ex_mortal_

Overview

ex_mortal_ is a Florida-based video and sound artist whose practice centers on hardware glitch art, forged through the deliberate collision of vintage analogue equipment and contemporary digital processes. Active since the mid-2010s, the artist has cultivated a dedicated following of over seventeen thousand on X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @ex_mortal_, where the bio simply declares “hardware glitch artist_.” Working from the humid periphery of the American Southeast, ex_mortal_ channels the region’s liminal landscapes—swamps, strip malls, and decaying infrastructure—into fractured, luminous compositions that feel at once nostalgic and violently contemporary.[1]

The artist’s presence extends across the decentralized art ecosystem, with primary activity on objkt.com, SuperRare, Teia.art, Foundation, and Exchange. Collectors encounter works that often begin as physical, handcrafted interventions before migrating into the blockchain as NFTs, underscoring a hybrid ethos that refuses to privilege the digital over the tactile or vice versa. Enigmatic yet prolific, ex_mortal_ embodies the post-internet generation’s fascination with technological failure as a generative force, transforming signal loss, tape degradation, and circuit instability into hauntingly beautiful artifacts of our mediated age.

Artistic Style & Medium

ex_mortal_’s signature technique involves a meticulous chain of analogue and digital interventions. Vintage video mixers, modular synthesizers such as the Syntonie Stable and Detail, and modified capture devices are pressed into service alongside Roland VR-3 recorders and Focus Enhancements MX-4 units. Footage—frequently sourced from natural or suburban environments—is first subjected to physical signal distortion, then deconstructed into discrete layers, further glitched through digital tools in After Effects, and finally reassembled into looping, hypnotic videos. The result is a visceral texture of color bleed, horizontal roll, pixel fragmentation, and sonic crackle that feels alive with entropy.[2]

Sound is never an afterthought. Modular audio synthesis and field recordings are warped in tandem with the visuals, producing dense, crackling scores that mirror the image’s disintegration. Recent works have also incorporated physical painting and mixed-media substrates that serve as the origin point for subsequent digital editions, creating a seamless loop between the hand-made and the encoded. This hybrid methodology yields pieces that hover between sculpture, cinema, and sonic installation, demanding both visual and auditory attention.

Influences & Themes

The artist draws deeply from the vaporwave and experimental glitch traditions while pushing them into more abrasive, landscape-oriented territory. Echoes of early video art pioneers and the circuit-bending ethos of the 1990s and 2000s are evident, yet ex_mortal_ updates these references for an era of ubiquitous data and climate anxiety. Natural scenes—palm fronds, coastal horizons, overgrown lots—are repeatedly subjected to technological violence, emerging as synthetic ruins that speak to the fragile interdependence of organic life and digital infrastructure.

Recurring motifs include digital decay, the aesthetics of obsolescence, and the beauty latent in imperfection. By foregrounding the moment when technology falters, ex_mortal_ invites viewers to contemplate broader questions of memory, entropy, and the human desire to archive experience against inevitable corruption. The work resists clean resolution; instead, it lingers in the glitch, celebrating the poetic potential of breakdown and reconstruction.

Notable Works & Exhibitions

Among the artist’s most visible pieces is the 2025 SuperRare drop “_ d e l u g e _,” a physical-first painting whose NFT edition preserves the original handcrafted substrate while extending its life into the blockchain. The video work “cipher,” featured in objkt.one’s “For Your Page” exhibition in June 2025, exemplifies the full analogue-digital pipeline: deconstructed VHS loops processed through multiple stages of hardware distortion and digital reassembly. Other notable editions on objkt and Teia explore similar themes of landscape fragmentation and sonic abrasion.[3]

While ex_mortal_ maintains a relatively low institutional profile compared with mainstream contemporaries, the artist’s consistent presence on curated NFT platforms and features in community spotlights—such as Instagram artist spotlights and objkt.one profiles—have cemented a reputation within the glitch and new-media scenes. Live and recorded performances incorporating real-time hardware manipulation further distinguish the practice, bridging the gap between gallery object and durational event.

Impact & Recognition

Within the niche yet influential world of hardware glitch and crypto-art, ex_mortal_ has emerged as a respected voice for analogue authenticity in an increasingly virtual landscape. With thousands of followers and active collector bases on multiple platforms, the artist’s output has helped legitimize glitch practices that prioritize tactile process over polished digital output. The hybrid physical-NFT model pioneered in works like “_ d e l u g e _” points toward sustainable futures for artists navigating both traditional and blockchain markets.[4]

Beyond commerce, ex_mortal_ contributes to ongoing cultural conversations about technological mediation and ecological fragility. By rendering the natural world through the lens of signal failure, the work subtly critiques the fantasy of seamless connectivity while offering viewers moments of strange, luminous transcendence amid the noise. As glitch aesthetics continue to migrate from underground forums into broader contemporary discourse, ex_mortal_ stands as a vital practitioner preserving the raw, unpredictable spirit of hardware experimentation for a new generation.

References