{"id":9374,"date":"2023-07-13T15:27:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/13\/next-up-xer0x-on-visual-music-spirituality-and-creating-at-night\/"},"modified":"2023-07-13T15:27:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:27:17","slug":"next-up-xer0x-on-visual-music-spirituality-and-creating-at-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/13\/next-up-xer0x-on-visual-music-spirituality-and-creating-at-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Up: Xer0x on Visual Music, Spirituality, and Creating at Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In art, as in everything else, it\u2019s arguably not what<\/em> you do that matters but how<\/em> you do it. This basic philosophy underpins much of the contemporary and post-modern art movements, in which the artistic process, narrative, and messaging often take precedence over a work\u2019s medium or particular aesthetic.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s little surprise that plenty of artists in Web3 choose to spend much of their energy focusing on concept and delivery. Combined with the NFT ecosystem\u2019s penchant for hype-building, leaning into these two dynamics is a strategy that has served many well. Among them is Xer0x<\/a>, the digital artist known for just as much for his edgy social commentary and experiments as his glitchy, insightful artwork. <\/p>\n

Every week, nft now\u2019s\u00a0Next Up<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0unveils a new artist from our curated list of ascendant talents who have been making significant waves throughout Web3. This week, we\u2019re excited to feature Xer0x.<\/p>\n

Xer0x<\/h2>\n

Xer0x is a sound engineer and digital artist known for weaving themes of behavioral economics, satire, and copy culture into his creations. Each of his artworks is designed to exist independently, with minimal to no correlation with his previous pieces. <\/p>\n

A staunch proponent of universal access to information and artistic opportunities \u2014 and a self-professed social hacker and performance artist \u2014 Xer0x often conducts public demonstrations that utilize the power of blockchain technology and social media platforms.<\/p>\n

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Royalty. Credit: Xer0x<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Trust. Credit: Xer0x<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We had the opportunity to ask Xer0x a few questions about NFTs and his artistic process.<\/p>\n

nft now: How did you first become interested\/involved in NFTs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xer0x: <\/strong>My background is in audio. In late 2020 I developed this unusual hearing condition called tinnitus. I basically hear a constant ringing sound. It\u2019s not a real sound, but somewhere between my ears and my brain, it becomes real. Feeling betrayed by my craft, I turned away from audio towards the closest thing I could find in the visual world: GIF animation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve learned maybe a dozen ways of depicting noise in my work. I\u2019m at peace with it. I swim in it like it\u2019s the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

xer0x<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

GIFs move a lot like how sounds move through time; they also loop, so you could sequence them like you would a sound within a drum machine or midi sequencer. So to me, I\u2019m dealing with visual music. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a deeper spiritual element I find with my style \u2014 because I make all of my pieces at night in pitch darkness. I work days, and the noise I hear in the quiet of the night disappears as I work on my animations. If you look through my pieces, you\u2019ll notice that I work with visual noise a great deal\u2026 I\u2019ve learned maybe a dozen ways of depicting noise in my work. I\u2019m at peace with it. I swim in it like it\u2019s the ocean.<\/p>\n

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Right-click and Save (An Anthology) Credit: Xer0x<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

nft now: How would you describe your art?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xer0x: <\/strong>Film noir smoke and phosphorescent static. I\u2019m a bit obsessed with turn-of-the-century aesthetics: electrification, the machine age, Art Deco, German Expressionism. I think, for one, there was this huge promise of what tomorrow would bring, but also that the future would be tangible, albeit industrial. We live in an immaterial reality where nothing feels solid. All our thoughts, memories, and information are stored in the cloud. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to even picture the future because there\u2019s nothing particularly exciting about microchips becoming even more microscopic, is there? And that\u2019s maybe the most optimistic we can be \u2014 improved processing power or something equally inhuman. <\/p>\n

So for myself, the most interesting future was one people imagined in the late 1800s to early 1900s. The film noir smoke and phosphorescent static of the urban metropolis.<\/p>\n

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Clockwork Metropolis. Credit: Xer0x<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

nft now: What\u2019s your process like? Where do you usually find inspiration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xer0x: <\/strong>I tend to start with a concept. I usually have a title before I have a piece, and sometimes I\u2019ll be thinking of a concept for a few weeks. A lot of times, I\u2019ll have no real way of visualizing the concept, so I give up and tackle a new idea. Words don\u2019t always translate to visuals despite what AI has everyone believing. <\/p>\n

Every piece is supposed to live, just like music lives. They need to emit energy like a living thing would, needs to move like a living thing, needs to be flawed like a living thing. It needs to be the opposite of sterile. If a piece comes out dirty and scarred, then I can at least know it came from me. To be sterile is to be dead.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n