Michael Green
Michael Green is a Portland-based multimedia artist known for his infamous balloon gif and living a year in animated reality, Second Life. He is an Internet artist who uses the computer as a tool to voice his visions through various mediums including 3D animation, music videos, VR, and more. His work is non-adhering to the hive mind of the Internet and instead he creates through intuition, unbothered by validation and 'likes'. He is inspired by capitalism, hyperreality, conspiracy theories, A.I and much of technology itself. During this time of Covid-19, Green plans to continue to create Art “as an archived hieroglyph for the future generations to observe.” Besides that, he is also working on an iPhone and Android app called, GR33N TAROT, which features Tarot illustrations and should be finalised by Summer 2020.
What was your first experience of digital art and how did you get into making your own?
I was always fascinated by hyperreality and the uncanny valley. I became interested in PIXAR and early Net Art of the early 2010’s while obsessively binge watching YouTube tutorials, learning how to operate various animation software programs and began seriously making digital art around 2013. That was my year of alignment where I found the path I was supposed to be on. This has been a very strange odyssey. I am fortunate enough to still feel deeply inspired after all of these years. I like to explore new digital mediums all of the time so things won’t get boring. Right now I find machine learning very interesting. I want to observe what the A.I. is trying to show us with it’s alien hybrid vision.
You define yourself as an “internet artist”, how has the digital age and Internet culture inspired your work?
I feel as if I incarnated in the wrong age. My vessel probably belongs somewhere in the 15th century. Perhaps I was an assistant to Hieronymus Bosch in a past life, working on minuscule sections of his prophetic, visionary labyrinths and something went terribly wrong, descending into complete madness and karmically punished, with technical skills reduced, returning into the wrong timeline as this outsider who needs to rely on technology and a WiFi connection to transfer my message to humanity, but i was cursed with an unintelligible, coded tongue that only a Freemason would probably understand.
Overall, I feel a disconnection to the hive mind of the Internet; I know what people want but I refuse to give it to them. I don’t need the ‘likes’, I would rather follow my intuition and see where that goes.
Some of your work explores themes of Capitalism, how do you feel about the monetization of digital art and being a digital artist today?
In 2014, I tried to bring about this issue by trying to break the record for the most expensive GIF ever sold with my piece Balloon Dog Deflated. I created a GIF based on Jeff Koons’ ‘Balloon Dog’, which sold for 58 million dollars, and tried to sell a parody GIF of a balloon dog inflating and exhaling eternally on eBay for $5800. I wrote a manifesto in the eBay description about why digital art should have monetary value, and used the media’s love of clickbait journalism to sell the GIF for me. The GIF went viral and it was heavily covered by the media all over the world, mostly laughing at me. The joke was on them, as they were tricked and printed excerpts of my manifesto. My hope was to bring this issue into public debate. For a few weeks I achieved this objective but since then the issue is rarely ever spoken of. Nobody really cares.
There is nothing more tragic than when I see a talented artist consistently produce brilliantly crafted masterpiece after masterpiece while not being compensated for their time and efforts. I don’t think art should be motivated by making money but imagine how much more art could be produced if artists were able to quit their day jobs and focus solely on their work. There are always opportunities for monetary gain as a digital artist as long as you have a strong work ethic, are strategic in your networking and promotional outlet and are consistently putting yourself out there but I haven’t figured out how to accomplish this. If anybody knows, please tell me how you do it!
What are you currently working on?
For the last two years I have been working with a team of coders on GR33N TAROT, an iPhone and Android app with 78 original Tarot digital illustrations that should be finalized sometime hopefully by summer 2020. For those interested, find me on Instagram for future updates of when the app will be available for download.
What do you see in the future for your work?
I imagine all plans have been halted for the entire world in 2020. At least it feels like that in the present moment. Now is the time to find imminent shelter in the bunker, and patiently wait for this dreadful plague to fade away. I imagine there will be plenty of time to create under self quarantine, but even more important, the social distancing is a unique collective opportunity for all of us to slow down, reflect, heal and love, while this unprecedented moment in history is unfolding and we transition into The Age Of Aquarius. And if it is my time to depart from this earth, I shall defiantly spend the end days on my laptop painting this Coronapocolypse.
The question becomes if art should even be made right in the midst of a severe crisis like this, but it is always the artist’s responsibility to create, however harsh the external conditions, as an archived hieroglyph for the future generations to observe.
courtesy MICHAEL GREEN
interview ANISHA KHEMLANI
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