EYES ON CULTURE #005
23rd November 2022
Tommy Cash NFTs
EYES ON: Tommy Cash’s NFTs
Estonian rapper Tommy Cash is defined by his controversial, wacky, Post-Soviet aesthetic and his NFT collection is no different.
In partnership with AR platform ZERO10, Tommy created a Digital Fashion collection featuring three equally strange items: a “Virginity Leaf” inspired by Adam’s biblical fig leaf, a Transformers-like soviet car suit, and a jacket made from sliced bread.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
Cash’s collection serves as an example for what’s possible in the digital when an imagination is unbounded.
From the cultural references pulled, to the design rules broken, Cash’s clothes remind us just how different this new game of digital design actually is. Old rules of representation don’t apply: bread is as viable a material as biblical vegetation, time periods can become timeless and costumes can become clothes. Everything from what can be ‘worn’ to how it can be ‘worn’ is up for reinterpretation.
Pixel Chix
EYES ON: Mattel's Pixel Chix
Not to be confused with Tamagotchis, Pixel Chix were the epitome of 2005’s digital companionship.
Strutting behind screens in miniature dollhouses, they made for custom company as owners dressed and re-dressed their Chix for endless entertainment. What’s more, those craving even greater connectivity could play dress-up with other Pixel Chix in neighbouring dollhouses through a retro USB-like plug in.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
Pixel Chix symbolize one of the first instances in which consumers crafted a sentimental digital identity through clothes. It is also one of the first instances where this was capitalized on.
More than just enablers of parasocial bonds, these pixelated clothes made the Pixel Chix producers, Mattel, real gains. Although these digital friends are now discontinued, they were extremely popular in their heyday, increasing Mattel’s earnings by 6% in Q3 of 2006 alone!
Melting Memories
EYES ON: Refik Anadol’s Melting Memories
Last weekend’s opening of Refik Anadol’s exhibition Unsupervised at the MoMA was heralded as the long awaited entrance of art and code into the consciousness of the #tradart world.
Grappling with the deeply human themes of “remembering” and “recollection”, the piece uses technology to visualize the utmost ephemeral: our memories.
Asking participants to focus on events from their past, Anadol recorded the changes in their brain activity as each was remembered. From these recordings came the installation's dataset and the foundation for its artistic interpretation of the movements inside of the human brain.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
Refik’s installation represents one of the most exciting and unexplored trajectories in the intersection of art and technology: the use of code to creatively explore the human condition.
Through Anadol’s work, something as unthinkably intangible as our memories is given form, demonstrating that — contrary to popular opinion — artificial intelligence and human emotion aren’t mutually exclusive.
WHOSE EYES: This week Eyes on Culture picks were selected by Talisa Pham Quang, Comms & Content Intern @ DRAUP
Talisa Pham Quang is a Digital Fashion fan headed to college to concentrate on the intersection of code & culture.
A This Outfit Does Not Exist follower since 2021, for the past 4 months Talisa has fixed her gaze on how her peers are engaging with the first flurries of clothing online. Growing up in Slovakia, Talisa's take on digital culture is heavily influenced by the Eastern European aesthetic.