The DATA-MOMENTS NFT-world by Holger Lippmann
Pioneering computer artists!
Metadibs® is building bridges between the art and the NFT world and is regularly talking with pioneering artists from around the globe of technology. Holger Lippmann uses the computer as an artistic medium since the 1990s. During our interview he is sitting in front of his computer, dressed in an Adidas jacket, surrounded by plotter machines and printed variants of his artistic work. His first drop with Metadibs® was sold out immediately. We caught up with him just before his second DATA-MOMENTS drop and chatted about his work.
THE DAY BEFORE A DROP
Holger, tomorrow is your second drop with Metadibs® The first one , the DATA-DONUT series was sold out immediately. Tell us a little bit of the DATA-DONUT concept. What is it about?
HL: The first DATA Donut series was created under the impression of a very old Dos defragmentation software which I was used to work with in the 1990s. There was a table of squares demonstrating which hard drive sector is repaired or broken. At this time I thought this is really the sort of technical visualization I liked. I worked quite often with those types of early computer system visualizations. This was at the same time technical, minimal and funny.
In 2021 I finally got the square table bent to a disc shape, leaving a hole in the middle, colors were added and different motion patterns coded in Processing, this then was the DATA-DONUT.
What can we expect from the second drop? What is different?
HL: I guess there should be said more about the circle itself. I really loved working with circles since I remember. It’s like the most perfect and most beautiful form I can think of. It’s so even, well-balanced on one hand and so full of chaos on the other hand, when you see it in the mathematical way: the connection between circumference and diameter; Pi is completely unsolved. Is there a pattern, is there an end ? What is this? This is like the most chaotic mathematical riddle/number we have and it is in a circle. This is amazing and says much about everything.
So the second DROP which I grouped in three parts — disc, donut and star — is based on a very different idea. In this case it’s not about defragmentation. It’s an algorithm that I developed from the Pie chart diagram and it’s about radial curves and restructuring with data input building like a painting out of it.
THE ARTIST CAREER
Let’s look at your career as an artist. You first studied sculpture. When did you decide to create digital art and why? Was it passion, was it interest in technologies, was it energy?
HL: My artist career started at school already, when my school teacher for drawing classes liked my work and promoted me, sending me to contests and putting my stuff up in the school building and telling me that I should apply to art school. So she gave me self-confidence and an exciting idea for my life.
Also some of my family members have already painted. My father when he was young, the brother of my grandmother and my sister…
So I started studying in evening schools, then at the art academy in Dresden and earned my diploma.
What technical means did you have at your disposal at the beginning and with which tools do you work today?
HL: 1992 it happened that I moved — with my American girlfriend at that time — to Brooklyn, New york. I’ve been calling around and some guy from the Institute of Technology offered me an internship at the art department. So I started working on an IBM machine with a software called Painter, it was great. I loved to construct things with computational aid.
At the same time the electronic music scene was gaining energy and I loved to dance at techno parties and was listening to this music excessively.
When I moved to Berlin in 1995, I got a studio place at the Tacheles Kunsthaus where I met artists and musicians. Inspired by this, I charted a radical path and started to work with computers exclusively, knowing that I wanted to make art in the same way that the music I was listening to was made. I spent another year learning about Multimedia Design at Cimdata Berlin. Since then, my fascination has evolved to working with software and internet based networks. I’ve never felt any reason to move back to paints and traditional artistic work.
There was some great and sophisticated software that time we worked with, like 3ds, AnimaterPro and later Macromedia Flash.
With Flash I started coding, later switched to Processing which became a love relationship. One could realize ideas from scratch. Over the time you’d develop your own code classes which were reused and so on. The feeling you were building your house just with your hands was great and not being dependent on proprietary software anymore.
THE NFT MARKET
What do the NFT market mean to you? Is it a new artistic medium or just a new system for distributing art?
HL: Many things; the crypto currency movement out of pgp, Napster, Torrent and all this we’ve been through. It’s a very great moment when many things suddenly come together.
Humans are so playful and curious for new ways. Do we want to make an art sale contract with a lawyer for digital art? Of course not! We figure out new exciting ways, building more complex systems, systems that replace the old ones and are simply better for our present and future.
I find the most beautiful thing about the NFT market, besides its ingenuity and complexity, is the energy. A huge wave of energy breaks down on us and it’s about art! What could be nicer than experiencing this as an artist!?
There was a time when artists were seen as outsiders, as troublemakers. At present, we are moving towards a creative economy. The profession of the artist is more in demand than ever. Do you feel that?
HL: Yes, especially in connection with technologies like VR, 3D printing, interactivity. It’s becoming so unlimited…
Some think that AI could replace the artist, but it’s more like the opposite.
Yes and also still troublemakers! I mean crypto is making more trouble than punk and flower power together, or not? I’m sure it’s a revolution and artists are more in demand than ever.
THE METAVERSE
Last question: How fast is the Metaverse coming? Will we soon be able to view your art in our digital bedrooms soon?
HL: 20 years ago when I was in Second Life, I had a show in a virtual gallery there, met some very nice people that were modeling and selling objects with Linden Dollar. It’s such a long time ago, 18 years, and not much has changed.
Yes my work was already in digital bedrooms.
Honestly, I had to quit my Second Life life when I became a father because it was so obsessive and time consuming… and not necessarily very creative or productive for me, but a great experience that time anyway.
THANK YOU!
Metadibs® is a multichannel, eco-friendly, all-in-one NFT platform with whitelabel solutions. Metadibs® builds bridges between the art world and crypto culture and believes in the decentralized peer-to-peer system as a new form of mutual appreciation between artists and collectors. We believe in a hybrid future that allows art to be experienced physically AND virtually. (Dr. Annette Doms, Head of Curation)
