On August 15th, Afghanistan fell… right into the hands of the Taliban. After 20 years of war, the Taliban, as reported by The Guardian, began to implement “…the process of forming a government in Afghanistan, after taking control of the capital, Kabul, and declaring that the war is over, as Afghan forces surrendered and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.”

The Taliban has promised not to kill activists, artists, educators, and journalists. However, according to reports from journalists and activists on the ground, they have already begun to hunt them down. We are bearing witness to a monumental humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes. Thousands of civilians are endangered, in need of immediate help. 

Time is of the essence! The next few weeks are critical- We must do what we can to help civilians who are in danger get out right now and persuade countries, institutions, and individuals worldwide to help. Banks have shut down. People no longer have access to money, making it difficult to flee.

 

 

Immediate Action Needed: This is quite a grave situation. And I believe the the NFTfi community can help. First, to create a decentralized financial resource using NFT art donations to raise and distribute Emergency Funds that refugees can quickly access for resettlement. And furthermore, to create an awareness campaign for those able to get out, directing them to this aid.

About Stand Up For Unity & Their NFT Fundraiser

 

Stand Up For Unity began as a campaign launched in the summer of 2015. It has since developed into an international platform and global outreach movement for unity, tolerance, respect, and peace, regardless of religion, race, nationality, colour, or gender. The organization was founded by Canadian/Afghan entrepreneur Nahid Shahalimi, an award-winning filmmaker/producer, author, artist, and human rights advocate.

 

The platform is supported by world-class personalities, including international figures, entertainers, sports legends, human rights activists, and inspirational people of all ages & walks of life, including H.H.The Dalai Lama.

#StandUpForUnity NFTs is a Global Awareness campaign for Solidarity with Afghanistan: to promote awareness about their growing humanitarian crises. To create a monetary aid fund for resettlement costs using blockchain technology. To mobilize artists, musicians, collectors, and the NFT community to participate by creating/donating NFT art and/or via special events/performances. #StandUpForUnity Ntfs hope to do the following: 

  • Raise awareness and funds to help relocate displaced and persecuted people.
  • Use blockchain technology to transfer mutual aid funds for resettlement.
  • Set up an easily accessible system to distribute funds to those in need.

 

More About Nahid Shahalimi        

Nahid Shahalimi lives in Munich, Germany, with her two daughters. Forced to leave Afghanistan in 1985, her family moved to Canada, where she was raised. As a young adult in Munich, Shahalimi launched her career as an author, human rights activist, international consultant on Gender, (former) professional athlete, award-winning filmmaker, and one of the most prolific international artists in the art world today. Nahid’s passion for arts and humanitarianism began in her college & university days. She majored in Fine Arts, Politics, and Southeast Asian studies, specializing in Human Rights. However, witnessing the destruction of her country under the Soviet occupation as a child ignited within Nahid the passion for devoting her life to promoting peace, tolerance, respect, and acceptance. The synergy between her various personal and professional experiences is reflected in all that she does.           

Shahalimi is the author of Where Courage Bears the Soul: We the Women of Afghanistan: Tales of Courageous & Inspiring Afghan Women, published in 2017 by Elisabeth Sandmann Publishing. We The Women started as an initiative of collections of inspiring stories of women from around the world, told through 3 creative pillars involving portrait paintings, books, and documentary films. Today We The Women UG/LTD is a social impact enterprise. Shahalimi also created We the Women of Afghanistan: A Silent Revolution, a multiple award-winning documentary film and tour, with a World Premiere screening at the UN German Mission, the United Nations’ headquarters in New York City. 

Furthermore, Shahalimi supports and provides consultations to several international foundations. She is an active member of UNICEF Germany’s National Committee and is the Founder and Chairwoman of Hope Foundation for Women and Children of Afghanistan (active since 2007). Currently, Shahalimi is engaged in the forefront of the cutting-edge digital art revolution, creating NFTs after 30+ years of painting. This experience makes her uniquely qualified to understand how decentralized finance and NFTs can be harnessed to provide immediate aid for humanitarian causes. On top of all of this, she is an incredible friend, mother, and one of our finest staff writers here at WTF.  

Final Thoughts 

I would very much appreciate if everyone reading this took a moment out of their day to look into the resources linked in this article and below.  The situation unfolding in Afghanistan is dire, and there are countless at-risk lives that need to be evacuated from the country immediately. The NFT community is powerful, and I believe that we have the power and capacity to make a difference. If you have a moment of time please make a tweet with #standupforunity – and, if you can, add it to your instagram or twitter bios for the next 24 hours to show solidarity. And if you have the means please feel free to reach out to myself or nahid directly. 

For inquiries, please contact

Stand Up For Unity

Mutschelle Str. 4

81673, Munich – Germany

StandUpForUnity@protonmail.com

CC: Luminationbyjj@gmail.com

 

SOCIAL TOOLKIT

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/standupforunity/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/standupforunity

IG: https://www.instagram.com/standupforunity/?hl=en

Website: www.standupforunity.com

 

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First of all, let me start by saying that I’m not a “Journalist.” I’m a Blockchain Evangelical. And I’m here for my people and our culture. Idgaf who you are or what you’re promising on the back end, we kick the tires and check under the hood of every project. Calling balls and strikes and keeping it a buck with the NFT/Crypto community. Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

 

Tory Lanez is suspected of going platinum in 57 seconds.

 

Uhm yeah, that’s it, that’s all I can say for sure about this drop. They say he sold x amount of tokens which grant access to some kind of blockchain Spotify/YouTube type platform where you can stream this music exclusively. I have so many problems with this drop, and I’m not getting paid enough to do this to list every single issue I had. Still, I will say that not being able to get a straight answer on how many unique wallet addresses were used in the sale and the total lack of transparency in the way the platform moves have dashed almost all of the hopes I had for it when I initially heard about the release. After spending 2-3 hours grilling a high up from the platform who will remain nameless, the conclusion I came to was that there’s just nothing here to be excited about from an independent artist’s perspective or as an NFT artist.  

 

Ok, cool, now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’d like to say that Tory Lanez and everyone involved should take a bow. Because he’s probably done more to onboard people that look like him into the crypto-NFT space than anyone, period. Kudos to you bro, get ya bag; I ain’t mad.

 

 

What I will say is the drop is more significant than the dropper. It’s not about Tory anymore; it’s about NFT’s. The nature of this drop only concerns those of us native to the NFT community. On Reddit, the usual wishful thinking and speculative analysis are going on. IRL, more and more people are researching NFT’s every day, discovering not only this drop but how hot the market is overall. And for the layperson just finding out about NFTs, it’s a cool and innovative product from a familiar face. Whether or not cancel culture and a backlash to it played a part in the success of this NFT is not only impossible to quantify, it’s irrelevant. 

 

Nobody cares. All they care about is the bag. That million dollars he keeps telling them they get to make something off of. Cool, I appreciate you spotlighting elements of Decentralized Finance and screaming from the rooftops that the NFTs are the future. I can’t knock it since It’s my calling in life. But like I’ve said before and I will say again: the ethos of this community is grounded in transparency and immutability. And this ain’t that. 

 

Now whatever this is will shake itself out in the secondary market- which is set to open up on the 24th of August, if the demand is there and the tech is sound we will come back here to the blockchain pulpit and sing their praises till the cows come home. But if they think that we’re gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe again, guess who’s got another thing coming. Either way, I’ll be back with a follow-up to this story in a few days.

 

 

“The NFT World takes all of the knowledge, information, and experiences we have from every industry and flips it on its head by adding layers of true transparency while providing an opportunity of maintaining anonymity. 

 

While this poses great problems and solutions, in the case of Tory’s Album, it’s a problem —  because there’s no proof or receipts. Not to mention being hosted on a standalone, seemingly fly-by-night platform that any middle schooler who knows even basic web design, HTML, and/or CSS could produce. 

 

There’s no mnemonic code to keep your wallet safe and secure; you don’t own the actual copyright to the music. The list goes on and on. Having worked in the music industry for a decade-plus. I’ve seen my fair share of lipstick on a pig, smoke in mirror rollouts alongside labels & individuals buying their own records to inflate the image and perpetuate the lie of popularity/interest in a specific project, brand, or product. This is no different, and I feel like watching how the money moves would show us how fugazi this whole drop was.

 

If you want a Case Study of What Not To Do in the NFT space, 

this is your poster child.”  — Eric Spivak / Motivate

 

 

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The Sad Frogs District collection has been delisted from Opensea following a copyright claim from the original creator of the Pepe meme, Matt Furie. This has consequences for NFT projects to consider and may have far-reaching legal consequences. It also forces the consideration of the centralization of marketplaces in the decentralized NFT space.

The Sad Frogs District (SFD) project launched somewhat controversially on August 9th, selling out 7000 Sad Frogs each priced at 0.05 ETH in less than 5 minutes. Central to the artwork was a frog character. The project saw success and was verified by Opensea on the 12th of August, and things seemed to be going well enough. Enter: Matt Furie.

Furie has been in the NFT space for a while, he is the creator of the successful PEGZ NFT project. He is also no stranger to DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) claims, having filed copyright claims multiple times in the past, having won a lawsuit for $150,000 from Infowars, the show hosted by Alex Jones. Matt has become proficient at hunting down uses of his caricature and filing claims against them. Claims that often stretch the limits of intellectual property law. Initially, Furie targeted exact replications of his meme, but with his pursuit of SFD, Furie is attempting to lay claim to the artwork of frogs that bear very little resemblance to his own.

 

 

US copyright law allows for the “fair use” of intellectual property such as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research,” among other things. Furthermore, works that are considered “transformative” in that they recreate the original work in a substantially different way are often not considered infringements of copyright at all. Copyright owners are allowed to submit DMCA claims which centralized organizations tend to comply with. This marks the beginning of a potentially long and expensive legal process.

Opensea has been known to comply with the DMCA in the same fashion most legacy companies would. They have delisted several projects imitating the famed CryptoPunks collection to varying degrees, even without known DMCA claims against them. As the largest NFT marketplace, Opensea has a lot of power, all of which appears centralized contrary to the tagline on their homepage. Their motivation is to be as compliant as possible to appease existing and future shareholders.

SFD may or may not be an infringement of Furie’s copyright, and the SFD team has reportedly already submitted a counter-DMCA, beginning the process of appealing the decision. While this process continues, SFD token holders aren’t able to sell their NFTs as freely, with the main option left available being risky private sales (which can be overcome with p2p trades). This obviously has negative repercussions on token holders pending the resolution of the dispute.

 

Photo Credit Sad Frog District

 

Beyond reducing liquidity for the project and making it difficult to buy and sell, such actions on behalf of Opensea can seriously impact a project’s reputation. Opensea are seen as arbitrators of the NFT space, deciding on no firm basis which projects receive their blue verification check (which SFD did). These actions impact thousands of people and should not be taken likely by Opensea. Considering the livelihoods involved, the very least Opensea could do is stop enforcing DMCA claims automatically.

 

In the SFD case, Furie has ten to fourteen days upon receipt of the appeal to hire legal counsel and respond with a lawsuit if he so chooses. This choice could have far-reaching consequences. If Furie chooses to go to court, any determinations made as part of the ruling could impact copyright law generally and the NFT space specifically, and may be used as precedent in future rulings.

 

Photo Credit: TylerOSU

Asked for comment, SFD stated that their work is substantially different from Pepe the Frog. Their belief is that Furie’s actions represent a grave overreaching on behalf of Furie, and that he is not entitled to lay claim to every frog on the internet. They have voiced concerns over their community and ~1900 token holders, and are not looking for further escalation. 

 

There is also a fair chance that a court will concede that their artwork is sufficiently transformative, invalidating Furie’s claim. Nonetheless, this will be a long legal battle for which Furie is far better financially equipped, indicating a settlement or personal benefit could be the intention behind this claim. Furie can spend more on legal fees to get a deal out of the SFD team, putting them at a disadvantage.

 

Photo Credit: Sad Frogs District

On the bright side, Furie may choose to advance and allow freedom of expression and not press charges. It would not detract from the value of his PEGZ collection. There can be more than one frog on the internet, and the advances of an original creation only add value to that original creation. Just look at the value of Cryptopunks as an example; it increases with each variation that spreads its legend further. 

 

NFTs are all about circumventing gatekeepers and allowing equality of opportunity and expression. Copyright is not in conflict with these ideas and should certainly be respected, but should not be applied so strictly as to infringe on our core values. Furthermore, centralization of a decentralized space enables legacy systems and automatic DMCA responses to significantly hurt growing initiatives. These systems need to be rethought to nurture innovation in the NFT space.

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The NFT explosion, which began in March 2021, was driven, in part, by mainstream media coverage of NFTs: from high-priced sales to brands experimenting in the space. But mainstream media outlets also jumped into the world of NFTs themselves with a variety of news-related releases, from classic covers to historical news items. A recent effort by Fortune included a group of NFTs based on digital artist Pplpleasr‘s cover for its August/September issue. Though noteworthy for combined sales of 429 ETH, currently valued at $1.3 million, Fortune‘s success with NFTs is also representative of what can happen when mainstream media embraces rather than ridicules emergent cultural efforts.

 

Magazine Covers as NFTs

Magazine covers offer one particularly ripe area of exploration. For example, TIME drew on and updated its history with a series of three NFTs released in March, “including one of the most iconic covers in TIME’s 98-year history, and the first-ever cover designed exclusively as an NFT.” The total take from the three NFTs was $446,000 worth of ETH and became a relatively early indicator that NFTs could be more than a marketing tool and might well become a significant revenue source.

 

Of course, mistakes were made. Forbes claimed in April to be the first to turn a magazine cover into an NFT, reminding one that TIME could have put out a “Fact-Checking Is Dead” cover as well. Such failures during this period were quite common, with many “first-ever” claims from media outlets, pr firms and corporate tweeters that were readily dismissed with a simple Google search.

 

Oddly enough, SPIN, which is now all-digital, announced NFTs in March that “classic covers” were coming soon but it has yet to follow through. It seems to have gotten stuck at the collecting emails stage.

 

Fortune Goes All In

Some media outlet experiments, such as that of the NY Times, were presented with a somewhat baffled “Why Did Someone Pay $560,000 for a Picture of My Column?” perspective. In contrast, Fortune seems to be embracing not only NFTs but the world of blockchain as well. In a recent package of articles covering NFTs, crypto, and DeFi, Fortune showed that a very mainstream media outlet could, in fact, find writers who can understand what’s happening in this new world and can communicate it without the need to crack jokes.

 

Signaling buy-in from the very top, Fortune CEO Alan Murray titled his daily newsletter discussing the package, “Fortune is all in on blockchain.” Fortune‘s approach, and this collection of articles, is an impressive move, and one hopes this quality of coverage continues. But, ironically, its ranking of the NFTy50, which we will probably now see annually, is strongly off the mark, including numerous famous people who would be best described as dabblers in NFT Land.

 

Nevertheless, many key players in the space are included, and the questionable entries are more than balanced out by folks playing essential roles that predate the 2021 boom. One artist on the list, pplpleasr, was commissioned by Fortune to do a striking cover which was subsequently released as an NFT. Fortune also included an autobiographical piece by pplpleasr sharing her journey into the land of crypto, DeFi and NFTs.

 

Fortune‘s NFT Cover Art Sales

Outside of Playboy‘s work with Slimesunday, pplpleasr’s Fortune cover is one of the very few mainstream media NFT projects involving an actual crypto artist. In addition, while the published magazine cover designed by pplpleasr is a static image, the NFTs themselves include livelier variations. 

 

The sale on OpenSea occurred in two parts, with an initial offering of 256 images priced at 1 ETH each, followed by a three-day set of auctions of “three special edition NFTs featuring more in-depth graphics.” Though the auctions encountered a variety of difficulties, including denial of service attacks, the combined sales ultimately totalled 429 ETH, currently valued at $1.3 million.

 

Despite the obstacles to the auctions, Fortune‘s NFT sales were more than a financial success. The effort demonstrated that NFT artists and mainstream media can work together quite productively, especially since many NFT artists now come from commercial backgrounds in such fields as animation and visual effects, as did pplpleasr. It also revealed that mainstream media outlets can indeed cover NFTs and related topics without condescension and tedious attempts at humour.

 

However, once such coverage becomes mundane, the lasting lesson may be that NFTs offer media companies an opportunity to take a marketing cost center and transform it into a unique revenue center of its own. Given many major media outlets’ successful entry into affiliate content marketing, such as the NY Times‘ Wirecutter, creating NFT commerce operations does not seem much of a stretch. And, in the end, if the often struggling world of media can establish a lucrative new revenue stream, even reluctant editorial staff members are more likely to come around.

Featured Image: Screenshot of Fortune NFTs on OpenSea

 

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A great deal of what may be valuable in the future will be understood best by those most familiar with digital culture. “Digital Natives” are nothing new, and surely some of us here are “Digital Natives.” Those who grew up with access to the internet have inevitably become the tech-savvy generations.

There’s no sign that technology will stop, and I doubt that it will go away. The young generation is growing up right in the middle of the technological revolution. It will be possible to collect rare digital art pieces, just as one might collect sports cards growing up in decades prior. 

While engaging with this emerging trend early is crucial, the top priority is to learn more about future potential and not just make money. This is rather an exploration of diverse areas impacted by technological innovation previously regarded as unachievable or considered unrealistic.

The NFT revolution will impact countless industries in an unprecedented way. There will be many deep dives exploring what NFTs can be, the least of which is as a fun way for brands to interact with their consumers. A physiotherapist from New York, understanding the concept of ‘NFTs’ and ‘Smart Contracts,’ Dr. Kellen became the first medical practitioner to employ NFTs and Smart Contracts for the benefit of his patients (source: NFT Kids Magazine).

As the world enters the era of digital arts for kids, a new magazine highlights today’s youngest and most promising digital artists and explains how parents can navigate the recent craze of NFTs.

 

 

The ‘NFT Kids Magazine’ 

On August 31st, 2021, NFT Kids Magazine released its first issue – an online flipbook. Original art and exclusive content from successful kid artists make up the first issue of NFT Kids Magazine: including Nyla Hayes, a 12-year-old Twitter sensation who has now sold more than 65ETH ($172 000) worth of artwork from her ‘Long Neckie Ladies’ collection. Bruno Urli, also featured, is a 16-year-old from Germany who recently sold his first 3rd art piece as an NFT for 1.5ETH ($4k).

“For the newcomers in the NFT scene, NFT Kids Magazine is the new gateway guiding parents and novices on how to navigate and understand their 1st NFT baby steps.”

–Claira Soazandge

The Founder

Founder and editor-in-chief of NFT Kids Magazine, Claira Soazandge, is a French-born British author from Madagascar, based in Seoul, South Korea. She was previously co-editor of a youth publication in London. Claira started the magazine after seeing her son who was a 12-year-old photographer build an online following. He became the magazine’s co-founder.

In addition to Claira’s work as the first children’s story published in an NFT form, she is also one of the first magazine publishers offering NFT advertising on Opensea.io.

“Twenty years on, it is incredible that I can now tap into the knowledge and experience I learned as a teenage editor and share them with my son and other children to help showcase their art. NFTs will change the self-publishing game and how we view copyrighting. Now, artists can take control of their creations and find another way to reach the masses. We plan on having fun with NFTs in different ways so our readers can enjoy discovering our content.” 

  • Claira Soazandge

 

Meet Some Of The NFT Kids: The Artists

Sevi  – “The exceptional work of Baby Banksy, the 9-year-old autistic prodigy Sevi from the Philippines, who is rapidly being compared to the street legend and has sold art for 1ETH ($2.6k).“ -NFT Kids Magazine

Nine-year-old Sevi is an autistic boy from the Philippines that discovered a love for art. At the age of 2 years old, Sevi, one of four kids from a family in Manila, was diagnosed with autism. 

 

As early as January 2018, he attended weekly art therapy classes and loved them so much that he has since painted every week. In addition to being in therapy regularly, Sevi’s focus, attention, patience, comprehension, verbal communication, and other abilities have improved since starting to paint. Sevi took part in his first art exhibition in March 2018. As a crypto artist, he gained fame three years later, in March 2021, and he has since sold NFTs to collectors from Asia, North America, and Europe.

 

Since then, he has participated in several exhibitions, both on-site and online, and some of his art has been sold, including some commissioned pieces which are used to fund his therapy.

 

Laya & Eli – Laya from India is already displaying advanced 3D tech design abilities, and three-year-old Eli showcases his collaboration with Diverse, a well-known female DJ from London.

 

Christopher – Christopher, 12 years old, an NFT Kids Magazine dropper, a young Spacepreneur, and an aspiring astronaut. Christopher has worked on campaigns with Nasa, Airbus Space, and Defense; and represented the US as a diplomat. Christopher has even interviewed Sir Richard Branson regarding recent travels in space in July 2021 for NBC News.

 

Children today are growing up digitally. That is a fact. Thus it’s imperative that they learn the importance of digital use and citizenship early in a world where technology is an everyday part of life while having fun creating art. 

 

LINKS

Links to NFTkidsmag: https://linktr.ee/nftkidsmag 

Publisher: wonderwillowtales.com

NFT Opensea: https://opensea.io/collection/nftkidsmagfroncover

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram: @nftkidsmag 

Twitter: @nftkidsmag

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As the “Creator Economy” becomes the next media buzzword for the combined legacy of DIY, Direct-to-Fan, Attention Economy, and Influencer Marketing; NFTs have become an exciting new option for digital creators to monetize their work. This column, The NFT Creator, will track the next phases of what will here be called the “Creator Movement” as it intersects with NFT Land.

 

About the Columnist: Clyde F. Smith

 

Since any such column is dependent on its author, let me introduce myself. Currently, I write NFT news pieces for NFTS WTF and also recently wrote for The Defiant. I tend to take a relatively formal tone in these roles and might typically refer to myself as “this writer” if I did have a reason to reference my existence in the piece.

 

I’m primarily known in NFT Land as the founder of CryptoArtNet, a directory of crypto artists, as the sometimes strident voice of Flux Research on Twitter, and as an NFT business writer as of this year. Up until a few years ago, I went by Clyde Smith until I recognized that using my middle initial would allow me to improve my Google search rankings. So now I’m the king of searches for “Clyde F Smith”.

 

Back in the aughts, I was one of the first hip hop business bloggers, launching ProHipHop (RIP) as the first dedicated hip hop trade blog in 2004. After selling a group of hip hop-related websites, I went on to write about the music industry at Hypebot with a focus on music tech and the DIY music business.

 

Much of this music industry writing was informed by my pre-Web experience of DIY and direct-to-fan art and performance in the 80s and early 90s in North Carolina and San Francisco. These experiences were surprisingly relevant to understanding things like internet marketing and growing an online fanbase. They also gave me the perspective to see that the Creator Movement in NFTLand builds upon DIY and Direct-to-Fan history perhaps even more than upon the frontier sphere of influencers; though influencers are a legitimate piece of the puzzle.

 

My writing about NFT creators is grounded in four decades in the arts and two decades as a web publisher and business blogger. I could also mention a BFA and MA in Dance (UNC-G), MLS in Reference Librarianship (TWU), and a PhD in Cultural Studies from The Ohio State University (2000), but enough about me.

 

About the Column: Topics and Examples

 

NFT Creator columns will focus on topics such as the following:

 

NFT Creator Profiles

 

Creator profiles could take different forms but will emphasize the business aspect whether looking at an artist’s overall trajectory or a key moment of decision. However, for an artist, artmaking and business dealings are not so readily separated. In fact, these two aspects can often inform each other.

 

For example, an artist may have a history of creating certain kinds of images for NFTs. Perhaps they decide to introduce something that seems entirely different and which confuses collectors who may not understand the relationship of the old to the new work. Such a column might begin with why the change occurred and then focus on how the artist introduced the new work in a way that revealed their path forward while addressing the confusion of collectors.

 

Tips for NFT Creators

 

While creator profiles may include some tips, as described above, they will always be grounded in biographical details of the creator in question. However, NFT creators often have tips to share and recognize that the learning curve for artists new to the space can be quite steep.

 

The need for such tips will continue to grow as new products become available, older products are updated and the larger context for creator’s work changes. For example, we’ve all been learning what it takes to operate during a pandemic. As new conditions emerge, NFT creators can share tips on many things from maintaining production levels once we’re no longer locked down to how to set up a physical show of digital art.

 

NFT Creator Opportunities

 

There are already a variety of opportunities for NFT creators to participate in digital art shows, special events, contests, and site launches. Many more such opportunities will emerge as companies beyond NFT Land recognize that these offerings can introduce them to new markets.

 

For example, Paris Hilton made her entry into NFT Land earlier this year. Her efforts included promoting her own work and holding an “Empowered by Paris” exhibition focused on female NFT artists. While Hilton’s participation received quite a bit of pushback from some artists, it also introduced her as a celeb who wants to be known for her connection to the community and for her support of other artists.

 

Tools and Services for NFT Creators

 

Another area that is growing at an already rapid pace is that of NFT tools and services. This area is quite broad with innovations to come that may catch us all by surprise. So any coverage here will be focused on how a particular tool or service might be worth considering by creators.

 

Note that any of the above topics might also appear in regular NFTS WTF news coverage. But this column will provide the opportunity to focus less on the news as related to NFT Land as a whole and more strictly on how such news affects digital creators.

 

Submitting Topics for the Column

If you have news directly relevant to this column, please share it with me via my NFT Entrepreneur contact form. For more general submissions, please contact NFTS WTF via the Contact link at the bottom of each page.

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WTF is a Fluf? Bad-ass 3D bunnies on the blockchain are positioning themselves organically to become one of the top NFT projects in the space. As soon as I saw this super cool 3d rabbit bobbing his head on Fluf.world, I immediately knew something special was being made with this project.  I knew nothing about the team, or the project, only that what I saw was intuitively many levels above what I have seen so far in the space. So I have personally been waiting patiently for this project to drop.

 

Initially, they were set to launch on Aug 5th, on the same day as the EIP1559 update to the Ethereum blockchain, and due to some issues with gas spikes on the network, the team let the community vote on whether to delay the launch for 2 days or not- and the community voted in discord to delay the drop. Much to my frustration because I just wanted my damn rabbits. 

 

Fluf World Bunny Rabbit NFT
Photo Credit: The Cheetah Cowboy King @MetaverseWorld

 

The Fluf world project has set a new bar when it comes to avatar collectible projects in every aspect of what great execution looks like. The team handled challenges and issues that came up during the launch with transparency and a level of care for their community that was impressive to me as an observer.   I spent my Saturday night on Clubhouse with the team and some other excited future Fluf owners waiting for technical smart contract issues to be worked out.  They spoke about the issues in real-time and were very transparent during the entire drop.

Within 40 minutes of the public launch, they were completely sold out. And the project immediately climbed in value as the eyes on this project understood something was special about Fluf World in fact, before public minting was initiated, some of the limited presales for early supporters were being sold on the secondary market for nearly .5 ETH, this was another indicator of what was to come.

 

Within just a few hours of the project launch, there was a 25 ETH sale on the secondary market for the single rarest fluff which, at the time, was nearly $75,000 USD. This was yet another indicator for me that there was some serious energy behind this project. 

 

 

Alex and the team over at Fluf world have built something incredible. The next level for avatar-themed projects has arrived. There is much more than meets the eye with this project and the road map is absolutely insane: from breeding, NFT staking, full access to 3d files, music, and multiple metaverse file formats; there is so much to be excited about.   It is important to note that anyone can write a good roadmap, and many teams can create some super dope art. But the combination of all the right elements has come together with this project in a particular and very organic manner.  

 

Within 24 hours, the floor price of Flufs jumped up to 1.78 ETH at one point on the Sunday after launch at a mint cost of .09 ETH.  They have blown past nearly every other project on the charts in just 2 days and the momentum does not seem to be letting up. While this is not financial advice It would not be a bad idea to take a deeper look at this project, as I personally believe there is something special going on here.

You can see everything transparently on the blockchain using Etherscan where I was able to see in realtime during the launch what commands the team was sending to the smart contract, how many flufs were being minted during the presale, and even tracked how many till they were sold out after the public launch. You can also see how many wallets have over 100 flufs, which at the time of this article’s release is only 4. Learning how to read Etherscan is a highly underrated skill for looking at what’s really going on with a project. Another good resource is Opensea’s Stats page where Fluf has climbed into the top 5 projects in record time selling over 6.8K ETH in volume in just a few days. 

 

Photo Credit: Oncyber.io/fluf

 

The project is led by a superstar team out of New Zealand and if you check the bottom of the website you will see, Nonfungible labs, Centrality, Universe, and ASM.

It’s important to pay attention to different aspects of a project, like how they respond to their community and handle unforeseen issues, from my observations I have a high level of confidence that this team can continue to execute and do what they say they will do though this is always subject to change- so remaining involved in the community as a collector is always a good idea.

Aside from the massive success of this launch that has many whispering, that this is the next Bored Apes level moment in the NFT space, I absolutely love the artwork, the animations, the music, the energy, and the community.  I am admitting my complete bias here and my support for this project, however, I do believe there is much to be learned from this launch and this project in general.  

 

Fluf World Bunny Rabbit NFT
Photo Credit @NFTYFARM

There is a new standard for how to execute, what the community wants, and how to treat that community for other creatives in this space.  For collectors, you now also have a record of what kind of things can signal or indicate that a project will potentially be successful after a launch.

In my opinion, nine times out of ten it boils down to the community.  If I have learned anything about successful NFT projects, I believe that creators who can shift from acquiring customers to creating community will win in the long term. The bonds being formed human to human are very real and this level of connection to the various NFT project communities is one of my favorite aspects of NFTs in general, outside of the game-changing societal shifts non-fungible tokens will power into the near and long term future.

Show me your Fluf!

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The final chapter commences! I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has reached out about this series thus far.  There has been a great response and I look forward to hearing people’s thoughts on this third installment.  I’m also looking forward to sharing numerous other interviews with top collectors that I’ve lined up as it seems that this type of content is both appreciated and well-received- so thank you! And without further ado, if you haven’t read or watched part 1 and part 2 of this interview yet, please do so- and if you have, I’ll let you get to enjoying part three: 

 

David: I would love to hear some of your thoughts about Bored Apes or some of these huge projects, like Punks, that most collectors have come to involve themselves in?

WhaleShark: I have several points. The first point is that I missed out on crypto punks. And I think crypto punks have a significant amount of historical value. Full disclosure, I don’t own a single crypto punk. That’s simply because I entered late into the space. So as an NFT collector, I do think that crypto punks have a historical value of being, honestly, the world’s first NFT, right? When NFTs weren’t NFTs, crypto punks were the NFTs. So I think there’s a certain amount of historic value there.

 

However, the issue from an economic standpoint that I see when I look at crypto punks… My team has done a little bit of a deep dive into the transaction history over a certain period of time. You just had five people trading those crypto punks at high values and driving the value up.

How do you have a project whereby you only have a small segment of the community that’s really driving that value. 

 

So, you got high prices without any liquidity. Now, for me, I tend to worry when I see signs like that. When I’m looking at other generative products- and I’ll give you an example of why they don’t interest me at all whatsoever.

 

We can look at the last seven days, of all of the projects that have been launched. And when you look at something like Axie infinity you have over the last seven days, you had 75,000 buyers. When you look at NBA top shots, you have something like 37,000. When I look at Bored Ape Yacht Club, you only have 425, right? You’ve got 425 buyers and you only have 4,600 holders. Versus NBA top shots, which has 530,000. From an economic standpoint, when I’m looking at this, I get worried because you have all of these insanely high prices, but really no depth to the market. And what that indicates to me as an analyst is that there’s a lot of in-community trading, which is not bad, right? But that in-community trading is not necessarily going to expand and reach a mainstream. 

 

When you have the rest of the population entering into NFTs- now could I be absolutely wrong, and five years down the road when NFTs are something that is absolutely predominant throughout society and people are clamouring for a Bored Ape- could be right.

 

But when I’m looking at the data right now, it just doesn’t make sense to me. So my last point would be Brendan Dawes. I mean, what I love about Brendan is that: he’s not just doing artwork with generative traits, right? What a lot of your listeners or audience might not know is that I’ve been in artificial intelligence probably for about five years now. Some of these generative art processes, they’re not even based on artificial intelligence. It’s just generative art. And you’re just piecing different traits together with very low effort. 

 

Brendan actually takes real-life data, and then after that, runs through a variety of generative processes to be able to ensure that that data coincides, correlates, and becomes something visual that is very representative of that data. It’s a much more intensive process. It’s a much more custom process. And it’s something that takes a lot of effort as an artist to be able to do something like that. So I think you and I are jiving well on what truly is generative art, right? I don’t think piecing together different eyes and different noses, or different assets can be considered generative art.

 

David: You support a lot of these larger projects that have really strong use cases, such as top shot, such as gods Unchained, etc., that maybe some people in the niche NFT, or NFT maxi community, might discount because they’re companies and they’re projects. But at the same time, they’re the projects with probably the best and most legitimate use-cases. So I think it’s important that you’re supporting those and being an advocate for those. So with that in mind what has been your most successful investment monetarily and, separately or in tandem, do you have a favourite purchase that you’ve made thus far?

 

WhaleShark: So my most successful investment has been NBA top shots. Essentially what happened was I invested a total of $175,000. Back in, I want to say July or August of last year. The total value of that collection today can be anywhere between $30 million to $80 million, depending on the day.

 

Because the cards get traded at an immense amount of speed. That, from a monetary perspective, probably has been one of the largest gains. I do want to say that I’ve done very, very well from a crypto art perspective as well. Being able to identify very early creators who have gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars of art. I’ve been a very early collector of X copy, of Twisted Vacancy, of Pak. These artists, when you look at the sales that they have, I was very lucky to not only be able to collect them very early, but also to be able to build some astounding friendships, amazing friendships with them. But you know, purchasing from a monetary and financial perspective, supporting their early career, being able to purchase a lot of their pieces in the hundreds or the thousands of dollars, and being able to see them reap an immense amount of financial success today has been absolutely amazing.

 

And to your point in terms of large companies, you want a project that has longevity. You want a project that has a strong team. You want projects that are managed professionally, and at the same time, you really want to have projects that have a long runway and a lot of money in the bank so that you don’t need to worry that six months or 12 months down the road, that team is going to go bankrupt, disband, and all of the assets that you bought are now no longer useful.

 

Now, when I look at the space itself, you’ve got quite a few of those companies, which are amazing. You’ve got Immutable with Gods Unchained, and Axies Infinity is very well-funded and it’s doing extremely well, DCL, Sandbox, even Crypto Voxels to a certain extent, again, they have a strong revenue model and are able to do those sorts of things.

 

So, I think those are the reasons why I tend to sway towards larger projects. And NBA Top Shot, you’re talking about Dapper Labs, which is now valued in the billions of dollars. Dapper Labs isn’t going anywhere. And then, that gives me peace of mind and allows me to sleep at night because I know that that team is well-funded, well managed, and well-structured out. 

 

To your question that you asked just now in terms of my favourite piece that I’ve acquired. I love every single thing that enters the vault. Probably my favourite that I purchased… And this is interesting because I actually purchased it in the summer of last year, but only received it about three weeks to a month ago. Was the Sistine chapel NFT done by Pascal Boyart or P-Boy. And Pascal Boyart is really one of the very first street artists who entered into the crypto space. And he’s very famous for doing these murals, and adapting traditional art pieces onto street murals, and actually having a QR code where people can donate Bitcoin to his wallet for his art.

 

He transformed a previous metal foundry, I believe. And he hired a complete media team to look at the process, the videotaping, everything, and he did a crypto adaptation of the Sistine chapel. I was more than happy to support that work. I think upfront one year ago, in today’s value in terms of Eth one year ago I provided about, I think $60,000 to $70,000, for it to be created.

And I can’t be happier for P-Boy.

David: How has clubhouse played a role within your rise in the NFT space? And have you discovered any artists there?

WhaleShark: I love Clubhouse. I have not spent a lot of time on it recently, but I can tell you that in February, March, and April, I was on there, at least two to three hours every single day. Sometimes I would be on there 10 hours a day. It really became a central hub for being able to communicate about NFTs, learn about NFTs, and share knowledge on NFTs. Now I know that recently the hype on clubhouse has recently dipped a bit, I always log on every single day to check out what’s the situation, what are the discussions on NFTs going on? And I really can’t wait to see that start to grow again. Now I meet a lot of friends on clubhouse, I used to hold AMAs and sessions whereby I got to know every single artist on there. And it was amazing to see the number of artists entering this space.

I would say the one artist I identified through clubhouse and got to speaking with… I really do appreciate his work, is Ali Sabet. I know that there was a little bit of controversy regarding the supply side of his artwork. But it’s something that I just really, really enjoyed. And it doesn’t affect me because again, I’m collecting out of the love and I’m not collecting predominantly for financial value. And I may be looking at pieces and saying, “Hey, do I want to look at this every single day? Do I want to hang it above my fireplace? Do I want to hang it in my corridors?”

 

And I really loved Ali Sabet’s work. Sabet has probably been one of the major purchases that I made. At that point in time, I think I probably purchased about 20 to 30 eth of his pieces. I still admire them and love them today. So I think clubhouse is a wonderful conduit to be able to funnel that knowledge and introductions. I honestly can’t wait until it starts to rise again, and those conversations start to happen to get that.

 

David: Last question, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?

WhaleShark: Surprisingly, I think about this quite a bit. So I think from the very fact that you can see that I like to remain anonymous, I enjoy being a wallflower and, you know, despite many people thinking I’m an extrovert, I’m actually, when you actually look at the Briggs Meyer test, as my rubric says, I’m actually an extreme introvert. So I think invisibility has always been at the extreme top of that list. 

 

Despite the number of interviews that I do and, and stuff like that, um, I actually do very much enjoy, you know, doing my own thing and being discreet. So invisibility, definitely on the top of that list, the other thing that I would really love to do is teleportation. The ability to be at one place at one time, and then be across the world at another. I think teleportation could be a lot of fun. So I think those are my two favourites. 

 

We want to thank Whale Shark for taking the time to do this interview, and hope you enjoyed! This is the first of many collector chats that Cash will do and we look forward to the next one!

 

For more information on Whale Shark, keep up with him on socials: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhaleShark_Pro 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whalesharkdotpro 

$WHALE Discord: https://discord.com/invite/whale

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Emojis are everywhere today, and while they may be ubiquitous now, this was not always the case. UTB is a hip-hop lifestyle brand founded by Dre Skywalker and Treem Heff in the summer of 2007. The Money Mouth Smiley, as they call it, was copyrighted in the fall of the same year, long before Unicode would include the copycat image in 2015. At this point, the crew at UTB had already surpassed a mere clothing line and had grown into a marketing agency, A&R company, and accomplished lifestyle brand. They had become adept at squashing copyright infringement by that time, but the behemoth that is Apple and its legal team created a situation where it was essentially impossible to retain lawyers or do much of anything at all.

 

Many find it hard to wrap their heads around the way that crypto art communities have rallied around their avatars as the representation of their membership in exclusive underground networks like the Crypto Punks or the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Similar to the way the Wu-tang logo or the No Limit tank became ubiquitous and lucrative in the 1990s, the late Aughts ushered in acts like Wiz Khalifa and his Taylor Gang movement.

 

Wiz and UTB formed a partnership in the early stages for all parties involved and helped to change more than just hip-hop culture with their innovative approaches to merchandise and the way they choose to market Whiz as a brand instead of a name as most independent artists do.

 

 

Long before NFT’s were a thing, Co-founder Treem, a fine artist and designer, was curating limited-run collections with as few as 15 editions. Many including a one of one sample that was never reproduced. So they are familiar with the scarcity model which has become one of the core concepts of the NFT space. Another facet of the history of UTB I found to be similar to the current practice of airdrops to holders of Tokens was the habit of finding high volume customers in the crowd and bringing them backstage at events and combing through their sales records to track down their biggest supporters to ship exclusive perks to. This fostered a culture of added value achieved by hodling their merchandise. This is the type of growth that is organic and dependant on community building that is a trademark of not only Independent Hip-hop but the burgeoning NFT/Cryptocurrency scene.

 

Curated by Future Modern on the KnownOrigin NFT Gallery Marketplace on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, they will be conducting an auction of a one-of-one NFT consisting of the original copyrighted file for the infamous Money Mouth Smiley. They once again are pushing the envelope with a unique drop structure and a compelling narrative for a community of creatives who are sick of not getting credit for their creations. The story is not only interesting but important for those of us on the blockchain obsessed with hip-hop culture and the provenance of artistic creations.

The drop will offer 3 NFTs in increasing order of rarity centered around the Original Money Mouth Smiley, the original colour UTB smiley designs, the original vector designs, and the original sketch design. The first of which can be found at this link.  https://bit.ly/3fzlktR 

 

 

Follow UTB here on socials

https://twitter.com/UTBLIFESTYLE 

https://www.instagram.com/utbworldwide/ 

https://www.youtube.com/user/UTBLifestyle

 

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On July 8, fine artist photographer Karen Jerzyk (@KJerzykPhoto Twitter, @karen.jerzyk.photo Instagram) went through a range of powerful emotions when her mother suffered from a stroke. This tragic moment came on the heels of the death of Karen’s dear friend earlier the same week. In 2011, Karen’s father had succumbed to a massive stroke which had a significant impact on Karen’s personal and professional lives. Karen is an only child and her craft has always been influenced and supported by her parents. Karen’s mom has been recovering in hospital, going through rehab, and is destined to return home in the coming days. Having a loved one come home after a stroke is a struggle. Knowing what health insurance will pay for, when they will pay for it, and when equipment can arrive is a disconcerting situation. 

 

Still, Karen has the need to create as all true artists do. She commented on Thursday that she needed to get back out shooting photos. Looking at her work, one might think it is rendered or heavily Photoshopped. But Karen creates her scenes meticulously in a studio or uses real locations often with a model in an astronaut suit. But the photos are the photos. Her images are like a vision of the future trapped in a memory of the past.

 

©karen jerzyk x don tyler “America 2078” available on KnowOrigin

 

Karen is a master at finding interesting locations to shoot photographs. A significant amount of research goes into finding these spots. For example, there is an area in Virginia with large statues of former US Presidents. In Karen’s artful eye, the vision is apocalyptic. In a collaboration with musician and video director Don Tyler (@yodontyler), this vision comes into full relief with the burning embers and haunting score.

 

The NFT Community is sometimes fractured — collectibles like cryptopunks, rats, apes, and mooncats vs fine artists vs photographers vs scammers vs collectors and so on. This community is as diverse as it is far-flung. Every walk of life from every corner of the world is represented. Yes, there are silos. Underrepresented people. Though sometimes the community can unify in a way not comparable to real life.

 

The NFT Community has set up many events and features so Karen can earn money to support her mother through sales of her art. Some movements are very public like Eddie Gangland and Stephanie Dillon are featuring Karen’s work in one of their CryptoVoxels galleries (see featured image). Art-Jedi held a two hour Clubhouse room last week to catch up with Karen and hear her story first hand. Behind the scenes, many have given or purchased silently with no fanfare.

 

While NFT artists continue to find their way in this newfound creative environment, there are many challenges: inequality, heated criticisms about form, invasions from celebrities seeking to make their mark, battles over platforms, gas fees. But more than most, the NFT community has room for everyone. Yes there are flaws. Bad actors. Theft. The digital world is not immune from the real world. But it seems a slightly higher form of community. One without a governance structure, and very little policing. It is almost a peaceful anarchy comprising Twitter, Clubhouse, Instagram, and the dozens of NFT platforms — and there is a sense of accountability that exists amongst artists and collectors. It isn’t perfect. Sexual harassment exists. Scams are prevalent. Incredible artists are being discovered. Not perfect, but a work in progress. 

 

Artists supporting artists is a thing. And the NFT Community has that going for it.

Karen is scheduled to appear as a speaker at NFT.NYC November 1-3 in Times Square.

 

GoFundMe for Karen’s Mom

https://gofund.me/64cc4adf

 

Karen Jerzyk Art

Known Origin

OpenSea

Foundation

Hicetnunc

Try Showtime

 

 

Main featured image credit: ©karen jerzyk “Everybody Left” available on OpenSea

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Black Dave is a Charleston, South Carolina-based freelance creative, recording artist, visual artist, and producer/engineer focusing on traditional and non-traditional means of promoting his products. Having established himself on/off the Blockchain and through the NFT space, Dave is a multidisciplinary creative, citing anime, rap, hardcore rock, streetwear, & sneaker culture as his influences.

 

How do you define yourself as an artist?  Do you differentiate how you see yourself and your art inside and outside the NFT space? 

Lately, the way I define or introduce myself is by saying, “Hey, I’m Black Dave, and I’m an overall creative person.” I was on an episode of the podcast, An Untold Narrative with David Filar and we were talking about how we’re in the “slash generation” where everyone does multiple things and has no clear one-skill definition of themselves. I feel like I live in that. The types of people I look up to, like Pharrell and Kanye and Virgil Abloh and Childish Gambino, have always been fighting to be outside of the box they put them in, and they do great things if you let them work outside of it. I’ve been a photographer since 2012, and I’ve also worked in music, design, video/film, and a bunch of other random and interesting things. Whatever I think is cool, I just try to learn how to do it. 

 

Your music is unique in that you rap about other art forms such as Anime. Can you speak to your inspiration to specifically reference Anime in your music? 

 

To me, there’s sort of a requirement to rap in an authentic way or at least a way that appears authentic. So when I think about music, I try to just think about the things that inspire me or what I like. I think lots of artists try to rap about things they think other people resonate with —  and the success of it sort of lies on if they were convincing or not, but if I just go with what I know, I can’t be found out at a fake, because I’m about the culture that I talk about.

 

 

You started a newsletter called The Black Dave Report. Your newsletters are very vulnerable and diaristic. What motivated you to share these private thoughts and musings?

 

My “blogging” journey or whatever started all the way back with a live journal and Blogspot. I used to think I was pretty funny, so I would write these somewhat comedic blog posts intended to help me pick up girls. People who read what I wrote said that I write just like I talk, which I guess isn’t how most people write…? I considered that a compliment and just would randomly write about whatever was on my mind. I started a substack blog, which is where The Black Dave Report is hosted, long before getting into NFTs, but I shifted to that topic once I realized that people cared about what I had to say in the space. I’ve been enjoying myself, and I believe being open and honest is the key to success, so I try to do that as much as possible.

 

Speaking as both a rapper and a visual content creator, what do you think about the words “utility” and “value” concerning NFTs? 

 

Utility is a current NFT buzzword. The thing I hate about buzzwords is that they are often super important, but everyone runs it to the ground and ruins it. I try to think a lot more about the “intended effect” as opposed to utility in the way many have been so far. I ask myself, “what’s the intended effect here?” So I can create with that in mind. Sometimes the intended effect is to hold a high secondary value. Sometimes the intended effect is entertaining, and that’s it. Sometimes the intended effect is to build community or provide identity or attendance to an event or whatever. We get so wrapped up in token-related mechanics and calling that utility, but the utility can be so many things, and you can make something that does nothing but looks cool.

 

You started the Black Dave discord? What do you feel this provides/can provide your community of followers? 

 

The discord channel was actually something I had planned on doing long before NFTs when I was just trying to make beats on twitch and convince people to watch me do that. My NFT journey ended up surpassing my twitch journey, plus a few other hiccups on the twitch side, but NFTs breathed a new life into my discord. The main goal in my discord is to provide space for 2 types of people: the people who support me financially and the people who like what I like. My whole goal with the Black Dave brand, especially in NFT, is to make something that symbolizes what “cool” is and what people will want to watch for as a source of trend and taste in the space. I imagine a space filled with great taste in either anime, music, art or fashion. Right now, we’re still very early despite having about 150 people in the channel so far, but my goal is just to have a really chill spot where you not only are supporting me, but we’re doing for each other. My favourite channel in my server is the #mental-health one because I feel like we can just talk through things and connect more there, as people, not as artists or entities or avatars or any of that. I’ll also be airdropping people shit. NFTs. My social token is $BLKPRTY. Other random currencies. I’m gearing up for anime and movie nights, as well as DJ sets from myself and the homies. Join up if you’re into it!

 

Tell us about your recent NFT drop! 

 

My latest drop is my second music drop in the NFT space. I’ve done a few other things to warm up, but music is my ultimate goal. I’ve been exploring what being a musical artist can look like in this space, and this is my next attempt at that. With this drop, I released 2 songs, each in a limited run of 25 editions. One song is an upbeat, on-brand song called “Kaioken 10,” and the second is a lyrical exercise over a throwback sample called “Appreciate it.” I took the approach of releasing a pair of different songs because the centerpiece of this release is an auction for a token that represents receiving a rap verse from me. In my exploration of what sustainability looks like, I think being able to receive a bit of support upfront to grow and increase in value with an offering of something on a future date is a possible solution. Trying to think about this in a way that avoids the whole securities conversation and making sure that the people who support me on my path have no ownership or decision-making power is super important to me. Also of note, I’m continuing my series, Manga Tears, which I think of as a curation of how manga represents different types of emotions and a new series of 3D works I’ve created called “Isolation.” If you collect any visual NFTs, they come with downloads for both songs as unlockable content.

 

In your latest drop, “Kaioken 10″ and “Appreciate It” two rap tracks make references to the NFT space in the lyrics and feel sonically influenced by metal and other musical genres. So how did you arrive here artistically? 

 

My personal musical journey starts in middle school, where I was initially introduced to the Wu-Tang Clan — my first album I bought of my own accord was Wu-Tang Forever, the double-disc. I got into nu-metal and pop-punk and bands like Linkin Park and your common warped tour bands as well around the same time, so I was digging into both at once. I also used to do this thing where I would buy CDs based solely on their cover art, so I ended up getting lightly into electronic music, but chill stuff. Thievery Corporation and M83 and stuff. I joined my first punk band in high school, playing bass guitar, and got into music production. I worked on an electronic music project with a friend called Robo Reptar that evolved into a full-on band before I settled into my last band from 2008-2013ish called EVA. Afterward, I started rapping more formally. All of these influences informed the style of music I make now, as well as being into anime for the last 20+ years. I’m sort of thankful that most of my musical taste came from my own decision-making and not that of my parents…you can catch me sometimes even saying that I don’t listen to music that’s older than I am, and honestly, there’s very little I listen to.

 

 

To learn more about Black Dave, check out his NFTs on OpenSea, visit his website and follow him online:

 

Website: https://blackdaveblackdave.com/links 

Twitter http://twitter.com/blackdave

Instagram http://instagram.com/blackdaveblackdave 

Music http://soundcloud.com/blackdaveblackdave 

Opensea: https://opensea.io/assets/blackdave002

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I often wonder about the vast possibilities of this emerging digital evolution and how it can positively impact humanity. I’ve found things like Akili Interactive’s EndeavorRX prescription videogame to the Be Another Lab using VR to play with empathy and perspective. I’ve discovered people visiting digital worlds for pain relief, mental wellness, and eating disorders. Even simulations to help a parent see things from the eyes of their autistic child to inspire compassion and understanding. And I found Krista Kim, mother of the Techism movement and two talented kids. Also, the therapeutic Mars House architect, political activist, healer, real estate and AR community developer, Superworld ambassador, artist, and the list goes on. 

 

 “I was always interested in power dynamics and how the world works. There’s so much suffering and injustice and environmental degradation. Why does it have to be perpetuated, even though the world knows better, and we want to do better?” -KK

 

 Talking with Krista, we discussed a vision of cities embedded with healing. When you walk into your home or enter a vehicle, there could be biodata collected by an auditory device like Nuheara. This could detect health status and align settings for an ideal immersive experience that impacts at a cellular level. Let’s go a step further and embed those settings with healing light, sound frequencies, or even something like Dopavision that aims to heal children’s myopia.  

 

Let’s say you had a neurodivergent child that was hypersensitive. When the child enters a space, they could be guided gently into a relaxing, immersive environment conducive for comfort and keeping them calm or focused. When you wake up in the morning, you could set your home to produce an environment that would keep you in the meditative theta state longer and gently ease you through the alpha state into productive beta. Your biodata could be analyzed instantly to suggest ideal parameters for ultimate health and detect abnormalities or early signs of disease. You could set your vehicle to create an environment where you can mentally prepare for a big presentation or relax and unwind after a long day. 

 

Projects like Homeforest use biophilia to bring nature indoors and enhance comfort. There’s a playground of possibilities for our imaginations to explore, and a tremendous need for healing from toxicity we’ve created/endured as a species over time. 

 

https://vimeo.com/416558553

 

Have you seen Krista’s Mars House project? The digital property was born from understanding the value of consistent meditation practice, aligned with her desire to use tech and art to elevate humanity. She made a digital home and designed a complete healing oasis easily accessed in the digital space. The lighting and colours are designed to inspire a meditative state of being, all within the therapeutic world of the metaverse and soon too in the physical world. No wonder it sold for a staggering $500,000.00 USD in ETH! How much will the physical real estate go for, and just how far can this tech go? Office buildings? Transit Systems? 

 

“It’s not all about creating art and selling it; it’s about changing the world, changing how people think, and helping platforms develop in a way that’s humane,” Kim explains. “Surveillance capitalist companies that treat humans as products will have to pivot or die. Data is a human right, and decentralization and the crypto revolution are going to save us.”

 

Speaking of humanity, that leads me into some of her upcoming projects. This fall, she has an exciting show with Institut taking place at Unit London that will surely catch your attention, having physical components aligned with digital objects within the metaverse. In addition, Kim is involved with 888 The New World, a platform dedicated to empowering artists and creators worldwide by providing tech and resources to previously neglected areas. They also plan on giving them 100% of the profits from the art they sell. The creators involved include 3Lau, Paris Hilton, Fewocious, RTFKT Studios, and several others. Finally, she and an undisclosed hip-hop artist are even reshaping a NY neighborhood using AR/XR and meditation. (Details coming soon)

 

Continuum, her upcoming Toronto installation, is a healing vessel that will address and give space to Canadians of indigenous communities and all Canadians impacted by the discovery of unmarked mass graves of thousands of indigenous children who were brutally forced to attend Catholic residential schools to erase their heritage.  Elders from indigenous communities in the area will lead a time of reconciliation and healing from the tragedy. Additionally, Beirut is seeing her efforts with initiatives alongside Unesco and Vasconi architects to host a conference to rebuild the city after a devastating explosion with the help of DigitalTwinXR, Spatial.io and Superworld app.

 

 

Kim imagines a revolution of education in the metaverse. “I want the world to be a better place for our kids,” she states, having already bought her daughter’s (Blender created) digital art and seeing her son at 13 showing talents as a prolific computer engineer. As she looks ahead at what needs to be accomplished to set them up for success, she describes her vision. “Imagine if kids had a couple of lessons a day in the metaverse to learn about wildlife or history and actually visit the places in real-time… They could visit Egypt and even interact and make friends with children there.”  With a mom like Krista, there’s no doubt her children will be adding so much value to our future. She’s paving the way for them to have a sound foundation to build and create in the new digital frontier.

 

“Every human being has the right to live in beauty and dignity. In the metaverse, if we can show people future possibilities, then perhaps they will be inspired to rise above their current circumstances and create just that.”  

The digital frontier is an exciting and evolving space. With advocates like Krista setting the standard and integrity level, I have high hopes. We will design a community that will not harm or toxify but complement and benefits our species at a cellular level. Kim didn’t ask to be a leader in this space, but with her warmth, awareness, and courage to take action, she’s a superior model of what I’d hope and envision our leaders of the future will be. Stay up to date with her projects at kristakimstudios.com to track the evolution.

 

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