NFT
Fresh off co-directing Metallica’s “Chasing Light” music video, which featured his artwork, digital expressionist and internet artist Kim Asendorf has unveiled his latest NFT drop.
Curated by Peggy Schoenegge for the Feral File platform, Asendorf’s “Colors of Noise” is a series of 50 unique pieces of art minted on Ethereum, with 47 pieces going on sale Thursday, May 18 for 0.25 ETH (approximately $450) per Unit.
“Everyone is an ode to sound design,” says the German artist Decryptwith the project marking the first time in his career he has brought together visual and audio art.
COLORS OF NOISE
2023-05-18@FeralFile pic.twitter.com/6fYUv3jhJI— KiM ASENDORF (@kimasendorf) May 17, 2023
Using the Web Audio API to generate white noise, Asendorf then created a filter to separate the different colored noise within it. The waveform for those different sounds was then recreated into a wave four pixels high, which became the trigger for the accompanying animation.
“It’s a very experimental mix of automated and reaction diffusion algorithms that re-imagines what I feel when I hear these sounds,” Asendorf explains, using 16 different animations and three components for each piece. Pressing play will start the audiovisual art while pausing to hold the waveform in place as the triggered animations fade.
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Taking colored sounds already defined by audio engineering science, plus one created by Asendorf himself (yellow noise), “Colors of Noise” is a compelling piece of work that is never repeated thanks to the generated noise and animations used in respond in real time. . The idea is that any NFT can also cause a reaction in humans.
“I don’t really think of it as interactive art,” Asendorf says. “Hopefully people should just be interested in looking at it, letting it sink in and maybe hypnotizing it for a while.”
Preview of @kimasendorf’s COLORS OF NOISE series, airing tomorrow on Feral File, at 14:00 UTC+0. Curated by Peggy Schoenegge.
Collectors of the artwork will also receive a limited edition audio cassette containing 60 minutes of material. pic.twitter.com/T8wpEfUvVy
— Feral File (@FeralFile) May 17, 2023
Asendorf says he has “always been interested in electronic music” and sounds that can be made with both digital and analog synthesizers, adding that he finds it fascinating to see how people react to everyday sounds.
“I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but some sounds are very soothing,” he continues. “Some you hear all the time, but your brain filters them out.”
White noise generally helps a person sleep, pink noise promotes concentration, and brown noise promotes relaxation. “Colors of Noise” is an artistic “investigation” into how people feel when they hear these different sounds.
“It’s experimental, because I have no idea how people will feel when exposed to it,” Asendorf explains. “With things like Instagram, you just keep scrolling, even if you see something you like. My work needs time to sink in, but hopefully people find it interesting enough to stop scrolling.”
“People will need time to figure out if they like it, if it helps them or if it bothers them,” he adds.
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Originally, the “Colors of Noise” NFTs were supposed to be generated completely randomly, but after Asendorf saw what had been created, he decided to step in and put the series together. “I really had to compose every piece so that I liked every result and every piece made sense to me,” he says.
Feral File describes the project as living at the “crossroads between art and technology,” but Asendorf doesn’t see the divide. “I grew up with computers, Nintendo consoles and Game Boys. I feel at home in this technology, so using it to create art just feels natural,” he says.
In the future, Asendorf wants to incorporate more sound into his work to create more audiovisual and audio-reactive pieces. He is currently developing a number of tools to help him with this, including MIDI controllers for a browser. It comes after he co-directed the recent video for Metallica’s “Chasing Light” with Dina Chang and used the clip animations that were “a little” audio-reactive.
The technology behind “Colors of Noise” is not designed to work live in a gig scenario, where images are generated while an artist plays, due to the different frequencies and high compression of the sound. However, Asendorf does want to ‘explore’ how his work can be used in the context of sound performance. There’s already Vjay software that does the job, but Asendorf wants to “try to find my own unconventional way of connecting these things.”
Asendorf describes his work as an “outlet,” loving how it can be created in a “low-tech environment” with just a computer, a code editor, and the Internet. He has been creating digital art for nearly 20 years, but believes there is a “new dynamic” at play with the rise of Web3.
“Now that you don’t have all the brands, it feels much more personal,” he says. “You also have direct contact with collectors. They tell you that a piece of you has been running non-stop on a screen in their house for a week, which is amazing. You can create a museum experience at home and it’s great to know that your work is in other people’s lives in some way.”