuned for more AudioVisual art spotlights (of a more manageable length) in the coming months!

Platform: SuperRare x ONBD Space

Featured Artists: Cecilia Goose, Maiko Kikuchi, Liunic, The Sid, Resatio, Paper Buddha

Our worlds are collages of dreams. Myriad complex, dynamic perceptions allow us to make sense of the world we live in. However, sometimes one’s personal perspective can affect their ability to comprehend their surroundings; they create a vision that they want to see, a vision so convincing that they become blinding. In Buddhism these are known as ‘interferences’. The Buddhist goal of “seeing without interference,” alludes to the hope to seek clarity by shedding the layers of narratives that we created ourselves. Do we really want to seek the truth? Or is it better to remain in our world of dreams?

Dreams, dropping on January 5th, 2023 on ONBD’s SuperRare Space brings together a group of artists who explore the unique medium of digital collage. We are excited to present works by Cecilia Goose (Twitter handle: @ceciliaccx), Maiko Kikuchi (Twitter handle: @maikoKikuchinyc), Liunic (Twitter handle: @liunic), The Sid (Twitter handle: @mysteriovision), Resatio (Twitter handle: @resatio), and Paper Buddha (Twitter handle: @paperbuddha). All of the artists interpret and construct their collages through a distinctive perspective, but some shared concepts can also be found.

The artists suggest different versions of their realities, of which the viewer is welcome to peel back as many layers as they wish, or keep as is — the works allow the viewer to construct or deconstruct the collaged dreamscape, to mentally separate the layers, or imagine what lies behind them. Collage art is thought-provoking in nature: how are meanings created and combined? Is the viewer meant to interpret the symbolism behind the layers, or is it the artists’ intention what matters most, as they are the ones to choose to hide and reveal their imagery?

One of the often discussed ideas behind collage art is its peculiar sense of space. Removing the constraints of physical space and the limitations of time, artists Maiko and The Sid explore the interplay between visual perception and spatial scale. In How To Live In Your Dream Home Space, spatial perception is flat, as it is animated in 2D; however, it’s also changing, expanding, and contracting under Maiko’s altering. The Sid is a master of manipulating our perception of depth in his collages, using architectural renderings to and geometric forms to play with flatness and three dimensional space. He adds whimsy to his pieces with collaged vintage illustrated characters that populate his utopian world.

Collage can be full of personal touches; it combines elements that are all chosen from a distinct context, a process that involves a freeing exercise of letting the subconscious mind tell you about yourself. Innerchild by Liunic is a tribute to the raw and often unfiltered creativity of her younger self, and a process of healing her neglected childhood wounds. Are You Lost Or Caffeine Hasn’t Kicked In Yet? by Resatio expands on his recent body of work where he allows his ‘unconscious’ mind to select and compose his artworks, in the spirit of ‘automatic drawing’ processes employed by the Surrealists.

Layers of meaning can combine to investigate spiritual concerns as well. Paper Buddha’s Portals is created in his immediately recognizable style, a mesmerizing combination of Buddhist and pulp imagery. Portals portrays the deity Vaiśravaṇa, carrying his characteristic umbrella (chatra), a symbol of his sovereignty, and holding a mongoose carrying a jewel in its mouth. The mongoose is the enemy of the snake, a symbol of greed or hatred; the jewel coming out of its mouth represents generosity. Paper Buddha seamlessly weaves ‘retro’ sci-fi imagery into the piece, adding a fantastical element to the composition. Cecilia Goose’s Last Pond on Earth is less overtly spiritual, but it carries a message of her communion with Nature. The piece depicts a landscape that overflows with life, a dreamscape of purple flora and fauna that is meant to convey her love of the natural world, and a call to preserve its fragility.

Hear “Dreams” from the artists’ side:

GetONBoarD Episode 14: Collage for a new dream

Date: January 5, 2023

Hosted by ONBD (Masako Shiba)

Speakers: Paper Buddha ; Maiko Kikuchi; Eva Ren; Postwook;

Recording (1h 10m): https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1OyJAVbXqPyxb

It’s the final day of 2022 and after being sidelined most of the month with holidays, family time and the odd blizzard, I’ve decided to end the year by being productive, and publishing one more Audiovisual Art entry before 2023! What a year it’s been: 15 exhibitions across 8 platforms, featuring 78 artists from all over the world; and we could have done more, had we simply said ‘yes’ to every opportunity that came our way. One of my favorite projects of course was Sound & Vision on object.com, which was the focus of last month’s audiovisual article. If you’re reading this and haven’t checked out the exhibition, here’s the link: https://objkt.com/collection/KT1GjPdfEFv44dFbGyTSysV9Qhj9FQ1Zi2zo

I still can’t believe that so many talented visual artists and musicians came together for the show, the quality of the work is simply amazing and sets a high (towering, really) bar for Volume 2, which we plan to organize for the spring.

Ok — on to the featured artworks for this final 2022 article. I’m going to start with a Toronto based artist, Ryan D. Anderson. I have seen his animations shared on twitter from time to time, mainly with his hilariously weird ‘Goober’ character singing about things like needing a new gym bag. I should have known that he was Canadian, and I wish I knew sooner that he was in Toronto, since I’m sitting in the very same city as I’m writing this! Alas, I leave tomorrow morning and I have this article to finish before heading over to my sister’s for NYE. I’m getting off track.

Back on track: a few days ago, on Dec 27, a video popped up on my Twitter feed with a ‘gm’ from Ryan himself: https://twitter.com/ItsRyanAnderson/status/1607755683469955072?s=20&t=BpeTraVoe0SaCG_TD_HdHQ

It’s a cinematic short, set to a Chopin-esque piano soundtrack over subtle city street sounds, just gorgeous. I don’t often scroll twitter with the sound on, but on that day I was for whatever reason, and it was the music that grabbed my ear first. I had only seen his more comedic animations, so the piece didn’t seem ‘typical’ of Ryan’s work, but I recognized the animation style right away — purples and yellows, with a pixelated, hand-drawn, shaded pointilism effect. This piece shows a city at dawn, peaceful and quiet, with pink clouds passing overhead and the sun rising over the water just at the end. The perspectives are striking and familiar, looking down at the city streets from overhead, up at the sky with streetlamps passing by overhead, and clusters of buildings with lights on in the distance. Set to the music, it’s just perfect. I have no idea what the title is, and I wasn’t able to find the piece on Ryan’s SuperRare or Foundation profiles, so the twitter link above is all I can share at the moment. Go watch it now :) .

Ryan’s linktree: https://linktr.ee/ryandanderson

The next artist I want to feature is the mighty Lion Young, aka Leigh Young, an artist from Australia and the creator of a digital series called “In Shadow”. Young creates every aspect of the work, and it’s difficult to overstate how sophisticated the animation and the music is for this body of work. On SuperRare the description reads:

In Shadow

This is the story of a search through the wilderness. And the price we pay to find what we seek. 30 animated pieces, across multiple platforms, capture the journey of the Boy with No Name. In pursuit. In shadow.

Here’s one of the latest pieces in the series, XIV. Bush Symphony:

https://superrare.com/0x1e1928cfae9c57c028da97f658610bf7b90db399/xiv.-bush-symphony-15

The music sounds like he hired a studio band to play a spooky western, there are smoky, translucent shadow spirits with glowing eyes that fade in and out as the main character traverses a dark forest, and the animation of the torch (!!!) and the glow that it gives off — I’m out of descriptives.

A few months ago a lot of people were talking about ‘storytelling NFTs’ — I think the talk centered more around PFP projects (as usual) and collectibles that had a fleshed out background story, etc, but in my mind there is no other body of work that embodies ‘storytelling’ better than In Shadow.

I’d like to do feature one more artist and artwork, which is a bit of a departure from the previous two. This is by ex_mortal https://twitter.com/ex_mortal_ , who I first came across via the artist & curator Sky Goodman (they collaborated on a piece for Sound and Vision Vol. 1). He uses Modular synths, Drum machines, Video Synths and Analog VHS processing — basically it’s a lot of analog hardware without the use of computers to create music and visuals.

Long before EDM was embraced by the outdoor festival masses, there was IDM, short for ‘Intelligent Dance Music’. In the late 90s and early 2000s we listened to IDM artists like Autechre, Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin Boards of Canada and Squarepusher in small clubs in Brooklyn NY, who paired glorious synth soundscapes with alternately abrasive and ambient beats. For musicians, it was like giving your brain an auditory workout. Ex Mortal, whether he knows it or not, comes from this school of music. And he’s added ‘Video Synths’. Whatever those are. He actually lists them, so i know they must be real. This is one of his latest creations, listed on objkt.com:

https://objkt.com/asset/KT1ATodA94e3kR4KMWx2jefdb5ydyoCqafFG/4

_10.5 minute ambient thing.

_ Recorded on 12/20/22 , to a single stereo track. Computerless hardware synthesizer music.

_ Synths : KORG MS2000, ROLAND SRV 3030, NOVATAION PEAK, KORG SQ-64, MALEKKO VARIGATE-8, MUSIC THING RADIO MUSIC, ROLAND SPACE ECHO RE-201, KNOBULA CINEMATIC, BLUE LANTERN SPACEMOTH V3, 1010 BITBOX.

_Recorded in a single pass, to a single track, no edits were made:)

_Looping gif created from a long video synth session. Video synths used :

_ syntonie.htp CBV 001,CHROMA CAULDRON MAINBOW, melted electronics strangeloop.

I love the performative aspect of this piece — recorded in a single pass, just twisting knobs, real-time, with crazy sounding equipment from an alternate history. Here’s one more piece, slightly more ambient: https://objkt.com/asset/KT1UAVQueiR7jqi6aCJmr9hipbKq9R7Bxb7E/43

And that’s a wrap for 2023! I think the new year fireworks are already starting in Australia and China. I plan to continue the Audiovisual Spotlight throughout the new year, and of course we have Sound and Vision Vols 2 and 3 to look forward to in 2023 as well! Happy New Year everyone, wishing you all the very best for the coming year :) :) :).

-Dan

Deeply rooted in history, the art of visual storytelling takes many different forms, but nearly all are shrouded in silence. Music inspires; it inspires us to move and to dance. But what if music is combined with a passion for digital art? Art and music together are a way of communication that involves the interplay between two elements. Though they may seem separate, art and music are actually two sides of the same coin.

On November 21st, ONBD held a physical exhibition for Sound & Vision Vol.1 in New York City, in partnership with objkt.com, EmpireDAO, and MetaSill. The exhibition showcases audiovisual art via ONBD’s Gallery on objkt.com, alongside a metaverse gallery space on OnCyber. As ‘Vol.1’ suggests, this is the beginning of a new venture for us in many aspects; ONBD is enthusiastic about the “renaissance” in audiovisual art that we are witnessing, and plan to continuously explore this genre of art. We are dedicated to giving exceptional audiovisual artists greater possibilities to gain recognition.

ONBD is thrilled to have artists from around the world joining us. A synopsis of the artists and artworks that were part of Sound & Vision Vol.1:

The Nature of Things by Aitso, a Montreal-based analog video artist, and Weirdgrip, a sound artist from LA.

Open The Door by music artist Nullbaysea from Taiwan and Ann Chou, a film lover, illustrator, and whisky lover from Taiwan.

Stage Dream 001- 003 by CER, 3D digital artist and industrial Design from Caracas, Venezuela.

UTERUS, The microcosmic genesis, by Cyber Mystic Garden (Marcelo Pinel) from Minas Gerais, Brazil.

neuene by Marcelo Moura, a sound artist from Paraiba, Brazil

Into The Void by producer Disco Kid and Ykha, a visual artist ‘representing a space where happiness and chaos collide’, both from Indonesia

Still Life by artists Duta and FA Poetra Tiardha, also from Indonesia.

Fado by Düzen, an audiovisual artist from Turkey.

A Flying Success by House of the Model, an American electronic music collective, and RatLab, a video artist from Quebec, Canada.

OM GANESHAYA NAMAH by Kismat Deora, a digital illustration and mixed media artist, and musician Lunarhalomusic from Mumbai, India.

Herzschlag by artist Kopfgestaltung from Wiesbaden, Germany.

Touch and Embryo by artist Maia Mellier from Ireland, Dublin.

Element_733fT3B56Amew1_B by Manuel Foisa from London.

Digital Rainforest by Martn Bruce from Porto, Portugal, who specializes in digital abstract paintings.

DUB DMT & DEVOTION Nuwan Shilpa, a Psychedelic Visionary Artist from Kandy, Sri Lanka.

We Ignite by Nor44 from Edinburgh, Scotland. Nor44 focuses on AI & Mixed Media, drawing influences including Chinese & Japanese Art, Calligraphy & Typography, Graffiti & Street Art, and Modernist & Mid Century Design.

Going For a Walk by Plouz, a 3D animation Crypto artist from Paris, France.

Momentum by architectural artist The Sid and musician HokmMusic, both based in Iran.

ESCALADES by Sky Goodman, a new media artist creating romantic/psychedelic landscapes in virtual reality and Ex Mortal, who specializes in analog and digital visuals and sound from Chicago.

Meltdown by artist Tiger Chengliang Cai from NYC.

Polyptych of Happiness by stateless artist Seau Turamsa

Mangrove Drop by Andressa Furletti, a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in NY.

Mountaintop by Poppel, a writer and multimedia content creator interested in computer culture scape and art, and ONBD’s co-founder Shaolun (Dan Chen), a musician and composer.

Bon voyage 🎧 by Moodan, a classical guitarist, composer, and visual artist based in France, in collaboration with BiPhilippi, a digital illustrator.

We are thrilled to have been able to involve this roster of talented artists, many of them very well-established in the cryptoart community. We’re also happy and excited to see so many collaborations between musicians and artists — collaboration has been a novel development within the NFT art scene, and it is part of the reason that audiovisual art has seen a resurgence over the last few years. Sound & Vision will be an ongoing exhibition series, with the next open call beginning early next year.

To view and purchase the artworks, please visit our gallery here: https://objkt.com/collection/KT1GjPdfEFv44dFbGyTSysV9Qhj9FQ1Zi2zo

And last but not least, Happy Holidays from all of us at ONBD!

Platform: ONBD x SuperRare Space

Featured Artists: BK Voxel; Farnaz; Johana Kroft; Kefan404; Larry Huang Rui; Lemony.

We are at the crossroads of a new digital revolution. An exciting time, where AI technology is becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives, and entirely new, experiential digital ‘metaverses’ are enabling new ways of ‘being.’ Web3 has gone beyond idealism, and its principles of decentralization are acted upon in discord communities and DAOs. If it is done well, this technological advancement can have a positive impact on the evolution of humankind. The artists in this exhibition are visionaries that build worlds and inspire us to dream of that better future by creating alternative realities, conceptualizing ideal states, sharing the idea of what utopia can be for each. Farnaz and Lemony, both from Iran, and BKVoxel, based in Canada, are masters of voxel art, creating mini-worlds that take their inspiration from myth. Kefan, Rui Huang (both in China) and Johana Kroft, based in New York City, build otherworldly landscapes that are informed by their experiences within the Web3 space, and inspired by their boundless imagination. All of the artists have generously pledged to direct proceeds from the sales of their work to benefit Iranian women, either by collecting Iranian women artists’ work, or by donating to United For Iran, a non-profit organization working to empower the voices of women and girls in Iran through mobilization, technology, and education.

Voxel Visionaries

Farnaz and Lemony, both from Iran, and BKVoxel, based in Canada, are masters of voxel art, creating mini-worlds that take their inspiration from myths and imagined futures. Lemony’s “#3- the temple” imagines a Japanese temple known for its unique material: voxels. Farnaz has created a miniature city inspired by the ancient legend of The Lost City of Atlantis, and BKVoxel’s “RUTS, STEPS, DOTS” depicts a ‘shelter’ set within a future world that is trying to rebuild.

Otherlands

Kefan, Rui Huang and Johana Kroft build otherworldly landscapes that are informed by their experiences within the Web3 space. Kefan’s mountainous, alien world was inspired by his connection to nature, and he felt this piece also illustrated a solidarity he felt with those being persecuted in Iran. Rui Huang is well-known for his unique, real-time 3D rendered science fiction art. “The Infinite Wonder” reflects his journey into the unknown as a cryptoartist. Johana Kroft is originally from the Czech Republic and currently based in New York. She builds surreal 3D worlds in her colorful, immediately recognizable style.

Wait and Hope

Many of us, including these artists, continue to search for a way to utilize Web3 to solve critical social issues at hand. We not only envision the change we hope to see, but have been incrementally working toward it in a much more realistic manner: on-chain charitable giving, artists supporting environmental causes, and DAOs raising money for those in need; a great deal of good has been done already, facilitated by Web3, expressed in the metaverse, via fine art NFTs. To quote the final line of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: “His last words exhort us to follow a different path than he did, a path of contentment in Providence: Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words — ‘Wait and hope.’”

Hear “In Search of Otherlands ” from SuperRare Lab CEO and artists:

GetONBoarD Episode 13: In Search of Otherlands

Date: Oct 15, 2022

Hosted by ONBD (Masako Shiba)

Speakers: SuperRare John (CEO at SuperRare Lab); BK Voxel; Farnaz; Kefan404; Larry Huang Rui; Lemony (Artists).

Recording (1h)

▶️️ https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1eaKbrooZbBKX?s=20

Drop Date: October 13, 2022

Platform: Artpool

Featured Artist: Oscar Oiwa

As the inaugural joint drop, ONBD+Artpool is pleased to present highlights from the series of works “Quarantaine Drawings” by New York based Japanese Brazilian artist, Oscar Oiwa. Celebrated within the traditional art world for his use of drawings to create large scale immersive experiencial installation works, the artist has created a new experimental series that began during the pandemic, using digital drawings. By digitally manipulating the layers of each drawing, Oiwa showcases the process of his creation, resulting in a narrative video work that tells the story behind each image. In this way, Oiwa continues his immersive style of art, only in more intimate, and digital manner.

Quarantine Drawings is a series of works by New York based Japanese Brazilian artist, Oscar Oiwa. Oscar Oiwa was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He graduated in 1989 from the School of Architecture and Urbanism, São Paulo University. He experienced contemporary art during this time in nearby galleries and became an assistant at the São Paulo Art Biennial. Oiwa held his first solo exhibition while he was still in college and thereafter participated in the 21st São Paulo Art Biennial (1991). His works has been shown widely throughout the United States, South America, Asia, and Europe., including solo exhibitions in institutions like: Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2007), Japan House São Paulo (2019), among others.

“Suddenly, life has changed. I have stopped taking the subway, going to my studio, walking around the city, seeing movies at the theater, and meeting up with my friends. I spend my days in quarantine, going outside only to shop for food or to get a little fresh air.

Projects and trips have all been postponed. The city has become the new epicenter of the pandemic and life has been made more difficult for all of its inhabitants. Many people have lost their jobs and are getting desperate about paying bills. News from the world outside is far from encouraging. Entire countries have closed their borders. The US presidential response in itself has been a disaster.

I think about what I can do to remain as mentally creative as usual while stuck in my Manhattan apartment. God gave me the gift of transforming feelings into visual art. And using this power, I have started to make a new series of drawings: an imaginary trip in the midst of life under quarantine. The result is like a diary of insights about my past, my present daily life, and the future.” — Oscar Oiwa (May, 2020)

Interview with the artist:

The Fantastic World of Oscar Oiwa

Date: 13 Oct 2022

Interviewed by Julia Flamingo

The fantastic world of Oscar Oiwa

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:

everfresh on Twitter: "*The Magician* 🍄🪄 ... link in comments 👇 #tezos #nft pic.twitter.com/VZinVT7Tao / Twitter"

The Magician* 🍄🪄 ... link in comments 👇 #tezos #nft pic.twitter.com/VZinVT7Tao

“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.

Authentic Digital Art - Relics | SuperRare

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).”

Authentic Digital Art - Limbo_02 | SuperRare

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.

Authentic Digital Art - Sound Painting #08 | SuperRare

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.

For a long time, the status of “sound” in new media art was not prominent. The audio components of the artwork were often completely underwhelming. In recent years, we have gradually seen some changes with the rise of digitally native artists. The development of digital environments offers new expressions for audiovisual artists who value the combination of both sound and image. As the concept of web3 enters the public eye, digitally native artists now have (via NFTs) an elegant and secure way to sell their art for the first time. With the support of digital art platforms, we are seeing more and more artists starting to collaborate with musicians to create audiovisual works. The boundaries of art are quietly broadening, and more vigor and vitality are bursting out.

Click to read: AVA Spotlight | Sept 2022

ONBD is excited about the ‘renaissance’ that we are seeing in audiovisual art. As a web3 curatorial brand and incubator, we want to be more deeply involved in the development of this genre and provide outstanding audiovisual artists with more opportunities to come under the spotlight.

Therefore, in partnership with objkt.com, EmpireDAO, and MetaSill, ONBD is happy to announce Sound+Vision, an OPEN CALL series of exhibitions that will showcase audiovisual art! Hosted on ONBD’s Gallery on objkt.com, our aim is to bring together the growing community of artists, musicians, and other creators who are redefining this exciting, experiential genre of digital art. Collaborative works are encouraged, and all artists welcome!

To enter the OPEN CALL, please submit your information and artwork here: https://fxz0zuxxn48.typeform.com/to/ahXH8Eis

Selections will be announced in early November, with the drop date to follow later that month.