Above: “Archeology of the Future”<\/a> by @neurocolor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The first time I spoke to painter, street and digital artist neurocolor via email, he invited me to the \u201cunderground places\u201d of Mexico City where we would drink mezcal and not tequila, because \u201ctequila, you can drink it anywhere else in the world ;)\u201d We made plans to go to readings and restaurants, to visit Coyoacan street art and the pyramids at Teotihuacan. On my first day there, after pulling together an outfit from the selection of clothes still packed in my bag from my previous work trip, I walked out the door of my one-room Airbnb and looked for a guy in a gray VW. I had no idea what neurocolor looked like, or what his real name was, but like a white girl on vacay in a foreign country, I saw what I thought was the right car and got in.<\/span><\/p>\n A young man with messy black hair and thick, blue-rimmed glasses sat behind the wheel. In the passenger seat was Ann Ahoy, a tattoo and crypto artist from Germany. The three of us were on our way to Bitcoin Embassy Bar, a place where crypto enthusiasts could sit, have a drink, pay in crypto, and attend events exploring everything from DeFi to NFTs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When we arrived after a quick dinner at Pizza del Perro Negro, neuro was greeted by the entire room at once, it seemed, and disappeared into the crowd. I was sipping a frozen paloma sprinkled with chili and lime when I felt a tap on my shoulder. neuro motioned his thumb towards a stranger in a green bomber jacket wearing round glasses and a shy smile. \u201cCriptocromo,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n Photo by the author<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n After hearing a presentation about a multimedia literature project<\/a> that would soon be minted as an NFT, we all gathered around to talk about everything from urban landscapes to politics in the art world to problems facing cryptocurrencies and environmentalism. As someone who ditched academia to work in crypto, I was delighted to find people who wanted to talk about blockchain in broader contexts. I mentioned that I was a vegetarian at dinner (because almost everything served in Mexico has meat in it, unless by request), so when I then brought up the supply chain issues that made so many items harder to find, neuro looked at me and said, \u201cyou are one of those coastal leftist vegans who thinks the world is overpopulated, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely not vegan,\u201d I laughed cautiously, worried that I had somehow come off too progressive at dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n The event featured some of the biggest names in cryptoart, and I couldn\u2019t believe how eager they all were to get to know me. The community created by the intersection of Mexican hospitality and cryptoart was immediately evident<\/span>, a community that lent even outsiders like me the kind of familiarity usually reserved for people who had spent years earning their place. neurocolor, in particular, had offered himself as something like a personal guide, informing me of the best places to go to eat and drink, introducing me to nearly all of the artists we had intended to meet, even telling me in that first car ride how Mexican politics affected art and culture in the nation\u2019s capital and beyond. He was forward, opinionated, articulate in both Spanish and English, and his humor was so dry that it took me 3 days and someone else pointing it out to realize he was teasing me.<\/span><\/p>\n Classic chilango.<\/span><\/p>\n The next day, we were supposed to go to the pyramids, but due to COVID they were closed to the public, viewable only from afar. \u201cNot worth the drive,\u201d we agreed, even though I wanted so badly to go. In Monterrey, the northern Mexican town where my family lives, there are no monuments of the past. The Olmec and Toltec tribes that lived there were nomadic, roaming but never settling, simultaneously homeless yet at home on the road. So instead, I stayed in, working until night came, messaging neuro on Twitter to make alternate plans. Walking tour? <\/span>Too touristy.<\/span><\/i> Art museum? <\/span>Too stuffy.<\/span><\/i> Salsa? <\/span>Not really my thing.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n We landed on Sunday dinner, meeting after my walking tour through the mural and graffiti-adorned streets of Coyoacan, one of the oldest neighborhoods of Mexico City. Sitting at a Oaxacan restaurant, we ordered a large \u201cpizza\u201d made out of tortilla, beans, and cheese.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t Photo of Coyoac\u00e1n by the author<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t Photo of Coyoac\u00e1n by the author<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cShould we get<\/span> chapulines<\/span><\/i>?\u201d he asked. \u201cWe should get <\/span>chapulines<\/span><\/i>.\u201d I nodded, not totally sure what those were and unable to search the web because my cell service was so bad. The waiter came and neuro ordered in Spanish: a bottle of mezcal, guacamole, and the Mexican pizza con chapulines <\/span>en el lado<\/span><\/i>. After the waiter left, I asked him about his art, and how he came to crypto. \u201cI probably learned how to draw before I was speaking fluently in my own language,\u201d he said. Even his earliest drawings showed promise, and he quickly became obsessed with visual art. \u201cI was starting with mostly self-taught Photoshop Illustrator, obviously pirated copies here in Mexico,\u201d he said with a chuckle. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to put that in the article.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n neurocolor studied visual art in college and immediately fell in love with painting. \u201cBut yeah, now I consider that my dark ages, because I really like to paint, but I was always more into digital. And in school, there was too much of an attitude, like, \u2018digital art is not real art,\u2019 or \u2018graffiti is not that real art,\u2019 \u2018painting is the most important manifestation and expression of visual art.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But with digital art, there was an audience hungry for work outside of the classical. The 2000s were the breeding ground for what would eventually become the first global art movement in the history of the world. DEPTHCORE, Deviant Art, and Flickr were open spaces for artists, animators, photographers, and meme makers to drop their art and share them with online communities. \u201c[On DEPTHCORE] it was kind of like abstract, futurist, 3D, vectors, explorations, where it was just so much fun to feel the wonder that was coming out of it.\u201d These styles of digital art, informed by both the information age and the communities being formed on the internet, were emotional, dark, glitchy, strange, different from everything that had come before. A burgeoning group of digital artists were creating their own lexicons, symbols, and values, transforming themselves from angsty teens to internet culture connoisseurs who, at base, cared about free expression, and who would eventually become the NFT artists and collectors championing the cryptoart movement today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t “Negative Null”<\/a> by @neurocolor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It was a weird time, not only because millennials were the first generation to grow up with computers in our homes, but because we survived the 1990s and Y2K. The dialect of \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and other sci-fi classics about computers and alternate realities were very much part of our collective consciousness. Were we Neo or Mr. Anderson, a human or a machine?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell in Mexico, we never really thought that society was going to crash [in 1999],\u201d Neuro interjected, \u201cbecause we have always been in the crash, we have always <\/span>been<\/span><\/i> crashed,\u201d he said, furrowing his brow in a way that I quickly noticed was the natural state of his face. \u201cWe are already living in a dystopia.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Up until the 1990s, pollution in Mexico City was so bad that if you weren\u2019t used to the air quality, you would have trouble breathing. Cars ran on leaded fuel, and the industrial nature of the city combined with the natural layout (a basin located over 2,000 meters above sea level and surrounded by mountains, pounded down by intense solar radiation) concentrated the pollutants further. Then you had political corruption that was, <\/span>up until recently<\/span><\/a>, unparalleled by most other countries. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n But perhaps it is that very relationship with dystopia that makes neuro\u2019s artwork feel so vibrant yet dark, so anachronistic and yet immediate. With contrasting deep grays and iridescent colors, a distinctive spinning carousel-style animation, and a fascination with skulls and mythological creatures, each piece by neurocolor is both nostalgic and futuristic. But even then I had to ask, \u201cwhy so many skulls? <\/span>Is that a Mexican thing or are you just kind of emo?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBoth!\u201d He laughed. \u201cI mean, people from Mesoamerica, they like skulls, and people nowadays like skulls. The thing is, skulls are badass.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Not wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n Mexicans love that shit. We love the idea that spirits are friendly, that lost loved ones come back to visit us, that death is not the end, but a new beginning. When the Spanish first came across the ancient Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City, they were greeted by a <\/span>tower of skulls<\/span><\/a>. They were freaked out, naturally, by what they perceived as an aggressive display of the macabre, but to the Aztecs, these skulls were a celebration of life.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cI know it’s cryptic to remind you of things like that, but the aesthetics, the shapes of the skulls, are crazy,\u201d he added. \u201cI don’t know. It’s very heavy, like, I imagine scenes in the times before civilization, people were using skeletons as decorations, like skulls from other animals. It’s like we have been in touch with these symbols for so long. They are a part of our visual imaginations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Thinking about how intricate his artworks are, usually having multiple moving parts, several animated layers, along with references to video games, science fiction, and anime, and sometimes even integrating phrases from Japanese words, I had to ask: How did he come up with his concepts? When did he know when a piece was finished?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNothing in my process is logical,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t follow plans; I don’t <\/span>have<\/span><\/i> plans for pieces. I just create assets, and then I start to play with them until I have something that clicks. It’s like I’m drifting,\u201d he continued, making a wobbling motion with his hands, and narrowing his gaze. \u201cIt’s like an exploration with a compass, a very weak compass. I have to say, I like to let myself flow. It’s a new thing that I’m using a lot of grays, a lot of blacks, but for me it’s always making something that clicks internally.\u201d A strategy not unlike mine, when a single line in my head blossoms into an entire poem. It reminded me that art, no matter the medium, often comes from intuition.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t “Hypercore \u672a\u6765”<\/a> by @neurocolor<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n And as the mezcal gave way to louder voices and more talk of the grim, our main dish arrived. The pizza quesadilla was massive, filled with the rich, stringy cheese of Oaxaca and black beans. On the side was a ramekin filled with little brown\u2026insects?!<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat the fuck is THAT?\u201d I blurted.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Chapulines<\/span><\/i>,\u201d neuro said matter of factly. \u201cGrasshoppers. Try it! It\u2019s delicious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I took my knife and twirled the bugs with its point, making them wriggle as if still alive. About half an hour and several mezcals later, I built up the courage to eat some. They were salty and a little crunchy, seasoned, like most everything in Mexico, with salt and lime. \u201cWhen the earth is totally polluted and the bugs rule the world, we Mexicans will be just fine,\u201d neuro said, plopping another few grasshoppers on his plate. \u201cHakuna matata.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\t Photo by Nathan Beer<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It was a few days and several meals before I would learn neurocolor\u2019s birth name, but by then, it felt wrong to say it out loud, especially to him. I realized that it wasn\u2019t his real name at all. Sitting on a sofa in Casa Patricio, the community house in the heart of Del Valle, a neighborhood affectionately nicknamed \u201cCrypto Valley\u201d by the numerous crypto artists who lived there, I asked neuro about his pseudonym and why he preferred to use it IRL.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was a teenager in the beginning of the 2000s. I was going to electronic music clubs. And so I grew up admiring DJs and graffiti artists and all of them had one name, and liked the name they created for themselves.\u201d Kind of like the AIM usernames and Myspace extensions we chose to identify with on the internet. \u201cI don’t like this idea that your real name is imposed by your parents. I mean, it\u2019s an imposition, it’s an unnecessary imposition, because you need to be named somehow to function in society. So getting your own name, getting your own persona allows you to be born again,\u201d and in some ways, to become your true self.<\/span><\/p>\n But perhaps the most revelatory aspect of both blockchain and the cryptoart network built on it is the freedom it allows artists like neuro, who were stuck teaching and altering their styles in order to fit in. \u201cIn Mexico, [crypto artists] are so few, and we are used to a really shitty reality in the art world,\u201d he told me. Like so many aspects of life in Mexico, it is a restricted reality, with predetermined outcomes, and preselected winners and losers. \u201cI always liked how [in the U.S.] you could be a painter and do new stuff, and you are still going to have a market. In Mexico, there was only a market for very cliche ideas. Like you have to be doing hyper-realism or neo-conceptual art that was so hot in the \u201890s, but not anymore, and you have to apply for a grant from the government, et cetera. So you have to either make the government happy or follow the really old fashioned art market here.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Effectively, there was no room for innovation, and even less for people who wanted to break from tradition. \u201cSo for us getting to know about crypto, evolving with cryptoart and with crypto in general, allowed us to break that barrier and be connected with people all over the world. That was kind of possible with the web 2.0, but, nah, it was far from being this dynamic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t\t\t\tLife in neurocolor: How the early aughts internet shaped the aesthetics of web3<\/h1>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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