A.L. Crego on Loops, Metanoia & the Mental Architecture of Digital Art

A. L. Crego

Digital artist A.L Crego walks comfortably in the midpoint between the stillness of the picture and the continuous but condemned end frames of the film. This self- taught digital artisan creates most impressive loops to directly represent his very own mental images generating a hypnotic visual mantra.

Crego, who uncovered his passion for this artform after recognising how the moving images made people think faster and more accessible than other forms of art, creates images with a sort of sci-fi classical aesthetic that seem to be speaking for themselves in a way that often feels like they're images culled directly from his own subconscious.

Tied to the creation of loops—rather than any specific software or hardware he can get his hands on to make them—it comes down to people, books, quotes he writes, poetry, sociology, psychology and more for his inspiration. Now something of a heavy-hitter when it comes to the GIF making industry, Crego has been approached by various DJs, artists, and agencies who are all interested in getting their own personal work made.

In his way of taking out gif format from the web he is spreading his pieces through projectors, digital canvases, cinemas and Augmented Reality apps, playing with the newborn “digital public space” and making questions about the concept of museums, art and even reality.

The impact of his work on blockchain has been significant, not only for its ability to create collectible works but also for its participation in debates about the future of intellectual property and the value of digital works in a decentralized context.

For Crego, gif and loop format is not only a way of creating and watching art but a new way of thinking.

Interview for ACCOMPART'S Digital Art Auction House

In 'METANOIA', you explore internal transformation and shifts in perception. How does your personal creative philosophy around loops and digital space connect with the broader theme of inner reprogramming that drives this auction?

A/ We learn by repetition. This is a quote that seems logical and maybe overused but when we deeply think about it we can realize that is when we repeat behaviours (or find repetitive patterns) is only when we can break them to transform, evolve or correct those things that ‘define’ us. It’s like the wheel of a bike: its repetition is what allows movement, but as long as it’s grounded on the floor. Otherwise it will be running eternally in the same position with no chance to move. So for this curation, through the ‘reading’ of the work since long ago of the artists involved, I always found a kind of reflection of this approach inside them, because art is a translation of what we are inside, and I thought all of them are tied to this topic, even if the term ‘Metanoia’ was not familiar to them. I love words, (they are images too), and I always consider that knowing new words enables us to see things we couldn’t see before.

I love words, (they are images too), and I always consider that knowing new words enables us to see things we couldn’t see before.

Droste

You’ve described GIFs and loops as a new way of thinking, not just a format. In your recent collections like "EngageMint" and "Purify," where geometry and purification emerge as central motifs, what underlying mental or emotional states were you aiming to capture?

A/ I strongly think that gifs/loops are more than a format, it’s a way of thinking, decoding and understanding life, because life is made of ‘moments’, routines, patterns… I love to highlight the different between ‘instant’ (still), lapse (video) and moment (gif), because they are three totally different terms despite all of them involve time:

Instant (A) captures a very specific moment, omitting what is pre and post and it’s nice to highlight this specific topic, subject…

Lapse (A-B) captures a process, but most times due to the huge amount of information we can miss things not being able to analyze and comprehend, that if we could watch slowly would be very interesting.

Moment (A-A) captures a short period of time allowing us to analyze slowly, understanding the motion, patterns, and overall, sending us to a state of trance, of meditation that at some point we can’t detect where it starts and when it ends.

That’s why I focus a lot (not only) in gif format, because it enables this meditative feeling that can help to go further, deeper into a ‘metanoia’ process where we meet ourselves face to face (as I tried to capture in my piece of the exhibition, titled ‘Droste’ which is how is called when a image is inside the image itself, like in a recursive eternal zoom.

I strongly think that gifs/loops are more than a format, it’s a way of thinking, decoding and understanding life, because life is made of ‘moments’, routines, patterns…

Trinity

Your inspirations span books, poetry, sociology, psychology, and more. Could you share a few specific sources—texts, quotes, or experiences—that deeply influenced your vision for 'METANOIA' or your recent projects?

A/ This is a curious and in some way paradoxical point, because I’m hardly ever ‘inspired’ by other artists or art. They motivate me, they trigger me, but about inspiration it usually (or always) happens when I listen, read, watch things in nature, some random conversations, verses of a poem (that for me are images, sometimes already beautiful verbal gifs/loops), also psychology because is where I find the mechanisms that run our mind and how we perceive the world (it’s like understanding the software of our computers). The artists I enjoy/drink from most, are paradoxically, not for their artwork but for the way they speak and understand art and the world. But up to date it is very hard for me to mention which ones, because there are a lot and at the same time none. I think in art it gets to a point where you develop your own voice, your own style, aesthetics and philosophy that what inspires us the most is our own path, and all what we ‘digested’ already long ago. But one thing is clear, Nature inspires me a lot, because it’s full of patterns, repetitions, textures… and about the topics I find very comfortable on the midpoint between the very old and the very new, both in the psychological side as in the technological one.

I’m hardly ever ‘inspired’ by other artists or art.

993kb

Your work often escapes the boundaries of the digital screen into projectors, AR, and public spaces. How do you envision the future of "digital public art" and its potential to reshape the way we experience change—both individually and collectively?

A/ Again is a bit paradoxical, because despite I focus most of my work on the ‘streets of the web’ (that is a public space), I also try to extrapolate it out of screens through projectors and AR since long ago, but at the very end all is tied to the web, and even more, or at least it’s how I conceive it, the ‘screen’ I’m most interested is in people’s mind. “My target is the backstage of your consciousness”.

The future of digital public art is already present: The Web. This was the biggest shift, not digital, but Online. But as it happened so fast, it seems we haven’t realized the deep and powerful strength it has in our live daily, every minute, instant, world wide.

People usually differ between “online” and “IRL”... But, Online is also IRL.

This was the shift. Cryptoart, Nfts and all this, just a direct consequence of it, not the start.

My target is the backstage of your consciousness

Aura

As someone who has deeply engaged with the blockchain space, how do you see the role of decentralized platforms influencing the themes of metamorphosis, identity, and rebirth in digital art moving forward?

A/ This is a very interesting (and a bit sad point) to be honest, because despite we had the chance in the tip of our fingers, when things started to be decentralized, platforms appeared in the middle of us who were about to reach this medium finally… I totally understand the role of platforms, that at first were totally useful to give the chance to people to find a meeting point between their art and the connection with the blockchain, and they are still are, but as we can all see, instead of working as a ‘bridge’ they quickly became a ‘wall’, acting as gatekeepers, dictating who is who (regardless previous trajectories and contribution to this culture) and what was supposed to be a decentralized movement, ended up being something more centralized than in web2, because in web2, despite the SERVERS were centralized, the decision of who is who and what is what, at the very end was decided by the audience, not by some specific people, curators, and ceos of platforms, that honestly, I doubt A LOT, that were actually aware of what some of us were doing in the artistic side before the hype times, and that nowadays, they act as if they were who founded this (they founded their platform, not this artistic expression), looking over the shoulder a LOT of artists that actually, were the ones who caused this new ‘blockchain’ era existed, because, as I always try to explain, without all the previous digital ONLINE art, Cryptoart would never have existed.

Algo

Artist and curator 'METANOIA' Digital Art Auction - A. L. Crego // @ALCrego_ 

Interview @YNKAdigital