Tone Sculptures
August 2022 ––Ever since early January 2021, GMUNK’s drops on Nifty Gateway have been productive for Munky as huge amounts of work was sold on the platform. In fact, some of his biggest and most elaborate sales have taken place on Nifty. To give back to the collectors, Tone Sculptures was designed to reward every 1/1 holder from his past drops, including Symbiocene Mythologica (’Flow’), InfraMunk vol1 (’Scoria’) and SkyMunk Perceptions of Scale (’Billow’). To reward the edition holders, there was a drawing for any edition holder on the platform (’Recoil’), and lastly there was a burn mechanism to help bring down the supply count for his classic open edition cosmicam.canalis and in reward, a representation of its ashes, entitled ‘Grain’.
This series was grounded in Cymatics research and execution using vibrational plates, various natural substrates and high-speed cinematography techniques developed in collaboration with some of his favorite people. The results are meditation-induced musings on vibrations and materiality, a churning and shifting painting of sorts that is based on practical physics and reactionary energy.
This collector’s drop ran through Nifty Gateway on August 25th, 2022.
This series was grounded in Cymatics research and execution using vibrational plates, various natural substrates and high-speed cinematography techniques developed in collaboration with some of his favorite people. The results are meditation-induced musings on vibrations and materiality, a churning and shifting painting of sorts that is based on practical physics and reactionary energy.
This collector’s drop ran through Nifty Gateway on August 25th, 2022.
Lot Essay
–– 01
On display in the Tone Sculptures collection is sound translated into a corporeal form. Cymatic turbulence is the paint brush and is amplified by pairing thunder with highly charged color, mood, and substance to produce tonal sculptures.
It is a delicate portrayal of the minutiae and the tenuousness of the senses. An auditory bullet that would be considered almost violent if it weren’t so balletic.
It is as if an intangible chord, a reverberation, carries within it the secret to some kind of illusory dialect, here translated only into emotion through the primer elements of dust, of air and fire, of water and viscosity. Think of each rumble as a phrase, a message that is only decipherable through the introduction of frequency and the physics of pitch.
It is a delicate portrayal of the minutiae and the tenuousness of the senses. An auditory bullet that would be considered almost violent if it weren’t so balletic.
It is as if an intangible chord, a reverberation, carries within it the secret to some kind of illusory dialect, here translated only into emotion through the primer elements of dust, of air and fire, of water and viscosity. Think of each rumble as a phrase, a message that is only decipherable through the introduction of frequency and the physics of pitch.
–– 01
Flow
Edition of 10
Artist: GMUNK (b. 1975)
Title: Flow
Collection: Tone Sculptures
Type: born-digital, single-channel digital video
Length: 00:00:43 seconds (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Auctioneer: Nifty Gateway
This work is unique and is accompanied by a non-fungible token. Executed in 2022.
Scoria
Edition of 16
Artist: GMUNK (b. 1975)
Title: Scoria
Collection: Tone Sculptures
Type: born-digital, single-channel digital video
Length: 00:00:45 seconds (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Auctioneer: Nifty Gateway
This work is unique and is accompanied by a non-fungible token. Executed in 2022.
Billow
Edition of 9
Artist: GMUNK (b. 1975)
Title: Billow
Collection: Tone Sculptures
Type: born-digital, single-channel digital video
Length: 00:00:45 seconds (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Auctioneer: Nifty Gateway
This work is unique and is accompanied by a non-fungible token. Executed in 2022.
Recoil
Edition of 20
Artist: GMUNK (b. 1975)
Title: Recoil
Collection: Tone Sculptures
Type: born-digital, single-channel digital video
Length: 00:00:34 seconds (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Auctioneer: Nifty Gateway
This work is unique and is accompanied by a non-fungible token. Executed in 2022.
Grain
Edition of 12
Artist: GMUNK (b. 1975)
Title: Grain
Collection: Tone Sculptures
Type: born-digital, single-channel digital video
Length: 00:00:41 seconds (3840 x 2160 pixels)
Auctioneer: Nifty Gateway
This work is unique and is accompanied by a non-fungible token. Executed in 2022.
The Cymatics
–– 02A sonar intelligence births the foundation for all creation. Vibrations seize the membrane, conducting the shimmering imminence of a push outward. The particles become tentacles reaching for some unknown perimeter. With the force of a coronal mass ejection, a conscious part searching for its unconscious whole. Stardust floats in a primordial wave. Clashing against the physics of predestination, gravity reveals the molecular pattern that is our emergent code.
Tone Sculptures witness the unleashing of a world in which there is a willful, conscious impulse in nature. Where the cymatic phenomena are experienced as transitory objects. Kinetic monuments that show us the shape of a frequency that would otherwise remain invisible.
Tone Sculptures witness the unleashing of a world in which there is a willful, conscious impulse in nature. Where the cymatic phenomena are experienced as transitory objects. Kinetic monuments that show us the shape of a frequency that would otherwise remain invisible.
–– 02
The Process
–– 03Super collaborators Munko McMunkster, Call Me Peter Clark and Dr Joseph Albert Picard conceived a variety of practical experiments, researching elements such as multi-color sand, fine crystals, dry ice, iron filings & glitter and soapy bubble mixtures. The main motivation for these experiments was to capture the vibration and movement of the materials affected by physical forces such a Heat, Wind and Cymatic Vibrations - giving the materials a life and narrative of their own.
To accomplish this, Chladni Plates of different shapes, Mechanical Vibrators and Function Generators were employed to produce the Cymatic stimulations, and fabulous Production Designer Arne Knudsen was tasked with executing the experiments on the shoot day under a ridiculous array of giant film lights and uncomfortable heat.
To accomplish this, Chladni Plates of different shapes, Mechanical Vibrators and Function Generators were employed to produce the Cymatic stimulations, and fabulous Production Designer Arne Knudsen was tasked with executing the experiments on the shoot day under a ridiculous array of giant film lights and uncomfortable heat.
–– 03
Credit List
Director: GMUNK
Digital Artist: GMUNK
Director of Photography: Dr. Joseph Picard
1st AC: Devin Keebler
2nd AC: Brian Williamson
Practical Wizard: Peter Clark
Art Director: Arne Knudsen
DIT: Charles Berquist
Camera Rental: Charles Berquist
Gaffer: Shane Salyards
Key Grip: Tony Giordano
Colorist: Duncan Russell, Freefolk
Composer: Keith Ruggiero
Director: GMUNK
Digital Artist: GMUNK
Director of Photography: Dr. Joseph Picard
1st AC: Devin Keebler
2nd AC: Brian Williamson
Practical Wizard: Peter Clark
Art Director: Arne Knudsen
DIT: Charles Berquist
Camera Rental: Charles Berquist
Gaffer: Shane Salyards
Key Grip: Tony Giordano
Colorist: Duncan Russell, Freefolk
Composer: Keith Ruggiero