The rise of Hypersurrealism

Surrealism, a cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the early 20th century, was characterized by its explorations of the irrational and expeditions in the unconscious. The movement was led by figures such as André Breton, Salvador Dali, and Max Ernst, who sought to tap into the power of the unconscious mind to create works of art that were both unsettling and liberating.

The concept of surrealism represented a radical departure from the prevailing artistic trends of the time, which emphasized realism and naturalism. Surrealists rejected these traditional modes of representation, instead drawing upon dream imagery, symbolic language, and other forms of irrational thought to create works of art that challenged viewers' perceptions, expectations and conceptual borders.

Over the years, surrealism has continued to influence and inspire artists, writers, and thinkers across a range of disciplines. However, with the advent of artificial intelligence, we are now witnessing a new era of artistic exploration - one that takes the principles of surrealism to a whole new level. We are at the rise of Hypersurealism.

Lines and circles, 2023 ® Chewy Stoll (@chewystoll)

The concept of "hyper" generally stands for something that is excessive, beyond normal, or over-the-top. In various contexts, "hyper" can be used as a prefix to describe an exaggerated state or condition, such as hyperactive (excessively active), hypersensitive (overly sensitive), or hyperbole (exaggerated statement). In computer technology, "hyper" is often used in reference to hyperlinks or hypertext, which are ways of linking information within electronic documents or websites. Additionally, the term "hyper" can refer to hyperrealism, which is an art style that depicts objects or scenes with a level of detail that is almost indistinguishable from reality.

In contrast to hyperrealism stands hypersurrealism.

Hypersurrealism encompasses this art style that seeks to explore the intricate details and high-resolution imagery found within the realms of the imaginary, the subconscious, and the unconscious. Diverging from hyperrealism, hypersurrealism does not aim for a faithful representation of reality, but rather embraces a hyperrepresentation of the inaccurate, the dreamlike, and even the abstract. This opens up a vast expanse of possibilities, transcending the boundaries between forms, genders, species, and categories that were once unimaginable.

Thanks to the advent of deep learning techniques and the emergence of new large language models and generative image algorithms, these possibilities are now achievable - in high-definition. This remarkable advancement unleashes a fresh lexicon of images into the art world and visual cultures, expanding the boundaries of artistic expression and visual storytelling.

AI functions as a mind's camera, as aptly stated by the esteemed artist Claire Silver in her Twitter musings. However, AI's image generation capabilities extend beyond a mere mental apparatus; it acts as a soul's camera. It enables us to venture into the depths of the unconscious with unprecedented depth. Through the utilization of sophisticated algorithms and machine learning techniques, we now possess the capacity to produce artworks that surpass their predecessors in terms of surreality, unsettling qualities, and immersive experiences.

The advancements of Hypersurrealism herald a novel frontier in artistic expression. This movement both builds upon the foundations laid by surrealism and expands its horizons in novel and enthralling ways. As we continue to navigate this nascent field, we can only fathom the uncharted realms of the unconscious that await our discovery and the artistic prospects that will emerge in consequence.

New visual cultures unfolding from Hypersurrealism

0418, 2023 by Masanobu Hiraoka (@budou_mochi)

As we delve into the enigmatic realm of hypersurrealism, we realize that its allure extends also beyond the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Encompassing a diverse range of digital artistic expressions and potentially even material art forms yet to emerge. It stands as a captivating trend to keep a close eye on in the years to come, as it infiltrates contemporary art and permeates visual cultures at large.

Hyperssurealism started to become a catalyst for artistic innovation, prompting visionaries like the creative virtuoso Joe Pease to explore other avenues of expression like old school video art montages or cartoonish extrapolations as seen in the works of Masanobu Hiraoka. This imparts a delightful twist to hypersurrealism, surpassing the confines of AI (even though AI seems to be the talk of the town these days, everywhere we look).

Open the Floodgates, 2022 - Joe Pease (@joepease)

In this ever-evolving landscape, hypersurrealism thrives as a vibrant force, embracing the quirks of human creativity. Moreover, as it expand towards the space outside the screensphere, it holds the potential to inspire and shape the emergence of novel material art forms, which may further enrich and expand the realm of hypersurrealistic experiences.

I would be delighted to conclude this mini-essay leaving you with a piece from Joe Pease. His is a kind of artwork that expands the boundaries of the the hypersurreal and emerges as a more palpable digital artifact then what we deal with on a daily basis.

Synchronicities in the Artsphere

Browsing trough old archives I found these personal photographs from the first Tunga’s individual exhibition after his death back in 2016 - Pálpebras at Galeria Milan in Sao Paulo, Brazil. These captivating pieces of Tunga’s sculpture work bear a striking resemblance to a three-dimensional manifestations of my long-standing drawing practice, which I have coined as Biograms.

Within these frames, we witness an intriguing convergence of art forms, where this Tunga's exquisite series evoke a mesmerizing resonance with the intricacies of my own specific artistic practice towards the life of the biograms or, in other words, the life of lines - presented here in tridimensional forms. These artworks, reminiscent of biological topographies and microlandscapes, serve as a bridge between my years of dedicated sketching of the biograms and the tangible expressions brought forth by Tunga's visionary craftsmanship at the last phase of his poetics. Which gives meaning to my own path to serve as a kind of bridge to the evolutions of this imagination territory.

Beyond these personal photographic archives and this playful coincidence of forms, lays a more intriguing convergence, since over the past three years, I have had the privilege of developing a close collaboration with Mario Vitor Marques, Tunga's principal assistant and his head of commercial affairs during the outstanding career of the artist. Together, we have embarked on a groundbreaking project called Labirinto, which connects a vibrant community of collectors and artists from around the world. Labirinto serves as a transformative platform that fosters meaningful connections and collaborations within the art world, further expanding the boundaries of artistic exploration.

Within the realm of these personal archives of mine and the convergence of Tunga's visionary posthumous presented series, we encounter a serendipitous alignment that extends beyond mere coincidence. In this amalgamation of art and collaboration, we witness how synchronicities in artsphere can ignite profound resonances, fostering movements that expand cultural horizons. Art becomes the radar that decodes and amplifies culture, propelling us forward and ensuring the perpetual motion of our world.

Humaning drawings trough Ingold's life of lines

I am humaning, you are humaning, they are humaning. Finally, we are all humaning. Human is a verb. I learned that from Tim Ingold - professor and researcher of social anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Ingold became the basis for my recent art research that is prospecting many of the ideas and concepts from his book "The Life of Lines" (2015). This book, as well as all ramifications of Ingold's research on lines, became a foundation for my already extensive practice of the so called biograms.

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Tim Ingold’s book cover for his second work about Lines.

In Lines: a brief history, his 2007’s precursor and first book on the subject, Ingold founds an anthropology of the line, which is a sensitive and expansive, integrative and inclusive approach to an all new anthropology of lines touching the domains of dance, art, architecture, music and, more recently, time, biology and ecology.

Ingold unfolds these correlations through and uses the written media as an expression for it, while I have tried myself to find an aesthetic cognition that uses line drawings to feed a similar objective: studying and exploring the nature of the line and its relationships with the blobs also a formfactor explored by Ingold.

Reading Ingold is a profound encounter with myself and with the human. From the joy of finding an eternal companion of research and studies to the certainty that the body of my drawing now has an unremarkable skeleton and musculature defied by this new filed of scientific research. The journey through the strange world of lines and biograms has gained a sense of security so that I can launch myself into what Ingold himself defines as the main task for contemporary social sciences: transforming human sciences and the social sciences into a more open, more speculative and, above all, more experiential and experimental field of developments for humanity.

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A vida das linhas de Tim Ingold e a humanação do desenho.

Eu humano, tu humanas, ele humana. Enfim, nós humanamos. Humano é um verbo. Aprendi isso com Tim Ingold - professor e pesquisador de antropologia social da universidade de Aberdeen, no Reino Unido. Ingold se tornou base para na minha recente descoberta de seu seu livro "A vida das linhas" (The Life of Lines - livro de 2015 ainda não traduzido para o português). Este livro, bem como todas as ramificações da pesquisa de Ingold sobre as linhas, tornaram-se base fundamental e fundadora para o meu já extenso estudo sobre os biogramas.

Biogram 02 : 46 Mixed Emotions | L3XVS_N0VU5 collection

Em Lines: a brief history, seu precursor e primeiro livro sobre o tema de 2007, Ingold funda uma antropologia da linha, que é uma vertente sensível e expansiva, integrativa e inclusiva sobre os momentos em que tal antropologia da linha toca a dança, a arte, a arquitetura, a música e, mais recentemente, o tempo, a biologia, a ecologia e, funda com isso, o ato de humanar. 

Ingold desdobra essas correlações através de um pensamento que se usa da mídia escrita como expressão, ao passo que eu tenho tentado fundar uma cognição estética que se usa do desenho e suas expressões pós-digitais para alimentar o mesmo fim. Ato que consta em meu já longo estudo e prática dos biogramas.

Ler Ingold é um encontro profundo comigo e com o humano. Da alegria de encontrar um companheiro eterno de buscas e estudos à certeza de que o corpo de meu desenho  agora possui um esqueleto e uma musculatura inquebrantáveis. A viagem pelo estranho mundo das linhas e dos biogramas ganhou um conforto e uma segurança para que possamos nos lançar àquilo que o próprio Ingold define como a tarefa da contemporaneidade: transformar as ciências humanas e as ciências sociais em áreas mais aberta, mais especulativas e, acima de tudo, mais experienciais e experimentais.  

For the day of my departure

This November was marked by the departure of our friend and great artist Jaider Esbell. On “the day of the dead” our friend left his body as a freedom act or, as his indigenous relatives say, he got enchanted.

As the media has put it, Jaider was on a meteoric rise and reaching a dimension of recognition unprecedented for any brazilian indigenous artist of all times. In addition to being the spearhead of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, a few of his main works were purchased by the Center Pompidou and many other pieces acquired by other important art collections this year. Many mysteries and questions surround his departure, but this type of consideration must be investigated by other vehicles and another type of professional. As an artist and researcher myself, I will refrain from making a free translation of the text written by Jaider in 2013 and which gives an account of the moment when he would leave this dimension of life - which, sooner than we had hoped, arrived.

For the day of my departure

“This afternoon everyone should drink pajuaru, the drink of my life, and thus raise their souls so that we are in unison.

When this body is there, solemnly rested, when my head is at last still, I want it to be covered with a fine degradable cloth. On top of that cloth, I want lots of dry leaves, picked from large native trees. On the day of my departure, I don't want them to spend all the pain in the world on their desire for my return. My time has come, which has always been awaited. I want your hearts, now cold, to feel the burning of the flames of life, to heat so much until awakening your eyes to all the beauty that still exists. I want this pain of death to be transformed, often, into a source of life, that it be like a spring, or like the waters of the first rains on the scorched ground, which is slowly soaking, moving the grains of sand and, when they soak, awaken the seeds of the past sleep to stop being like that to be lives and go out in search of the sun.

At this moment, my soul must be seeing everything from above, just as I always dreamed, absolutely free without needing protection, foundation or any material connection. Below, just the cold, comforting emptiness of infinity. I will certainly be happy.

I will accompany the birds, sometimes on their crusades. I will be part of the arrow that I have often observed from below, where everyone, at one time, must take the lead and go forward, breaking the air. Like a child for a toy, an ant for a candy, a moth for a light, I will always be following the object of my desire, which I imagine is insatiable and never loses its flavor, or a light that will never go out. I want to be like this, I miss seeing you all. I ask, my people, a little more strength. I ask this favor one more time. I want the women of my family, my eternal women, to go out in the fields to pick flowers. I ask you to accompany these women, all the others who find in me at least a hint of dignity, those who are with me and who consider this soul captive before. I want you to leave early, grab your baskets and fill them with assorted flowers. May virgin flowers be picked, still dew, the most beautiful and fragrant. I want them to see the beauties of our plowed fields, to tread the earth, to leave their tracks registered in these fields swept by the wind. These who will never be erased from the memory of those who know them. Wrongful, wrongly interpreted as bad land, that its grass is of no use, that nothing survives there. Lazy, as they say of the native who craves nothing more than food and the hammock.

I want the men, my brothers, my father and friends, for whom I would do it without measures, to go out in search of mixiri trunks. I want you to bring firewood for an entire night of fire. The fire must be bright. On that day, it must be windy and the sparks of the great fire will rise to heaven. I ask you to watch with me one more sunset and, when it descends, see the first stars shine excitedly, the scattered clouds buttery. I want to go to orange, in the eternal imminence of the beginning of a new day or a new night. I want to lie down, at this time, in the blush of the twilight. I want the birds to still see me when they are returning to their homes. So let me go. Put the mother blanket over my body and give me away so that I can be among you again in other ways. From here, I'll leave soon to be in other corners of this world. I will split, disintegrate into atomic particles that one day will still meet and be part of it again as they always will be. Part of me goes to sea and, finally, I'm going to dive with the shoals, accompany them on their routes, travel through their territory. I can go to the top of the Earth and freeze in a winter sleep, hoping to feel the heat of the sun again. I will now be starting another crusade for this old world. My soul will no longer have a place in this infinite universe and may be recycled in another body. I ask you to slowly play the land so as not to destroy the flowers, which now accompany me on this trip. I want to see my family in one body, in one desire, dreaming the same dream. I want them to remember me in my best days, when they saw my very rare and sincere smile, when they felt up close the caress of my heart, which I always believed to exist. I am a child again, in fact, I have always been one of them and always will be. I want my body to feed the children of this great tree that I am already part of, for now. The fire should be hot and their tired bodies will be lit up. I want you to look at the laboredas and follow the sparks until they merge with the stars in the sky. From there, I see the fire, a ball of light in the middle of the darkness, and in the sky, I light my star never to go out."

August Afternoons, September Mornings, October Nights, April 2013, Jaider Esbell

Entidades, 2021: monumental sculpture that, I believe, needs to be immortalized by the Bienal de São Paulo and by the state and federal governments of Brazil. Jaider's departure is historic, as is this Sao Paulo Bienal. This is the peak moment in his art career and indigenous fight for a relevant voice within western society.

The lens of simplicity: a memoir for a possibility of an integral capitalism

The similarity in their round frames is no coincidence. Comparing Steve Jobs' death to John Lennon's passing is not unreasonable. While comparing Jobs' impact on our time to that of Gandhi may be seen as a delusion, but it still holds meaning. All three of them have significantly shaped the world we inhabit today.

Revolution is the word that unites these geniuses.  Each one revolutionized the world in his own way. Gandhi brought us a political revolution, Lennon a behavioral revolution, Jobs a technological revolution. Gandhi stopped a war with flowers. Lennon showed that dreaming can be bigger than life.  Jobs flooded the world with the hope of simple, humane technology. After them, the world could no longer be the same.

If Beatles is bigger than Jesus, Jobs is bigger than The Beatles.

Jobs' revolution began with the creation of the first personal computer and culminated in the realization of the age-old dream of an all-knowing book: with the vision of iPad (which iteration led to iPhone) his devices reshaped the personal device industry and other content-related industries for good.

iPhone is the most successful single product in the entire history of capitalism. 

At this point, I no longer need to say anything for you to prove you that this product alone has changed humanity and the way it lives forever. In that sense, we could say that if the Beatles are greater than Jesus (as John once said) giving the works of time its whole, then we can also say that Jobs is, definitely, bigger than the Beatles. Again, we live in another time the time of The Beatles and the apples of capitalism keep unfolding it's powers a prowess.

He was a creative genius and a master of aesthetics. Someone once asked him about the design of PCs and he said, "They might be nice on the outside, but have you seen how horrible they are on the inside?"  This was Jobs, concerned with the integral design of the object, with the elegance of a product both outside and inside. That's the secret of Steve's apple, the concern for the whole and the detail. The integrity of the whole experience.

If there's anything the world can learn from Jobs, Lennon and Gandhi I think it's this: dream and beauty must be alive, inside and outside. What the world needs is integral people, integral brands, integral products and integral institutions with a true soul. Simple, deep and clear like a prosaic pair of round lenses.

*this article was adapted from the original article published on October 7, 2011 in the newspaper ‘Estado de São Paulo’ on account of the death of Steve Jobs.