FELT Zine presents FELT Zine Issue 71 featuring Astrosuka, a Buenos Aires-based internet artist and music producer using web3 to amplify the creative energy of their work. Their work is a combo of unique and experimental collage-like visuals that blend into surreal experiences for the viewer.

Explore FELT Zine Issue 71 here, or read the full interview below:

How would you describe your work?

I think it’s chaotic, shapeshifting and intense.

It was probably when I started playing old video games as a kid. A friend of my father had a computer that loaded programs from a cassette tape. I also remember listening to the weird noises those data tapes made when played on a regular audio cassette player. So that must have been my first encounter with electronic music too.

How does your residency in Argentina influence your work?

To some extent, the lack of resources is also an opportunity. Being an artist in Argentina, you have to DIY a lot + learn to do different shit fast to pay the rent. I wanted to be a musician but this city forced me to become multidisciplinary as fuck [laugh]. The people here are warm and make you feel appreciated when you share your work.

What inspirations influence your creative works of art?

Video games, memes, random garbage dumped on the street that’s strangely resemblant of faces or animals, cool shit people make with their hands or computers, cool shit computers make on their own, good design, bad design, live music, nature.

How do your peers (locally) feel about web3 as a space for art?

Although there are several people and groups from different backgrounds that have been experimenting with crypto and art [in Argentina] for a while, I understand that many newcomers feel intimidated by language barriers, technical knowledge, and economic limitations. Also, you really have to feel like being online all day and talking to people.

Many friends have tried to enter the space and got frustrated after a while. But in general, I kinda feel like artists from developing countries are more welcoming and curious about web3.

Sofia, another extraordinary visual digital artist, is often a close collaborator of yours. How does your creative partnership with them transform those particular artworks?

Sofja and I are together 24/7 IRL, so there’s a lot of telepathy. Awesome things come out when we collaborate, she is very meticulous and patient with her stuff, I am all chaotic and dramatic. It’s a good balance; I love working with Sofja. 💕

One of the most iconic works of art that we love from your is metalero.gif. Could you describe or detail a bit of the backstory on that piece for us?

Thanks 🙂 it’s also one of my favorites. Coincidentally, I came across a combination of colors similar to those of traditional Bolivian fabrics and asemic writing similar to metal band logos. It made sense to me because I grew up in La Paz. There were a lot of metal-heads, some were cool, some not so cool. The memory I have of the general vibe of the city is festive and colorful, but at the same time dark and complex.

What are the differences between web2 and web3 in terms of your creative process?

I started to produce, experiment and learn a lot more with web3, but it was impossible for me to dedicate so much time to producing digital artworks when I was only paid with visibility.

Web3 often tends to combine two core aspects of the space, builders and artists. What dApps have transformed your work process?

I think that the dApp that influenced my process the most was hic et nunc with its early and broad media type support. It was the first open marketplace that let you mint web apps. I made some fun experiments there. There’s still so much new stuff I’d love to try.

As a musician, how do these two mediums, music & visual art, overlap for you?

They are like different dimensions in the same universe. Sometimes it’s fun to see them as metaphors for each other. When I am frustrated with the music I am making, the visual arts become my shelter and vice versa. In both disciplines I try to achieve something that feels organic and synthetic at the same time.

What’s your artistic relationship with the concept of NFT Marketplaces? Do they mostly help or hurt your work? How do you envision the future of web3 galleries and marketplaces?

Marketplaces helped me a lot to make a living out of my art, none of my work was hurt in the process haha. I am grateful for that.

I like the version of the future where there are more and more custom platforms for each community or project (like what you are doing with Felt Zine!), everyone will be able to easily generate their own frontend to suit particular needs of their project and use protocols like Zora or deploy their own contracts without asking anyone for permission. Marketplaces will remain relevant as long as they offer something valuable to the users I guess. But everything’s seamlessly interoperable, so you can sell your tokens on eBay or build your own gallery or join someone else’s cool project : )

What excites you most about the future of internet art?

The hope that somehow these experiments with new technologies and forms of exchange will help us build inclusive spaces and bring opportunities to those in need.

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