Ecology is not merely a study of where we find ourselves, but of everything which surrounds us and allows us to live.
James Bridle
Unbound: Ecology in the Age of Machines is an exhibition that seeks to unravel the beautiful, complicated relationships between biological and technological entities.
Featuring Heliodoro Santos, Olivier Bodini, Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez, Ivona Tau, Monica Rizzolli, Che-Yu Wu and hOrO mO X, this exhibition invites us to reconsider our understanding of ecology in a world where the lines between organic and artificial, human and non-human are increasingly blurred.
Presenting brand new unique and limited edition NFTs as well as physical prints, Unbound explores how each artist embraces technology, not only as an agent in artistic creation, but as an extension of the ecosystem we live within.
Detail: Heliodoro Santos, flow(er)s. When the earth becomes energy, 2023, NFT, Unique Original
The essence of ecology lies in the concept of connection. Originally coined by naturalist Ernst Haeckel, ecology is defined as “the investigation of the total relations of the animal both to its inorganic and to its organic environment.”
Ecology, as an expansive practice, is forged through a totality of productive and destructive relationships between species, and the inorganic technologies which surround them.
The egalitarian origins of the notion of ecology, however, are often marred by the supposed supremacy of human intelligence. As humans have sought to build a world in their own image, anthropomorphising animal, plant and technological life, we have measured interspecies connection from the lens of human subjectivity.
In eco-feminist scholar Donna Harraway’s seminal text, Staying with the Trouble, she poses the notion of ‘tentacular thinking’. Here, human superiority is supplanted by an entangled approach to the future of earth, where organic and inorganic life reject the fixity of colonialist, capitalist binary structures which separate humanity from nature, and instead produce protean, collaborative connections between species. As Harraway writes, “The order is reknitted: human beings are with and of the earth, and the biotic and abiotic powers of this earth are the main story”.
The boundless, undefinable web of these relationships can produce fluid visions of the future, whereby ecological collapse can be mitigated through the stories told between species.
Still image from Ivona Tau, 'After Us (After Nondescriptives)', 2023, NFT Video, Unique Original
As digital artists increasingly seek to explore nature through collaborations with technology, recreating and reenvisioning new realities for the environments we exist within, we are offered alternative ecological narratives.
In the work of Heliodoro Santos technology is not mutually exclusive from human experience, but part of our subjectivity – an extension of the body. In his stunning landscape work, flow(er)s. When the earth becomes energy, the viewer is privy to the process of machine learning. Here we can see the machine process a vision of the environment, composed from multiple ‘real’ experiences of nature, forging an idyllic vision of the potentialities of our landscape. What does this tell us about the way machines see the natural world?
Heliodoro Santos
is a digital artist based in Colima, México. Working with computer vision algorithms, artificial intelligence and creative coding, he creates captivating synthetic landscapes that explore the complex dynamics between humans, nature, and machines. His approach is grounded in a deep appreciation for the intricacies of technology and his art examines the interplays of power, control and coexistence. For Santos, AI is not merely a tool or a trend, but a medium or human extension that allows us to traverse new frontiers of knowledge and tap into the vast cultural heritage of humanity. His work has been exhibited internationally at events including The NFT Biennial Non-Binary Pavilion in Tokyo, Computational Realism in The NFT Gallery simultaneously in London and New York curated by Vertical Crypto Art and in exhibitions curated by Superchief Gallery in Rome and Lisbon, Digital Dreams group exhibition curated by Kika Nicolela and NFT NY 2023 curated by OBJKT.
Heliodoro Santos
flow(er)s. When the earth becomes energy
2023
NFT
Unique original
0.3 ETH
In Olivier Bodini’s work, macrocosmic human interactions measured across large social networks are mapped and transformed into microcosmic cellular forms. Each work acts as a mirror, connecting the vastness of our communication to the intricacy of cellular dynamics. Through the visual vocabulary of fundamental elements found in ecological systems, Bodini metamorphoses human ecologies, employing the language of nature’s building blocks.
Olivier Bodini
is a digital artist and professor based in Paris. He heads a digital art team based at the MSN (Maison des Sciences Numériques), an innovative space at the heart of Sorbonne Paris Nord University, and oversees the MunstrA project which aims to forge links between mathematics, computer science and digital art. Since 2020 he has been developing sophisticated algorithms for artistic creation. His recent body of work highlights interactions in the form of a network of circles and lines. Characteristically questioning in their complexity, his creations explore the entropic limits of visual aesthetics. In 2021, he won the Artex prize for European creative incubators for his Nympheas Numériques project. In recognition of his contributions to generative art, in 2022 he was selected to represent the field on the Tezos stand at Art Basel Paris+. His works have also been shown at the Galerie Data and at the Galerie Charlot.
Olivier Bodini
Phagocytosis
2023
NFT
Edition of 10
0.04 ETH
Olivier Bodini
Hemochromatosis
2023
NFT
Unique original
0.6 ETH
Olivier Bodini
Divine Molecular Comedy
2023
NFT
Unique original
0.5 ETH
Olivier Bodini
Cellular Moon
2023
NFT
Unique original
0.5 ETH
In Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez’s extensive conceptual, cross-blockchain project Ecologías, a unique ecology is formed. Initially composed of three series’ of works released by fx(hash) on the Tezos blockchain, ecologías A, ecologías B and ecologías C explore different aspects of the human world: machine signals, water as the origin of life, and the human body. The activity of these projects onchain directly affects the unbound generators, ecologías F1 and ecologías F2 on Ethereum. Reading the data from the Tezos projects as well as data from climate activities, the unbound generators produce unlimited outputs. Each unique view into this imagined ecosystem constructs a survey into the conditions and diversity of the ecology Soria-Rodriguez has created. In this genre-defining project, the phenomenology of the blockchain takes centre-stage.
Marcelo Soria-Rodríguez
is a multidisciplinary artist based in Madrid. He is also a strategist, thinker and promoter of digital and data literacy. After studying Telecommunications Engineering and Signal Processing, he started working on innovation and strategy in a handful of companies, from small startups to large financial multinationals, and co-founded a global data practice at BBVA. He is also interested in fostering access to education, and has co-founded Databeers, an informal data literacy movement present in over 10 countries. He has released critically-acclaimed generative art collections on (fx)hash and in 2022 he released Entretiempos on Art Blocks Curated.
Marcelo Soria-Rodriguez
ecologías F1
2023
15 ETH
Marcelo Soria-Rodriguez
ecologías F2
2023
NFT Unbound Generator
Unique Original
7 ETH
In Ivona Tau’s work, the natural world fuses with the technological infrastructure of humanity. Using GAN AI technology, Tau morphs botanical forms into large, post-modern glass fronted buildings. Harraway argues that machines are as much a part of our ecology as nature itself, and Tau’s work explores this notion, using the medium of AI to imagine new avenues for communication between organic and inorganic life.
Ivona Tau
is a generative AI artist from Vilnius, Lithuania. She employs code, neural networks and other artificially intelligent tools as a medium in experimental photography and motion painting. By transforming her experiences captured on analogue and digital film through these technologies she creates universally relatable imagery, intended to evoke emotions and memories. She has been actively researching AI and holds a PhD in Computer Vision from the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. She has won numerous accolades, including the Digital Ars 2020 award for art created with AI and in 2022, she was elected as one of the TOP 10 Women in AI by Women in Tech foundation. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York, Art Basel Miami Beach, Fauves Paris, Stratosphere Beijing, Crypto Art Week Asia and Bright Moments Berlin to name a few.
Ivona Tau
After Us (After Nondescriptives)
2023
NFT GAN AI Video
Unique Original
3 ETH
Originating from a larger project Plant Script, Monica Rizzolli imagines new possibilities for flora in her work From Grain to Blossom. In this hybrid piece, consisting of a video and 100 generative images, Rizzolli has formed an imagined and unreal new species of flower, forged from the mathematical underpinnings of Johan Gielis’s mathematical equation, Superformula. In this video you can see the blooming of the flower as its grows from a seed, simulating nature from the algorithm, and introducing new hybrid futures for the environment whereby new species may not be rooted in the physical realm.
Monica Rizzoli
is a Brazilian-born artist based in Portugal. After graduating from IA-UNESP in São Paulo, she pursued a traditional art career in painting. It was only after studying at the Kunsthochschule Kassel in Germany that she became interested in creative programming and began studying it on her own. Drawn to the medium for conceptual reasons, she programmes generative rules that mimic the growth and evolution of organisms and landscapes, an approach that she calls ‘Digital Morphogenesis’. In 2021, her project Fragments of an Infinite Field was released on Art Blocks Curated, solidifying her position in the generative art field. She is also a surface designer at Contrast Studio and has designed typefaces such as Tomorrow, available on Google Fonts. Her work has been exhibited globally and she is the recipient of the MAK Schindler Scholarship and the Sweet Home residency by Hablar En Arte, Madrid.
Corresponding Print Edition
From Grain to Blossom is paired with 100 uniquely generative images representing the distinct phases of this flower’s morphological development. The work comes with the option to produce physical prints of each of these captivating images.
Print Specs: Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle German Etching Paper at either 20 x 20 cm or 50 x 50 cm.
Monica Rizzolli
From Grain to Blossom
2023
NFT
Unique original
10 ETH
Part of the work of each of these artists is to mirror the stories we tell ourselves. In Che-Yu Wu’s stunning Ruin Series, he utilises particle and cellular communication simulations to form other-worldly reimaginings of the passage of time. Here, technological and biological time become one. Wu’s works evoke undulating hills, oceanic swells and radiating light wave formations. This work renders the sweeping ecological stories of our era into something more tangible, mirroring the unique perspective each individual holds towards nature.
Che-Yu Wu
is a new media artist, designer, engineer and entrepreneur from Taiwan. He has dropped on fx(hash) and Art Blocks and is included in major digital art collections such as GlimmerDAO. He also builds immersive experiences, combining his visual design skills with VR/AR to powerfully juxtapose elements of the digital with the physical. After completing his Master’s Degree in Integrated Media from New York University, he founded Monoame Design and has worked with Taipei City Government, National Palace Museum, Nissan and White Castle, among many others to provide dynamic experience applications and solutions. He is also notable for his Hahow online courses which have inspired tens of thousands of students to pursue creative coding and new media art.
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[14876]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[132396]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[304397]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[450074]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[493278]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[509662]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[657590]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[778511]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[853823]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[883111]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[931969]
0.4 ETH
Che-Yu Wu
Ecological Fusion – N.[937345]
0.4 ETH
hOrO mO X shines a light on narratives surrounding artificial intelligence, creating works which incorporate intricate and delicate patterns which cannot be recreated by AI. In Vacio Vista Volver, the natural world is posited not as fixed, but as tied to the quantum realm. Recreating the quantum observer principle, this work will produce a unique experience for each viewer. Here the interplay between nature and technology unfolds, characterised by their mutual unknowability and occasional hesitancy towards each other’s functions, yielding productive and mesmerising outcomes.
hOrO mO X
is a digital artist based in Paris. His work explores eastern contemplative philosophies, quantum randomness and contemporary digital technologies. His early semi-generative computational works are based upon the generation of abstract images and texts through neural networks trained on quantum-level random numbers gathered from natural phenomena, such as radioactive decay and thunderstorms’ atmospheric noise. In 2004, he developed the concept of AIproof art, employing true randomness to reject patterns which could be reproduced by machine learning algorithms. This concept later evolved into the OArt paradigm which aims to conceive digital, physical and mind-bound AIproof defence devices. His current work based on the OArt tenets takes the form of animated self-destructing GIFs with figurative elements, conceptual minimalist digital objects and short poems. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Proof of Talk, NFT Paris, France Quantum Conference, Viva Technology and NFT.NYC.
hOrO mO X
Vacio Vista Volver
2023
NFT
Unique original
0.2 ETH
The problem is never technology itself; after all, remember, the computer is like the world.
James Bridle
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