Hailing from Cameroon and now based in the United Kingdom, fingacode is a pioneering creator active at the intersection of software engineering and generative art.
An impressively prolific and versatile artist, fingacode regularly wows his social media followers with intricate generative outputs, channeling colors and textures from his African heritage and offering insights into his creative process. Featured in Taschen’s recent “On NFTs” book release, his work has been exhibited and sold at traditional institutions like Christie’s and Unit London, as well as web3 mainstays like Bright Moments.
In addition to his clear talents as a creative coder, fingacode has displayed a skill for keeping up with web3 culture and cleverly incorporating relevant elements into his work. Look no further than his embrace of Kevin, the Pixelmon avatar who went viral with the project’s ill-fated art reveal. By bringing the beloved character to life in hilarious 3D fashion, fingacode was able to expose his work to a wider web3 audience.
Despite the success, he’s also taken the time to help others along the way, releasing TouchDesigner templates to assist newcomers in creating generative art.
Every week, nft now’s Next Up unveils a new artist from our curated list of ascendant talents who have been making significant waves throughout Web3. This week, our spotlight turns to fingacode.
How did you first become interested/involved in digital art?
My first taste of digital art was on early social media sites like bebo and MySpace where you could customize your profiles. Initially using MS Paint until I was given a cracked version of Photoshop, then I got good enough and started making flyers, edits and album artwork for friends.
When MySpace died, I kinda stopped and tried producing music but I didn’t have the patience for it so found my way back into design. At the time I was in touch with a few musicians and DJs so I would design artwork and merch but then pivoted to web development to build a web store for said merch.
A lot of my technical skills back then came from necessity rather than passion – I couldn’t afford to pay developers so I just learned how to do it myself. I then landed a junior role at an agency, learned front end development and over the years picked up Savascript and worked on a slew of side projects like Soundcloud fan gates & music visualizers to bridge my passions.
“A lot of my technical skills back then came from necessity rather than passion – I couldn’t afford to pay developers so I just learned how to do it myself.”
FINGACODE
How would you describe your art?
I’d say my art is mostly random, fun, bright and colorful. It can sometimes be “serious” and hopefully thought provoking. I also think my art, when looked at historically, is a tale of curiosity and wonder. I let my curiosity guide me, in turn I learn a lot and that opens doors for me to express myself in more creative ways.
Generally though I try to leave the describing to the audience as I find their interpretation to be more valuable. Not that I compare myself to Da Vinci but I find it funny that people have been debating whether or not “Mona Lisa” is smiling for years.
What’s your process like? And where do you usually find inspiration?
My process varies as I have a lot of interests! I’ll usually just start off experimenting with whatever I might be obsessed with at the time and keep going till I get bored. I see my workflow as a bit erratic as I tend to jump back and forth between projects as ideas pop up.
My best projects are those that vibe back with me, then the ideas flow and develop, for example, I’m really into music. I’ll come across a song I love, I’ll load it into touchdesigner and start building, in the process I’ll discover a new way to visualise the frequencies. Then just keep tweaking until something fun comes out, if not I’ll just save it for later.
If I’m working on a code-based project, I’ll usually have a concept I want to explore then find a tutorial or freestyle it until something happens.
When it comes to inspiration I’d say music is a pretty big source, but also pop and internet culture. I love memes so I always have fun playing with ideas centred around them. I’ve never had the patience to learn 3D but ever since the Kevin and Pixelmon project went viral, I’ve had loads of fun playing with the models and incorporating them into different projects and in the process learning something I otherwise wouldn’t have.
What was your breakthrough moment in web3?
There’s been so many I feel but the most memorable for me was my first ever mint. I’d been chatting with Sofia Garcia, Dmitri Cherniak, IX Shells and Spongenuity on Instagram over lockdown completely unaware they all knew each other. I saw Sofia was hosting a talk in London and Dmitri was a guest so I made the trip down to meet them for the first time!
I was completely blown away by the talk, then Spongenuity and Dmitri convinced me into minting some work to “see how it goes.” I minted my first piece on Foundation on the train home. Within minutes I had my first bid and the rest as they say is history!
“I’d spent years by this point sharing random experiments with no real intent – just vibes. So for it to sell for real money was a shock to the system.”
FINGACODE
I’d spent years by this point sharing random experiments with no real intent – just vibes. So for it to sell for real money was a shock to the system. It opened my eyes to a whole new possibility and in a weird way gave me hope that maybe I could make a career out of something I was genuinely passionate about.
What are the biggest challenges facing rising artists in web3?
I think the biggest challenge is the speed of which the market, platforms, taste and attention changes. I feel most artists getting started try to juggle all of these and end up spending more time trying to be tactical or kicking themselves for missing on a wave.
I definitely struggled with this when I started and to an extent still do, with hindsight however I’ve learned that there’s always new opportunities and the best way to prepare yourself for them is to just keep doing what you enjoy.
“I feel most artists getting started try to juggle all of these and end up spending more time trying to be tactical or kicking themselves for missing on a wave.”
FINGACODE
What advice do you have for rising artists in this space?
Keep creating and be unapologetic about it, experiment and share it, talk to people but most importantly have fun.
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