The Depthcore Collective is delighted to release it's 44th Chapter, "ECHOES". Featuring work themed around the concept of reflected sound, thought and memory, "ECHOES" is a diverse collection of artwork produced by members old and new over the course of the last eight months.
This Chapter embodies it's theme in several interesting ways. We've had a great showing from old members, artists who have been releasing with us for years and years. This is juxtaposed with more work from new members (and more new members) than any Chapter in recent history, including some members who got their start in digital art after seeing our early exhibitions. We're seeing styles that take the aesthetics of yesterday and present today's phase of it's evolution, as well as work that directly references aesthetic touchstones from our past sitting next to work created in a style never before present in a Depthcore Chapter; echoes converging that mirror the old and then move on to create the new.
Whilst perusing the Chapter in preparation for writing this article, it occurred to me that this may well be the first Chapter where traditional art outweighs digital. We've worked hard to create a balanced aesthetic within the collective, but it seems that in analyzing our memories and delving into our past to create this exhibition, many of our members are reverting to their creative point of origin. There are also more series of work in this Chapter than ever before—quite appropriate when one considers the "Echoes" theme.
These two observation segue nicely in to announcing Lucas de Alcântara as our Featured Artist. Lucas created an amazing body of work exploring several core concepts, whilst focusing on developing his ability to use watercolor within the context of his personal style. The results impressed the rest of us to no end, providing a lot of inspiration and motivation during our slow build up in producing this Chapter. See his fascinating answers to my mundane questions in this Featured Artist interview—definitely a great read!
This Chapter sees the debut of many new artists, many of whom settled right in and made themselves right at home in Depthcore's artist porta—bringing in some awesome new blood invigorated us one and all, a big contributing factor to this being one of our biggest Chapter's in years. "ECHOES" sees debut pieces from Diego L. Rodriguez, Taylor Crisdale, Emory Allen, Josh Rhodes, Peter Olschinsky and Dean Cook as well as the return of existing members Jared Nickerson and Jonas Strandberg-Ringh. It's a great feeling to have the family grow, and we're delighted with their contributions to "ECHOES".
We hope you enjoy perusing the Chapter—sit tight, there's going to be a deluge of Rich Content from us, including workshops, wallpapers, Radio Shows and more! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you thought of "Echoes"—we would love to hear from you.
Justin Maller
Creative Director
The Depthcore Collective
Depthcore Chapter XLII: 'OBSOLETE'
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DEPTHCORE CHAPTER XLII: "OBSOLETE" (www.depthcore.com)
'OBSOLETE'. A perfect Chapter theme across many fronts. On the most obvious level, it is a dense subject, open to artistic interpretation in many ways. Our members used the Chapter as a platform to examine the chronological relevancy of topics ranging from the environment to humanity to technology, and made artwork across a timeline encompassing past, future and present to show the effects of decay and progress of the relationship between these prime entities. It's release coincides with our first major presentation at OFFF 2011, a festival coincidentally entitled 'Year Zero' that concerned itself with forgetting an obsolete past, in order to forge a new future. 'OBSOLETE' also marks our 42nd Chapter, and with it the end of the web medium having a stranglehold on our exhibitions, as we begin production on our first commercial publication.
Many of our members view this Chapter as our strongest, and I can see why. Our artists seem energized by this theme, ready to offer their own personal interpretation of the disposable objects and connections we have with the world around us, and a technological future that seems poised to surpass our mortal capabilities far sooner than anticipated.
It is fitting that the first two submissions to roll in for this Chapter would belong to our featured artist, Niklas Lundberg. His "Scattered Time" series set the bar for this chapter, both in terms of conceptual brilliance and elegance of execution. His three pieces epitomize this Chapter, and the influence they had on our collective creative process can not be understated; the only surprising thing about his selection as our first featured artist for this exhibition is that he has not been featured before.
We welcome several new members to the collective this Chapter; Matt W. Moore brings his vector funk talent to Depthcore after accepting a long overdue invitation. Speaking of overdue invitations, Joshua Smith, aka Hydro74, graces OBSOLETE with two examples of his amazingly intricate work, and gives many of us the chance to know and work alongside someone who has served as a tremendous inspiration over the years. We were also graced by very strong debut pieces from recent invitees Daniel Diggle, Lucas de Alcântar, James Merill and Erik Schumacher, who have combined to bring wonderful new energy and some strong aesthetics variation to our collective.
This week marks nine years since Depthcore released it's first Chapter; 42 exhibitions and nearly 5000 pieces later, we are working hard to come to transcend the new reality we exist in as a collective; no longer a group of adolescent enthusiasts, we are striving to retain our relevance within the context of an art collective as an assembly of full time creative professionals. The aforementioned book project and partnership with deviantART has us all tremendously excited, and we look forward to providing updates on it over the coming weeks. We are similarly excited about our forthcoming exhibitions, as we aim to exhibit physically with the release of every Chapter henceforth.
However, it is probably in our new web format that we take the greatest steps away from obsolescence. No longer will there be months of static inactivity between Chapters; our new format will see us provide and produce large amounts of updates and rich content on a daily basis, including interviews, articles, workshop examinations and graphic downloads that will show off the great talent of our members, as well as the intricate process and tremendous amount of effort that go in to building our Chapters and also sustaining our collective creative lifestyle.
We will further utilize this format to its potential, by syncing with other projects produced and curated within our creative family, and broadcasting content including articles from Pig Bimpin', artwork from Typcut, and products from Funkrush. These articles, in conjunction with regular updates from our artists on personal and commercial projects, as well the aforementioned rich content series will hopefully provide many of you a valuable and inspirational daily insight - all updates will be broadcast on our Twitter account, so now is a great time to follow if you haven't already. A tremendous thanks must go out to our development team; Karan Singh, Ravi Vasavan and Brian Smith for their tireless work - I would hope the result speaks for itself!
Enough words for now. There will be many more to come now with our dynamic new platform. Enjoy the Chapter, enjoy the new site design, enjoy the new content. Send us your thoughts and suggestions, we'd love to hear from you!
Justin Maller
Creative Director
The Depthcore Collective
Depthcore XLI - Mirror
This chapter features over seventy carefully considered and meticulously executed pieces produced by a diverse selection of members from the collective. The submissions, as varied in content as they are in style, revolve around central themes of introspection, self reflection and contemplation of man and his environment, and are spread across several mediums, including music, photography, illustration and digital painting.
The Chapter sees several debut pieces, including first offerings from new artists Sougwen Chung and Tony Rivera, as well as a couple of homecoming pieces from long time members Heiko Klug and James Wignall. It is no stretch to say that the gamut of style run in this chapter is one of our broadest and most eclectic to date, and this is reflected in the unusual congregation of new and old blood from the membership taking part in the Chapter production.
Our featured artist this Chapter is long time staple Karan Singh, who has produced a wonderful series of pieces for this collection. His contributions over the years have effected every aspect of collective life, and his feature is as well deserved as it is overdue - he even came up with the title for this particular theme! We'll be releasing a wide variety of featured content to highlight this achievement over the coming weeks - in addition to the customary interview, we'll be hosting a uStream chat, and looking in to having a live drawing session broadcast from the site as well - please stay tuned to our official Twitter stream for updates about this!
Thanks for reading, and we hope you enjoy our latest Chapter.
Justin Maller
Creative Director
The Depthcore Collective
Sleeping is Terrible
Gross...
I'm listening to music with in-ear headphones...
The sweat drips into both of my ears, but I didn't want to miss a beat and just let it be as it may. It didn't bother me really....
Then, when it came close to me finishing my jogging, I can feel a lot of moisture in my ears and suddenly my hearing is muffled from sweat...
I remove both headphones at the same time, and it's like pulling the drain stopper on a bathtub. Sweat just leaks all over my shoulders. Piled up sweat gushing out of my ears...
I heard a glob of sweat splash on top of my shoulders...
It was seriously gross. The sweat was mixed with earwax, so it had a very tan/yellow-ish color to it...
I q-tipped the hell out of my ears when I got back home...
Soggy q-tips...
Gross...