Schatz’s generative portraits of nineteen leading American innovators, known collectively as Esquire’s Portrait of the Twenty-First Century, were created in 2008 on commission from Esquire magazine. The portraits were exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery's 2010-2011 "Americans Now" exhibition.
Each of these sitters - representing leadership in the realms of business, medicine, science, technology, and the arts - sat for his or her portrait for one hour in the artist's ten-by-ten-foot "Cube," during which time they participated in activities of personal interest. The Cube was embedded with twenty-four cameras, each of which recorded the sitter from a different angle. The ever-changing generative portrait that results consists of the footage from each camera played back for different durations and in different sequences, creating a representation that is analogous to a personal encounter with these individuals.