Retreat
less words, more
Dear Future Humans
It’s summer. You are probably hot. I hope you are relaxed.
My apologies for the multi-week hiatus without sending a newsletter.
At this point, I would typically state my commitment to writing and sharing great art and insights every week. But, in the spirit of keeping it real, I’m not doing that. I’ve decided to take a break. (In fact, I already have unintentionally… now I’m making it intentional.)
The past six months have been a sabbatical from my career in advertising technology. My plan was to try launching a digital art curation business, and if it didn’t work out, I’d look for a new job in my field.
In case you missed it, here’s my work on a Curatorial Thesis from January 1
I didn’t get traction with the curation angle. So instead I made some effort to help traditional artists get into web3. Originally for the sake of testing and learning, I deployed my own works to the blockchain.
Turning Point
Quickly making art for testing instantly dropped me into being a practicing artist again. Turning Point is my genesis web3 artwork, the first in the Pixie 64 series. It was never officially launched. This is the official unofficial launch.
Will you be my genesis collector? I am already more than grateful! Turning Point has 9 single edition artworks. But don’t rush. Your consideration is already enough.
ok yep, I’m a bashful artist, I have fallen in love with making art again! It feels like a lifetime ago, but after art school, I got a job creating interactive CD-ROMS, which led to jobs advertising, and now, many years later I’m not even sure when I stopped making art. Now I’m making it again. And yes, I’m committed to making it every day and posting either on Instagram or Mirror.
Cliky Machine
In May, there was a minute when I started to build a fictitious character who was going to sell both physical art prints and NFTs. This character’s name is Cliky, in an unwritten story loosely following inspiration from Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins.
Cliky is a discarded vacuum cleaner that awoke from a mistakenly implanted AI chip. Cliky is out back, in a trash pile behind the barn. It’s connected to the internet (obviously) and since it can’t do anything else, it’s making artwork about the things it sees around it. You might recognize these Frongs from the Getting AI Done episode. Credit to Cliky for these images.
Cliky artwork is configured to sell through the Fevertokens.io platform because it works with multiple blockchains, and doesn’t even require buyers to have a crypto wallet. You could buy these with a credit card alone.
For anyone who’s interested, I can put you in touch with Cliky - 0k?
Retreat
Speaking of unwritten stories - another pivot I explored is writing a more detailed (and serious) account of the history of artmaking. The idea is to journey through the history of why we make art, how it’s changing, and where we might go in the future. It would be … Future Human Art - as a book.
I’ve decided against writing this for now (though the outline looks fun) because I’m not ready to take on a project of this size. As you can tell I’m all about starting new shit. But, being honest with myself, I’m not equipped or ready to gear up to be the center of influence for such an undertaking.
Right now, my kids need my help. I’m committed *(there’s the word) to helping my kids catch up on their reading and writing. They suffered by having two full-time working parents leaving them on Zoom during the pandemic. So this summer it’s Daddy Bootcamp.
They are learning how to write with a pencil.
They are learning how to read a book from start to finish.
They are learning how to write a book report.
What’s next?
When the summer is over, I’m not looking for another job in advertising technology. I’m retired from ad tech. I made great friends but the work was never a match for my values. I’ve always been on Team Human, and the ad-tech industry disposes of human needs in the name of ‘personalization’ for the sake of making corporate profits. Decision made.
Buckminster Fuller would be proud of me.
I’m running Daddy Bootcamp for the moment. I’ll keep meditating, keep making art, and start building a new career from scratch!
I’m wishing you luck wishing me luck wishing you luck!
xoxo
New: find links to all of joshyzen’s work at https://joshyzen.io