Neoteric: Modern or new
Pop-Iconic: Popular iconization
Clairvoyance: Keen or intuitive insight
Since the first cave paintings more than 40,000 years ago, humans have been approaching two dimensional art basically the same way—We look at it. Needless to say, humankind has evolved considerably since our cave days, so a new approach to art that satiates the modern brain is a logical evolution. We crave information and devour terabyte sized amounts daily. The modern interactive brain is hardwired with the basic understanding that a word, or image may offer more information just below the surface—we only need to click or tap links to access the hidden content. It is the basic principle of our interactive world and how we engage with it. Young children have taken to iPads and interactive devices, easily navigating to uncover information just below the viewable surface. Neoteric Pop-Iconic Clairvoyance (NPIC-Art) is made for the modern human brain and its interactive processors. The surface image is simply a piece of the puzzle—a link. By researching the words used within the art and discovering its definition, the viewer is able to unlock a deeper layer of intent within the artist’s work. Just looking is a limited experience for the modern art lover. The NPIC-Art movement was developed specifically for the interactive mind and its conditioned need to interact. A new path now exists for the relationship between artist and viewer—the old way is dead. Today’s artist must disrupt the established traditions of the past and create for the modern human brain in order to maintain relevancy. The impassioned F. T. Marinetti emphatically stated this concept in the Futurist’s Manifesto back in the year 1909:
“To admire an old picture is to pour our sensibility into a funeral urn instead of casting it forward with violent spurts of creation and action. Do you want to waste the best part of your strength in a useless admiration of the past, from which you will emerge exhausted, diminished, trampled on?”
Neoteric Pop-Iconic Clairvoyance (NPIC-Art), makes it possible for the artist to share visible and non-visible information as a single experience. The initial engagement is established through the eyes—an analog link; while a sub-layered quest remains as information yet to be discovered. This new invitation from artist to viewer encourages a look beneath the conscious surface of the artist’s work. As stated by André Breton in the Surrealism manifesto: Le Manifeste du Surréalisme (1924)
“If the depths of our minds conceal strange forces capable of augmenting or conquering those on the surface, it is in our greatest interest to capture them.”
Throughout art history, art movements have either built upon what came before or have attempted to destroy and replace it’s predecessors. Duchamp and Dadaism rejected the work of many of his fellow artists as "retinal" art, intended only to please the eye. Instead, Duchamp wanted, "to put art back in the service of the mind." Similarly, Neoteric Pop-Iconic Clairvoyance (NPIC-Art) promotes education through engagement, research and discovery. It transforms artwork from a singular visual experience by inviting the viewer to interact and educate themselves. Prior to this, Cubism and the abstract movement changed our interpretation of the recognizable pictorial narrative. The Abstract Expressionism movement challenged our interpretation of the pictorial surface by transforming the medium itself into the image. And so today, NPIC-Art reprograms two dimensional artwork to function as an analog content link, thereby prompting modern day art enthusiasts to interactively engage in the best way they know how.
How to approach NPIC-Art
Step 1: Look at the artwork
Step 2: Research the meaning of the word(s)
Step 3: Look at the artwork again