In a move that reflects the growing trend of digital collaboration in the art world, today Feral File 2.0 launched its new platform with the inaugural exhibition, “N=12.” Curated by Aaron Penne, the exhibition is a testament to the power of global artistic collaboration, bringing together twelve generative artists from across seven time zones, underscoring the increasing interconnectedness of the digital art community.
These artists have been working in concert to create a body of work that embodies the principles of Feral File 2.0. The exhibition aims to illuminate the often unseen dialogues between artists, a concept alluded to by Frieder Nake in his foreword to Casey Reas’s “CENTURY” catalog of 2012.
The artists involved in “N=12”, including Anna Lucia, Nadieh Bremer, Daniel Catt, Reva Fan, Elsif, Lia Coleman, Piter Pasma, RalenArc, Bart Simons, Nicole Vella, ippsketch, and Melissa Wiederrecht , have been collaborating online over several months. They have shared their code and artistic processes, fostering a co-creative environment enriched by weekly meetings, aesthetic critiques, code reviews, and vibrant discussions.
Elsif, Superbloom. Image courtesy of Feral File
These artists were democratically selected from the Generative Artists Club, a group of over 500 generative artists founded in 2018. This group serves as a hub for artists to discuss works in progress, debug code, share mental health journeys, and connect with other creators from around the world.
The “N=12” exhibition showcases the potential of collaborative creation. The participating artists have explored new aesthetic directions, strengthening both their work and their relationships. For example, artist Elsif initially pursued a composition of mountains in a pointillist style, but shifted her work to monochrome and then reintroduced color, resulting in a new impressionistic sense of subject and texture.
As Lia Coleman, creator of “Emergence”, puts it: “You put in fragments of an idea… something unexpected always comes out of the machine, and you try to piece it all together.”
This exhibition exemplifies the cross-pollination of ideas, pushing each artist towards new technical and aesthetic innovations. Each work is created with code written by the artists themselves, highlighting the dual roles of the artist as both creator and engineer.
Feral File is at the forefront of digital experimentation, commissioning curated exhibitions of digital artwork and partnering with artists and institutions to explore new ways of exhibiting and collecting. By fostering an environment for this organic exchange of ideas, “N=12” serves as a model for future collaborative endeavors in the digital art world.
