The Universe is Mind, 2021. Animation made with found footage from Giphy. This sequence is an excerpt from “Initialize La Valise,” 2021. Kelly Heaton
animation
What is an NFT? /
Initialize la valise, 2021.
(sound on) What is an NFT? I've been pondering this question for awhile and decided to make a short film about our strange moment in cultural history. Considering the conceptual nature of NFTs, I consulted the ghost of Marcel Duchamp for his perspective.
Human and machine intelligence are merging, but not without a dollop of stupidity --which may ironically be the lasting signature of humankind, assuming computers cannot fathom how we fleshers can be so delightfully ludicrous.
Fountain NFT /
Could I resist making an NFT? Could I escape the gravity of history? Could I believe the insanity? Could I ignore new history in the making? No, no, no — no, I could not.
FOUNTAIN: Infinite looping goddess, fountain of the multiverse, invert urinates bitcoins of golden light
This is my inaugural NFT and conceptual statement created in early March, 2021. I used Blender to animate a stream bitcoins and juxtaposed them onto Alfred Steiglitz's public domain image of Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1919). The audio track is the sound of me urinating. Buyer: please contact me for a physical installation of this work to complete your collection.
May you be blessed by the fountain of mirrorical return.
OXO I.ZIS 2021
Link below to purchase the NFT for my Fountain (and contact me about commissioning a physical installation of the video loop):
Pretty computer accidents /
Pretty computer accidents. I continue to work on a labor-intensive sculpture (electrolier). This video is tangentially related, insofar as I've discovered some cool visuals along the way. It would take me a long time to explain the sequence of computer accidents that created this landscape. Suffice it to say that the cloud and the mountainous earth are two different spatial interpretations of the same object, which in engineering terms means that the algorithm was an explosive failure. "Pretty is as pretty does" is not true in this case.
Animating butterflies /
Lately, I've been inspired by the little white butterflies flitting around my garden. I used analog electronics and LEDs to animate their flutter patterns. My circuit contains one master 555 timer / 4017 counter that sequences three butterfly (or moth) circuits. The individuals also have 555 timer / 4017 counter circuits that flash their LEDs in rapid sequence. I used transistor inverters on the master circuit to convert the active high logic of the 4017 to active low; and I connected these signals to clock enable (pin 13) of the 4017s on each of the butterflies. That's what causes their blinking to pause periodically. The random appearance of the blinking is thanks to capacitive coupling between signal lines, and without this the "flutter" effect is pretty boring. In other words, nature contains both order and chaos, where the order is by design (who's design? I have no idea) and the chaos happens through simple, recursive relationships that get complex fast.