Audio version
Hello!
In this intro I'll break the presentation pattern that you can find on the website of any visual artist.
Why am I doing this?
I’m doing this because, in my vision, art is about sending a message and emotions to humanity and its history, not about making a man famous. An artist’s identity can sometimes overshadow or distort the message; therefore I would prefer to remain anonymous. Through my NFTs I want to share my mind and soul with the world and I think that sharing my full identity would be an impediment for achieving this goal. However, any message that humanity can receive must have a sender. These are the basic rules of communication that I cannot ignore. For all the reasons above, there will be a very brief presentation of me:
I'm Dr. FEEL, a young ophthalmologist, philanthropist with a passion for art.
That's it for now. You'll discover more about me by reading or listening what's next.
! next to the title you can find the audio version of this page for those who cannot read !
And now what really matters:
Research estimates that eighty to eighty-five percent of our perception, learning, cognition and activities are mediated through VISION. Sight is a complex process that develops as follows: Initially, LIGHT starts from a light source. The different wavelengths composing white light are selectively interfered with by matter (absorbed, reflected, refracted, scattered or diffracted) on their way to our eyes. Light from an external object is refracted as it moves through the tear film, cornea, aqueous humour, and then moves on to the pupil, which is controlled by the iris. The light is again refracted by the lens, which projects through the vitreous an upside-down image on the retina, or the rear, inner surface of the eyeball. There, it is absorbed by pigments in light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors. These photoreceptors convert light (photons) into electro-chemical signals, which are then processed in the retina and transmitted to the brain. In the brain the images are processed and thus create the pleasant visual sensations.
Analyzing what has been presented so far, we can conclude:
The joy of sight is based on 3 things:
2. A normally developed and healthy sensory organ (eye);
3. A normally developed and healthy visual cortex;
Without fulfilling all these conditions, the pleasure produced by visual arts is impossible.
How can we make the impossible possible?
I will analyze things one by one and show you how smART can make the impossible possible.
The Antagonism and Interdependence between Light and Darkness
Every day I examine patients with various eye diseases and I have blind relatives. Therefore, I can understand very well the importance of light, darkness and their role in our lives.
The World Health Organization identifies that "globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment.”
Fortunately, one of the greatest powers of humanity is solidarity. It is obtained by stimulating people's compassion by being aware of a problem.
How can we make people aware?
I think the most effective way to bring a message to large masses is art.
For this reason I decided to send my message through art.
I am a lover of symbolism, art, philosophy and mathematics. Therefore, I managed to combine my passions in some NFTs that transmit, through a game of light and darkness, encrypted abstract concepts of humanity.
I mainly chose abstract concepts, because they are, from my point of view, the greatest joy of Mind.
Because the abstract has an extensive interpretation, the dimensions of my NFTs are in line with the concepts represented, most being pixel art at a new level, respectively MegaPixel Art and GigaPixel Art. They are made pixel by pixel and I think this new concept of Mega / GigaPixel Art is part of the future of NFTs. From my point of view, the Pixel Art NFT market will naturally evolve towards an upgrade to a higher level of complexity, a level for which I decided to be a pioneer through my NFTs. Surprisingly, I have not found this concept so far within the NFT market, and this element of originality of my NFTs makes me even happier for my journey of initiation.
Being an ophthalmologist, I pay close attention to detail. Even if some of my NFTs have millions or billions pixels, each pixel has a role, a meaning, nothing being random.
Through these NFTs I want to emphasize the importance of light and darkness, the interdependence and the harmony given by the hues between them, literally and figuratively. The Grayscale is the symbolic representation of these concepts.
My love for math made me admire both numbers and geometric figures. It is known that in the history of humanity mathematics played an extremely important role in art, but did art also have a role in mathematics? Thus the question arises: If art can be mathematics then can mathematics be art? Through my NFTs I also try to answer to this old dilemma of humanity.
These are some of the reasons why I use Grayscale as an alphabet, lines and geometric shapes as words, numbers as phrases and the pixel as a brush. Using these tools I want to share with the whole world vast abstract concepts encrypted in an image. My NFTs will only be accompanied by the title. The description that will contain the key for the intellectual decryption of the entire message will be given only to the buyers.
Everybody knows that most of us can see the world in three dimensions of space — length, width and depth. Without one of these dimensions, our perception of the world would be altered. There is also an unseen fourth dimension, that of time. An extremely valuable dimension due to its irreversibility.
Humans can see the first two dimensions (length and width) with the help of their eyes. The third dimension of space is seen with the help of their visual cortex of the brain who process the two slightly 2 dimensional different images projected to the retina of their eyes. The images are slightly different because the eyes of humans, are located at different lateral positions on the head. In other words, we receive the information about the space around us in a 2 dimensional fashion. Without knowing the key of decryption given by the position of our eyes, our brain would fail in seeing the third dimension of space and we would have double vision caused by the 2 different images projected to the retina in the same time.
To continue my metaphor, once dropped, each NFT will have only two visible dimensions (image and title). The key to the 3rd dimension of understanding will be in the description of the NFT, a description that will be sent only to buyers. In this way, everyone will be able to feel how important the perception of all three dimensions is in understanding a phenomenon. The curiosity of those who will not purchase my NFTs and will only have to imagine the third dimension will be a method of making them aware of the difficulties of blind people in interacting with the world. Those who will get the NFTs and discover this 3rd dimension will feel the joy that they will produce to the blind people by restoring their sight and by helping those patients to discover the 3rd dimension of the real world.
Thus I will help the investors in discovering the encrypted message behind my NFTs, and the investors will help the blind in discovering the world around them. To achieve this, I will donate a large part of the profit made to support the blind. The rest of the profit will give me the 4th dimension, respectively the time necessary to be able to get more involved in these charity projects and to be able to practice Ophthalmology Pro Bono for people in need. This is my childhood dream, and I hope that through this project I will fulfill it.
And here's how we came to address the next point on our list:
A normally developed and healthy sensory organ (eye)
You probably didn't know, but according to colourblindawareness.org the prevalence of color blindness is around 8.0% in men, while in women the prevalence is 0.5%. So, about 8.5% of the world's population is discriminated against in admiring most NFTs because of the colors they can't distinguish.
My art is not discriminatory and I hope I will reach as many people as possible. On my way to the audience, I don't want to have any impediment such as color blindness. This was an additional reason in choosing Grayscale as the color palette in creating my NFTs.
The World Health Organization identifies that in at least 1 billion people the vision impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed. This 1 billion people include those with moderate or severe distance vision impairment or blindness due to unaddressed refractive error (88.4 million), cataract (94 million), glaucoma (7.7 million), corneal opacities (4.2 million), diabetic retinopathy (3.9 million), and trachoma (2 million), as well as near vision impairment caused by unaddressed presbyopia (826 million).
I am an ophthalmologist in an Eastern European country. Here, blind patients have little support from the state. The compulsory health insurance only covers a small part of the real costs of examinations and treatments at current standards. For this reason, financial resources are needed to be able to diagnose, treat and provide support to people who cannot afford to pay these costs.
In the past, together with local Rotary and Lions clubs, we have done various projects to help the blind (Pro Bono Cataract surgery, Screening for children etc.). Unfortunately, these projects covered a small part of the need of the blind community. We couldn't do more because of the very high costs of some types of surgery (eg. corneal transplant) and a relatively few resources that we managed to gather from the local community. I gave the example of corneal transplant because this is a national problem. Unfortunately, in my country, there is no eye bank. Consequently, the corneal graft is most often imported from international eye banks, its price being around 2500 euros. For this reason, one of my main projects is to build an eye bank in my country.
My past experiences have motivated me to explore alternate funding avenues amongst art lovers around the world. My “art lovers team” will help either through the donations made by them when buying my NFTs, or through the simple awareness of this problem in society.
What could be more beautiful than buying a piece of art and knowing that this way you will restore the sight of people who are not as lucky as you?
Descriptions and information of the philanthropic part of my project can be found on the webpage dedicated to humanitarian projects. As the proposed project finalizes, individuals will be able to see it on the website. Today, trust is a difficult thing to be obtained, but I hope that from everything I have presented so far you understand that this project is not just a promise, but a commitment of the soul.
Once the humanitarian projects become a reality, the price of each NFT purchased will certainly increase due to the growing confidence from the community. My NFTs will be directly linked to the help offered to the blind and will be a kind of charity business card for every owner.
I also hope that those who will not be able to buy the NFTs, but will understand my message, will join my team to promote this project and will contribute to achieve the goal of my work.
And so, we arrive to the final chapter of good sight and of my presentation:
A normally developed and healthy visual cortex
The cerebral cortex, which is the outer surface of the brain, is associated with higher level processes such as consciousness, thought, emotion, reasoning, language and memory. Each cerebral hemisphere can be subdivided into four lobes, each associated with different functions. One of this lobes is the Occipital lobe.
The occipital lobes, located at the rear of the brain receive sensory information from the retinas of the eyes. This information is then encoded into different visual data such as color, motion, and orientation. This region is also responsible for object and face recognition, assessing depth and distance, as well as being able to map the visual world. (simplypsychology.org)
As we have seen above, vision is a complex combination of the brain, the eyes and the vast array of nerves that connect them. Its development begins in the womb and continues throughout childhood. (www.optometrists.org)
Nevertheless, a child's vision is fully developed by the age of 8. (eyecaretrust.org.uk) After this age, the visual cortex stops developing because it has already reached its maximum potential.
Cortical blindness refers to any partial or complete visual deficit that is caused by damage to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. Unfortunately, modern medicine cannot treat this problem. The only way to be able to help these patients is by offering them support through traditional (guide dogs) or modern (applications) methods of help.
Fortunately, the rest of the cortex continues to develop and we can become smarter over time by stimulating our brain. But all its development doesn’t come on its own, it depends on our actions. If you choose wise, your path in life aims to becoming a better person with perpetual personal development. Being smart is usually a choice, and rarely a gift.
Many people consider the passion for art and the philanthropy as two of the main qualities of a better person.
Do you have these qualities?
If you already are an art lover you should always put your brain at work, it loves it. Always try to discover more. Try to understand and analyze the artistic messages. Sometimes the message send by art is beyond the beauty of the image and is more powerful than a book. It can include, in a focused way, years of artistic thinking. It's up to you whether you try and succeed to understand it or you’ll just admire a picture. If you’ll purchase my NFTs, I’ll facilitate the process of understanding and your success will be guaranteed. That’s because I’ll send the description of my NFTs just to the owners after the sell.
Also, I think that even if you don't like or understand art, you can start at some point learning about it. My NFTs should be a good educational method: First you analyze the NFT and try to understand it. Next, you acquire it and then you will find out what I wanted to transmit through the description. You might find the similarities between your analyze and my description pretty amazing.
Are you a philanthropist? Have you ever stimulate this part of your brain?
If you are, you already know the joy triggered by philanthropy. You can feel it again when buying my NFT’s and knowing that an important part of the profit will be used for helping people in need.
If you have never contributed to charity, you can begin at this point. The gratitude of people in need is usually overwhelming for the one who helps. Charity develops special connections between the donor and the receiver. If you don’t believe me, there is some research about it that you can see next:
All things in our universe are constantly in motion, vibrating. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, and resonating, at various frequencies. An interesting phenomenon occurs when different vibrating things/processes come into proximity: they will often start, after a little time, to vibrate together at the same frequency. They “sync up,” sometimes in ways that can seem mysterious. This is described today as the phenomenon of spontaneous self-organization. (blogs.scientificamerican.com)
Our thoughts create emotions that also vibrate at a particular frequency. Emotions are literally energy in motion. Therefore, your emotions vibrate and put out a frequency just like everything else in the world. (thecelebrationeffect.com)
When we really focus on gratitude for example, our vibrational frequency actually increases to 540 megahertz. Gratitude is a very high vibrational state to be in, and a very high mood or energy to experience compared to other moods and energies out there. (thecelebrationeffect.com). According to Blisspot.com it has the same frequency as joy. And so what gratitude does for our bodies is, the more time we spend being thankful, then the more endorphins our body starts to make and the more energized our body starts to feel. The world suddenly gets brighter, and we are actually lit up from the inside. (thecelebrationeffect.com).
In summary, philanthropy triggers gratitude which has the same frequency as joy. Being a high vibrational state it helps our body to release endorphins (also known as the happiness hormones). Considering the phenomenon of spontaneous self-organization (described above), the vibration of people around you will increase and that will surely be a recipe for happiness.
On a final note, I believe that the pleasure produced by admiring the visual arts brings us a moral duty to the less fortunate, who can’t enjoy this privilege because of their eye problems. Once this debt is paid, the purpose of art will be achieved: we will have an inflation of happiness hormones in all people who take part in this process.
I’m waiting next to me in this project all individuals that are curious, compassionate or people that want to understand the struggles of other in order to become better.