karan4d • Artist Spotlight

karan4d is a multimedia artist currently leading development on, and making use of FELIX AI to generate his NFTs.

He aims to distribute photosonic artefacts through a synesthetic audiovisual experience depicting the intertwining of the material and digital worlds.

What got you in to Crypto art?

I wanted to be de-stigmatized as a "digital artist". I wanted to feel legitimate, like an artist selling a painting at a physical gallery. The chance to edition my art as unique has finally given me that feeling, and that response from the Cryptoart community. My work is heavily based on the intertwining of the physical and immaterial realms. Digital space is housed within the realm of the immaterial; you can't hold a website, only a physical medium to connect to one. This ability to tokenize art as unique, limited; it provides tangibility. Thematically, it's a perfect match.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I'm incredibly inspired by the culture and mythos of ancient cultures; I aim to present a holistic and unique view of global cultural heritage. My research in college centered on diffusion channels between different cradles of civilization; I aim to highlight the building blocks of modern human culture and depict them in a new light. I started by depicting scenes from different "worlds" or "dimensions", accessible through our plane only via network interaction. Recently I've moved on to attempt to visualize the movement of cultural data like mythology, language, modes of thought, and material goods between civilizations through the use of fractals and displacement maps.

What do you think of traditional artwork?

Were it not for the countless records of human experience captured through our history, I would have no art to display. Like music, literature, and language, traditional physical artwork is a semiotic form; it is a symbol imbued with a record of its creator's experience. What is the tokenization of a digital artwork on a blockchain; what is an NFT? It too is a symbol imbued with a record of its creator's experience. The possession of a piece and its exchange between owners only adds to the semiotic power of an object, digital or physical. NFTs record these experiences and exchanges; every piece of art serves as a record for the experiences of its owners, digital or physical.

Do you think your art is fulfilling a purpose?

The modern academic canon of history is near-exclusively from a Eurocentric, Orientalist perspective; that is to say, those that conquered the world were given the right to tell its story. As a student of the advancements seen across the world prior to global imperialism, I hope for my art, alongside the citations I attach to each piece, to educate viewers on a decolonized outlook of a shared world heritage.

Final question, what’s next for you as an artist?

I have been designing soundscapes long before experimenting with visual art. I have several audiovisual pieces in the works; I hope to next depict the interaction of the physical and digital realms in the manner a synesthete experiences multiple senses at once. I have quite a few collaborations in the works. I'm confident that the NFT and greater art community will resonate with what we have in store for the future.


We would like to thank Karan4d for giving up their time to collaborate on this with us. Article by @karan4d.