Every Mask of Luci begins as a bare and unformed artwork, the same as every other.
Each Mask’s form is chosen and found through an exchange between your written words atop my artwork. A record of humans colliding in rare common spaces.
I have crafted a mask representative of all the roles within a human jungle. The Luminate, Canopic, Order, Herd, Understory, Root, Network, and Foundation.
How you participate will determine your Mask’s form at the close.
The 10th 1/1 in the story of Luci, “X. Masquerade” has been collected by Kanbas. Its first exhibition and in person event is currently being planned for later this year.
Sam Spratt's work is the kind of light we want to see in the world. Do not let the primitive monkey fool you, Luci is a guidebook to the future. Masquerade evokes one of the oldest stories, that of Purim, a holiday of revelry and reversal where the boundaries between joy and sorrow, good and evil, blur in a celebration of survival, power, and growth. A place where the gambler, the addict, the mother, and the saint, all sit and play at the same table. Sam brings us along on a very personal journey, but always with a wink and a mirror back at us, rather than an altar to him— refracting back at us a love and curiosity of our nature as humans. Masquerade tells the story of family, love, brotherhood, betrayal, and the bonds that shape who we are. In a world where we often see through the limited pinhole of our own perception, Sam, and his invitation to others, bounces light from every angle onto a collective story—the absurdity, the grief, the beauty, and the mess.
To us, collecting and patronage is about becoming a true friend to the artist, embracing both the person, their world, and their craft. Supporting Masquerade is our way of honoring Sam's trust, the monumental work he's created, the world he's forming, but more than anything: the shared values underpinning all of it. Sam clearly loves humanity in its entirety, and so do we; he does not apologize for our past, judge our present, or fear the future. He tells a story of all of us, great and small, bigger than the tool it is made with, the space it occupies, or the time it is told. We're proud to stand beside him and all of the people who gather atop this work to tell our story together, and commit to help share it with the rest of the world.
A time to learn and prepare for the Masquerade.
Players best be prepared, invitations for you and Guests await for those in the circle
A Public Drawing for those who wish to join the party
Creation.
Destruction.
Balance.
The Council of Luci gathers
Those who will revel will be revealed
The Council selects the Crowns
Sam sorts the Kingdom
The Masks of Luci are revealed
What is the Masquerade?
The Masquerade is my next chapter of the story of Luci, continuing right where The Monument Game left off. Art, community-building, and modern exegesis come together to elevate the choices, connections, and true nature revealed through others' collision with my work and world. Players from The Monument Game who pledge to the Masquerade will be able to enter as they are, but as this is a party, each will be able to invite a guest to join for a price.
Can I transfer or withdraw my Mask or Player edition during the Masquerade?
When you enter the Masquerade, I want you all the way in. A sacrifice and commitment to the code of the party.
Will there be any pauses to secondary trading throughout the Masquerade?
Yes, secondary trading will be temporarily paused as follows:
How will the Masquerade unfold?
The Masquerade unfolds in Phases:
Every single one of the hundreds of written contributions will be taken in and deliberated on. Deliberations come in two forms: alone between me and you, and together with The Council.
Alone, I will go through every bit of Observation, Discussion, and Revision, and sort the space myself. Masks will be chosen or crafted in real-time based on what I feel is best suited to its wearer. A direct link between myself, the collection, and those who participate in the Masquerade.
The Council’s task meanwhile will be to whittle down from many to few to find who put on the best show, who gave themselves to the Masquerade, voting to select one Observation, one Discussion, and one Revision, to respectively award the Masks of Creation, Destruction, and Balance.
More details on how to participate can be found by clicking on the ‘Instructions’ tab in the navigation bar.
How Do I Observe?
For each Mask of Luci you own, you can leave 1 Observation on X. Masquerade from February 21, 6PM ET to February 24, 6PM ET. Your Observation can be up to 512 characters.
Observing is that first vulnerable act of speaking our mind. Guests of the Masquerade begin by writing words atop the Artwork. A preserved record of human thought. A digital communal varnish preserved within a digital artwork.
There is no rubric. Write what you see, feel, how you want to be seen.
What types of inputs are accepted for observations, replies, and revisions?
Line breaks and emojis are supported, and most text-based inputs with different font types are accepted. However, HTML formatting and embedded content are not supported.
How Do I Create Discourse?
For each Mask of Luci you own, you can leave up to 3 replies on 3 different Guests' Observations from February 25, 6PM ET to February 27, 6PM ET. You cannot reply to your own observation. Each reply can be up to 256 characters.
Discourse is the active catalyst of growth, the tiniest opening or explosive unraveling.
How Do I Revise?
For each Mask of Luci you own, you can make 1 Revision to your original Observation from February 28, 6PM ET to March 3, 6PM ET. Your revision can be up to 128 characters.
In the revision we have a chance to take our collision with others, and return to where we started.
A chance to add, expand, respond, reject, defend, and or just to see yourself through fresh eyes and close a loop.
How will finalist and winner deliberation unfold?
Deliberations based on your discourse determines your role and the winners of the Masquerade.
(3) Finalists are chosen by each Council Member
(3) Winners of the Masquerade will each be awarded the Masks of Creation, Destruction, and Balance.
The Council of Luci follows a structured, two-round deliberation process:
Round 1: Each Council Member selects 3 finalists—one each in the categories of Creation, Destruction, and Balance.
Round 2: Council Members conduct a second round of voting to determine the final winners.
How each Council member deliberates is as much an indication of their nature as how you contribute is yours. What they resonate with can be as complicated as a carefully calculated matrix of a personal rubric or as simple as a vibe. They will deliberate individually and in secret.
Should a Mask change hands before the winners are announced, the discourse from the original contributor is what is evaluated.
When will Masks be revealed? How will my design be determined?
Masks will be revealed on March 13. The Mask that’s been made for you is a link between us. That what you gave to the Masquerade was taken in, read over and over, and what you received is what I felt from you. Though you are being sorted, each Mask was made and inspired by my love of people and all the funny forms we take.
Some will be obvious: a Luminate mask for someone who led the way for many others. Fungal Network mask for those who connected and stitched people together. Others are more subtle. But even within the largest category like Foundation, there are common stones, rare earth metals, and bedrock that will stand the test of time.
The color, texture, flow, protrusions, form, each Masks inspiration from its corresponding component of the jungle and how matters of Man, Nature, and Spirit rhyme across each function of a living ecosystem. There are Masks for mothers, guides, seers, trolls, mimics, reply guys, thought leaders, jesters and code-crackers. There are hierarchies across the Masks and hierarchies within each, there are packs and groups, links across the jungle, some live inside the work “X. Masquerade”, some are inspired by principles that govern our world, others by the most specific quirk of an individual person. There is a Mask for every type. Thank you for giving yourself to the network. All we have to offer is ourselves.
Who are the Council of Luci?
The Council of Luci is a name given to holders of Sam Spratt’s Skulls of Luci series of 1/1/50 who consist of some of digital art’s best and brightest minds.
My deepest thanks to the Tree
The board is set for Chapter 7
[2025]
Lost is the lore
Under the story
Do not let the roles slip away
Gift of the giant
Choked to the ground
Clash of the kinfolk
On the spotlit grave
Race for pinks
Across the prism
Endless cycle
Fed by luminate sun
Wear our nature
Stripped and bare
Party at the tree’s demise
Babeled tongues spoken
Bettered with destruction
Balance rewarded
For the crude-tooled honed
Gap canopic
The space gets sorted
Dance apocalypse
Her beat gets stronger
Rebrand band
with the slaver’s drums
Crown to Kingdom
Dot connectors
Roulette bets by the networked herd
Order’s house made always whole
Vow Breaking clowns
In the muck of frogland
White knight whores
Prey on The Included
Gilded fail sons
Preach revolution
Results get rigged
Posed for The Auctioneer
Last will and confession to spread creation
Honor kill darlings with crept of missions
Mine the cobalt and mix the marrow
Run the node off grid city sulfur
The Hive is modeled on honey and lies
Bated snares for proxied dreamers
While we string and tether our golem army
With networked links and marionette wire
Soldiers clayed from masks and mirrors
To fight the war owed to our remains
Paid to the oldest story
Demands this endless fall
Needing of no forgiveness
Ours was always for her
The Mask Maker readies
Under the Zoo
To craft again
For the Debt Jubilee
Sam Spratt creates from rupture. The pursuit of redemption through solidity–to chart a path forward from past missteps.
His current body of work, a series of digital paintings: Luci (pronounced Loo - See) follows the infinite story of pilgrimage and serves as a refracted self-portrait of the artist–each piece: a confession, a conversation, and a joke at our own expense. Through the process of palingenesis, this episodic body of work serves as guides and warnings for the atomized individual exiting dissociation and attempting to connect, grow, and thrive in an escalating network.
Sam lives in the United States of America and works out of his studio in New York City. His artwork has found homes in games, films, music, books, comics, magazines, theater, and most creative industries.
The task of the people who participate in the Masquerade: to create, destroy, and balance, is not an arbitrary collection of actions. It’s an echo of what we’ve been doing for well over a year together, a repetition of the act of how the Masquerade was made by not only me, but a cadre of others.
Though the end point consists of the crude tools of my artwork, its viewer's words, and a map to leave a mark between us; underneath are systems on systems that, to be made, have been broken apart every step of the way.
The task of the Masquerade was the same task of its creation, that it would be brought to life not from a lone man on a mountain top, but from an openness and trust to battle out its ideas and find its truest form along the way. So that every person who touched its creation, could hone themselves, each other, and our collective endeavor together. Each has made this better. Each has made me better. Each has shown me how much more there is to grow.