Dystopian Mind: An Aptly-Titled NFT Collage
Behind Dystopian Mind: An Aptly-Titled NFT Collage
Review by Genevieve Munch
Dystopian Mind, an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) artwork, is a collage-style digital composition that creates a landscape of around 100 references ranging from pop culture, street photography, and text, coming together to form an overall sense of a hostile human landscape with occasional hints of good spirit.
Perhaps the most instantly obvious element is all of the eye contact—throughout the work, just on a quick scan, at least ten eyes confront the viewer. Some are sad, some are neutral, and very few, if any, appear happy. They of course all come from various images, but this imbues Dystopian Mind with a sense of connection, albeit not a very happy one.
Not to dwell on the at-times-cliché motif of eyes too much, but they do bring the Orwellian Big Brother to mind when considering the title of the work. However, here, they act as an authentic presence of humanity, not an omnipresent guy in the sky watching your every move. This is because the artist chose to include a wide variety of eyes from many faces, creating a type of connection that the viewer can rest on repeatedly as they roam the busy composition. Some of these eyes look like part of an old photo, whereas others look like video game art or painted murals, making them feel like people spanning time and space.
Now, let’s talk about the other very obvious part of the composition: text. Some of the words that can be easily identified are open, we demand, madness, news, no, wtf, racism is not patriotism, once I was like you, chase, fake, emergency, cinema, and fin (French for “end”) populate the composition. In addition to being overall negative, this text adds a sense of urban imagery, civil unrest, nightlife, and street art. Text can often feel like a cop-out method to express an idea, but the feeling that these are found images and their ambiguity add some interest to the text in Dystopian Mind.
Although hints of optimism can be found throughout the work in the form of eyes, snippets of colorful street art, and bright abstract patterns, they seem to be there just to remind us that they are in the minority. More frequent images are dark, monotone, and resemble a pessimistic attitude.
Dystopian Mind instantly brings to mind what many might view as an instrumental work of art in the NFT crypto art market: Everydays: The First 5000 Days by Beeple, also known as Mike Winkelmann. The piece, which sold at Christie’s earlier this year for over $69 million, is a digital art college made of 5000 both digitally and hand-drawn images, many of them related to pop culture.
However familiar we are with collage—particularly within NFT digital art—this one feels like an original and personalized take on it. It makes me consider who this person is and where they live—although it’s doubtful it would change my interpretation of this NFT.
Dystopian Mind seems very aptly named. It feels like a digital art visualization of someone’s perceptions of their fellow humans and society as a whole. The artist feels like they’re wrestling with the inundation of news, images, media, and loud opinions that most of us find ourselves surrounded by—but who is also hanging on to hints of humanity and creativity as if they are grabbing at straws to maintain faith.
Genevieve Munch
Genevieve Munch is an American painter and freelance writer. She writes blogs and articles on art, culture, and travel.
You can find some of her work here:
https://www.genevievemunch.com
Some of Genevieve’s blog articles can be found here:
https://www.clippings.me/genevievemunch
References:
Everydays: The First 5000 Days, Beeple (b. 1981)
https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924
Dystopian Mind (2021), Doc:
Host of the Crypto Unplugged Podcast.
Crypto Bull since last bear market. Bitcoin is boss.
Liverpool FC supporter since Rome ’84. YNWA https://linktr.ee/cryptounplugged
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