Directly from SF and right to our loving Endemic community the guest of our fourth AMA was Jordan Gray — a crypto-art expert who serves as NEAR’s Transformation and Integration Lead as well as Founder and Managing Director of an art and technology nonprofit organization called CODAME. Besides that, Jordan releases his music, photography, and multimedia, he’s featured in New York Times, Vice, Engadget, etc. and is a lead organizer of Card4Card, an art swap similar to trading cards. His NFT art will be featured on the Endemic launch and this was the right opportunity to find out more about it and all his activities.
Let’s start from the beginning. How did you end up in the crypto and NFT sphere?
Jordan: We can walk back from where we’re at now to around two years ago. CODAME, my art&tech non-profit that has been running for the last 10+ years would usually have nightlife events, interactive installations and stuff like that. With the pandemic and lockdown happening we really had to find another way to support our artists. As a part of our big yearly festival that we do, our curator for that year was like: “Hey, we gotta check this NFT thing, give it a try”. As we dove into that we found great success. Within a few months we ran the festival, we saw more sales for our artists than we’d seen from all previous years combined. We knew it was something that even outside of the pandemic we had to continue pushing on and offer as a service to our artists. As a part of that, we discovered sensitivity among artists for things like difficulties when getting started with NFTs, how crypto itself is difficult to get to, gas fees, environmental concerns and other user experiences. In hearing all these things (and as we were working on Ethereum), we started exploring other avenues. That’s how I’ve found about NEAR and as a product of that found Endemic on Aurora. Back then it was possible to touch every single NFT market that exist on every single chain and kinda outdid. That’s what I’ve done — found a happy home on NEAR, It’s really cool to see — the speed of the network, the environmental friendliness and the ease of use being expanded upon with Aurora and Endemic so, really I’m excited to be a part of it.
When being Jordan the artists, among all other functions, you work under the name StarPause. Why that name?
Jordan: I’m a fan of aliases in general and the power that aliases give artists to dab into character to some degree and explore different aspects of their own personalities and their own creativity. I think that aliases are a powerful tool for navigating that self-exploration and that’s also what art is about for me. StarPause is just my one, I would say most public alias. It actually just kind of stuck among all the aliases that I’ve been using. I was a music producer before so back in the day, I was doing some Chiptune, like very sleepy music and that’s where the StarPause alias just kinda stuck. I’ve been just resuing it because that’s what everybody recognized. I also practise Qi gong, a moving meditation. Just the idea that the time is manipulatable and it can be paused through your own attention is the aspect I like and the pause as the part of it. Definitely fun. I also think it’s something relevant to the crypto crowd because there is a lot of folks in crypto that are interested in being anonymous and understand the value of that. I see the great parallels between the activists in the crypto scene and the artists that are interested in it as well.
A man of many aliases, just like David Bowie (for all those who don’t know about David’s real name and all the aliases he had, we recommend a reading). Is there the least favourite alias?
Jordan: It’s hard to have the least favourite but maybe the ones that were neglected, that I wish I could go back to. For example, I would really like to revisit sometime ‘The sober cobra’ that I used primarily for producing the acid techno.
There is one special collection that will be available for sale on the Endemic launch, can you expand a bit about it?
Jordan: The series that I’m releasing with Endemic is a continuation of the style I’ve been exploring with the AI and the MI. I’m starting with a kind of anime inspiration and using it to feed the AI algorithms. Because of the fact that AI has never enough resolution for me and because I wanted a way of creating high-resolution art that is interesting I’ve started playing around with coding the art. It’s basically taking the output of the AI art and feeding it through yet another algorithm to make that art pixelated in an interesting way. Visually, the process is starting with asking the AI to draw pictures for me and it usually has something to do with cute anime and then after doing rounds of that have a series of visuals that I can run to the pixelization. The third part is gamification as all of the pieces are playable on a game and all the numbers that you find on these cards or works of art are actually attributes that can be used to play in a game. I wrote a little script to generate those attributes for each of the characters.
There are also some characters in the artwork, is there a meaning?
Jordan: The technique of using characters to overlay the AI artwork was something I’ve been attracted to because of the revolutions it allows. It gives you something to look at when you’re close to the picture, to dig meaning out of it and it also has a nice texture even when you’re far away from it. Just texture alone attracted me to the technique but the ability to hide things and make a game out of the meaning of those characters also played really nicely into the themes of cryptography and what crypto art is. I won’t give everything away but there are meanings in them. The most graspable one is the numbers I put in the corner of this collection that I’ve used for a dice game that’s been played for close to 20 years now. It’s called Button-man and it’s originally played around conventions to be an easy, fast, pick-up game. I wanted the playability of this series to be something low-tech. You don’t need to have a dap or build an app or even have a computer to play these cards or this artwork as a game. You just need a set of dice and you play these cards against each other. My brother is a mathematician and physicist that beats me in every game we play, but this is the game where the probabilities on it become so unpredictable that I have the chance against him.
Let’s return to the CODAME. What’s happening in this year’s edition?
Jordan: CODAME is an art and tech organization that exists to inspire people through interactive experiences. It really came about from the fact that years ago when I was co-founding it with my partner we had friends that were coming to the town for the work conferences but they were never talking about all the cool art that they were making with code. So we decided we had to make an event to celebrate this and it really went off. I’ve been doing music promotions, running music labels, producing events before so I wasn’t sure how the art and tech nightlife event would go, but we did it and people have been having a great time and asking when the next one is. We’re still doing it years later.
We really focused on doing themed exhibitions where it’s about arts exploring whatever the theme we had for the year of the festival through different media. So we’re not strict about any of the technologies, we don’t insist that artists do NFT art or that artists do VR or whatever the trend is. Over the years there’s always something that’s hot on tip of people’s tongues and we really encourage artists to explore the themes from any medium that they are interested in and familiar with. The theme for this year is Rawthentic. It’s about unmasking as we’re hopefully coming out of the pandemic and being able to not have masks, just the rawness of face time again. It’s also about radical honesty, bringing all of your present situations you’re into your artwork. I think that the more you put into life, the more you get more out of it.
Every show we tend to work with different curators. This year it is Alissa Christine, who is another artist in the NFT space and through working with her on different projects over the last two years we really aligned between our personal interests, promoting other artists and what we were doing. It made a lot of sense for us to team up for this year’s CODAME festival and around the themes which we both hold dear to our hearts.
How many artists and participants in total is there around CODAME?
Jordan: When we do a call for proposals, we tend to get somewhere around hundreds of submissions. Then we focus it down to the artwork that really tells us the story around the theme. Usually, 20–40 artists will be included in the festival which includes performing artists, musicians, visual, installations, various mediums. Over the years we’ve worked with around 600 artists and we kept the mailing lists of all of them so when there is a call for proposals, they’d be the first to get them because we’re close with them. But it’s a non-exclusive agreement, we’re here to support them and fully expect artists to collaborate with other organisations and do their things. We just like to offer what we can with them.
Also, when we do nightlife events we would have 1000–2000 people coming on a single night and we run it for 3–4 days. Over the weekend usually, in tota,l there are 4–5 thousand people included. At the moment we’re putting safety first and making sure that everybody feels comfortable.
In addition, we have done some physical exhibitions since the pandemic and lockdown started around the world. One way we’ve done it was by working with galleries around the globe, previously in Egypt and now we’re planning on doing an outdoor exhibition called ‘A park in San Francisco’. It’s a large-scale LED installation. We held a workshop for people to come and design LED pattern that shows on this large-scale sculpture. So, there’s that CODAME get-together public exhibition outside in the park at the end of this month.
Audio is becoming interesting. Tell us about your producing music.
Jordan: I like it as a means of expression because it’s even less literal than visual artwork. Since humans are such visual creatures it’s really easy to read into the concrete meanings in the visual artwork. Even on abstract artwork, people say: “Oh, it looks like this” and they get sucked into meaning a lot easier, I think. With the audio, it’s much more about the feelings. I tend not to do music with vocals so that I can kinda just go with the expression of feeling or a vibe. Lately, my work has been done primarily on Ipad. Previously to having one and being able to produce music on it, I was using PSPs for my music production. Before that there was Gameboy so for me it’s always have been playful. Also, I have around portable battery so when I’m sitting in the park or a cafe I’ve been able to jam the tune. I do a lot of production on aeroplanes when I’m travelling. It’s nice to be able to take that offline time and just crack out the beat. This year I’ve been focusing on making things that are short and loopable and have space on them for something else to fill it in. All of my art and music are ready for people to grab, remix and reuse and that resulted in my music being used in movies, videogames and all kinds of other things.
What I’m really excited to see this year is who picks it up for use with NFT projects as a part of that. We’ll see how it goes. Whenever I release things, it’s just an open invitation. Maybe nobody will use it but maybe something interesting will happen. I’m never pushing too hard on making those collaborations happen and just kind of accept the happy accidents and the surprises as it is picked up and used.
Is there some music inspiration you can share?
Jordan: It’s hard for me to give particular names that are the most inspiring because there has been a lot of favourites over the years. There are certain classics that I’m coming back to again and again like Aphex Twin for example — it’s hard for me not to have it in rotation. I have a headphone listening kinda like an audio file sound system test playlist on Spotify. You can check the vibes that inspires me here. I also used to DJ for radio when I was in college and my favourite thing to do was to take techno and electro and slow it down to 92 or 100bmp and have really late night/early morning sludgy dance music being broadcast on FM.
What excites you the most about Endemic?
Jordan: One of the things that I love about the NFT space is the way it took the web 2 ideas of artists and curators blurring a little bit in feeds as Tumblr feeds. The web 3 space even takes it a step further and adds collectors into that curator-creator mix. So there is this blending of curators-creators-collectors in web 3 space. Navigating it has been a little bit hairy because it takes the traditional roles to the platform as a curator or an organization (like Codame as a curator) and it makes new opportunities.
One of the things we got to talk about and I’m really excited about is the fact that there will be space on Endemic for that curational role. The artwork is valued and seen as valuable and rewarded.
I think that’s another great thing about the Web 3 space — it makes art tangible. It takes a lot of the work that you know happens but it’s sometimes taken for granted or it’s hard to quantify and make it properly rewarded. For Endemic to be leaning upon that and opening that door for not just artists but also curators, it’s wonderful and something I like to see. I’m not taking it lightly because I know how much effort it needs to figure these things out and pave new roads for all to interact. I’m really excited about my collaboration with Endemic. Another thing that really attracted me to it was the fact that you’re interested in doing shows around the artwork and just different initiatives you have for promoting artists on the platform. It reminded me of a thing CODAME is interested in doing and make me think as Rawthentic and other festivals come to life it will be partnership opportunities where we can work together whether it’s a physical or digital installation, really help support each other’s initiatives.
Endemic being a curated-art platform, instaling visual standards and understanding the history of art, styles and mediums of art just give the best quality to the public truly knowing what they are buying. Do you agree?
Jordan: It’s something I’m certainly attracted to and see the value of. In the crypto art world, there are a lot of naive collectors and I don’t say this as a bad thing. I think it’s great when young collectors are discovering what it means to be a collector and appreciate art. But they are coming to that experience with fresh eyes and without a lot of the art history background. That’s why it’s good to have folks who do have a studied eye providing them with some traction and some options. That gives a little head starter of what they can be looking at.
As the fact of the demographic in crypto art and that kind of the naive collector art, there is a lot of stuff in crypto space that reminds me of teen males, being in high school. There’s a lot of that kind of artwork. I believe that when curational platforms are able to push some alternative narratives and bring more voices to the table, young collectors will expand the pallet. Even if they come don’t like it, it will give them the idea that art like that exists.
I love curation, it’s a balancing act — you want to entice people to be curious but you also want to challenge them, bring something to the table that does intrigue them and give them a little bit of something to chew on that isn’t totally easy listening or easy eye-candy. I see curation as a work that should be rewarded, something it’s overlooked and not seen as real work. I’m working with a lot of DAOs on Near. There are over 200 monthly active DAOs and probably half of those are organizations in music. It’s great to see in DAOs and in a crypto art scene curators, organizers and administrators being paid for their time and the valuable work that they doing. Seeing that being recognized is absolutely one of my favourite things about the scene and the power of Web 3. It’s a part of the work revolution from that respect and shift towards the rewarding of creative work, especially as there is more and more decision making jobs being eaten by AI and automation. We’re on the horizon of a creative revolution.
Some hot questions from the crowd
Favourite anime?
Jordan: Recently, I’ve been watching a Ranking of kings which is an ongoing series. I love how all characters have flaws that make them so lovable and you get to see the progress of all of them. Another one I get very excited about every time there is an update is Made in Abyss. Both of those series look very cute on the surface but getting into some very dark and deeply human experience and exploration.
Thoughts about Evangelion?
Jordan: I love it and also love how much controversy there is about the ending and how much the fan base has influenced the fact that there’s now even the alternate ending because of the people dissatisfaction with it. That’s a really fascinating part of the anime fandom. It really wouldn’t exist without the passion and dodging creators that came up through the ranks of doing amateur art and becoming professionals. Also, there’s the community ownership of characters in the anime scene. In Japan, in particular, intellectual property is taken seriously and it’s not uncommon for a video game company to come after people who are using their characters. In anime, the creative community is around the characters giving a lot of leeways to make their cosplays, fan fiction and everything else. That one I particularly like about the Evangelion — the way the fan interaction has given a whole new life after the series was completed and even had the second completion, too.
Where do you find your creative juice?
Jordan: I was mentioning audio stuff that has been coming up through producing with Gameboys, PSP. I’ve always enjoyed video game music. Some of my favourite music still to this day is from the Amiga and the games I was playing as a kid. I used to take a cassette recorder and record the music from intros. I still find video music hugely inspirational and love how much environment and scene-setting there is. I like moody soundtrack work more than everything else.
Do you have some advice for upcoming artists on how to relax, not to burn out and bridge successfully in the NFT sphere?
Jordan: As said, I practise Qigong, a moving meditation. It has a lot to do with embodiment and not making meditation a static thing. It doesn’t have to be static for you to get into the flow or meditating state. One of the things I like about it that makes it easier than sitting meditation for me is the fact that as you’re moving, you’re brain is taking up a bit by that experience of moving. The brain can only process about seven things at a time and if you have 3 of those seven dedicated to processing your movement then that gives you fewer to quiet it down. I found moving meditation to be more approachable to people. You don’t have to really believe in meditation to get a benefit of it — it’s a 64 movement set that the folks can go through and it generally just makes people feel better. Physiologically, it’s a great practice. Another little meditation I’ve appreciated, everyone has probably heard about it is a breathing meditation, common in yoga to really focus on the breath. One of the things I encourage folks to do is to focus with their eyes or maybe unfocus with the eye by doing eye-stretches and looking as far left or right possible, as far up as possible, as far down as possible, as far away from yourself as possible. You can do it super subtlety, nobody has to know about it and it’s really refreshing to see what you can possibly see when you roll around your eyes. It’s a reset and testing of the limits of your senses you can sneak on at any time (between meetings, waiting in a line, on a walk — it’s a quick refreshing).
Jordan Gray is definitely the man from which you can learn a lot so we suggest you join him on his social channels and follow the journey.
