COLLECTIONS
Black to the Future
"Black to the Future" is a homage on the Afrofuturism of the 1990ies when singers, artists and intellectuals of the Black Diaspora envisioned black futures through technoculture and black diasporic histories.
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic associated with science fiction, philosophy of science, fantasy and magic realism, understood as a critical perspective on cultural production.
The term was coined by the American cultural critic Mark Dery in his essay "Black to the Future" in 1993. During the late 1990ies the sociologist Prof. Alondra Nelson, now Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for Science and Society of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy began shaping a wide-ranging series of conversations that developed the uses and understandings of the concept of "Afrofuturism".
“AfroFuturism has emerged as a term of convenience to describe analysis, criticism and cultural production that addresses the intersections between race and technology,” she wrote. “Neither a mantra nor a movement, AfroFuturism is a critical perspective that opens up inquiry into the many overlaps between technoculture and black diasporic histories.”
The shirts in this collection are designed by rising star Fillenpe, a young talented Ukrainian designer based in Kiev. He is the creator of a successful clothing brand from Ukraine, which was forced to stop working due to the Russian invasion. His style is oriented on the Golden Age of HipHop and Rap from mid 1980ies to early-mid 1990ies creating old school and vintage designs.
Per aspera – ad astra
"Per aspera – ad astra" is a latin phrase meaning "through hardships to the stars".
A similar phrase is found in Virgils Aeneid:
"sic itur ad astra" ('thus one journeys to the stars') as well as "opta ardua pennis astra sequi" ('the desire to pursue the high [hard to reach] stars on wings').
Another origin is Seneca the Younger who wrote in Hercules Furens [Mad Hercules]: "non est ad astra mollis e terris via" ('there is no easy way from the earth to the stars').
The divine hero Hercules was the grandson of Perseus and Andromeda and the son of their daughter Alcmena and Jupiter. Since Andromeda was an Ethiopian princess and Perseus Greek, Hercules is an Afrogreek. In classical mythology he is known for his strength and adventures.
It is said, that when Hercules was a baby, Juno/Hera was nursing him, but the infant bit her nipple, which made her pushing the baby away, spilling her milk across the night sky and forming the Milky Way.
AI – Artificial Imagination
Is AI in creative spaces a medium, a method, a tool or a technique?
How does Artificial Intelligence imagine myths?
Can or, how can humans control the result? Which phrases, words, keywords can we use to get closer to the desired result? Why choose programmers to filter violent or sexual content? What else is filtered?
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This collection is about wearables of AI generated art. When buying a physical wearable you also get a digital wearable NFT.
