TLDR:

• Black Artist Burnout (B.A.B) is a multimedia exhibition that explores the consequences of systemic race-related trauma on artists & their ecosystems with the goal of developing individual and community-level strategies to navigate these issues.
• B.A.B was commissioned by Rhizome & co-presented with New Museum.
• B.A.B will be archived in Rhizome’s ArtBase.
• B.A.B content & information will be an open-source intellectual property via Polygon blockchain and IPFS/Filecoin storage via NFT.Storage.
• B.A.B is minting a collection of 3 one of one NFTs where proceeds will go to exhibition creators.

We Got You

On February 24, 2022 we launched the first in a triptych of mimetic PSAs for Black Artist Burnout: a multimedia exhibition that explores the consequences of systemic race-related trauma on black artists and their ecosystems.

The exhibition also aimed to capture a consensus amongst black artists to create a framework for an accessible, smart solution against B.A.B.

B.A.B is curated by integrative medicine practitioner Liz Mputu, architectural designer Gregory Ketant and conceptual artist Moustafa Hassan.

We wanted to devise a comprehensive strategy to combat the toxicity from gallerists, curators, museums, critics, and sycophants of the art world. Rather than fetishize black trauma, we utilized art as a device to create sustainable resistance measures to envisage better experiences for black artists.

The Mission

The project’s fundamental objective is to raise awareness of the deleterious effects of burnout as it specifically relates to black artists. B.A.B provides visibility for an under-diagnosed issue and representation to better the landscape for those who deal with race-related trauma in the artist ecosystem.

B.A.B was commissioned by contemporary digital art and technology archive Rhizome, and co-presented with New Museum.

Examples of symptoms of burn-out for black artists:

• Persistent penalization for speaking out against racist institutions leading to self-initiated deletion of social accounts
• Emotional, mental, and psychological distress leading to prolonged hiatus, inconsistent engagement, and detachment from the artist community
• Lack of interest to remain present due to low incentive; meaning lessened ability to maintain a quality standard of living from which most of one's time is invested

Burnout is categorized as a "syndrome" that results from "chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” (WHO International Disease Classification CD-11).

Folk • Tech: Interactive Care Plan

A critical innovation in B.A.B’s development is the exhibition’s visual language. The language system features a complex of 3D animation, typographic design, abstracted linguistics, Rorschach style inkblots, and procedural monochromatic animations.

The exhibition’s visual language was the result of over a year's worth of research and development.

“The approach we took with BAB was essentially linguistic and architectural, having an evocative language as the center of the system made it easy to sculpt around the pieces.” - Moustafa Hassan

The second output of the project’s research was utilizing B.A.B’s language system in the creation of an interactive care plan designed by web3 smart company m3ga.

“We wanted to reexamine how a research study engages with black audiences. Typically most studies are uninformed, cultural discordant and just straight boring. Therefore we wanted to tap into mimetics as a pathway to really connect with people using a shared language.” - Gregory Ketant

Developed using the VideoAsk platform, the interactive care plan featured response choices such as conditional logic, multiple response options, & contact forms to make the conversation and community building seamless. The diversity in response types allowed the project to think more interpersonally when developing the prompts for the survey.

The interactive care plan aims to gather the measurable effects of systematic race-related trauma that black artists experience. The goal is to see how the interpretation of the information provided can guide a larger community towards finding solutions around inequity and harm reduction that produce observable results.

Early Look at the Data

To date, the interactive care plan has reached over 300+ impressions and generated over 100 conversations spanning 3 continents, 5 countries, and over a dozen cities.

A snapshot of early statistics gathered from the study:

• 63% of the respondents identify as black
• 7% of the respondents identify as indigenous
• 31% of the respondents identify as non-black / non-indigenous
• 20% of respondents have completed the study
• 34% of respondents have completed half of the study’s questions/prompts

We are currently coordinating outreach to connect respondents to provide any needed emotional or logistical support to finish the study.

Note: Anyone is invited to take part in the study however participants who identify as non-black / non-indigenous are considered a part of the control group data cohort.

The Future of BAB

Beauford Delaney Research Grant

The recipient of the 2021 edition of the Beauford Delaney Research Grant Vanina Géré interviewed B.A.B at the Sky Room (New Museum). Vanina’s project is entitled 'Hacking Apparatuses of Control' : Contemporary African-American Political Digital Practices (and beyond).

The research will also be apart of a to be named evolution of the B.A.B exhibition.

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Future

B.A.B will be archived in Rhizome’s machine-readable Linked Open Data protocol ArtBase; an archive with over 2,200 artworks primarily net art, but also including works that employ media such as software, code, websites, moving images, games, and browsers. Users will be able to browse the B.A.B archive by date or by artist name.

In addition to ArtBase, B.A.B will archive all of the important documents, images, graphics, text and audio files will be open-source intellectual property by way of Polygon blockchain and IPFS/Filecoin storage via NFT Storage. The exhibition hopes it will contribute to an open source reference for future community driven, citizen science projects.

Select artwork from B.A.B will be made available as 1/1 NFTs to generate additional funds for future efforts for the project collective.