One year of The Core
It’s been a year since I released the project CORE, one of my biggest pieces of art released to date.
This canvas continues to be a brilliant escape for my creativity. Whilst it’s been a fairly busy year for me in my personal life and in other areas of work. I have found myself coming back again and again to experiment, research, and make art in it’s spaces.
A year gives a good amount of time to think about a project like this and it’s meaning and purpose. I believe it stays true to the fact that it is first and foremost a piece of art as well as a journal for my passions and thoughts of the time. Capturing emotions and memories in a spatial state is somewhat of an odd notion but I do feel this is something that will become more and more of a commonality as we step into the future.
Here’s a run down of events and milestones in it’s first year -
The Core has had an incredible run of showcases having been exhibited on 2 continents. Firstly, The Core visited North America and was exhibited in New York as a part of the CADAF 2022 exhibition at Web3 NYC gallery on 5th Avenue. Secondly, and as one of the proudest moments in my career so far - The Core was exhibited at ‘Ipotesi Metaverso’ in the grand Palazzo Cipolla in central Rome alongside the likes of Refik Anadol, Pak, Sashastiles, fuse and Krista Kim.
Since its launch, the project has amassed a collector base of 270 people, mainly from the genesis collection released at the start of the project. The genesis collection of artworks is comprised of Essence, Arrival of the Source and Surrender.
Essence, a free mint of 500 editions, minted out within a few hours. Surrender was airdropped to collectors of prior artworks and supporters of the project. Arrival is the only 1/1 in the series thus far remaining in my personal collection.
I published the very first spatial art piece called ‘Where Oceans Meet’ which exists as a Realm inside of CORE. This piece of art essentially sits as it’s own playable world inside the experience which can be traveled to via a portal sitting in the main CORE experience.
Alongside this, the concept of Realms was released. Realms exist as subworlds inside The Core, they offer new ways of traversing spatial art that contain different themes and experiences.
Around halfway through the year I migrated the experience from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. From a technical point of view, this is a big leap in helping me realize some of the artistic visions I have for the world and my art. The technologies that come with the new engine version such as Lumen allow me to use light in ways I’ve always wanted which were impossible previously. While the tech is still fairly new and expensive to run, it’s been very promising in my recent work. So expect much more crazy lighting directions and fidelity in new releases of the world.
The soundscapes crafted by Dreone for the world called ‘Auras of the Core’ have surpassed a total of 40k streams on Spotify. The tracks that underpin the rooted and mysterious nature of the experience called ‘Self, ‘The Core’ and ‘Revere’ have also been released on Apple Music. Working with Dreone is always a pleasure, as a listener of his work even before working with him, getting to collaborate on some of the rich soundscapes that occupy the space is a thrill artistically.
While the world sees many big events and pivotal upgrades, the world is constantly micro-changing. As I continue to work in it’s space the art that once existed may change or even be removed over time. I took a glance at screenshots and videos from its launch to where the world currently sits and it was a huge surprise. A lot of the changes have come around from the existing work in the world being built upon further as I’ve continued to expand on some of the ideas there. Notably, some of the technical changes such as the engine upgrade have definitely provided overall graphic enhancements.
To short summarise the year in full -
Exhibited on 5th Avenue NYC at CADAF 2022
270 unique collectors of CORE artworks
Launched the first spatial art piece in the world called ‘Where Oceans Meet’ alongside the Realm concept.
Exhibited at Palazzo Cipolla’s Ipotesi Metaverso in Rome, Italy
Migrated project from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.
The Core soundscapes ‘Auras’ crafted with Dreone streamed over 40,000 times on Spotify.
Regular updates and entries to the space including improved avatar movement, spatial art, and graphics.
One year celebrations
As a celebration of the one-year mark, I’ll be releasing a version of the experience with some major changes from the past couple of months, along with a sneak peek preview of a new piece of art in development.
The Year Everything and Nothing Happened
(Artwork in development)
One of the big things I wanted to experiment with when I was first concepting The Core was the idea of replicating memories. The idea of revisiting memories or moments that have been crafted into a spatial state to be experienced is a fascinating idea to me.
A key memory stood out to me that I wanted to explore this concept with and that was one from the Pandemic Era. During the first lockdown I was living in London and on a sunny spring morning I walked from my flat in Clapton into central London, through Shoreditch, Finsbury past the Barbican, and Farringdon. It is still one of the most surreal memories I hold. Seeing a city that is normally so chaotic and bustling with life basically deserted and lifeless felt like I had been placed in a simulation in which we as a species had been wiped out or vanished. They are sights, not many humans see in their lifetimes.
My latest work ‘The Year Everything and Nothing Happened’ is greatly inspired by this particular experience I had. This piece of artwork will be a 2D composition with an experiential state inside The Core experience. This means observers will be able to collect this piece of art but they can also experience it.
Something else
While I’d love to share all the information I have, that wouldn’t make it quite as fun. There is something else being worked on for experience on the collectible side, something that captures evolution inside the project. But more on this when it’s ready.
Concluding
There has been considerable changes to the world recently, even on a micro level, randomly walking through the experience you may see some new features. A lot of it is in line with a particular direction my work is taking, both technically and artistically, if you catch onto these, expect to see them in new pieces of art in the years to come.
A year of The Core, thankyou Observers.