BOOM TOWN: Peter Burr’s new exhibition with Feral File
Text by Olatz Carrera
Brooklyn-based Peter Burr is an artist engaging architecture tools and the video game industry in the form of immersive cinematic artworks. His work has been featured by international institutions such as Documenta 14, Athens; MoMA PS1, New York; and The Barbican Centre, London.
We talked to the artist about his new fictional neighborhood BOOM TOWN curated by Julia Kaganskiy for online gallery Feral File, representing blockchain technology as a space for collaboration in a digital world. This living artwork comprises 1,000 images that will evolve pegged to Ethereum’s block time.
In words of Kaganskiy: “BOOM TOWN is little more than a collection of empty structures, yet through the process of collecting, the town becomes populated and inhabited, in a sense, by the proprietors of its NFTs. At a time when Web3 is still, by and large, a vacant space to be developed and designed, Burr seeks to underscore that it is we who will come to determine what kind of social and civic life it will ultimately enable and support. Not only will we be the ones who come to populate and activate these spaces, to breathe life into them, make the vibrant and give them their unique character and vibe, but the most potent promise of web3 is that we can choose to build them differently, with a different set of principles and values.”
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
Olatz: Tell us more about how you got involved in digital art.
Peter: It all started about 30 years ago when I played this video game called MacPaint that was secretly training me to be a visual artist. It sparked my interest in painting which led to me exploring animation, installation, making my own video games, and now producing this project BOOM TOWN coming to life on Feral File.
Olatz: Through your creative process, you work with tools designed for video games and architecture. Do you have any previous studies in architecture or game design?
Peter: I am currently pursuing a PhD in Games Studies And Simulation where I study both architecture and game design.
Olatz: How has your work evolved since your beginnings as an artist?
Peter: A few years ago I fired up an emulator and started playing with Mac Paint again. It was exactly as I remembered, and within the constraints of this tool from 1984, I found something interesting. Despite the limited color palette, the lack of an ‘asset store’, the super simple interface - I found a voice to talk about some of my more complicated feelings around our current moment using a tool that was long ago left behind. I think the fact that this tool was so straightforward and familiar helped me discover that voice. I think about this discovery a lot, because today we are in a world where technological advancements cycle faster than our minds and bodies can comprehend. As soon as a website or a software interface becomes familiar, I expect it will change. A system of updates whether or not we like it. I don’t see this stopping. In this world of “update hell”, I wonder if any of us will ever catch up. I don't think anyone really knows.
“Perhaps the more apt question is… how do we build a better world from systems that change before we even learn to work through their shortcomings?”
Olatz: What was the inspiration behind your upcoming exhibition BOOM TOWN at Feral File?
Peter: I like the idea of using social technology like blockchain tech as a space for collaboration. A few years ago I participated in a project conceived by Casey Reas called A2P that ended up being an early prototype of Feral File - working out the kinks of how this technology could work within our artistic community. It’s an honor to be able to bring BOOM TOWN into this space now that a few of A2P's wrinkles have been ironed out and renamed.
Olatz: Each piece in BOOM TOWN represents a unique, living artwork comprised of 1,000 images. How are these pieces bound to change over time?
Peter: Each artwork is built with a little clock inside it that ages the piece as the Ethereum ledger grows. My hope is that the piece will last for 10 years and change multiple times a week over that decade. Will it BOOM or will it BUST? It's not actually up to me... it depends on people continuing to use this technology and write things on that cryptic ledger to move it forward through its lifespan.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Feral File.
Olatz: What is the collector’s experience when receiving the set of images?
Peter: Collectors receive the full set of images as part of their acquisition package and can browse or even create prints of the work’s past or future state, but they cannot make the work advance any faster or slower than block time.
Olatz: What metaphors and symbolism can we find in these boom towns?
Peter: I think Julia Kaganskiy, this exhibition's curator, put it well when she said "BOOM TOWN is galvanized from the landscape of the American West, when makeshift settlements, or “boom towns”, sprung up wherever valuable resources were to be found. Informed by the ideals of Manifest Destiny, colonialist expansion, and get-rich-quick schemes, these towns attracted prospectors, speculators, and those in search of a fast track to a better life."
Olatz: Can you walk us through the practice of preparing this project?
Peter: I started this project in early 2022 when I began discussing the ideas behind this work with my collaborator Dave Tandem. While living in Chicago during the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic I made a series of black and white lithographic prints called COMPRESSION SLABS. We spent some months working together to bring these works onto the internet as generative artworks. Once we had the basic framework in place to do so, the true worldbuilding began. I've been in a steady marathon of construction and remodeling ever since.
Photo: Courtesy of the artist.