psemme

The first artist notarization

On May 25, 2025, I traveled to Providence, RI to meet with artist Vinnie Ray Fugere. He had agreed to collaborate on the first-ever in-person artist notarization—a live effort to capture, measure, and document the creative process as a way to prove the humanity of the artist and, by extension, confirm that the resulting artwork was made by a human being, not a machine.

I refer to these IRL notarizations as “performances” because, like the creative process itself, they unfold across space and time. Consequently, a Notarist’s observations—and the record they produce—are grounded in temporal and spatial data.

The images above point to my approach. I used 3D motion sensors attached to Vinnie’s drawing arm and recorded his process of creating a work of art. You see his final artwork on the left and my printout of the accelerometer and gyroscope data on the right. His output is the result of his creative process. Mine is the result of measuring and recording that process. They are intrinsically inseparable, irreproducible and irreducible. If Vinnie’s piece were the finger, mine would be the fingerprint.

A Notarist’s performance gains depth and accuracy with more detailed observations. Like audio sampling—where higher frequency means greater resolution—more and more frequent measurements creates a higher fidelity recording of the creative process. The “perfect” notarization would be one with an infinite sample rate: every moment, every gesture, every shift in time and space fully recorded.

Why “perfect”? Because, at the limit, if every possible sensory measurement could be made, at every possible moment, they could, theoretically, support the recreation of the exact artwork being witnessed.

However…

Since this level of precision is impossible, human Notarists turn to symbolism and abstraction, using their judgment to approximate the ideal and faithfully represent the essence of the creative act they witness.

The “resolution” for this performance was based on seven, real-time sensor readings taken from Vinnie’s right arm as it moved through spacetime to make the illustration – g-force, linear acceleration, gyroscope, inclinometer, barometer, magnetometer and sound level. These measurements become, in essence, the artwork’s unique signature — the readings and artwork are each defining/describing the other.

Sensor readings are just data, raw materials, inputs for whatever context or persona you choose. In my case, I am an artist seeking “proof of humanity”, in which case this data is useful.

The data is then brought to life visually, providing graphical representations of Vinnie’s movement as he creates the illustration. Measurements are data in context.

Witnessing + data = existential evidence.

Everything a Notarist does is in service of capturing objective truth. Did this happen? Where? When? By a human being?

I was excited for this performance for a number of reasons, the most important being, I was eager to work w my original partner in crime at an art collective we founded back in 1994, antenna tool & die co. It was fun to break new ground again with him.

I will be now working with additional artists to continue exploring this direction. Expect more updates shortly.