Over the course of nine months and pouring their life’s work into what has been one of Art Block’s most successful projects, Dejha Ti and Ania Catherine developed an on-chain generative choreography method that serves as the backbone to their now sold-out “Human Unreadable” digital art collection. 

Having minted out within 30 minutes, “Human Unreadable” is the brainchild of both Catherine and Ti, who have spent countless hours in the creation of a method that prioritizes “human messiness and chaos” within a highly mathematical and engineering heavy process.

Catherine and Ti are an award-winning experiential artist duo who create through their collective art practice, Operator, which they launched in 2016. 

As two “critical contemporary voices” on digital art’s international stages, the duo and ‘LGBT power couple’ welcome their expertises to collide in large scale conceptual works that are highly recognized for their nuanced integration of emerging technologies. 

Ti, whose background as an immersive artist and human-computer Interaction technologist, and Catherine’s as a choreographer and performance artists bring together two environments that showcase a beautiful harmony of our current digital infrastructure with that of Web3. 

The Berlin-based duo They have appeared on BBC Click, Bloomberg ART+TECHNOLOGY, Christie’s Art+Tech Summit, SCAD Museum of Art, MIT Open Doc Lab, Art Basel, and many more. 

Spanning across a three-act play – Reveal, Decipher, and Witness – Human Unreadable’s story unfolds over the course of several months, with the artwork reveal taking place this spring, the uncovering of the choreographies used to create the generative model at the end of June, and lastly, a live performance of those choreographies from the first 100 pieces in the collection (#2 to #101) later this year. 

In bringing the pieces of Human Unreadable to life, Ti and Catherine built a team of more than 25 people – from highly experienced engineers to professional dancers – to help give life to the choreography as it was combined with black-and-white portrait photos of them, X-ray shading, and generative glass objects. 

With choreography at the heart of Human Unreadable, Catherine and Li have proudly defended against ever wanting to separate the underlying choreography from the secondary token that's bound to the primary Art Blocks token, because it’s that choreographic score and unique sequence that generated the Art Blocks token to begin with. 

“Everyone assumes that the reveal of the artwork is the end of the story,” Catherine stated in a Twitter Spaces on May 25, hosted by David Cash of Cash Labs. She touched on the industry “go-to” of traditional collecting and the experiences attached to them, distinguishing the different mindset one has if you approach art as if it were a theater or ballet performance – divided into “acts.”

Thankfully, the digital art community is finally beginning to understand the value beyond a traditional mint, as the reveal is only a small component in an artwork’s journey of creating genuine impact and leaving a lasting legacy. 

Through the fusion of code, choreography, and generative art, Human Unreadable is a perfect embodiment of evolving art that redefined what it means to pour one’s soul into a piece, while advocating for an emotionally-fueled NFT minting experience.

Vulnerability and Meaningful Exploitation

When it comes to injecting heart and soul into the project, Ti spoke to Hypemoon about the thematic element of vulnerability and exploitation that clearly defines the foundation of Human Unreadable:

“Hero your voice, hero the concept. Avoid the temptation to hide behind the novelty of technology or market mechanisms. Avoid masking your voice or expression with what technology can do, but instead use technology to dig deeper into and/or expressing other selves – even if it feels risky, imperfect, and doesn’t fit into what people expect to encounter in a sea of polished digital personas.”

It’s in these very moments that both Catherine and Ti embrace the reality of failure and/or exploitation and how to navigate those waters, which many come to fear and work to avoid.

“That takes vulnerability and courage because there is a chance of failure or feeling exposed. What we do know for sure is tech doesn’t age well, but concept and honesty do,” Ti added. 

When it comes to artists showcasing their work and putting themselves out there to such a large number of people, exploitation and how we perceive that type of public presentation can certainly change depending on the underlying motivations.

“Unfortunately, the world is full of exploitative scenarios for artists, not just limited to Web3. Artists need to always remind themselves that they bring value to the table, and also keep that in mind when they see an ‘opportunity for artists’ to look closely in making sure it's not just an opportunity for people who don’t care about art to extract their value,” Ti says.

In that context, she also emphasized the importance of artists knowing “when to be protective and guarded.”

“At the same time, artists can’t and shouldn’t try to do everything themselves—it's not effective, it’s not good for the art and will cause burn out. Operator’s practice is highly collaborative, not just in the creative sense, but also in the operational sense. For us, we only work with kind people where there is high trust and honest communication. If there is respect, trust and an intimate understanding of the art practice, then there’s more room to be open with collaborators and partners which is essential for making exceptional things happen.”

At the end of the day, both Ti and Catherine want collectors to embrace the beauty and nuance of "human messiness."

“We want collectors to walk away with: a piece that reminds them of the beauty of complexity and human messiness, the feeling that vulnerability is not a weakness, excitement that they are at the beginning of choreography being collected as an art object, and curiosity to further explore movement and performance."

In other news, read about AI startup Gensyn landing a $43 million USD funding round, led by a16z

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