Machines and Feelings: MGXS Interview

Fernando Magalhaes (aka mgxs) - Procedural Artist, working with machines and feelings.

Dec 14, 2020 Artist Statements

SuperRare
3 years ago

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Fernando Magalhaes (aka mgxs) – Procedural Artist, working with machines and feelings.

1) Please tell us about yourself and the work that you make in one or two sentences.

My name is Fernando Magalhães, aka MGXS, I’m Visual Artist playing with procedural systems, machines and feelings to create artworks that provoque emotions. 

2) Where do you draw inspiration from for your digital creations?

My mind usually is pretty active and always seeking for inspiration, to read, to desiccate, to decode. 

Some images I see on social media, in a movie,  or a quick walk outside is enough to find amazing forms and shapes in cars, nature, structures etc. An easy one to mention are car backlights, the perfection in how these shapes are designed always inspire me. 

ExoMeta
Edition 1 of 1
ExoMeta :GNSS: HumanProject.Alpha The inability of the ancient humankind to solve their ecosystem problems in extinct Planet Earth, and the failure in colonisation of adjacent planets, forced the actual generation to create the Calix, synthetic recipient bodies that receives the brain and the heart of original specimen making possible to face the extreme condition in their new habitats.

3) Why and when did you start making the “Genesis” “HumanProject.Alpha” 3D renderings series

The Genesis HumanPrject.Alpha was born by accident to be honest in the end of 2018, I was exploring generative systems in a series called Lambogen (that means Lamborghini Generator), that were more abstract car parts, trying to create super cars aesthetics.

One day I asked myself, what if I make humans made out of car parts, then Adam and the whole Genesis started.  

4) How did this series evolve. Please can you explain the ideas behind this series in your own words?

After Adam, everything was happening pretty fast, I was really excited with the results and kept moving forward, exploring many ways to generate more of them to populate this universe that I am creating. 

I decided to add to it a bit of background, where Planet Earth no longer exists and the colonisation of near planets failed, forcing the last humans to create the Calix, synthetic bodies that receive the brain and heart extracted from their organic bodies in order to face extreme conditions in their new habitats. 

5) Tell me about your (artistic and technical) approach to making this digital work. Please describe your creative process, tell me about your inspiration and the different designs for this series that you have made, like these

The way I design them is creating rules that drive procedural modeling tools, the modeling process itself is completely autonomous. 

I allow myself to only tweak the rules of the system. After that I send a batch to render and I’m only able to see them once the render is done, so it’s kinda like meeting somebody for the first time.

I love to see them and try to understand, to feel from where they came from, who they are, what they do and so on. 

The Mavericks, I was looking for something in between Aliens and Reptiles, and the name came from the Ford Maverick(an old famous car in Brazil), because of their round eyes the same way as the car lantern. 

They are part of the Billionaires, the Influent ones, who have the power but for the common well-being. The colors were added to make it feel soft and light.

Seosh is another ExoMeta, it means that it evolves, shift itself, change over time. 

For ExoMeta, I was really looking for an exuberance, something that evolves, adapts but also keeps its form.

6) What words and phrases would you use to describe your work. Are these robots, cyborgs, helmets, masks, future humans or something else?

I would say that I see all of them as living things. Looking like that was the only form the human race found to continue alive, by the adversities they faced across the universe, at times where people preferred to close borders, shut gates, close their eyes. 

It’s a good opportunity to play with what this reality could be if we dont get together and solve our problems.   

7) What are you planning/wishing for in 2021 and beyond?

I’m really trying to understand my purpose, to connect with people through my art, develop my processes and keep doing it, pushing the enveloppe and my art further, with machines and emotions. 

8) How did you first find out about CryptoArt? What excites you about the movement?

Nfts in a way democratize the relation between artist and his audience inside the digital world and also give for each part, the artist, the audience and the art-piece a place of legitimation. 

9) How did you first find out about CryptoArt?

It was through one of my favourite artists quasimondo on twitter

10) What excites you about the movement?

The whole ecosystem itself is pretty interesting, granting the intellectual ownership and the actual symbolic value for Digital Art that was full of meaning but lacking the value.For me It challenges the concept of real and that is what excites me the most!   

10) Who are some of your favorite artists on SuperRare?

quasimondo for me is the technical sunrise, always inspiring me.

ALGOMYSTIC is the experimental magician going in many directions with the same visual joy.

XCOPY I love his style, his colors and gestures.

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