Where MY BRAIN ON CHAIN dissected the mind, sliced thought into permanence and engraved it into Bitcoin, PORTRAITS OF DISSONANCE turns its gaze outward. From cortex to countenance. From the anatomy of cognition to the distortion of the self.
But a face is never just a face. It’s a site of conflict. A projection, a mask, a scar. It smiles while breaking. It conceals while collapsing.
Each portrait in this collection is an assault:
On the notion of wholeness. On the fantasy of a stable identity. On the quiet lie of cohesion.
They do not seek beauty. They seek truth—but truth is broken.
“With everything happening in the world right now, I couldn’t help but being strongly reminded of my time working in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Those experiences are always with me—and honestly, they’re a big part of why I started making art in the first place.”
DocT
The “broken faces” of soldiers who returned from the First World War, stand as some of the most haunting portraits of the 20th century. Shattered by shrapnel and surgery, these men bore their wounds in full view, refusing erasure in a society unequipped to face their pain. PoD carries that legacy into the present.
The fractures here are not inflicted by war, but by memory, identity, and the silent violence of being. These faces are distorted not by metal, but by pressure, from within and without. In both, the portrait refuses to heal cleanly. And in both, there is a strange, defiant beauty in the decision to remain visible, to let the damage speak.
These are not portraits in any traditional sense. They do not attempt to represent; they unsettle. The paint does not describe. It attacks. It buries and reveals, distorts and exposes. Each brushstroke becomes a wound, a gesture of defiance, an act of unmaking.
In this collection, identity is treated not as a fixed essence but as a volatile construction, layered, unstable, and deeply fragile. What emerges is not a person, but a field of conflict. These faces are not whole; they are held together by tension alone.
Collectors of MY BRAIN ON CHAIN each hold a fragment of the artist’s mind and creative self. In Portraits of Dissonance, that bond came alive. Their instinctive, emotional reactions to the early works shaped both the titles and the tone of the final pieces.
These individual responses, distilled into co-curation statements, are now inscribed on- chain — part of the art forever. The decentralized mind spoke through the collectors, and the art listened, completing the loop from thought to audience, and back again.
Each digital portrait can be mirrored in the physical world as a 60x90cm robot-assisted acrylic painting, a collaboration between human emotion and mechanical precision, powered by MatrLab.
Every brushstroke is executed by machine, but born of violence, memory, and contradiction. The result is a physical echo of digital unrest, one that lives on your wall, in your space, refusing to let you look away.
Sold for 0.032 BTC
More about the artist
DocT
DocT is a Germany-based multidisciplinary artist and pediatrician whose work fuses storytelling, anthropology, and technology to create profound visual narratives.
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Our Conceptual Art Collections offer a curated exploration into the realms of ideas and meanings, where each artwork serves as a manifestation of deep artistic insights. These collections feature works that prioritize concept over form, inviting viewers to delve into the narrative and ideological depth behind each creation. Engage with art that challenges perceptions and encourages philosophical reflection.
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