Agnieszka Kurant
Sentimentite
S1—01
100 Expanded NFTs
ERC-721 (NFT) + redeemable as mixed material sculpture (3D print cast in Sentimentite).
Mint
Price: 1.0 ETH
Minted: 0/100
Billions of aggregated human emotions shape Sentimentite’s 100 geological-like forms
100 seismic historic events, millions of harvested Twitter and Reddit posts, and billions of aggregated human emotions shape Sentimentite’s 100 geological-like forms. When redeemed, these Expanded NFTs state-change to physical sculptures cast in Agnieszka Kurant’s fictional material: Sentimentite. She has pulverised over 40 objects used as currencies throughout history into this new mineral-currency. “Today,” Kurant says, “our contemporary global economy is based on conversions of crowd dynamics and social energy into information and capital. Tweets, shares and likes are the new oil and gas.
Sentiment Data
Sentimentite—Kurant’s speculative mineral-currency of the future—investigates the relationship between digital capitalism and geology. Inspired by the way natural forces shape rocks and meteorites over deep time, Sentimentite’s evolving geological-like forms are shaped by changes in 21st century society: one hundred ruptures, revolutions, disasters and future dreams. Sentiment analysis data is harvested from hundreds of thousands of Twitter and Reddit posts related to recent historic events across 10 Chapters of 100 Events (see below table). Collaborating with Justin Lane, CEO and Co-Founder at CulturePulse, this expansive data capture is syphoned into individual digital forms, where it becomes the catalyst for morphological and aesthetic transformation. Kurant has compressed the recent human and ecological past into her own data-driven, speculative geology.
10 Chapters of 100 Events, one hundred ruptures, revolutions, disasters and future dreams
- Birth of Crypto
- Mt Gox Hack
- Dogecoin to the moon
- BTC halving during COVID-19
- Proof of Work versus Proof of Stake
- Ethereum ICO
- #hodl
- Ripple sued by SEC
- Facebook digital currency Diem
- Coinbase IPO
- China bans crypto mining
- Birth of Web3
- Metamask wallet debuts
- Unisocks redemption goes live
- Collapse of The DAO
- Christie's auction Beeple's 'Everydays: The First 5,000 Days'
- Parity Wallet Attack
- Road to Devcon
- #wagmi
- terra0 augmented ecosystem
- POAP community commons
- MasterCoin protocol layer
- Political Earthquakes
- Invasion of Iraq and Iraq War
- Global Financial Crisis
- Boston Marathon bombings
- Assassination of Osama Bin Laden
- Syrian Civil War
- Greece defaults on IMF repayments
- Brexit
- Paris Attacks (Charlie Hebdo & Bataclan)
- Donald Trump presidency
- UAE and Bahrain recognise Israel
- Reshaping World Order
- BRIC coalition becomes formal institution
- Nord Stream 2 pipeline
- Belt and Road Initiative announced by China
- Annexation of Crimea
- Digital renminbi introduced in China
- Declaration of Luhansk/Donesk independence
- Expo 2020 Dubai: first Expo held in Middle East
- Invasion of Ukraine
- Populations displaced by climate crisis
- Russia repayment default leads to downgrade
- Natural and Manmade Disasters
- Haiti earthquake 2010
- Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
- Hurricane Sandy
- Colorado Wildfires
- Chelyabinsk meteorite
- Bushfires in Australia
- Typhoon Pablo
- Earthquakes in Guatemala
- Hurricane Harvey
- Port of Beirut explosion
- The Pandemic
- QAnon Conspiracies
- WHO declare COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 global lockdowns
- Crude oil price drops to minus $37
- Ever Given ship grounded in Suez Canal
- Donald and Melania Trump contract COVID-19
- COVID-19 vaccines announced
- Global supply chain disruption
- Canada trucker protest
- Shanghai lockdown 2022
- The Power of Crowds
- Occupy movement
- Arab Spring protests
- Extinction Rebellion protests
- Hong Kong Umbrella Movement
- Black Lives Matter protests
- Women's Marches
- Gilets Jaunes movement
- BTS fans disrupt Trump's Tulsa rally using TikTok
- #MeToo movement
- United States Capitol attack
- Decentralising Forces
- Wikileaks revelations
- Edward Snowden disclosures
- Chelsea Manning disclosures
- Catalonia independence referendum
- Charlottesville rally
- Antifa resistance
- Election interference by Russian trolls
- Signal app end-to-end encryption
- Gamestop short squeeze
- r/wallstreetbets
- Tech Futurism
- Rise of iPhone
- Rise of Minecraft
- Neuralink chip inserted into pig's brain
- First death caused by self-driving car
- Curiosity rover lands on Mars
- Apple Inc. worth $1 trillion
- Facebook rebrands as Meta
- Jack Dorsey sells NFT Tweet
- Ministry of Truth
- Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter
- Cultural Landmarks
- Pluto demoted to dwarf planet
- Barack Obama elected as first African-American President
- Martin Shkreli buys Wu Tang Clan's 1/1 album 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'
- Death of David Bowie
- Same-sex marriage legalised in the US
- Greta Thunberg delivers speech at UN
- Anna Delvey scandal
- Roe v. Wade
- Death of Nelson Mandela
- Squid Game is Netflix's most watched show
Mapping Global Emotion
To realise the data tranche across the 100 virtual forms, Kurant worked with 3D artist and developer Gabriel Stones. The multitude of emotion-driven datapoints are projected onto the digitally composed 3D models as sets of parameters and rules for transforming and morphing the forms’ size, shape, weight, form, colour, density and texture. Sentimentite’s uncanny, otherworldly quality, “proposes an alternative way of producing artworks,” she says, “where singular authorship is replaced by complex collective forms.”
The parameters for Sentimentite's morphological transformation being set in the Houdini software.
This ideas rich, technically ambitious project reflects the algorithmic and volatile present, where, as sci-fi author Arthur C Clarke said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
A New Material
When redeemed, the Sentimentite Expanded NFTs state-change to physical sculptures cast in Kurant’s fictional material: Sentimentite. Kurant identified over 60 objects used as official and informal currencies throughout history (see table below), and then sourced these materials from global hotspots of commerce and production. Working with Noël Hochuli at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG, the materials are then all ground down and pulverised to make the Sentimentite mineral-currency. Kunstgiesserei custom-fabricates a 3D sculptural mould of each redeemed NFT digital form. The new pulverised mix is then mixed with an acrystal resin, and poured into the mould. After setting, the mould is gently broken off. Finally, the surface is treated with a fine layer of acid which reveals more of the 3D texture details. The end result is striking, uncanny, and otherworldly: a synthesis of millions of people and their invisible machined emotions.
Works from Chapter 5: Natural and Manmade Disasters
More than fifty materials that have throughout history seen use as formal and informal currencies make up Kurant’s Sentimentite material, including cociane, bullets and animal teeth.
- Cocaine
- Cigarettes
- Dried food
- Bullets
- Postage stamps
- Salt
- Animal teeth
- Peppercorns
- Rai stones
- Tide Detergent
- Arrowheads
- Sugar
- E-waste
- Tungsten
- Loose tea
- Rare earth elements
- Cobalt
- Candy
- Chocolate
- Lithium batteries
- Fishhooks
- Soap
- Gold
- Coltan
- Cacao pods
- Silver
- Copper
- Coconut
- Textiles
- Nickel
- Payphone calling cards
- Mirrors
- Germanium
- Potato mashers
- Books
- Tin
- Coloured pencils
- USBs
- Tantalum
- Balloons
- Seashells
- Sweet wrappers
- Glass
- Dried corn
- Instant soup
- Plastic toys
- Beads
- Playing cards
- Trophy statues
- Plastic toy soldiers
- Knives
- Toothbrushes
- Animal pelt
- Bottle tops
- Drums
- Wooden sticks
- Human skulls
- Turtle shells
Agnieszka Kurant
“Kurant probes the uncertainties of the volatile present and unknowable future through projects that verge on scientific experiments,” wrote The New York Times.
Agnieszka Kurant in her New York apartment. Image credit: Alex Munro.
The New York based artist Agnieszka Kurant has collaborated with cognitive scientists, economists, clairvoyants, Amazon Mechanical Turks, talking parrots and termite colonies. Her multimedia output explores the power of collective intelligence in our extreme information societies. “Kurant probes the uncertainties of the volatile present and unknowable future through projects that verge on scientific experiments,” wrote The New York Times. This is art that challenges our assumptions about what it means to be human today.
Kurant has worked with the Machine Intelligence department of Google, the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and won the LACMA Art + Technology Award. Her work is in some of the world’s most prominent collections, including MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, SFMOMA, Nicoletta Fiorucci and Fondazione Sandretto di Rebaudengo. Instagram’s co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger’s acquisition of Kurant’s Phantom Library was the very first artwork of their collection.
Production costs
The material sculptures are produced onsite at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG in Switzerland and can be redeemed at one of two sizes:
- [A] 25cm diameter ($9,600)
- [B] 50cm diameter ($48,000)
All 100 Sentimentite sculptures can be produced at 25cm diameter size. Only 10 can be cast at 50cm diameter, available on a first-come, first-served basis. The above prices do not include shipping.
Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG guarantee production of Sentimentite sculptures within three years of the drop date. Thereafter production will be at the discretion of Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG, or any alternative fabricators arranged by Zien and the artist. The material sculptures are produced as a bespoke service, therefore the production timeline will vary. We estimate 3 months for fabrication and delivery, with an exact timeframe provided at the moment of redemption.
Key information about the state-change from digital to physical artwork — including dates, costs, photographic records of the work and a condition report — are referenced on-chain with the Expanded NFT. The material sculpture is also accompanied by a physical certificate of authenticity.
Credits
Sentimentite is a collaboration between Agnieszka Kurant and Zien.
Supported by Zora.
Data analysis by Justin Lane, CEO and Co-Founder at CulturePulse.
3D modelling by Gabriel Stones, 3D artist and developer working in film, installation and games.
Physical fabrication project management by Sonja Schürpf and Noël Hochuli at Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen AG.