'OBSOLETE'. A perfect Chapter theme across many fronts. On the most obvious level, it is a dense subject, open to artistic interpretation in many ways. Our members used the Chapter as a platform to examine the chronological relevancy of topics ranging from the environment to humanity to technology, and made artwork across a timeline encompassing past, future and present to show the effects of decay and progress of the relationship between these prime entities. It's release coincides with our first major presentation at OFFF 2011, a festival coincidentally entitled 'Year Zero' that concerned itself with forgetting an obsolete past, in order to forge a new future. 'OBSOLETE' also marks our 42nd Chapter, and with it the end of the web medium having a stranglehold on our exhibitions, as we begin production on our first commercial publication.
Many of our members view this Chapter as our strongest, and I can see why. Our artists seem energized by this theme, ready to offer their own personal interpretation of the disposable objects and connections we have with the world around us, and a technological future that seems poised to surpass our mortal capabilities far sooner than anticipated.
It is fitting that the first two submissions to roll in for this Chapter would belong to our featured artist, Niklas Lundberg. His "Scattered Time" series set the bar for this chapter, both in terms of conceptual brilliance and elegance of execution. His three pieces epitomise this Chapter, and the influence they had on our collective creative process can not be understated; the only surprising thing about his selection as our first featured artist for this exhibition is that he has not been featured before.
We welcome several new members to the collective this Chapter; Matt W. Moore brings his vectorfunk talent to Depthcore after accepting a long overdue invitation. Speaking of overdue invitations, Joshua Smith, aka Hydro74, graces OBSOLETE with two examples of his amazingly intricate work, and gives many of us the chance to know and work alongside someone who has served as a tremendous inspiration over the years. We were also graced by very strong debut pieces from recent invitees Daniel Diggle, Lucas de Alcântar, James Merill and Erik Schumacher, who have combined to bring wonderful new energy and some strong aesthetics variation to our collective.
This week marks nine years since Depthcore released it's first Chapter; 42 exhibitions and nearly 5000 pieces later, we are working hard to come to transcend the new reality we exist in as a collective; no longer a group of adolescent enthusiasts, we are striving to retain our relevance within the context of an art collective as an assembly of full time creative professionals. The aforementioned book project and partnership with deviantART has us all tremendously excited, and we look forward to providing updates on it over the coming weeks. We are similarly excited about our forthcoming exhibitions, as we aim to exhibit physically with the release of every Chapter henceforth.
However, it is probably in our new web format that we take the greatest steps away from obsolescence. No longer will there be months of static inactivity between Chapters; our new format will see us provide and produce large amounts of updates and rich content on a daily basis, including interviews, articles, workshop examinations and graphic downloads that will show off the great talent of our members, as well as the intricate process and tremendous amount of effort that go in to building our Chapters and also sustaining our collective creative lifestyle.
We will further utilize this format to its potential, by syncing with other projects produced and curated within our creative family, and broadcasting content including articles from Pig Bimpin', artwork from Typcut, and products from Funkrush. These articles, in conjunction with regular updates from our artists on personal and commercial projects, as well the aforementioned rich content series will hopefully provide many of you a valuable and inspirational daily insight - all updates will be broadcast on our Twitter account, so now is a great time to follow if you haven't already. A tremendous thanks must go out to our development team; Karan Singh, Ravi Vasavan and Brian Smith for their tireless work - I would hope the result speaks for itself!
Enough words for now. There will be many more to come now with our dynamic new platform. Enjoy the Chapter, enjoy the new site design, enjoy the new content. Send us your thoughts and suggestions, we'd love to hear from you!
Justin Maller
Creative Director
The Depthcore Collective
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