Category: Deliverables-06

YoungLee – NFT Experience

 

I was very grateful for the opportunity to create an NFT through a more environmentally sustainable website. It creates a safe space for artists to sell their artworks easily and appeal to people who have similar interests/taste. The worst/best exercise was very interesting to see because I realized how subjective art can be: At times, I liked the artworks that were labeled as ‘bad’ and at times I didn’t like the artworks that were labeled as ‘good.’ Thus, as said before, the hic et nunc website creates a space where people can buy according to their tastes. That said, I do wish the website was more user-friendly so that people can see artworks that are the most popular, trending, and the most recent in order to filter out the ones that merely show a picture of their cat.

minniebzrg-NFTMinting

 

#1: “fence”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an acrylic painting done using a cardboard stamp that I made in my 3D studio last semester. The pattern of this stamp was inspired by the Mongolian ger home skeleton. Using the three colors of the Mongolia flag, I randomly printed these patterns around the canvas. I really liked the result of the randomness. Then I used photoshop to invert the image I took of the painting. I think I was a little concerned with someone owning the original uninverted artwork but I actually like this version more. I like the contrast between the blue and yellow and the range of lightness of the colors.

#2: “spiral”

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This is a still-life of a mixed media collage I did for my 2D studio last semester. I really liked this piece I did because it was so messy of a composition that it doesn’t appear to be a still-life. I think the unifier of the piece is the concept of a spiral. The target symbol at the center represents movement and that is where my title came from. Although I like this piece, I think others would enjoy it more so that’s why I decided to mint this piece.

 

shrugbread-NFTMinting

I found the actual experience of minting and uploading my NFTs to be  rather simple. There was an unexpected feeling of accomplishment that I felt when Golan purchased my NFT for 1 tez and over the course of a few minutes seeing my wallet fill up. I was and still am conflicted with Etherium and Bitcoin based platforms because of the lack of empathy/foresight that the artists on those sites express. I would at the very minimum expect the argument of “Well my message is so important and so innovative and forward thinking that I can ignore it’s ill effect.” but that argument can’t really made because a large amount of NFT artists on proof of work platforms that I got to take a look at were just referencing NFTs or bitcoin and even Elon Musk. I have a hard time labelling all NFTs as evil or malicious, especially when ecologically the concerns of NFTs are largely mitigated at sites like hic et nunc. The issue is people who just one of apathy and hype. The hype around proof of work based platforms is self supporting and is drawing in artists daily. Artists who don’t really mind the ecological effects because they can’t see it, hence they don’t have to worry about it.

Monday – NFTMinting

 

Girl with streaked hair

This was the first artwork I minted for 0.1 tezos in an edition size of 20. It only took me about 20 minutes to make this one and I worked on it one night just for practice so I wasn’t too attached to it.

Gust of Wind

This second one was something I started at the beginning of the semester in-between  assignments but then forgot about. Although it’s unfinished, I ended up liking this one a lot more and put it up on Hic et Nunc for 1 tezos in an edition of 20 as well.

Initially, I felt a lot of disdain for the much more popular NFT marketplaces we looked at. A lot of the artwork felt dishonest, and I felt like the “most successful” artworks were all made to follow popular trends on the sites with the goal of much a ton of profit. I felt much better posting on Hic et Nunc, and the community felt much more humble and unassuming, which aligned with how I personally view how art should be.

bumble_b – NFTMinting

A whole lot of heart

A bee and honey

I don’t know why the heart gif isn’t working, but I chose these two p5 works I did for my 0.1 Tezos mints! I’ve just started creating some really cool art this semester in this class (the past two years I have been creating more physical and 3D designs that I would’ve put up, but they would’ve just been photos of physical objects instead of actual creations), so I had some fun work from this class to choose from!

Sting  ray  petting  zoo

This is the work that I decided to put up for 1 Tezos. I feel kind of bad because I know this isn’t exactly the incredible work of art expected for the higher priced piece, but as we all know, I don’t really do art. I did this little pattern for my Basic Design class last year about my favorite part of the Georgia Aquarium… the place you can pet sting rays! It’s not perfect, and I definitely cringe looking back on it because I could do it much better now, but I’ve always loved this! I find it kind of simple, ugly, and charming.

peatmoss-NFTExperience

I personally decided to refrain from minting an NFT. Even on hic et nunc, I feel uncomfortable participating in this new trend because I know the vast majority of people doing it aren’t being as careful as we. Unfortunately the curb effect hasn’t hit yet for NFTs, and I don’t know when it will. I’m going to wait until things are clean, regulated, and moderated. I’m also abstaining because quite honestly, this isn’t the market for my art. I currently am really happy with my freelance growth, and the community of artists I’ve become acquaintences with through video game fandoms and Twitter. My personal art is either sequential, design documents for projects to come, or things that I don’t want sold. For my for-sale adoptable character designs, I enjoy having a more direct interaction with the seller than just slapping it up on an auction site. More power to those who enjoy and need that sort of distance, but right now this is where my zone is. I don’t have the time, energy, or audience to reach into another space…and still, a space that I don’t ethically find it worth it to do so.

bookooBread-NFTReading

I think there is something to say about sort of playing the system here… If there is a way for marginalized groups, and people that actually want to make a difference, to leverage this current exploitive system in their favor to gain the upper hand in one of the only possible ways they can, they should maybe take that opportunity. In our current society, money is power. Artists and marginalized groups do not have either. We have protests, social media movements, and activism from grassroots orgs/”the people” but it feels like we’re just shouting back at ourselves right now. Like we are screaming and demanding all these things but no one is listening except the people that believe in the same shit. It’s because all the people making the decisions and with the power/money have their own agendas and do not want to dismantle the system because it works in their favor. It is only until the marginalized hold these positions of power that real change will be made – but in our current methods – that does not seem to be happening anytime soon. If this is one of the only ways to even the playing field and monetarily gain that upper hand in a short-term way… maybe it will be worth it in the longterm. I think it is naive to think that we can “beat” these oppressors with representation and speaking out… unfortunately our current society requires far, far more than that to actually make any real change. There are definitely caveats to this though, how do we know these people who are “good” now will stay good if they become powerful? Will this just create the same system we are trying to fight? By the time this power shift happens, will it be too late for our environment? These are all questions I do not have the answer to. I simply do not know what to think of NFT’s right now. I think it is still too new to me and I want to reframe from participating in a reactionary way – so I would like to wait and see how things develop more before I make any decisions. I don’t usually make decisions when I’m not sure about something… so I’m holding off for now.

I also do not know if this NFT world will be a long-term thing. I feel like technology develops and shifts so fast that there will be much better ways of making a more equitable digital art world/marketplace in the future. So why start investing in this thing that is really harmful and is definitely not the best that we can do? 

Monday – NFT Immersion

Beneath the Stars

Celebrate everything.

Bugs

https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/6197

When I was looking at the different NFT marketplaces, I had a lot of mixed feelings about the work being sold and their worth and I really had no idea what kind of criteria I needed to use to judge these artworks. Although a lot of them show good craftsmanship, I wasn’t convinced if they were worth the cost of the energy they came with. I felt some disdain for pieces I felt lacked any type of originality or meaning, but I don’t know the original concepts of them. One that I chose, Celebrate Everything, had the same style and color choices that many online title the “Corporate Art Style.” This type of style, characterized by geometric figures with oversized and colorful limbs in utopian settings, is used by dozens of large corporations to appear vibrant and friendly, but lack any meaning when it’s used simply to make a flowery appearance.

bookooBread-NFTImmersion

(In order of most captivating to least captivating)

https://foundation.app/PussyRiot/panic-attack-1-terrestrial-paradise-6824

Title: PANIC ATTACK 1. TERRESTRIAL PARADISE

Artist: Pussy Riot

I did a lot of digging into this group after seeing Golan scroll over one of their pieces in class and while I don’t think the artwork is necessarily my style – I feel like if NFT’s are to be used in some way right now – it should be for something like this –> the actual art should be inherently intertwined with new technology and digital forms of generating art that cannot be done physically, must be for a specific cause such as this group’s, artists are in some marginalized group(s) and are using NFT’s to gain power/voice. I feel like so far this is the only art I have found on Foundation that is really doing something. Also if you read their story, I feel like that is the truly captivating part.

https://foundation.app/ViktoriaModesta/spike-dance-5549

Title: Spike Dance

Artist: Viktoria Modesta (I’ve been following her work for a while and saw her post on Instagram about selling this project as her first NFT… there was some explanation about her justification but I’m just not sure how I feel about it)

https://superrare.co/artwork-v2/balancing-act-12792

Title: Balancing act

Artist: Jon Noorlander (I just really like some of this guy’s work visually speaking)

Title: Hope
Artist: Joanie Lemercier

https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/10443

Luckily this one is not being sold for much and is not on a (more) wasteful NFT platform… because if it was I’d be really sad. Needless to say, I really do not like this type of art – and unfortunately, a lot of the art I’ve seen on these platforms falls within this category. To me, this artwork is very similar to those shirts that people get that say like “nerd” or some stupid live laugh love sh** like that. It’s just like, what is the point of this art?? It just makes absolutely no impact whatsoever. But like I said, this is a lot better because at least something this stupid is being sold with little consequences – but stuff like this being sold with Ether or Bitcoin? Such. A damn. Waste. Your art better be revolutionary if you are going to be selling it with those kinds of consequences (obviously not at all would be best).

Overall, I’m finding it very hard to find any NFT that I like. What goes through my mind when I look at all these pieces is: is it worth it? As in, is this piece so revolutionary that it is worth having such a great cost on the environment/the other negative impacts? The answer is almost always no. There just has to be another way to do this. I feel like we as a human race can be a lot smarter than this… but I’m also not sure about that because historically we have been very very unintelligent in more ways than not.

I feel like so much of the art I’m seeing just does not spark any sort of critical thinking whatsoever. It is mostly just, like we discussed in class, eye candy. However, I’m also struggling to determine if I should even be making these types of judgments. Who am I to say what is art and what isn’t? Who am I to say if art has to be deep or not? Isn’t this just feeding right back into the issue of high art/low art/valuing some art over others/gatekeeping in the art world? I don’t have any type of qualification to justify that and I don’t think anyone should be able to, (even though I’m basically doing this right now oops) because if I can, the same wealthy/greedy art collectors already doing this can too. I guess it is just hard to justify selling what I consider eye candy at the price of an entire country’s worth of carbon production…

fr0g.fartz-Reading

I am very against the NFT marketplace. This is not to say that I despise the artists participating in it to sell their work, especially if they are in financial trouble. What I despise is the people who created this marketplace, and are encouraging capitalistic structures so that they and their friends can become more wealthy. It is difficult to attain a sustainable and ethical job and live this way in the United States, especially for those affected by systemic racism, people who were born into poverty or are experiencing homelessness, etc. More capitalistic marketplaces mean that these people are even less able to support themselves, let alone think of how to address pollution (which primarily impacts the poor and poor countries that the US dumps our waste on). It means that the rich white men in a male-dominated industry (that is, 91 fucking percent) are continuing to profit off of deeply rooted sexism and systemic racism. It means these people are cowards and narcissists who cannot bear to face that the world sucks for most people. Instead, they retreat into their own privilege, which has catastrophic effects on the people that have been suffering.

I have elected to not participate in contributing to cryptocurrency trading, as I feel that the only moral justification for doing so is being financially helpless. Every acquaintance I’ve spoken with about cryptocurrency (which are all financially stable males) have never once mentioned the disastrous effects of it (because they are not affected by it, and don’t care). I know that they would definitely do this, so I will do the opposite of what they would do. 🙂

I don’t have anything against anyone in this class if they participate in this because I know that you people and most artists care about things <3.