A Segment from the body of work titled "Collective Intelligence"

Portals is artistic abstract MashUp and an intertwining of my path of self discovery through the African Diaspora. This exploration is visually represented in its artistic mediums with oil on canvas, poured acrylics, mirrors and technology.

Portals is artistic abstract MashUp and an intertwining of my path of self discovery through the African Diaspora. This exploration is visually represented in its artistic mediums with oil on canvas, poured acrylics, mirrors and technology.

Portals is an integral component to a greater body of work titled “Collective Intelligence”. For many years I found myself purposely keeping my experiences in Science and Technology separated from my art expression. I felt as if my whole story could not be told and that I should only speak of one without mentioning the other. It was through a specific interaction and challenge with a collector to see both worlds as an expression of my narrative and to publicly embrace it in my story. This is where collective intelligence was born.

It was an immediate spark that this is who I am as a person, an artist and as a human spirit. The shared or group intelligence found the technical definition along with collaboration, competition and decision making was the appropriate life metaphor to create my own definition from an artist perspective.

My sum total of knowledge, professional endeavors, self-discoveries, life journeys that were born out of collaboratives, competition, decision making and mentorships is this Collective Intelligence. It is a way for me to continuously mash all of my worlds into a life body of work represented in segments of the se experiences .

The goal of Portals is have the viewer to become a part of the art by seeing his or her own reflection in the art through the mirrored surfaces exposed to catch their reflections. It is my intention to spark an emotion to want to connect with the title and be a part of the MashUp. All other elements that complete the art will be metaphorically represented by its title and how the Diaspora memory showed up in my experience.

I recently was introduced to the term Collective Intelligence and its formal definition as:

Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making. ... Or more narrowly as an emergent property between people and ways of processing information

My connection to the African Diaspora starts with being known to my family as a Griot from researching and sharing our lineage for 30 years. As a student of African Dance and as a journalist on the collegiate level as well as a professional writer on Culture, Art and Community in South Florida.

My technology journey start in my youth, matriculated through higher education and developed into a lifetime of opportunities as a professional engineer and Project Management professional.

Simultaneously in my youth I discovered a passion to visually and verbally express art and culture with a brush, lens and a pen.

The first segment in the Collective Intelligence body of work is titled “Perspectives” . These works were debuted at Miami Based Club 500 as an 2019 Art Basel technology art exhibition sponsored by SaaStr , Club 500 and Block 1 art. To learn more about Perspectives visit the following link : https://www.yvettemichele.com/pages/perspectives