Art × Technology × Culture
Art × Technology × Culture
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Humans have always constructed ideas and collective presuppositions which we use to define the boundaries of what is accepted. This is known as Episteme. Once taken root in humans' network, an episteme becomes the uncoerced Order of Things that govern our perception on various aspects of life, including, but not limited to work, relationships, and art.
Over the course of history, epistemes have been supplanted by new ones which lead to the adoption of new ideas and presuppositions. In most cases, the reasons for the toppling of an episteme owes largely to human dissatisfaction with it. New epistemes are usually accompanied with the emergence of discourses that look to influence various facets of life; art is not exempted.
The influence a new episteme has on art is mainly manifested as arguments on what should be accepted as subject matter. These new propositions set paradigms in the art space and start art movements.
This is the second essay in the three-part series. It explores the individual epistemes which influence Pop Art (postmodern episteme) and Crypto Art (metamodern episteme), and how they share Derivation as the central argument behind choice of subject matter.
Postmodernism started in the mid 20th century as a response to debase the Investigative, Reason and Universalism ideals of modernism. In order to understand the ideals of postmodernism, let’s first take a dive into the episteme it ousted.
Modernism started in the late 17th century and its prominence lasted until the mid 20th century. It is also known as The Enlightenment Period because it marked the introduction of standards like the Scientific Method (by Francis Bacon) to understand phenomena. Modernism aimed to achieve perfectibility and certainty through research, reason (logic) and experimentation. The pursuit of scientific knowledge and its resultant improvements of the society normalized logical thinking and the belief in rationality as the right path to truth, over religious stories/doctrines. This resulted in the start of modern living and the industrial revolutions.
The influence of the modern episteme in art started in the 18th century. Honoring the ethos of modernism, artists discontinued the traditional norm of employing pious and mythical elements as subject matter, and embarked on inventing subjects from introspection. This was an evident trend in the art movements that emerged during this period -- from Impressionism, to Post Impressionism, to Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism. Artists were encouraged to experiment with form, technique and processes. For this reason, the modern public expected the artist’s work to be an invention -- a unique representation of the artist’s introspection -- devoid of derivation and artistic appropriation, and possessing deep, abstract and investigative meaning. The modern artist believed he/she could invent a unique way of purely reflecting the modern world. Notable artists whose works were influenced by the modern episteme include Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Matisse, Claude Monet, Mark Rothko.
The postmodern episteme argued against relying solely on science and logic as objective determinants of the truth (what is accepted). It advocated for relativism of the truth: the truth shouldn’t be gauged by a universal metric. According to the proponents of postmodernism, the modernist presupposition of singularity despite the existence of diverse cultures led to the World Wars. Postmodernism posited that modernist ideals can never be attained due to the differences in culture which shapes perceptions, so instead of incorporating universal scientific methods and philosophical blueprints for experimentation, individuals should be allowed to chart their respective courses. Notable postmodernists like Derrida attacked the modernist belief. He was the originator and leading practitioner of Deconstruction, where he proposed that structures within a culture were artificial and could be deconstructed in order to be analyzed.
The influence of postmodernism instigated a seismic trend in the art space and defied the consensus ideas and presuppositions of art. This resulted in the rise of controversial art movements like Neo-Dadaism, Pop Art, Street Art, Conceptual Art, Neo-Expressionism, Graffiti Art and more. Postmodern artists believed the modernist demand for artistic originality and authorial conformity was creatively reductive. According to them, rather than obsessing with process, technique and rational introspection, artists should be encouraged to reflect the relativism and diversity of society in their works. They advocated for inclusive paths to art creation and the need for artists not to feel forced to birth an invention when creating art.
Pop Art was propagated by commercial artists who loathed how high art was disconnected from society due to the modern artists’ preoccupation with inventing something “unique”. Pop artists believed that by elevating the aesthetic relevance of popular, everyday elements, a reconnection of art with society could be achieved.
In congruence with this proposition, pop artists derived subject matter from elements of commerce and pop culture. They appropriated these elements with no intention of birthing new artistic forms or iconography -- the elements were painted as they were -- rendered as Readymade Subjects. Readymade subjects are prefabricated elements that are isolated from their intended use by the artist without any intention of further suggestive creation. With Pop Art, there was no discussion of employed principles and/or standards, and this left no room for misinterpretation or hidden meanings. The works resonated with the masses at first glance because they were artistic appropriations of things encountered daily on television, magazines, and billboards.
Readymade subjects are prefabricated elements that are isolated from their intended use by the artist without any intention of further suggestive creation.
Some of the commerce and pop culture elements painted by pop artists include highly demanded consumer goods, comic characters, famous political and cinema figures, cultural symbols like money and national flags.
Coming from a commercial art background where he ran a wallpaper and textile design company, British artist Eduardo Paolozzi was adept with collage. In his artwork, I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything, 1947, he used clippings of pop culture elements as readymade subjects to create a collage (for more information on the artwork features, read the first essay, Emergence). Paolozzi was able to reflect the existent consumerism and pop culture of the society in this piece, and ascribed aesthetic relevance to symbols familiar with the public. With this work, he became a fore bearer of the Pop Art movement.
British artist Richard Hamilton who was also a member of The Independent Group appropriated pop culture elements as readymade subjects. In his iconic collage, Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 1956, he portrayed the fundamental argument of Pop Art. Hamilton’s collage consists of images culled from advertisements on various magazines. The title of the work is taken from the text of an advert showing an image of a living room, in Ladies Home Journal magazine, which states "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? Open planning of course — and a bold use of color." The image of the living room makes up the primary part of the collage. Another noticeable figure in the collage is a muscular man holding a lollipop labeled "Pop" and a naked young woman posing provocatively on the sofa. The man is Irvin Koszewski, winner of Mr. L.A. in 1954 and the photograph was culled from Tomorrow's Man magazine. Hamilton filled the room with clippings of magazine images that reflected the dreams, needs and desires of a consumer society ruled by popular culture: a television, a tape recorder, an electric vacuum, a Ford advertisement image, a big can of ham, a romantic photograph, and the entrance of a movie theatre. The artwork was first shown in the This Is Tomorrow exhibition, organized by The Independent Group in London.
Hailing from commercial art where he worked as a technical draftsman for manufacturing companies, Hamilton understood the things that resonated with the public and he appropriated them in his artworks.
Jasper Johns’ paintings of the United States flag embody the Pop Art trend of recreating familiar symbols without looking to invent any form of abstraction. His most renowned painting of the United States flag is Three Flags, 1958, an encaustic on canvas work. The work consists of three canvases forming a layered arrangement, with each canvas depicting a painting of the American flag and smaller than the one below it. Johns was able to capture American pop culture by appropriating a national symbol that is immediately noticeable by every American. The whole painting has forty-eight stars instead of fifty and the tiered arrangement of the canvases creates a three-dimensional view for observers. It is obvious that the American flag was and is still more than a national symbol -- it is a popular and cultural symbol among the American masses. This is evident in its representation in many consumer products, movies, music and advertisements.
Johns understood the profound influence of the American flag on its citizens. Especially after World War II, Americans felt extremely proud to be Americans. Through his painting, he was able to replicate a similar nationalistic feeling in the minds of the American public.
American artist James Rosenquist who worked as a billboard and sign painter in his early years also understood the evoking power of popular culture and appropriated it in his artworks. His oil on canvas painting, I love You With My Ford, 1961, is another iconic work of the Pop Art movement. The painting consists of three horizontal parts and each is a large image which serves as a motif. The topmost section depicts the fore region of a Ford car, while the face of a sensual looking woman is shown in the middle of the canvas. In the lower part is a sauced pasta. These subjects represent the cravings (the Ford car and the sensual woman) and daily consumption (the sauced spaghetti) of American society during the 50s and 60s.
Due to his commercial art background, Rosenquist employed the large-scale technique used in advertisements by painting the images as zoomed in versions in order to remove ambiguous context and meanings. This is a common practice in billboard advertisements. The painted images were appropriations of advertisements in Life magazine from the 1950s.
The notable works of American artist Roy Lichtenstein are a representation of Pop Art. He appropriated the images of comic characters as subject matter. Lichtenstein’s first attempts with Pop Art were connected with Disney cartoon characters, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Look Mickey, 1961, is one of his well known Pop Art works. It features Donald and Mickey on a pier, with Donald involved in a humorous fishing mishap as Mickey tries to hold his laughter. In the painting, Donald snags his tail with the hook of the fishing rod, but erroneously assumes he’s made a catch, as he tells Mickey in a speech bubble that he “hooked a big one”. Look Mickey was an appropriated picture from the comic strip Donald Duck Lost and Found, written in 1960 by Carl Buettner and published by Disney. It was the first work Lichtenstein included the renowned Ben-Day dots, which would later become a signature characteristic of his Pop Art works. Ben-Day dots is a printing technique used by publishing houses for adding shades and colors to mechanically produced (printed) images. Lichtenstein appropriated Ben-Day dots by hand painting the dots and shades in his works. This gave his paintings a similar industrial look as newspapers and comic strip magazines consumed by the public.
By hand-painting the usually machine-generated dots and appropriating comic strip images, Lichtenstein’s works were familiar with the masses at first glance. With this, he was able to heighten the aesthetic relevance of commonplace subjects.
Andy Warhol is usually considered the King of Pop Art. Emerging from a successful career as a commercial illustrator and widely known for his carefree personality, his works were mainly appropriation of readymade subjects that constituted the pop culture scene in the 1960s. His paintings of the dollar bill appropriates the American economic symbol, which is known among the masses to be a major driver of consumption. With his dollar bill paintings, he was able to follow in the footsteps of Jasper Johns of bringing artistic value to a common national symbol. One of Warhol’s first paintings of the Dollar bill is Ten-Dollar Bill, 1962, a pencil and watercolor on canvas piece.
This thesis is portrayed in more of his works as he made paintings of consumer products, Hollywood celebrities, and political figures. At the time Warhol was making his soup-can paintings, four of every five cans of prepared soup sold in the United States were Campbell’s. Campbell’s soup cans were a popular product among the American populace and this prompted Warhol to borrow it as subject matter. His Campbell Soup Cans series from 1961 to 1962 are his most notable paintings of the product. The series consists of 32 paintings which depict various representations of the product -- ranging from different flavors, to different grid patterns, to soup cans with open lids, to soup cans with labels peeling off and more variants.
Coca-Cola was another common product painted by Warhol. The company gained more fame among Americans when its then President, Robert Woodruff ordered after World War II that every soldier gets sold a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents. Warhol was able to tap into the popularity of Coca-Cola and rendered aesthetic value to the product by making numerous artworks of it. Coca-Cola (3), 1962 is one of his renowned paintings of the product. The work is a six-foot oil on canvas painting of the Coca-Cola bottle and its logo. By hand painting the subject with black and white, Warhol was able to capture a visual appearance that resembled a ‘60s magazine advertisement.
His portraits of Marilyn Monroe are arguably his most celebrated work. The mysteries and conspiracies surrounding the death of the movie star elevated her fame even more among the public and Warhol tapped into this fame. The subject was borrowed from the still photograph of a movie she starred in, Niagara, 1953. Warhol’s first portrait of the actress is Marilyn Monroe, 1962.
He also made paintings of royal dignitaries. The consistent circulation of these figures by media houses coupled with their influential positions amplified their fame among the masses. Warhol appropriated official photographs of these famous figures. His Reigning Queens series of 1985 is a clear representation of his attempt to reflect the public’s deification of the royals. The work is a silkscreen portrait of four ruling queens: Queen Elizabeth II of England, Queen Beatrix of Netherlands, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland. The screen prints consist of a portfolio of sixteen portraits, four prints of each Queen. Other famous figures painted by Warhol include John F. Kennedy, Vladimir Lenin, Marlon Brando, Jacqueline Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Einstein, Mao Zendong, Elvis Presley and more. Most of his paintings of these figures are also appropriation of their well known photographs.
Warhol’s use of the popular images of celebrities was intentional. The mass media (television, magazines, and billboards) was everywhere, bombarding the people with pictures and discussions of these celebrities, which resulted in its profound effect on the people. Warhol was able to evoke immediate resonance and familiarity of his artworks because they blended with everyday discourse of society.
The initial reaction of high art circles was that paintings of comic strips and Hollywood celebrities by “commercial designers” could not be considered serious works of art. Some critics welcomed the appropriation of commercial and popular elements, since this put art into terms of everyday life. Later on, Pop Art was embraced by larger groups of the public, who appreciated its liveliness and accessibility. This led to a public consensus of its worth, heightened its aesthetic value and eventually blurred the boundaries between high art and commercial art.
Metamodernism started after the internet reached global adoption due to the advent of social media in 2006. Similar to how postmodernism ousted modernism's dogma in logic and certainty, metamodernism has toppled postmodernism’s skepticism and superficiality. The metamodern episteme admits that relativism is great, but not all ideas of the modern episteme should be rejected. It doesn’t look to go back to modernism’s unwavering belief in singularity and perfectibility. Instead it acknowledges adherence to logic in addressing some issues and also understands that relativism may be the best approach for others.
A common characteristic of the metamodern episteme is Oscillation. This stems from the Greek origin of the “meta” prefix which denotes a change in position as either behind, with, after or beyond. In this context, metamodernism can be likened to a pendulum bob that oscillates between the positives of modernism and postmodernism in order to address the present issues and form a better narrative. It embraces the extreme nature of humans and uses it to hatch a middle ground. According to cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, metamodernism “oscillates between logic and relativism, pragmatism and inclusion, hope and doubt, fanatic idealism and skeptical relativism. Metamodernism is mainly about exploring the in-between, while admitting the idealism of modernism and relativism of postmodernism”. With the metamodern episteme, there exists a quest to create something new that references a balance between the old and new.
Another major characteristic of metamodernism is Recombination. This refers to detaching the components of existing ideas, fusing them to birth new creations and further adapting them from one context to another. Metamodernism builds on existing elements. It stems from an alternative meaning of the “meta” prefix which stands for something of a next order kind. From this standpoint, metamodernism advocates for fluidity and context-switching. Rather than sticking to an episteme and rejecting others in order to establish a dogma, the metamodern episteme encourages experimenting with different ideas from different cultures and/or subcultures as much as possible. It emphasizes a distributed system of ideas culled from the modern, the postmodern, what’s happening today and the future we desire.
Simply put, metamodernism intersects the Reason of modernism with the Relativism of postmodernism in order to facilitate reconstruction of existing ideas and open up an invitation for others to build upon them and suggest new ways of imagining the world. This manifests a reality where people are in a continuous state of experimental and experiential depth.
Today, the oscillatory and recombinant characteristics of metamodernism have influenced the creative sphere. Creativity in the metamodern era is reflected as a swing between the past (modern and postmodern), present and future, and the presupposition that there is an opportunity for next order creation of any art or idea.
The metamodern episteme argues that the potency of an art lies in the public’s interest to build upon it. As prerequisites, metamodernism implicitly makes these demands of a creative work: Does it derive from ideas familiar with any culture and/or subculture? How open-ended is it for co-creation and/or next order creation? Does it sift the perks of the past and juxtapose it with the present discourse? In simple terms, is it memeable?
Memes are ideas familiar within a culture that replicate and spread. Memes permeate through cultures and subcultures whose members recombine it to communicate a relatable context. The metamodern creative aims to build upon memes in a way that allows him/her and other creatives to make new, but culturally familiar art. This has led to a movement where artists recombine existent ideas to form a meta-meme subject matter. Meta-memes as subject matter reflect themes from different eras and/or cultures that come together, where the different parts resonate with one another, and mutually reinforce each other. Meta-meme subjects are an open invitation for further creative recombination -- a next order creation.
Meta-memes as subject matter reflect themes from different eras and/or cultures that come together, where the different parts resonate with one another, and mutually reinforce each other. Meta-meme subjects reflect an open invitation for further creative recombination -- a next order creation
The influence of the metamodern episteme in music is evident in the trend of remixing and sampling of old genres with contemporary ones to create a new and familiar sound. Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis is a notable representation of meta-memes as subject matter in music. The hip-hop song features a sample of Otis Redding’s 1966 version of Try a Little Tenderness, which was first recorded in 1932 by the Ray Noble Orchestra (with vocals by Val Rosing). Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road is a recent portrayal of meta-meme as subject matter in music. The song fuses a sample of 34 Ghosts IV -- a 2008 industrial rock song, with trap-style drums and bass to birth a new genre now described as country-trap.
Meta-memes as subject matter is commonplace in vlogging, especially with Tiktok. For example, the viral Silhouette Challenge meme in February was a mashup of Paul Anka’s Put Your Head On My Shoulder, 1959 and recent Doja Cat’s hit, Streets.
The influence of metamodernism is also seen in contemporary literature. The numerous fanfiction series on musical groups, manga comics, video games, and movies are examples of literary works which employ meta-memes as subject matter. Fanfictions are works that build upon themes and characters familiar with the fanbase of the original work. Most writers of fanfiction release their works on a rolling basis which allows them to co-create with readers in determining the direction of their stories. Examples of works and musical groups with notable fanfictions are Game of Thrones, the Twilight series, Naruto, and the One Direction musical group.
In metamodernism, the subject matter is a meta-meme; a next order creation, which is a derivative of the past, present and a familiarly conjectured future. The interconnection and how it maintains open-endedness for further creativity are the strengths of a meta-meme subject matter.
Cryptopunks is a 10,000 randomly generated pixel art by Larvalabs that signals metamodern influence in Crypto Art. The theme of the art collection is a creative recombination of the Cyberpunk idea, which was first introduced by writer Bruce Brethke, in his book -- of the same title, in 1980. The cyberpunk meme describes a futuristic dystopian society influenced by cybernetics and punk rock (a popular music genre of the '70s and '80s). Such a society is conjectured as humans living among beings like aliens, advanced apes, zombies, cyborgs. Since the idea was first developed by Brethke, it has been recombined and portrayed in movies, anime, songs, and artworks.
The cryptopunks collection builds upon the cyberpunk meme by generating 10,000 unique pixel art characters that reflect the futuristic dystopian society. The characters in the collectible are male, female, advanced apes, zombies, and aliens. Each character dons fashion accessories and styles that reference a futuristic and punk rock culture. Some of the fashion styles are mohawk haircuts, Bob hairdos, colored hair, eye patches, beanie hats, welding glasses, 3D red and cyan glasses, vapes, pilot helmets, and more. The various combinations of fashion accessories and styles contribute to the uniqueness of each pixel art and it is tokenized using the Ethereum Request for Comment (ERC-721) standard. This standard confers the non-fungibility of each art piece. Cryptopunks reveals how metamodern art derives from an idea of old (postmodern era) and builds upon it for further creative recombination. This in turn perpetuates the discourse of the cyberpunk meme within the crypto culture.
The cyberpunk idea is also meta-memed by Coin Artist to tokenize her personal brand. Holders of the artist's ERC-20 token, $COIN, are cyberpunk enthusiasts who form a syndicate within a conjectural universe called Neon District. The syndicate together with Coin Artist are immersed in a gamified social network where they decide on the trajectory of her art and game projects. This open invitation for enthusiasts of an idea to co-create shows the influence of metamodernism in Crypto Art.
Long form generative art represents the metamodern argument of co-creation in art. The metamodern episteme presupposes no work of art should be finite. This is possible if the work is left open-ended to permit further suggestions or Lego-like building. The incorporation of blockchain technology into long form generative art has conferred memeability to it. Prior to this technological trend, a generative artist selects the best art output from his/her program and puts it up for sale. The collection usually consists of a few artworks that are presented as finite, close-ended goods. With blockchain technology, interest in long form programmed art output has risen.
Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs is a recent long form generative artwork that has received massive recognition. The work is a collection of 999 iterations of programmed art, where collectors partake in the creative process that influences the art output. Upon calling the mint function of the smart contract, a collector generates a transaction hash. The hash is subsequently taken as input to randomly generate an art output based on the programmed parameters in the Fidenza codebase. Prior to calling the mint function, no one knows specifically what type of art will be produced for the collector -- neither Hobbs, nor the collector, nor the smart contract developers (in this case, Artblocks) know. The artwork is randomly generated in real time as a result of the requisite contribution of the collector in the creative process when he/she calls the mint function. This randomness is deterministic due the programmed artistic parameters in the Fidenza code created by Hobbs. So, it's like Hobbs makes the Lego pieces then collectors automatically build various new structures with the bricks when they call the mint function respectively. Each art output generated by a collector is unique and differs from preceding and subsequent art outputs within the Fidenza collection. In long form generative art, the collector gets involved in the memes of production and co-create with the artist.
Beeple's Gigachad is one of his notable works and created a frenzy within the crypto community when it was released. The work features a muscular rendition of Elon Musk in panties holding on to a leashed dog. Over time, Musk's tweets on crypto assets have generated a mimetic effect. His recent acknowledgement of his love for Doge coin quickly turned the cryptocurrency into a meme which led to it's mainstream adoption and significant rise in price. The internet space is now filled with users creating a plethora of memes depicting Musk and the Doge coin or Musk and a dog. This is a clear reflection of metamodern influence. It invites people to build upon an idea which facilitates it's spread and soon, the idea becomes a meta-meme subject in artworks. Beeple's Gigachad can be interpreted as a recombination of Musk as a colossal figure (the "giga" prefix) whose comments on crypto assets is capable of setting off huge market shifts. Musk holding on to the dog represents his special affinity with the Doge coin which has led to its memeification and mainstream adoption. Metamodern artworks are usually relatable within certain cultures and/or subcultures. Beeple's Gigachad effortlessly resonates with the crypto audience because the subject matter derives from a familiar occurrence that has built up over time and still remains open for further creative recombination.
Shl0ms' FNTN collection represents the oscillatory characteristic of metamodern art. FNTN is a Shl0ms' signed urinal that is broken into fragments and each fragment is sold to collectors. The artwork borrows from Dadaism, a postmodern art movement, which had French artist, Marcel Duchamp as its prominent proponent. Dadaist argued that artists shouldn't be compelled to employ elitist creative rules in order for their works to qualify as art. They believed art is what its creator says it is and artistic sensemaking shouldn't be afforded to only institutional circles. Proponents like Duchamp appropriated commonplace objects as subject matter and his urinal sculpture, Fountain, 1917, is one of his renowned readymade artworks. He appended his signature to the sculpture, which according to him, is just enough to confer aesthetic and artistic value to the urinal sculpture. FNTN references Marcel Duchamp's Dadaist sculpture and the blockchain idea of fractional art (more on this in next sequel). Each fragment of the urinal contains a part of Shl0ms' signature and is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain as an NFT, using the ERC-721 standard. Collectors receive the token and are mailed the actual fragment. The fractional urinal art project of Shl0ms shows how metamodern art oscillates between postmodernism and today's ideas to create a new and culturally interconnected work.
The Greats collection by German artist Wolfgang Beltracchi marks his debut into the Crypto Art sphere. The collection portrays the metamodern idea of next order creation and oscillation between the old and the new. It consists of 4,608 artworks, where Beltracchi recombines the famous Leonardo da Vinci's Salvatore Mundi painting with famous art movements, including High Renaissance, Post Impressionism, Pop Art, Factory Art, Cubism, Surrealism, and Beltracchi (his signature style). Each piece in the collection features Salvatore Mundi as a meta-meme subject that blends with one of the 7 art styles.
Beltracchi takes a traditional subject matter on a voyage through time and reflects a higher order of creativity through the lens of each art style. Such composable creation perfectly illustrates metamodern influence in art. He employs modern hand painting practices and postmodern techniques like screen printing. This oscillation between the modern and postmodern is then rendered using metamodern methods like graphic design and photography to create an interdisciplinary art collection. Each artwork in the collection is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain using the ERC-721 standard. By recombining the components of the most expensive artwork ever sold with the famous art movements known to humanity and incorporating the Crypto Art culture of scale, Beltracchi births an art that intersects different factions of the art audience.
Ultrasound Bat is a motion art by Rodrigo that also shows how metamodern art builds upon an idea. The artwork features a motion animation of the Ethereum logo with extendable and retractable bat-like wings. Rodrigo's work is a recombination of the bat and sound wave emojis (🦇🔊) which have become a meme within the Ethereum ecosystem. Since its launch in 2015, the supply of Ether has always increased and this contributes to it's volatility and price dip. Due to this challenge, fanatics of other cryptocurrencies and experts have described Ether as not being a sound money.
On August 5, 2021, a significant event commenced in the Ethereum ecosystem: the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 was implemented. One of the implications of this proposal is that transaction fees (Ether) are burned rather than sent to miners. This relieves Ether of the constant selling pressure created by miners. Consequently, the monetary policy of the currency has flipped because the issuance of newly minted Ether to miners, which increases its supply, is now being counteracted by the burning of transactional Ether. In effect, this means the supply of the asset decreases. The monumental shift has prompted Ethereum faithfuls to spread the meme of Ether being an ultrasound currency as the monetary policy mimics echolocation -- mint Ether (call/emitted sound); burn transactional Ether (echo/reflected sound). As a symbol, the bat (a popular sonar animal) and the sound wave emojis are used by faithfuls to signify the meme. Rodrigo's Ultrasound Bat is a meta-meme that builds upon the ultrasound money meme of Ether. His work reinforces the meme within the Ethereum community and further spreads the idea to other subcultures for further creative recombination.
Since the global adoption of the internet, meta-memes have been the prevalent subject matter in digital art and are considered native to the space. The advent of art tokenization with blockchain technology has converted many digital artists to proponents of the Crypto Art movement. Due to this transition, meta-memes are now being taken seriously by legacy art communities outside of the internet space.
A common ground shared between postmodern and metamodern art is how they advocate derivation from society. The artworks of these epistemes look to bring aesthetic and artistic value to familiar, everyday things in order to connect the public with art. However, the approaches employed in deriving from society contribute to the differences of how subject matter is presented in respective epistemes. The skepticism of postmodernism prompted pop artists’ overt appropriation of society elements with no intention of inventing new narratives to be deciphered. This resulted in the occurrence of blunt subject matter -- readymade subjects. On the other hand, metamodernism is responsible for crypto artists’ recombination of past and present society components, which brings about suggestive and open-ended subject matter -- meta-meme subjects.
Both postmodern and metamodern art favor contemporary consumption. Unlike traditional and modern consumption where the public is preoccupied with the creative code employed, contemporary consumption is drawn to the overall identity of the art. These include but not limited to the idea behind the art, the community behind the art and the familiarity of the art with a culture/subculture. Mimesis is a crucial ingredient in every work of Pop Art and Crypto Art.
My aim of writing this essay is not to impose a predetermined or forced thought across diverse cultural practices. This work is exploratory and experimental rather than declarative, open-ended rather than close-ended. It should be regarded as an open invitation for suggestion and debate rather than propagating a dogma. You can reach out to me on Twitter for discussions.
The term Metamodernism was first introduced by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van der Akker in their 2017 essay, Notes on Metamodernism (link below in Further Reading).
Humans have always constructed ideas and collective presuppositions which we use to define the boundaries of what is accepted. This is known as Episteme. Once taken root in humans' network, an episteme becomes the uncoerced Order of Things that govern our perception on various aspects of life, including, but not limited to work, relationships, and art.
Over the course of history, epistemes have been supplanted by new ones which lead to the adoption of new ideas and presuppositions. In most cases, the reasons for the toppling of an episteme owes largely to human dissatisfaction with it. New epistemes are usually accompanied with the emergence of discourses that look to influence various facets of life; art is not exempted.
The influence a new episteme has on art is mainly manifested as arguments on what should be accepted as subject matter. These new propositions set paradigms in the art space and start art movements.
This is the second essay in the three-part series. It explores the individual epistemes which influence Pop Art (postmodern episteme) and Crypto Art (metamodern episteme), and how they share Derivation as the central argument behind choice of subject matter.
Postmodernism started in the mid 20th century as a response to debase the Investigative, Reason and Universalism ideals of modernism. In order to understand the ideals of postmodernism, let’s first take a dive into the episteme it ousted.
Modernism started in the late 17th century and its prominence lasted until the mid 20th century. It is also known as The Enlightenment Period because it marked the introduction of standards like the Scientific Method (by Francis Bacon) to understand phenomena. Modernism aimed to achieve perfectibility and certainty through research, reason (logic) and experimentation. The pursuit of scientific knowledge and its resultant improvements of the society normalized logical thinking and the belief in rationality as the right path to truth, over religious stories/doctrines. This resulted in the start of modern living and the industrial revolutions.
The influence of the modern episteme in art started in the 18th century. Honoring the ethos of modernism, artists discontinued the traditional norm of employing pious and mythical elements as subject matter, and embarked on inventing subjects from introspection. This was an evident trend in the art movements that emerged during this period -- from Impressionism, to Post Impressionism, to Cubism, and Abstract Expressionism. Artists were encouraged to experiment with form, technique and processes. For this reason, the modern public expected the artist’s work to be an invention -- a unique representation of the artist’s introspection -- devoid of derivation and artistic appropriation, and possessing deep, abstract and investigative meaning. The modern artist believed he/she could invent a unique way of purely reflecting the modern world. Notable artists whose works were influenced by the modern episteme include Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Matisse, Claude Monet, Mark Rothko.
The postmodern episteme argued against relying solely on science and logic as objective determinants of the truth (what is accepted). It advocated for relativism of the truth: the truth shouldn’t be gauged by a universal metric. According to the proponents of postmodernism, the modernist presupposition of singularity despite the existence of diverse cultures led to the World Wars. Postmodernism posited that modernist ideals can never be attained due to the differences in culture which shapes perceptions, so instead of incorporating universal scientific methods and philosophical blueprints for experimentation, individuals should be allowed to chart their respective courses. Notable postmodernists like Derrida attacked the modernist belief. He was the originator and leading practitioner of Deconstruction, where he proposed that structures within a culture were artificial and could be deconstructed in order to be analyzed.
The influence of postmodernism instigated a seismic trend in the art space and defied the consensus ideas and presuppositions of art. This resulted in the rise of controversial art movements like Neo-Dadaism, Pop Art, Street Art, Conceptual Art, Neo-Expressionism, Graffiti Art and more. Postmodern artists believed the modernist demand for artistic originality and authorial conformity was creatively reductive. According to them, rather than obsessing with process, technique and rational introspection, artists should be encouraged to reflect the relativism and diversity of society in their works. They advocated for inclusive paths to art creation and the need for artists not to feel forced to birth an invention when creating art.
Pop Art was propagated by commercial artists who loathed how high art was disconnected from society due to the modern artists’ preoccupation with inventing something “unique”. Pop artists believed that by elevating the aesthetic relevance of popular, everyday elements, a reconnection of art with society could be achieved.
In congruence with this proposition, pop artists derived subject matter from elements of commerce and pop culture. They appropriated these elements with no intention of birthing new artistic forms or iconography -- the elements were painted as they were -- rendered as Readymade Subjects. Readymade subjects are prefabricated elements that are isolated from their intended use by the artist without any intention of further suggestive creation. With Pop Art, there was no discussion of employed principles and/or standards, and this left no room for misinterpretation or hidden meanings. The works resonated with the masses at first glance because they were artistic appropriations of things encountered daily on television, magazines, and billboards.
Readymade subjects are prefabricated elements that are isolated from their intended use by the artist without any intention of further suggestive creation.
Some of the commerce and pop culture elements painted by pop artists include highly demanded consumer goods, comic characters, famous political and cinema figures, cultural symbols like money and national flags.
Coming from a commercial art background where he ran a wallpaper and textile design company, British artist Eduardo Paolozzi was adept with collage. In his artwork, I Was a Rich Man’s Plaything, 1947, he used clippings of pop culture elements as readymade subjects to create a collage (for more information on the artwork features, read the first essay, Emergence). Paolozzi was able to reflect the existent consumerism and pop culture of the society in this piece, and ascribed aesthetic relevance to symbols familiar with the public. With this work, he became a fore bearer of the Pop Art movement.
British artist Richard Hamilton who was also a member of The Independent Group appropriated pop culture elements as readymade subjects. In his iconic collage, Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 1956, he portrayed the fundamental argument of Pop Art. Hamilton’s collage consists of images culled from advertisements on various magazines. The title of the work is taken from the text of an advert showing an image of a living room, in Ladies Home Journal magazine, which states "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? Open planning of course — and a bold use of color." The image of the living room makes up the primary part of the collage. Another noticeable figure in the collage is a muscular man holding a lollipop labeled "Pop" and a naked young woman posing provocatively on the sofa. The man is Irvin Koszewski, winner of Mr. L.A. in 1954 and the photograph was culled from Tomorrow's Man magazine. Hamilton filled the room with clippings of magazine images that reflected the dreams, needs and desires of a consumer society ruled by popular culture: a television, a tape recorder, an electric vacuum, a Ford advertisement image, a big can of ham, a romantic photograph, and the entrance of a movie theatre. The artwork was first shown in the This Is Tomorrow exhibition, organized by The Independent Group in London.
Hailing from commercial art where he worked as a technical draftsman for manufacturing companies, Hamilton understood the things that resonated with the public and he appropriated them in his artworks.
Jasper Johns’ paintings of the United States flag embody the Pop Art trend of recreating familiar symbols without looking to invent any form of abstraction. His most renowned painting of the United States flag is Three Flags, 1958, an encaustic on canvas work. The work consists of three canvases forming a layered arrangement, with each canvas depicting a painting of the American flag and smaller than the one below it. Johns was able to capture American pop culture by appropriating a national symbol that is immediately noticeable by every American. The whole painting has forty-eight stars instead of fifty and the tiered arrangement of the canvases creates a three-dimensional view for observers. It is obvious that the American flag was and is still more than a national symbol -- it is a popular and cultural symbol among the American masses. This is evident in its representation in many consumer products, movies, music and advertisements.
Johns understood the profound influence of the American flag on its citizens. Especially after World War II, Americans felt extremely proud to be Americans. Through his painting, he was able to replicate a similar nationalistic feeling in the minds of the American public.
American artist James Rosenquist who worked as a billboard and sign painter in his early years also understood the evoking power of popular culture and appropriated it in his artworks. His oil on canvas painting, I love You With My Ford, 1961, is another iconic work of the Pop Art movement. The painting consists of three horizontal parts and each is a large image which serves as a motif. The topmost section depicts the fore region of a Ford car, while the face of a sensual looking woman is shown in the middle of the canvas. In the lower part is a sauced pasta. These subjects represent the cravings (the Ford car and the sensual woman) and daily consumption (the sauced spaghetti) of American society during the 50s and 60s.
Due to his commercial art background, Rosenquist employed the large-scale technique used in advertisements by painting the images as zoomed in versions in order to remove ambiguous context and meanings. This is a common practice in billboard advertisements. The painted images were appropriations of advertisements in Life magazine from the 1950s.
The notable works of American artist Roy Lichtenstein are a representation of Pop Art. He appropriated the images of comic characters as subject matter. Lichtenstein’s first attempts with Pop Art were connected with Disney cartoon characters, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Look Mickey, 1961, is one of his well known Pop Art works. It features Donald and Mickey on a pier, with Donald involved in a humorous fishing mishap as Mickey tries to hold his laughter. In the painting, Donald snags his tail with the hook of the fishing rod, but erroneously assumes he’s made a catch, as he tells Mickey in a speech bubble that he “hooked a big one”. Look Mickey was an appropriated picture from the comic strip Donald Duck Lost and Found, written in 1960 by Carl Buettner and published by Disney. It was the first work Lichtenstein included the renowned Ben-Day dots, which would later become a signature characteristic of his Pop Art works. Ben-Day dots is a printing technique used by publishing houses for adding shades and colors to mechanically produced (printed) images. Lichtenstein appropriated Ben-Day dots by hand painting the dots and shades in his works. This gave his paintings a similar industrial look as newspapers and comic strip magazines consumed by the public.
By hand-painting the usually machine-generated dots and appropriating comic strip images, Lichtenstein’s works were familiar with the masses at first glance. With this, he was able to heighten the aesthetic relevance of commonplace subjects.
Andy Warhol is usually considered the King of Pop Art. Emerging from a successful career as a commercial illustrator and widely known for his carefree personality, his works were mainly appropriation of readymade subjects that constituted the pop culture scene in the 1960s. His paintings of the dollar bill appropriates the American economic symbol, which is known among the masses to be a major driver of consumption. With his dollar bill paintings, he was able to follow in the footsteps of Jasper Johns of bringing artistic value to a common national symbol. One of Warhol’s first paintings of the Dollar bill is Ten-Dollar Bill, 1962, a pencil and watercolor on canvas piece.
This thesis is portrayed in more of his works as he made paintings of consumer products, Hollywood celebrities, and political figures. At the time Warhol was making his soup-can paintings, four of every five cans of prepared soup sold in the United States were Campbell’s. Campbell’s soup cans were a popular product among the American populace and this prompted Warhol to borrow it as subject matter. His Campbell Soup Cans series from 1961 to 1962 are his most notable paintings of the product. The series consists of 32 paintings which depict various representations of the product -- ranging from different flavors, to different grid patterns, to soup cans with open lids, to soup cans with labels peeling off and more variants.
Coca-Cola was another common product painted by Warhol. The company gained more fame among Americans when its then President, Robert Woodruff ordered after World War II that every soldier gets sold a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents. Warhol was able to tap into the popularity of Coca-Cola and rendered aesthetic value to the product by making numerous artworks of it. Coca-Cola (3), 1962 is one of his renowned paintings of the product. The work is a six-foot oil on canvas painting of the Coca-Cola bottle and its logo. By hand painting the subject with black and white, Warhol was able to capture a visual appearance that resembled a ‘60s magazine advertisement.
His portraits of Marilyn Monroe are arguably his most celebrated work. The mysteries and conspiracies surrounding the death of the movie star elevated her fame even more among the public and Warhol tapped into this fame. The subject was borrowed from the still photograph of a movie she starred in, Niagara, 1953. Warhol’s first portrait of the actress is Marilyn Monroe, 1962.
He also made paintings of royal dignitaries. The consistent circulation of these figures by media houses coupled with their influential positions amplified their fame among the masses. Warhol appropriated official photographs of these famous figures. His Reigning Queens series of 1985 is a clear representation of his attempt to reflect the public’s deification of the royals. The work is a silkscreen portrait of four ruling queens: Queen Elizabeth II of England, Queen Beatrix of Netherlands, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland. The screen prints consist of a portfolio of sixteen portraits, four prints of each Queen. Other famous figures painted by Warhol include John F. Kennedy, Vladimir Lenin, Marlon Brando, Jacqueline Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, Ingrid Bergman, Albert Einstein, Mao Zendong, Elvis Presley and more. Most of his paintings of these figures are also appropriation of their well known photographs.
Warhol’s use of the popular images of celebrities was intentional. The mass media (television, magazines, and billboards) was everywhere, bombarding the people with pictures and discussions of these celebrities, which resulted in its profound effect on the people. Warhol was able to evoke immediate resonance and familiarity of his artworks because they blended with everyday discourse of society.
The initial reaction of high art circles was that paintings of comic strips and Hollywood celebrities by “commercial designers” could not be considered serious works of art. Some critics welcomed the appropriation of commercial and popular elements, since this put art into terms of everyday life. Later on, Pop Art was embraced by larger groups of the public, who appreciated its liveliness and accessibility. This led to a public consensus of its worth, heightened its aesthetic value and eventually blurred the boundaries between high art and commercial art.
Metamodernism started after the internet reached global adoption due to the advent of social media in 2006. Similar to how postmodernism ousted modernism's dogma in logic and certainty, metamodernism has toppled postmodernism’s skepticism and superficiality. The metamodern episteme admits that relativism is great, but not all ideas of the modern episteme should be rejected. It doesn’t look to go back to modernism’s unwavering belief in singularity and perfectibility. Instead it acknowledges adherence to logic in addressing some issues and also understands that relativism may be the best approach for others.
A common characteristic of the metamodern episteme is Oscillation. This stems from the Greek origin of the “meta” prefix which denotes a change in position as either behind, with, after or beyond. In this context, metamodernism can be likened to a pendulum bob that oscillates between the positives of modernism and postmodernism in order to address the present issues and form a better narrative. It embraces the extreme nature of humans and uses it to hatch a middle ground. According to cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, metamodernism “oscillates between logic and relativism, pragmatism and inclusion, hope and doubt, fanatic idealism and skeptical relativism. Metamodernism is mainly about exploring the in-between, while admitting the idealism of modernism and relativism of postmodernism”. With the metamodern episteme, there exists a quest to create something new that references a balance between the old and new.
Another major characteristic of metamodernism is Recombination. This refers to detaching the components of existing ideas, fusing them to birth new creations and further adapting them from one context to another. Metamodernism builds on existing elements. It stems from an alternative meaning of the “meta” prefix which stands for something of a next order kind. From this standpoint, metamodernism advocates for fluidity and context-switching. Rather than sticking to an episteme and rejecting others in order to establish a dogma, the metamodern episteme encourages experimenting with different ideas from different cultures and/or subcultures as much as possible. It emphasizes a distributed system of ideas culled from the modern, the postmodern, what’s happening today and the future we desire.
Simply put, metamodernism intersects the Reason of modernism with the Relativism of postmodernism in order to facilitate reconstruction of existing ideas and open up an invitation for others to build upon them and suggest new ways of imagining the world. This manifests a reality where people are in a continuous state of experimental and experiential depth.
Today, the oscillatory and recombinant characteristics of metamodernism have influenced the creative sphere. Creativity in the metamodern era is reflected as a swing between the past (modern and postmodern), present and future, and the presupposition that there is an opportunity for next order creation of any art or idea.
The metamodern episteme argues that the potency of an art lies in the public’s interest to build upon it. As prerequisites, metamodernism implicitly makes these demands of a creative work: Does it derive from ideas familiar with any culture and/or subculture? How open-ended is it for co-creation and/or next order creation? Does it sift the perks of the past and juxtapose it with the present discourse? In simple terms, is it memeable?
Memes are ideas familiar within a culture that replicate and spread. Memes permeate through cultures and subcultures whose members recombine it to communicate a relatable context. The metamodern creative aims to build upon memes in a way that allows him/her and other creatives to make new, but culturally familiar art. This has led to a movement where artists recombine existent ideas to form a meta-meme subject matter. Meta-memes as subject matter reflect themes from different eras and/or cultures that come together, where the different parts resonate with one another, and mutually reinforce each other. Meta-meme subjects are an open invitation for further creative recombination -- a next order creation.
Meta-memes as subject matter reflect themes from different eras and/or cultures that come together, where the different parts resonate with one another, and mutually reinforce each other. Meta-meme subjects reflect an open invitation for further creative recombination -- a next order creation
The influence of the metamodern episteme in music is evident in the trend of remixing and sampling of old genres with contemporary ones to create a new and familiar sound. Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Otis is a notable representation of meta-memes as subject matter in music. The hip-hop song features a sample of Otis Redding’s 1966 version of Try a Little Tenderness, which was first recorded in 1932 by the Ray Noble Orchestra (with vocals by Val Rosing). Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road is a recent portrayal of meta-meme as subject matter in music. The song fuses a sample of 34 Ghosts IV -- a 2008 industrial rock song, with trap-style drums and bass to birth a new genre now described as country-trap.
Meta-memes as subject matter is commonplace in vlogging, especially with Tiktok. For example, the viral Silhouette Challenge meme in February was a mashup of Paul Anka’s Put Your Head On My Shoulder, 1959 and recent Doja Cat’s hit, Streets.
The influence of metamodernism is also seen in contemporary literature. The numerous fanfiction series on musical groups, manga comics, video games, and movies are examples of literary works which employ meta-memes as subject matter. Fanfictions are works that build upon themes and characters familiar with the fanbase of the original work. Most writers of fanfiction release their works on a rolling basis which allows them to co-create with readers in determining the direction of their stories. Examples of works and musical groups with notable fanfictions are Game of Thrones, the Twilight series, Naruto, and the One Direction musical group.
In metamodernism, the subject matter is a meta-meme; a next order creation, which is a derivative of the past, present and a familiarly conjectured future. The interconnection and how it maintains open-endedness for further creativity are the strengths of a meta-meme subject matter.
Cryptopunks is a 10,000 randomly generated pixel art by Larvalabs that signals metamodern influence in Crypto Art. The theme of the art collection is a creative recombination of the Cyberpunk idea, which was first introduced by writer Bruce Brethke, in his book -- of the same title, in 1980. The cyberpunk meme describes a futuristic dystopian society influenced by cybernetics and punk rock (a popular music genre of the '70s and '80s). Such a society is conjectured as humans living among beings like aliens, advanced apes, zombies, cyborgs. Since the idea was first developed by Brethke, it has been recombined and portrayed in movies, anime, songs, and artworks.
The cryptopunks collection builds upon the cyberpunk meme by generating 10,000 unique pixel art characters that reflect the futuristic dystopian society. The characters in the collectible are male, female, advanced apes, zombies, and aliens. Each character dons fashion accessories and styles that reference a futuristic and punk rock culture. Some of the fashion styles are mohawk haircuts, Bob hairdos, colored hair, eye patches, beanie hats, welding glasses, 3D red and cyan glasses, vapes, pilot helmets, and more. The various combinations of fashion accessories and styles contribute to the uniqueness of each pixel art and it is tokenized using the Ethereum Request for Comment (ERC-721) standard. This standard confers the non-fungibility of each art piece. Cryptopunks reveals how metamodern art derives from an idea of old (postmodern era) and builds upon it for further creative recombination. This in turn perpetuates the discourse of the cyberpunk meme within the crypto culture.
The cyberpunk idea is also meta-memed by Coin Artist to tokenize her personal brand. Holders of the artist's ERC-20 token, $COIN, are cyberpunk enthusiasts who form a syndicate within a conjectural universe called Neon District. The syndicate together with Coin Artist are immersed in a gamified social network where they decide on the trajectory of her art and game projects. This open invitation for enthusiasts of an idea to co-create shows the influence of metamodernism in Crypto Art.
Long form generative art represents the metamodern argument of co-creation in art. The metamodern episteme presupposes no work of art should be finite. This is possible if the work is left open-ended to permit further suggestions or Lego-like building. The incorporation of blockchain technology into long form generative art has conferred memeability to it. Prior to this technological trend, a generative artist selects the best art output from his/her program and puts it up for sale. The collection usually consists of a few artworks that are presented as finite, close-ended goods. With blockchain technology, interest in long form programmed art output has risen.
Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs is a recent long form generative artwork that has received massive recognition. The work is a collection of 999 iterations of programmed art, where collectors partake in the creative process that influences the art output. Upon calling the mint function of the smart contract, a collector generates a transaction hash. The hash is subsequently taken as input to randomly generate an art output based on the programmed parameters in the Fidenza codebase. Prior to calling the mint function, no one knows specifically what type of art will be produced for the collector -- neither Hobbs, nor the collector, nor the smart contract developers (in this case, Artblocks) know. The artwork is randomly generated in real time as a result of the requisite contribution of the collector in the creative process when he/she calls the mint function. This randomness is deterministic due the programmed artistic parameters in the Fidenza code created by Hobbs. So, it's like Hobbs makes the Lego pieces then collectors automatically build various new structures with the bricks when they call the mint function respectively. Each art output generated by a collector is unique and differs from preceding and subsequent art outputs within the Fidenza collection. In long form generative art, the collector gets involved in the memes of production and co-create with the artist.
Beeple's Gigachad is one of his notable works and created a frenzy within the crypto community when it was released. The work features a muscular rendition of Elon Musk in panties holding on to a leashed dog. Over time, Musk's tweets on crypto assets have generated a mimetic effect. His recent acknowledgement of his love for Doge coin quickly turned the cryptocurrency into a meme which led to it's mainstream adoption and significant rise in price. The internet space is now filled with users creating a plethora of memes depicting Musk and the Doge coin or Musk and a dog. This is a clear reflection of metamodern influence. It invites people to build upon an idea which facilitates it's spread and soon, the idea becomes a meta-meme subject in artworks. Beeple's Gigachad can be interpreted as a recombination of Musk as a colossal figure (the "giga" prefix) whose comments on crypto assets is capable of setting off huge market shifts. Musk holding on to the dog represents his special affinity with the Doge coin which has led to its memeification and mainstream adoption. Metamodern artworks are usually relatable within certain cultures and/or subcultures. Beeple's Gigachad effortlessly resonates with the crypto audience because the subject matter derives from a familiar occurrence that has built up over time and still remains open for further creative recombination.
Shl0ms' FNTN collection represents the oscillatory characteristic of metamodern art. FNTN is a Shl0ms' signed urinal that is broken into fragments and each fragment is sold to collectors. The artwork borrows from Dadaism, a postmodern art movement, which had French artist, Marcel Duchamp as its prominent proponent. Dadaist argued that artists shouldn't be compelled to employ elitist creative rules in order for their works to qualify as art. They believed art is what its creator says it is and artistic sensemaking shouldn't be afforded to only institutional circles. Proponents like Duchamp appropriated commonplace objects as subject matter and his urinal sculpture, Fountain, 1917, is one of his renowned readymade artworks. He appended his signature to the sculpture, which according to him, is just enough to confer aesthetic and artistic value to the urinal sculpture. FNTN references Marcel Duchamp's Dadaist sculpture and the blockchain idea of fractional art (more on this in next sequel). Each fragment of the urinal contains a part of Shl0ms' signature and is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain as an NFT, using the ERC-721 standard. Collectors receive the token and are mailed the actual fragment. The fractional urinal art project of Shl0ms shows how metamodern art oscillates between postmodernism and today's ideas to create a new and culturally interconnected work.
The Greats collection by German artist Wolfgang Beltracchi marks his debut into the Crypto Art sphere. The collection portrays the metamodern idea of next order creation and oscillation between the old and the new. It consists of 4,608 artworks, where Beltracchi recombines the famous Leonardo da Vinci's Salvatore Mundi painting with famous art movements, including High Renaissance, Post Impressionism, Pop Art, Factory Art, Cubism, Surrealism, and Beltracchi (his signature style). Each piece in the collection features Salvatore Mundi as a meta-meme subject that blends with one of the 7 art styles.
Beltracchi takes a traditional subject matter on a voyage through time and reflects a higher order of creativity through the lens of each art style. Such composable creation perfectly illustrates metamodern influence in art. He employs modern hand painting practices and postmodern techniques like screen printing. This oscillation between the modern and postmodern is then rendered using metamodern methods like graphic design and photography to create an interdisciplinary art collection. Each artwork in the collection is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain using the ERC-721 standard. By recombining the components of the most expensive artwork ever sold with the famous art movements known to humanity and incorporating the Crypto Art culture of scale, Beltracchi births an art that intersects different factions of the art audience.
Ultrasound Bat is a motion art by Rodrigo that also shows how metamodern art builds upon an idea. The artwork features a motion animation of the Ethereum logo with extendable and retractable bat-like wings. Rodrigo's work is a recombination of the bat and sound wave emojis (🦇🔊) which have become a meme within the Ethereum ecosystem. Since its launch in 2015, the supply of Ether has always increased and this contributes to it's volatility and price dip. Due to this challenge, fanatics of other cryptocurrencies and experts have described Ether as not being a sound money.
On August 5, 2021, a significant event commenced in the Ethereum ecosystem: the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 was implemented. One of the implications of this proposal is that transaction fees (Ether) are burned rather than sent to miners. This relieves Ether of the constant selling pressure created by miners. Consequently, the monetary policy of the currency has flipped because the issuance of newly minted Ether to miners, which increases its supply, is now being counteracted by the burning of transactional Ether. In effect, this means the supply of the asset decreases. The monumental shift has prompted Ethereum faithfuls to spread the meme of Ether being an ultrasound currency as the monetary policy mimics echolocation -- mint Ether (call/emitted sound); burn transactional Ether (echo/reflected sound). As a symbol, the bat (a popular sonar animal) and the sound wave emojis are used by faithfuls to signify the meme. Rodrigo's Ultrasound Bat is a meta-meme that builds upon the ultrasound money meme of Ether. His work reinforces the meme within the Ethereum community and further spreads the idea to other subcultures for further creative recombination.
Since the global adoption of the internet, meta-memes have been the prevalent subject matter in digital art and are considered native to the space. The advent of art tokenization with blockchain technology has converted many digital artists to proponents of the Crypto Art movement. Due to this transition, meta-memes are now being taken seriously by legacy art communities outside of the internet space.
A common ground shared between postmodern and metamodern art is how they advocate derivation from society. The artworks of these epistemes look to bring aesthetic and artistic value to familiar, everyday things in order to connect the public with art. However, the approaches employed in deriving from society contribute to the differences of how subject matter is presented in respective epistemes. The skepticism of postmodernism prompted pop artists’ overt appropriation of society elements with no intention of inventing new narratives to be deciphered. This resulted in the occurrence of blunt subject matter -- readymade subjects. On the other hand, metamodernism is responsible for crypto artists’ recombination of past and present society components, which brings about suggestive and open-ended subject matter -- meta-meme subjects.
Both postmodern and metamodern art favor contemporary consumption. Unlike traditional and modern consumption where the public is preoccupied with the creative code employed, contemporary consumption is drawn to the overall identity of the art. These include but not limited to the idea behind the art, the community behind the art and the familiarity of the art with a culture/subculture. Mimesis is a crucial ingredient in every work of Pop Art and Crypto Art.
My aim of writing this essay is not to impose a predetermined or forced thought across diverse cultural practices. This work is exploratory and experimental rather than declarative, open-ended rather than close-ended. It should be regarded as an open invitation for suggestion and debate rather than propagating a dogma. You can reach out to me on Twitter for discussions.
The term Metamodernism was first introduced by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van der Akker in their 2017 essay, Notes on Metamodernism (link below in Further Reading).
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