Ix Shells and the Future of Sound and Generative Art
Ix Shells is a next-generation artist who specializes in creating generative art and experimenting with audio/visual. Her work has been featured in numerous fundraising projects, including collaborations with TP and DaD, alongside other artists such as @maps and @torproject.
In 2023, Shell’s unique artistic vision earned her a place in the permanent collection at @buffaloakg.
‘Thalamic Pulse’ from the Cartography of the Mind auction at Christie’s 2022
Shells is always on the lookout for new quests, for new parallels to inspire her creative process. With a particular interest in a term she’s coined as Caribbean glitch, she curates and explores the intersection of sound and generative art. Through her art, she aims to explore patterns and codes, often experimenting with a/v techniques to push the boundaries of her medium.
Caribbean Glitch I
ARTXCODE spoke with Ix to gain a deeper understanding of her creative process and the visual tools she uses in her art. She’s a kindhearted soul who envisions a future full of advanced technology that caters to those with disabilities and who live in bad environments.
We’re proud to present our interview with Itzel Yard, better known as Ix Shells.
On a fundamental level, your process is very different in the sense that you don’t write code, but rather use a node-based programming language called TouchDesigner.
Can you explain how you initially got into using TouchDesigner and what the technology means to you as an artist?
Untitled 2022
I began using the software after researching how to edit photos, videos, and music. While in Toronto, I dove into exploring different applications and plugins. Then I discovered a website called Derivative.ca, which had its headquarters in Toronto and offered a bunch of courses and seminars.
I went to a few of those then started researching on YouTube and online forums on my own. I just couldn't stop using it after that. It's a very flexible software and fun to use. You can actually interact with the process. It's a very visual tool.
Can you give more insight into your process with TouchDesigner?
‘ioT 404 error page’ - 2021
I think I start with just opening programs that I already have for writing programs from scratch.
I play some music in the background and if the music inspires me, then I'll try to sync what I'm listening to with the visuals. I can have a video for whenever I see a pattern that can match up with the music.
And then I know I'm getting to an output that I really like or a program that is useful for either a still image or an audiovisual piece. Whenever I don't know I try to research how to do things differently. It's a very visual program, there’s a lot going on in each operation, within the framework.
‘state of randomness in a world governed by determinism…’
What is a common misconception about TouchDesigner?
They should give me like 10 years of free subscription as I mention them so much!
I would say that a common misconception is that it is only for concerts or for like big installations. I’ve actually been using it for almost eight years, and I barely, only started to do installations last year. So I think a common misconception is that TouchDesigner is only for big events or big demonstrations of how it's supposed to be used, but actually, anyone can start using it.
Even children are able to use it. Obviously, if you want to make stuff that is more complex it will require more skill. You need to learn it for at least a year to be able to master it, in my experience.
Are you interested in exploring other generative processes?
Oh yeah. I've had a few conversations about exploring dynamic artworks or things that will evolve using blockchain technology and, for example, Art Blocks projects.
I've been exploring machine learning, although I'm not very proficient with those tools. I think it's getting easier for us to be able to come up with artwork using ai.
I also want to learn how to use other programs that are just for like the fun of learning a new language. Could be very cool studying computer science, like I'm not active right now, but my focus was on learning how to build tools like TouchDesigner. Also learning how to create programs, like maybe I could create a program myself one day, and for other people to use in the future.
As an artist, what is the message you are trying to get across through your art?
I think I'm mostly sharing memories of who I was, who I am, and what I'm gonna do in the future. For me, this is like a long archival and documentative process of my life, which is almost 100% about art. Everything I do becomes more of a performative way of seeing life.
Live Audiovisual Performance for Proof of People - featuring Keene and Rozendo
Like when I go to a class or I meet someone where I walk through, or when I do nature walks or go to the beach or anything. It's just like a way to express my daily life. So I think I like to achieve that. Other people can see what I see through abstraction and music and just the rhythm of things. Maybe I can inspire others to do the same or to be able to find a safe place where they can place their thoughts or they can correlate to what they see in my work.
Why is this message important to you?
I think I've created a community through my blog on Instagram, where I share the most. I have a lot of people now following what I'm doing and what I'm gonna do next. Who are really proud of me, almost like they're family, and most of them I've never met in person or never spoke more than just a few phrases. So it feels very much like I created another planet where there are visitors. There are people that stay, there are people that leave. But you know, there's a planet out there of ‘Ix’ where things are happening. That's what matters.
Wow. We all must get to this planet as soon as possible.
The first project I remember discovering you from was 'Dreaming at Dusk', the project in collaboration with Tor.
Can you discuss the meaning of this piece a little bit and where you were at in your career when this was released?
Dreaming at Dusk 2021
I used this reference; it’s the first Onion service created by the Tor project. They have more than 15 years online and they were of the first websites to create a browser. Its mission was pro-anonymity and keeping people safe where they needed access to these resources without being exposed.
So when I created this piece, I thought of sort of a journal, like if you zoom in on the piece, you can see the lines of a notebook almost. Then there's this pixel sorting, which represents information that is within the artwork and the artwork itself is a container for information from references of this website that was created 17 years ago. So I think it was a good way to commemorate and create a graphic representation of this important social tool for Internet history.
‘Dreaming at Dusk’ at Proof Of Concept - Singapore Art Week 2023
I just feel really honored to have done this and the fact that I replied to that message and I did all of this on time, and it came out well, with great reception. It's one of those symbols of how NFTs can really work on the preservation of art and Internet history.
It's not only about the sales or the transformation of a whole economy but also about one of the best ways to preserve history in books for as long as the internet exists.
How did you discover the blockchain and decide you wanted to start minting your work on it?
I discovered that people were minting artworks online in 2020, but I wasn't aware of the currencies that they were using or if it was a viable way to do this. So it wasn't until the end of 2020 that I followed through with projects like my Instagram blog and Foundation
Dragon Fruit Planet (Pitahaya)
I saw people that were already minting their work like Dmitri Cherniak and Tyler Hobbs. I started asking questions like, “How does this work?” By sharing and plugging myself into Twitter, I started learning at a really fast pace about everything I needed to know, and I became a sponge. I didn't know I had that in me.
I'm initially a fast learner, but to learn all this information so fast, I felt like I had to use it somehow and now, here we are.
As a visual artist who experiments with music and audio, do you ever see sounds or experience synesthesia?
Yeah, I do. I think before NFTs I was in a trance where I would choose my music and not do anything else about that. So, I was like feeling high without being high all the time. I do microdose. When I did it in the past, it would be heroic doses, but even when I'm not on it, I still have this sort of perception of reality that's different.
I do see sounds and patterns. I can hear it even when it’s silent and I can visualize sound as well. Whenever I listen to new music, I already know how to dance to it or how to play with visuals that will come along with whatever sound is playing, but it's usually with instrumental music.
I think I have some sort of pattern recognition. For example, this book I’m holding, I have a photographic memory of an album from an artist; A musician that I've seen before, and I find it and I automatically match it up, visually with the book.
Then I keep going with this color for as long as my obsession goes with it and whenever I see an artwork online that has similar patterns, it's just easy for me to pick them up and associate them with other examples I’m obsessed with at the time.
Those are just some ways that my brain works.
It appears that programming comes so naturally to you from an outsider's point of view. Does this also apply when you're bringing an idea to life?
I think so. You can program with your bare hands. You don't necessarily need the computer to do so. Or when you take photographs, or when you take a video. You can create a set of rules that become art.
I think it's ingrained in me. I already think of myself as a machine and I think I like to keep it that way because I feel special. I've used many of the automated tools that are available and whenever I use these tools too much, my brain starts to get lazy and I'll reprogram myself to just let the machine do everything. That’s why I’ll try to do things manually. I select music or select outputs myself before creating these new languages by writing them down on a piece of paper. Then I just start finding a way to give it meaning.
For example, I have two tattoos here on my arm. You can actually translate it and it will come up with the letters to my name, but it's not that easy to decipher. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you have to take some time to analyze it and understand how it works.
I created that myself and I think it's a way to save my own truth, my secrets, and my own identity from being copied away and by keeping people that are really interested in my work, connected to me through their curiosity and effort. Mm-hmm.
You minted ‘Sewing and Alterations’ in February of 2021 and ‘Switching Time Zone I][][]I[]_’ in September of 2022.
Can you share the most significant lesson you learned during that period of time, if there was any lesson?
Sewing and Alterations
I think it would be to ask for help. Like I said, I was in a trance or I was just creating art and disconnected from the world basically. I didn't go out that much. I didn't know much of the art scene here in my country so when I was hit all at once by the reality of galleries, shows, museums, conversations, and being present, I thought it was really overwhelming.
That was really just a lot of anxiety for me at that time. I knew that in order to grow, like I've grown those previous two years, I had to get out of my shell and my comfort zone and try, but I couldn't handle everything on my own. So thanks to ARTXCODE and Sofia & Toni, they’ve been able to manage everything that’s overwhelming for me, so that I can continue to create and make art.
Sewing and Alterations
I have all of this access and visibility with my platform, I'm able to now help other artists. I'm trying to do it without rushing them or making them feel too overwhelmed. I think I was doing that at the beginning, like telling people, “Hey, you need to do this” and, “You do it this way”.
The lesson here is to slow down and just try to perceive who's really interested and who can handle the pressure instead of like rushing and making them take the leap. I want to be able to give them all of the necessary steps to become an artist on the blockchain.
You’re an artist who experiments with many systems and tools.
Which are your favorite to create with?
I like to work with noise algorithms a lot. I've been using a lot of algorithms related to oscillation and gravity. I think what I like to use the most is anything that will simulate a physical environment, like how the ocean behaves or the wind or the light. I like to work with nature a lot and architectural structures, like the way they can both co-inhabit.
[////] 2023
One thing we're lacking in Latin America is urban planning. We don't have social bike lanes or how all the buildings are just next to each other and they don't care if sometimes they're blocking the view for people or the lack of light that comes through. It's all a mess.
Do you have a favorite pattern that you’ve explored or would like to explore in the future?
I would like to explore more organic, fluid patterns, and fluid simulations. There are many examples of it out there, but I think the more access I have to public spaces where you can show how these environments can become physical.
For example, I imagine this piece as being part of an entire room, encompassing an entire hallway that people can walk and move through. It’s like it has curtains or glue hanging from the ceiling. But in fact, it's light. The difficult part is actually trying to bring this to life in our physical reality.
I think that can be done with the use of lasers or perhaps lidar. It could also be a holographic installation, but those tools are still in a very early stage. In order to create what I imagine, I'll really have to get into a sort of lab and experiment with these tools myself.
What audio/visual techniques will allow you to push the boundaries of your medium?
I think the use of LIDAR. With this, you can have people touch the artwork and actually interact with it and move it. Or sometimes you might feel the light that comes out of the LED screens. I think that's a very interesting technology that should be explored more.
boreal kiss 🎼
It's the closest we are to crossing the line between the metaverse and the physical world. There's also a camera where you can take photos of whatever is around you, and it detects the structure of it and will turn it into a map. It's really interesting, and I'm not even talking about VR yet, but those are also really early tools.
Not many people make art using VR headsets, but I know of an artist that can paint an entire world with just their VR controllers. I just imagine being in a headset for 16 hours a day in a different dimension. I think it's gonna be so real that we won’t know the difference and you'll have the option to even choose where you wanna live. There are certain parts of the world where people can't even go out without having the dangers of the regimes they live in.
You'd rather be in a place where it's safe and peaceful and you can create your own reality. Maybe also start making that technology available for people who can't move or may be suffering from some sort of disability. Then instead of having to spend your whole life healing or trying to heal without success, you can create your own avatar in a different world where you can actually do all the things that you can't do in this world.
I'm a loving person and I think everyone should have nice experiences, a beautiful life, and happiness.
I’m curious, are you at all interested in collaborating with other artists?
I have collaborated with a few artists, but most of the time they look for me. I want to collaborate with one artist. It’s kind of a pain though because I guess I aim too high or I aim for people that are not so interested in digital art, but who I find so interesting.
For example, there's a dancer here in Panama that I admire, she's brilliant. The way she displays her mind and her work is very similar to mine and I think we're already kind of collaborating without even speaking. Like I can see she prompts me to share something and I prompt her back and we keep going back and forth, which is like images and media, colors, and patterns.
Dancing helped me a lot last year. I was just so obsessed with this technique called Gaga, which is only about flowing. It's almost like guided meditation. Someone that's telling you like, “Feel this way”, “Move this way” and “Just be free”, but it gets so intense by the minute and when you finish you're like completely drenched and tired, but happy. It's almost like getting high with movement.
So I was doing that every week last year and I learned a lot about myself and about this person I'm telling you about. It also helped me curate the artwork that I would later share with Buffalo AKG. Fundación Espacio Creativo which incubates Compañia de Danza Contemporánea “Coco” it’s been around for 10 years.
‘Coco’
This organization brings in kids from towns with low resources or no resources at all. Then they teach them about how to make art with video. They have a green screen where they can use computers and dance. A lot of these artists have managed to grow and go to other countries. This organization is actually changing lives, including mine. It's nice to have a safe space where you can go and be free. Move freely and grow.
Can you describe the feeling you had when you first saw your art on the cover of Fortune Magazine entitled, ‘Crypto Climbs Back From The Worst Year Ever’?
Fortune Cover: Crypto Climbs Back From The Worst Year Ever’
It's so different from where I come from and what I used to do, but when I met the team and the people behind it I just realized that it's not just a corporation trying to get attention to their publication. They actually think it through when it comes to art and even showed me an entire floor of Magazines from the 1930s. It was so beautiful.
I feel like maybe things would be more balanced if we didn't only use the faces of magnates and people that ruled the world, to display a publication or in a covert, because I think abstraction is a way to communicate without manipulating.
I really felt like it was a good job from them to put me on the cover and also it was a good choice for me to accept it because, in a few years from now, there's gonna be someone thinking the same thing like, “Oh, okay, this is different from whatever was happening during those days, there’s actually art on the front of this magazine.
Fortune Magazine Cover in Times Square
I felt really proud when people started giving me feedback and just reacting to local news. I feel like it's a door opening for other artists, designers, and people that will love to have that opportunity in the future. So overall, it's feeling proud and feeling like I made history and I think you can get addicted to making history. It's a nice feeling, to be able to be part of something that is so big.
You mentioned this piece was created a year earlier.
Where did the idea come from?
I create pieces without having an idea sometimes. I’ll just make it and won’t put a title or any description to it. I’ll just leave it there to be. And then after a while or whenever I need to, I find a concept. I find ways to correlate a concept to the piece.
As I said, I think that's the beauty of abstraction. You don't really need to use it for something specific, but you can create a whole story. Regardless of the situation, I think it inspires growth, inspires structure, and looking up despite the challenges.
I think I like the warmth that it gives despite being a set of like straight lines. You can also feel like a sunrise, a very positive reflection.
I am so intrigued by BEND, the artwork that was acquired by The @BuffaloAKG Art Museum and has since become a part of its permanent collection.
Could you provide further insight into the creation of this piece and the process/tools you used to bring it to life?
stills from ‘Bend’
I was looking for a space last year to be free from confinement after two years of being in lockdown. Here in Panama, it was very strict. Women only had one day to go out and the next day it was only for men, and on the weekends we couldn't go out at all.
You had only a certain amount of time to go to the store or to do whatever you needed to do in that day, two hours max. It was really bad here. It wasn't like Miami or you know, even New York, where people were out and just kind of doing whatever with or without their masks. Here we could have gone to jail if we tried to do that.
So in the middle of the lockdown, I told myself, “Okay, I need to move, I need to get up, do something, but I'm too shy to show my body online”. I was practicing dancing at this time. I picked up this kinetic amp and plugged it into a program that turns data into lines. I picked this piece after I finally went out into the real world and started dancing with real people and showing myself and being vulnerable.
‘Bend’
I had a year to work on it. After many conversations with the curator, Tina Rivers Ryan, she helped me pick this piece because I talked to her about the struggles I just described. I went with that title because I was bending and trying to adapt and be resilient instead of being so strict with myself, with all the work I needed to do. It also means that I want other people to see me and be more respectful of my efforts. There are a lot of people that really criticize the way I sell art or the way I've done things here in Panama.
They may have envy, or maybe they just don't understand the art. Outside of me bending to this reality, I think it’s a way to tell people about my reality as well. Understand that something that can be revolutionary, can really change things for many people. Sounds a bit dominant in a way, but that word could be a way to describe it as well.
I'm pretty vulnerable in that video, but people can't really see it, and that's the fun part. I'm showing my skin, wearing almost nothing, and being completely free.
In your opinion, do you find it necessary to have your art accepted by traditional art museums/houses to ultimately be successful as an artist?
I think it helps a lot when we're trying to merge the digital or web3 world with the traditional art world, which spends more than $60 billion dollars a year on art. I think we're really tiny compared to that and in order to find balance and bring in more collectors or traditional institutions, I think the best way is to display this artwork can be through the institutional side as a way to make it normal.
Making it like this is part of the art world as well. In reality, it’s an alien world. Of course, it's different, and it can be intimidating, but I'm sure most artists don't wanna take over something that has been going on for hundreds of years, but we now have more space and funding for it as well.
It really helps to have collectors and institutions engage with the web3 world, which has historically been centralized, but that’s when things don't work really well. Most institutions, organizations, and collectors are really trying to understand how decentralization works, but we're all in this process together.
Beyond Recognition 2022
Sotheby's for example, created a whole different website for digital art and the metaverse, Sothebysverse. They've been working in the past five years to add thousands of art pieces to their collection.
Casco Viejo
There's a positive change happening in institutions and not just because they're trying to chime in. or intentionally do bad things. We see it as an evil system, but it's not all like that. There are real people that care who are working on it too.
What technological advancements are you most excited about as we progress further into an ai-influenced, digital future?
I think I'm interested in brain-managing interfaces that can help people that are not able to use their hands or their brain properly, or even their eyes or their ears. To be able to have access to make art with brain signals and their memories, or be able to create another extension of our brain that is only our phones or computers, but that can also help us create. I think that's where we are heading.
Of course, we have to do it with nurture and care to prevent the wrong people from having these tools in their hands. Much more power than usual when handling this technology. When it comes to new stuff, as long as it remains decentralized, I think it can have a positive change in the world. Just like the internet has transformed us, this will do the same.
Imagine, we'll have like a little gallery station on the north planet or people will be able to travel to other places to find new landscapes or new horizons. To get inspired by a place that has three suns, two moons, and a mountain from LA. Crazy stuff like that, but I'm sure that there are worlds out there to explore. I see that in the future, maybe not in the next hundred years, but one day.
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