NAUM 22 PURELY DIGITAL

The NAUM 22 collections are purely digital expressions of ideas and nothing in these collections existed in any other form before being generated in a native digital image format by a digital algorithm.. AI image bots blend the forces of technology and intellect in a world of ideas crafted as word prompts operating at the edges of the imagination.

Technology is the synthesis of logic and reason, and digital technology is an agent for artistic creativity; NAUM is first and foremost a collection of pure digital NFT art that also addresses and imaginatively uses the nature of the technology employed. Pure digital art as NFTs is just beginning; technology may be the superior artist and we need to open the gates of the arts to technology and let our intelligence loose.

The reality of the world is art. For human beings, true beauty is beyond one's imagination, and intricate incidental beauty is the point of departure in AI image-generated art. My intention is to use AI technologies to express the unseen, and aid in discovering new ideas with the help of this technology. This work aims to make art creation as intellectually engaging and compelling as possible. While some of these processes are performed by artificial intelligence, with program logic, data, and algorithmic processing, nothing would exist without the intentional articulation of complex ideas.

The NAUM22 collections collectively express the power and potential unearthed at the edge of hybrid imagery and magic.

Intention, Articulation, and Manifestation:
Art and the Sense of Sacredness

Intention, articulation, and manifestation in creating artifacts of incidental beauty are entirely different in terms of experience from the experience of producing art or design in traditional ways. In the traditional physical understanding of creating an art piece, one starts with an image in mind, something in the imagination, and tries to transpose it on a canvas or stone. The intention is the key to meaningful creation.

This is entirely different when using a text prompt image generation artificial intelligence image generator. With a text prompt, the intention is to create something of a specific nature, for example, a "radical-centric design example." The radical-centric design example can have many forms and many manifestations, which means that one has to articulate what kind of manifestation one is looking for, so a few details are added to the descriptors, indicative of the mood, the geometry, the colour palette, the structure and texture of the forms to be developed and so on. Once this intention of obtaining a "radical centric design violin" is given to the text prompt, the AI image generator returns something always beyond imagination.

In regular art production, the artist understands what the manifestation might be based on the skill of interpreting their articulation of ideas and intention. Still, with AI, the result is beyond imagination and something extraordinary, which creates not only a moment of profound beauty and contemplation but a moment of surprise and a moment of sacredness that cannot be encountered in any other way.

There is a sacredness of the experience at play here because of the element of surprise in discovering incidental beauty. Incidental beauty is born in articulating the AI bot's prompt to create a contemplative object. In this new context of partnership with technology in the creation of meaningful artifacts, if one cannot articulate something, it cannot be manifested. The more and deeper one can articulate, the more meaningful the outcome is.

With this ability to articulate art and design, the intention is, of course, to expand the excellence of the outcome produced and because of the opportunities given to artists and designers to create works that may be far beyond what they would ever have thought of in the context of traditional art forms. This is the realm of sacredness and beauty beyond imagination, and in this sacred realm, the concept of original artwork or design can only come from the depth of the intent and the poetry of the articulation. As more humans learn to utilize these tools and collaborate with AI, the boundaries of meaningful experience in art and design and life and the realm of imagination can grow beyond anything we could imagine today.

Art is the radical human impulse to transform and transcend what is.

And Artificial Intelligence is the tool that opens us up to new dimensions of transformation beyond imagination.

The 101 Ronin Collection was inspired by the power of the 101 stories William Jennings so masterfully threaded into a single narrative which makes for the breathless experience of his book, The Ronin. Paying tribute to the raw power, uncontested skill as a swordsman, and ensuing conversion of the central character into a people's hero, the images in this collection aim to paint a portrait of the man who would become a saint by his desire to repent, by capturing both the innate and subtle beauty and wisdom in what was the most powerful combat technique known to humankind, the samurai way. The images are ultimately in homage to the brutal world that Ronin lived and fought in and eventually decided to change.

There are no words to adequately describe the violence of twelfth-century Japan that explodes in this semi-legendary, semi-true story of a violent man who becomes a folk hero.

An uncaring savage by nature, the Ronin travels from the gutter to wealth and achieves a high level of status and honor through his swords. It is a strange marker of destiny that the wise, even as he destroys them, can see and respect, despite his crimes and bloodthirsty cruelty.

It is a story told with a sense of humour that ranges from pleasantly colloquial to brutally mocking, yet never relents in following Ronin's ruthless search for his truth and his purpose, throughout its entirety. It is tale narrated by a man who hides nothing and speaks bluntly, but it is full of tantalizing riddles that will haunt the reader just as they haunted the Ronin. The more one knows about Ronin, and the more one is shocked, confounded, and eventually inspired.

"The Ronin" is based on the 101 Zen stories from the book "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings" by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. After it was published in 1957, a rising wave of readers experimenting with Zen immediately flocked to read it. At a time when everyone was beginning to experiment with Zen, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones became an instant sensation.

A great deal of inspiration has come from this book over the course of its history. Throughout this book, the masters have conveyed profound and powerful truths by using epigrams, parables, and short, enigmatic, and sometimes even humorous stories to convey their messages. Although there can never be a complete or definitive definition of Zen found inside a bible or authoritative set of doctrines, these classic texts provide the perfect starting point for anyone looking for inspiration and illumination from Zen wisdom.