LETTER FROM THE TEAM #1: ANIKA MEIER ON DISCOVERIES

Each week, the EXPANDED team shares what’s on their minds. This week: Anika Meier on discoveries and why it’s important to support art students.

I kept reading and hearing: 'Show us new artists!' We took the time to think about how we could contribute to supporting emerging artists. In May, we launched the program EXPANDED DISCOVERIES with the first solo exhibition and release by an artist who is still studying digital art. Now, some of you might say that you don’t have to study art to become an artist. And of course, you are right! But it’s a first step on this path, and we would like to support those who study art in their next steps.

Element Lee and I met when I started teaching at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Department of Digital Art, class of UBERMORGEN. Yes, you’ve read that right: UBERMORGEN. He wasn’t new to NFTs, but a few things were still new to him: preparing an exhibition, doing an interview, collaborating on communication and on a release. Btw, he said that doing that interview with me felt like writing his master's thesis. I take this as a compliment.

Today, PIXEL CARTOGRAPHY is sold out. And we are already planning the next steps together.

(Thank you to all the collectors!)

I guess you are still wondering why art students, right?

Margaret Murphy and I have met during the pandemic when she was still studying at Hartford Art School. There’s always that one student in every class that’s never not curious, engages in every discussion, asks a lot of questions, and stays in touch with you afterwards. Yes, this student was Margaret. And these are usually the people you’ll keep seeing and hearing about. Well, just a few years later, Margaret was commissioned by the New York Times to take photographs and is represented by EXPANDED.

She released two of my all-time favorite AI projects: FUTURE PASTS, PAST FUTURES (sold out) and RE: ROAD TRIP. Because she studied photography, this is also how she approaches working with AI: with the history of photography on her mind and the knowledge of how to tell a meaningful story with her art.

… and that’s why we would like to continue supporting that one student when we meet them.

From my conversation with Element Lee:

"Everything in this new environment feels unfamiliar to me, yet as a digital artist, I sense a profound sense of belonging and familiarity."

NEXT WEEK'S LETTER FROM THE TEAM

Margaret Murphy on diaries in the post-digital age.

"I suppose that I, like Taylor Swift, kept a diary as if to unlock a key to my identity. You could say that I experienced 'main character syndrome' at a young age, imagining that I would turn my journals into a best-selling autobiography.

The internet has really changed this."