Generative pre-cinematic bird flight studies, displayed on frames built from upcycled electronic waste
Released in April 2021, Flight Studies was created as part of a coordinated NFT release uniting more than thirty-five leading digital artists in support of #CleanNFT. A movement advocating for the migration of digital art toward low-energy, environmentally responsible blockchain platforms.
Flight Studies art works are displayed on custom made digital frames, build from repurposed e-waste and reimagined as a minimalist object of contemplation.
The series is generated through custom GLSL shader code and takes inspiration from the pre-cinematic motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge. Algorithmically produced chromatic aberrations, synthetic rather than optical, function as both aesthetic strategy and conceptual lens: they make visible the constructed, manufactured quality of the attentive gaze, a gaze that has never been neutral.
Attention is this work's central subject. Muybridge's original motion studies were not purely scientific; they were commissioned by industrialists seeking to optimize the performance of horses and laborers, to extract maximum output from bodies in motion. The camera was already an instrument of capture before it became an instrument of art. More than a century later, the infrastructures that deliver images, streaming platforms, social feeds, proof-of-work blockchains, operate by the same logic: they monetize attention, converting sustained looking into data, behavioral profiles, and energy expenditure. The synthetic chromatic aberrations in Flight Studies literalize this dynamic. They are beautiful distortions, pleasures that cost something: intensification and extraction are the same gesture, performed simultaneously.
In Flight Studies, the gaze is subtly redirected back toward the viewer. Our appetite for images, data, and uninterrupted visual flow emerges as both generative desire and latent threat. Like birds in open flight, we often move freely while remaining unaware of the invisible systems that shape, and constrain, our possible trajectories.
Extending the ecological ethos of the work into its physical presentation, Flight Studies is exhibited on bespoke digital frames constructed from repurposed electronic waste. Obsolete LCD screens are diverted from landfills and reconfigured as minimalist display objects, transforming discarded technology into contemplative viewing instruments.
Drawing inspiration from the anti-industrial principles of the Arts and Crafts movement, these frames combine metal, wood, and software into hybrid artifacts. Craftsmanship, sustainability, and digital media converge to produce an object with its own material presence, one that foregrounds care, longevity, and environmental responsibility alongside the immaterial circulation of the NFT itself.
This series of works was produced for The FEN, a coordinated CleanNFT drop initiated by curator Juliette Bibasse, visual artist Joanie Lemercier and more than 35 pioneering digital media artists in response to the outrageous greenhouse-gas emissions of CryptoArt releases on the Ethereum blockchain (PoW).
Our goal was to encourage the community to transition their NFTs to a low-energy platform, such as hic et nunc (Tezos Blockchain, PoS). Minting an NFT on hic et nunc has associated emissions equivalent to an email.
As part of this project, The FEN invited each creative to donate 10% of the proceeds to a project of their choice (local project, NGO, activism, etc..).
For more information please visit thefen.io
Artists include: beesandbombs (Dave Whyte), Memo Akten, Myriam Bleau, Mike Brondbjerg, Cinzia Campolese, Alex J. Champandard, Raphael de Courville, Ali M Demirel, Cadie Desbiens, Zai Divecha, Diane Drubay, Saskia Freeke, Nettrice Gaskins, Han, Auriea Harvey, Mario Klingemann, Joanie Lemercier, Golan Levin, LIA, Zach Lieberman, Shantell Martin, Kelly Richardson, RubenFro, Helena Sarin, Sasha Stiles, Patrick Tresset, Mike Tyka, Universal Everything, Patricio Gonzalez Vivo and Addie Wagenknecht
