Feral File is pleased to announce BOOM TOWN, new media artist Peter Burr’s fictional neighborhood built and expanded on the blockchain. Each piece in BOOM TOWN, curated by Julia Kaganskiy, represents a unique, living artwork comprised of 1,000 images that will change over time, evolving as a kind of durational stop-motion animation over an undetermined period pegged to Ethereum’s block time—that is, the length of time it takes to add another block to the blockchain.

Collectors receive the full set of images as part of their acquisition package and can browse or even create prints of the work’s past or future state, but they cannot make the work advance any faster or slower than block time. What will reach its end first, the work seems to be asking, the durational performance of BOOM TOWN? Or the technology it’s powered by? There’s only one way to find out.

Exhibition Opening: 
December 14, 2022
16:00 UTC+0 (11am New York, 1pm São Paulo, 5pm Berlin, 12am Shanghai (Dec 15))
Collecting begins one hour later

Please join us on Twitter Spaces for a live conversation between artist and curator on December 14 at 18:30 UTC (1:30pm EST).

Add to Google Calendar | iCal

“Like most of his works, Peter Burr’s BOOM TOWN is a richly crafted narrative world that is deeply evocative while remaining mysterious and restrained. Displaying the artist’s gift for creating images and environments that hover on the boundary between abstraction and figuration, they invite the viewer to fill in the blanks with their own interpretation, suggesting a story that is barely legible yet unmistakably present. Inspired by the tools and aesthetics of video games, Burr’s compositions draw on generative dynamics and the complexity that emerges from simple, rule-based systems. Each of the eight works in BOOM TOWN follows a precise logic for generating the structure’s architecture, its ground and field, its shadows, planes, and colors. The resulting images are reminiscent of 8-bit video games and early computer graphics, as well as the flat diagrammatic quality of CAD architectural drawings.”

Peter Burr is an artist from Brooklyn, New York. His practice often engages with tools of the video game industry in the form of immersive cinematic artworks. These pieces have been presented internationally by various institutions, including Documenta 14, Athens; MoMA PS1, New York; and The Barbican Centre, London.

Previously Burr worked under the alias Hooliganship and founded the video label Cartune Xprez through which he produced hundreds of live multimedia exhibitions and touring programs showcasing a multi-generational group of artists at the forefront of experimental animation. His practice has been recognized through grants and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital Grant, and a Sundance New Frontier Fellowship.

Every one of the structures in BOOM TOWN represents a unique, living artwork comprised of 1,000 images that will change over time, evolving as a kind of durational stop-motion animation over an undetermined period pegged to Ethereum’s block time — that is, the length of time it takes to add another block to the blockchain. Collectors receive the full set of images as part of their acquisition package and can browse or even create prints of the work’s past or future state, but they cannot make the work advance any faster or slower than block time. 

Burr’s process blends traditional animation techniques with the affordances of generative algorithmic systems. Each work originates with “intentionally unoptimized algorithms” developed by Burr’s collaborator, Dave Tandem, and follows a precise composition logic that dictates its form, ground and field, shadows, planes, colors, and weight. The software allows Burr to draw structures on a gravity-influenced canvas and to animate them changing over time. Burr is interested in highlighting the unique fingerprints of various software and in his practice often works across tech pipelines to weave these diverse fingerprints into a unique aesthetic, reveling in the compression and dithering that occurs through this approach. The final images are outputted into a custom framework built by Tandem that uses block time to advance their evolution.

APARTMENT BLOCK

Like a chunk of houses glued together and cut into cubes, each with a standalone reality — the apartment blocks aren’t meant to be good because the community enjoys the process of making them better.

FACTORY

We’ll sustain half the town with a small factory.  The taller the smokestack, the better we’ll spread our invisible byproducts.

SHOPPING PLAZA

A good town needs a few places to go when you’re bored. None of them are here, but the food court has an arcade.

We look forward to seeing you at the opening on Feral File.

Exhibition Opening: 
December 14, 2022
16:00 UTC+0 (11am New York, 1pm São Paulo, 5pm Berlin, 12am Shanghai (Dec 15))
Collecting begins one hour later

Please join us on Twitter Spaces for a live conversation between artist and curator on December 14 at 18:30 UTC (1:30pm EST).

Add to Google Calendar | iCal