In the U.S., the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) recently suspended rules that banned amateur athletes from monetizing their “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) via such means as product endorsements and merchandise. Those closely following the NFT space rightly recognize the opportunity, but one should not expect an explosion of sports NFTs to follow. There are many more lucrative deals clogging up the pipelines but, long term, the implications of this ruling change are considerable for NFTs especially if the changes are extended to high school athletes.
On July the 1st, the NCAA lifted rules stopping college athletes from monetizing their name, image and likeness while maintaining amateur status. Due to a wide range of activity in this area from state laws, some of which were about to come into effect, to proposals in Congress, final clear guidelines are not yet available. The situation for high school athletes is even more confusing with statements that they are not eligible in response to statements that they are and warnings about dropping NFTs too soon after one has graduated from high school.
However, unclear cut off dates are not stopping future college athletes from dropping NFTs and signing all sorts of deals. And keep in mind that, in April, University of Iowa basketball’s Luke Garza released his first NFT almost before hitting the showers after his last game in the 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament. So, with graduation behind them, we should see a rising tide of former high school athletes attempting to gather some NFT back-to-school money.
But can we expect a “flood of college athlete NFTs” to save the day for NFT markets declared dead? Well, yes and no. There will be significant growth in NFTs this year though likely spread over seasons for specific sports. Of course, high-profile athletes are already taking advantage of the shift in rules and releasing NFTs, such as the Kayvon Thibodeaux NFT in partnership with Nike founder Phil Knight and designed by Oregon alum Tinker Hatfield.
Keep in mind that the rules change creates new marketing channels of fresh young stars being offered much fancier opportunities than an NFT. So don’t be surprised that NFTs won’t get the same level of sports headlines as deals like:
Cavinder twins sign with Boost Mobile and Six Star Pro Nutrition
McKenzie Milton and D’Eriq King join Dreamfield, a NIL-focused startup, as co-founders
Hercy Miller signs a $2 million deal with Web Apps America
So this coming year should be big for college sports-focused NFTs but NFTs will not be the biggest news to come from NIL rules changes. Nevertheless, this change comes at a perfect time for NFTs:
2021’s strong introduction of sports NFTs from NBA Top Shot to Sorare establishes NFTs as a new element in athlete’s merch bundle. Being on that checklist now means NFTs will become a standard item with which to maximize monetization.
College athletics have a huge community element and a family fanbase that is often deeply engaged over generations. Such a dynamic can strongly increase the desirability of identifiable digital collectibles, which will kick in even deeper if high school athletes gain similar rights.
Currently, a wide range of NFT platforms and marketplaces are being launched, including many in the sports space. Opening up college and, possibly, high school athletics to NFTs could lead to a wide range of game and marketplace startups centred on amateur athletes.
The enthusiastic community support received by amateur athletes makes them a huge target for marketers. Of course, the big bucks will go to the big stars, but everyone can create something unique to memorialize their years in youth athletics. Once the headline endorsement buzz fades into another element of background noise filled with pet foods and hygienic gear, NFTs from one’s days as a young sports star will remain forever on the blockchain of your choice for you and your fans to enjoy.
There is no real blockchain-based competition to current music industry giants such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. The so-called democratization of the music business that the internet and MP3 technology promised at the turn of the century has, predictably, failed to materialize. https://amplify.art/ intends to change all of that.
“I saw contracts in the music industry that paid the artist almost nothing for their work and then took their art away from them. The musicians literally never owned the music they made. It was disgusting.” – Russ Franklin, co-founder of Amplify Art
Built on the Near Protocol, a blockchain that uses Aurora, an Ethereum Virtual Machine, they intend to be a scalable and future-safe platform with low transaction costs for their end-users. Amplify.art is a new music site based on Non Fungible Tokens. And they just launched the beta version of their website on July 12th. The site allows artists to mint NFT’s and enables fans to trade them on a secondary market or retain possession of their NFTs and accrue a wide range of benefits.
Photo by Davis Sanchez from Pexels
“NFT’s enable all sorts of cool ways for artists to reward their fans through airdrops, exclusive access, and of course true ownership of the music and its income streams. The beauty is that whatever benefits the NFT holds, it is always under the artist’s control.” – https://amplify.art/
https://amplify.art/
Music on the blockchain is in its infancy. Many projects are poised to capitalize on the push for decentralized finance and community building; not many are using music as the tip of their spear to attack the problem. What that means for an artist and the benefits of being active on a music platform that is decentralized remain to be seen. But in the era of de-platforming and demonetization that we find ourselves in, the arguments for blockchain native music platforms are getting louder and more robust.
“Decentralized means that no one person or entity- like a corporation – controls the platform. So no one can take it away from you, not even me.” – Russ Franklin
The twin problems of any music enterprise in the information age are mass adoption and scalability. While the blockchain is and will continue to be revolutionary, these are issues that they have failed to effectively address. Though there are many layer 2 solutions for artists to the exorbitant gas fees incurred on the Ethereum blockchain, they appear to not only be viable but ready to begin implementation. Unfortunately, while near.org/ is one of them, they have yet to hold the attention of the larger crypto community.
Photo by Vishnu R Nair from Pexels
Music on the Blockchain itself may be new, but the lessons that musicians can learn from each other as the current NFT market expands are many, from mind-warping projects from established artists like @BT to the lesser-known artists such as @callmeLatasha.
Today’s NFT market has shown that those who can cultivate their fan base and engage with them on a personal level will be able to drive sales to their projects even in a down market. As a result, the platform that can deliver authentic experiences that build community and leverage the power of the “super-stan” will continue to dominate now and for the foreseeable future.
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Damian Hirst, one of the world’s highest-selling artists, is part of the NFT space. Yes, you heard me correctly – I was, at first, confused. Though upon further research into the specifics of his newest drop, my confusion slowly blossomed into intrigue. After his first NFT release with Heni Leviathan allowed him to sell over 7,000 prints grossing him over 22 million USD, he is unsurprisingly back for another go of it. Soon, Hirst will, most likely, sell out his entire new collection of 10,000 physical pieces that people can “apply” to buy at $2,000 each, which he has aptly entitled “Currency.”
All 10,000 pieces come with a red-pill, blue-pill scenario as their principal value add. Do you choose to be shipped a hand-painted physical piece by Hirst himself? Or would you prefer to keep the NFT as a purely digital token? This conundrum leaves many other art collectors and me in the crypto space asking ourselves: why not both? However, this seems to be the point of the collection: to assess the buyer’s relationship with a piece that exists simultaneously in both the digital and physical worlds. Thus, asking the buyer to decide which medium they deem more valuable for themselves. While there are 10,000 physical pieces that have been hand-made to pair up with every NFT, the buyer can only choose to claim one.
The pieces are derivative of his iconic “spot paintings” which he has been doing since 1988. This could be seen as a positive by some and negative by others. While this is, arguably, his most famous motif, it has become quite a mainstream signature of the Hirst brand. In his book On the Way to Work, Hirst describes his exploration with his spot paintings as “a way of pinning down the joy of colour.” By tediously embellishing art paper with thousands of seemly random colourful dots, Hirst aims to “create […] structure, to do those colours, and do nothing” simultaneously. Blake Gopnik, of the New York Times, explained this sentiment in slightly more detail in a piece for Gagosian:
“The Spots were fundamentally about abstraction as reduced to its most basic components: color, form, and placement. You could say that they represented an attempt to reach Abstraction Degree Zero.”
Damien Hirst
And now, 10,000 of us have the opportunity to bring an authentic, handpainted derivative of this iconic series into our homes through this NFT launch. Though this drop may be Hirst’s attempt to further break into the increasingly thriving NFT market and thereby the wallets of the crypto-whales this space knows and loves, it seems as if this drop is targeting a far more mainstream audience. Making the pieces available through Heni.com, powered by palm.io, the same chain that fueled the sold-out Space Jam drop, the pieces are meant to be accessible to as wide of an audience as possible. Available for purchase directly with FIAT, interested buyers can “apply” to purchase one of the pieces. And; despite the site mentioning that owners of “Cryptopunks, Hashmasks, Meebits, BAYC, and Art blocks” would be prioritized, it still seems that the drop targets non-crypto-native art lovers. This makes quite a lot of sense for Hirst, considering that still under 1% of the world is fluent within this NFT space and has an active wallet from which to purchase. Especially considering he has an audience of over a million fans across his socials to tap into within the traditional market and a healthy collector-base of some of the most significant living collectors in the entire traditional art world.
But this is NFTS.WTF, and we’re not just talking about the traditional art space here. So we wanted to delve into some of the specifics of this drop from the community’s perspective, especially after mainstream outlets have already begun spreading misinformation as per usual. Such as one article citing that this drop’s blockchain was “99 percent more energy efficient than either Ethereum or Bitcoin” since it is run on a POS chain (lol).
To better gauge the response from the NFTfi community about such a significant artist making his next sizable leap into the NFT space, I asked a few leading members of the WTF DAO what their thoughts were in regards to this historic drop:
Silversurfer
According to NFT collector and DAO member Silversurfer, he’s planning on “buying one [piece] to keep as an NFT and one to keep as a physical” if he can get in. Furthermore, he “personally think collectibles from actual artists are more valuable than apes/punks/cats and much cooler.”
When chatting with other DAO members about the drop in more detail, he also touched on another valuable point. That in his eyes, “the point of the experiment is to show everyone what is valued more, the physical or the digital?” And I agree.
Brinkman
According to artist and NFT aficionado Bryan Brinkman, he thinks that “it’s certainly going to be interesting to see if the 10K model works at that price point.” Brinkman points out that “Meebits did 5K at 2.5eth, so it’s possible, but most 10K projects are sub .1eth,” in contrast with this collection which sits around 1eth. Despite this, Brinkman said that he “signed up” and that “its certainly tempting to own an affordable Hirst that isn’t a ‘print.’” He believes that “it’s a cool bridge from the old work to the new,” but he also thinks that “it’s not fully diving into the space,” since “the NFTs feel like a checkout mechanism to buy his physical work.”
I quite agree, and though I appreciate Hirst’s work, this does seem like a lot of exposition to still just get a physical piece. Granted, at a much lower price point. Though, according to Brinkman, he thinks “he could have done this project, but as a generative art NFT on artblocks and made just as much.” Brinkman believes that “the fact he’s doing [a] physical shows his reluctance towards the NFT space, and his need to appeal to his traditional collectors which honestly, is a safe move.”
And he’s right! While Hirst is “a big name,” most “people in this space care about Apes and Punks, not Koons and Hirst.” Brinkman aptly mentioned that “there have been MoMA artists on SR flying under the radar for 1-2eth” for quite some time.”
J1mmy Eth
The collector and founder, formally known as @j1mmy.eth, has quite a legendary digital art collection. From being one of the largest holders of Bored Apes to founding Avastars and Nameless, amongst other institutions in the space, he has a great perspective on the climate of digital art. According to Jimmy, he purchased “some of his prints from the HENI thing a few months back.” However, despite Hirst’s reputation, Jimmy doesn’t necessarily “agree with the method/experiment/use of NFTs that have to be ‘traded in’ for ownership of a physical.”
Furthermore, according to Jimmy, “it shows a lack of understanding of the tech” since NFTs in-and-of-themselves “are proof of ownership, and [his] belief is Palm or anyone working with a person new to NFTs, like this artist, should try to explain how this all works and how it makes no sense to burn proof of ownership to receive an item.”
Instead, Jimmy suggests that Hirst and the team at palm simply mark pieces “as redeemed in metadata and include additional information about said redemption.” Without doing this, questions such as “is it burned?” or “is it traded in?” quickly arise.
Jimmy stressed the fact that when a piece is “burned [it] isn’t really burned, it still exists, just [as] a dead address.” So when this happens, an “owner is just relinquishing ownership of something, not ACTUALLY burning it.” Because of this, they can’t simply say that “the supply is actually reduced” since “the ownable supply is, but not the total NFTs in the collection.”
Giovanni / Fragcolor
Giovanni Petrantoni, founder and CEO of Fragcolor chimed in to agree with J1mmy. Staring that this burning situation “opens up a scenario where people can fork a network if [they] really wanted to revive an NFT trade.” Following up that they are “sure that given enough value, someone might play this card one day.”
Giovanni also wanted to clarify that “the chain needs all of the transactions to regenerate itself, always” and that “it’s immutable.” So the burning simply “sends something to an unusable address,” stopping the trade and allowing “the network [to] become the owner, you might argue.”
In this case, Giovanni would recommend simply marking the tokens as “redeemed… [as a] more elegant [option] than burn.”
Conclusion
These are excellent points to consider for anyone thinking about purchasing one of the limited edition pieces in this collection. While Hirst is more than a reputable artist in the traditional art space, what we’ve learned is that the crypto space moves quite differently. I am sure that this drop will be a success, but I also believe that Hirst and his team still have quite a lot to learn about this space, and I look forward to seeing how his next drops will even further integrate the power that NFTs can unlock for the creator and consumer. While this drop is an exciting and psychological journey into the thought process of the collector, I believe that Hirst can go further, especially within the realms of unlockable content and additional value adds through granted access.
However, this is only his second time attempting a drop within this space, and he’s been functioning at the highest levels in the traditional art world for over three decades. So, I’ll cut him some slack. And actually — I’m considering buying one — are you?
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One of the less-noticed yet game-changing aspects of NFTs is the ability to set a royalty for the artist that is automatically transferred with each transaction. Though not fully realized, NFT royalties allow artists to profit from the increasing value of work over time, typically 10%, and address concerns long-held by physical artists regarding fair payment systems. So it was a bit disappointing to see Binance NFT launch in June with a 1% secondary royalty rate. However, ass the NFT terrain becomes increasingly fragmented across chains, a look back at NFT resale royalties on Ethereum may offer inspiration for those concerned about furthering this development.
Artist’s royalties for secondary sales, also known as artist’s resale rights, are a long-standing topic of debate in the traditional art world. However, such rights have never been fully established, and experiments have been limited. The growing awareness of royalties now being raised in NFT Land may lead to a decisive push forward in that regard and offer NFT artists stronger connections to traditional artists.
In an interview in April of 2021 for NFT Radio, artist Matt Kane told the story of how artists, collectors, and platforms came together to institute a standard 10% royalty going to the artist for secondary sales of art. In 2019, SuperRare had begun setting 3% royalty rates on secondary sales. This did not sit right with Kane, who raised the issue on Twitter but received limited community response. At that point, Kane sat back and waited for community leadership to address the task.
Ultimately Kane realized that he must become the leader he sought and drew together a small network. The group discussed appropriate demands, studied historical information gathered by Bard Ionson, and followed through with a letter to crypto art platforms. Some artists also boycotted platforms or removed their work from platforms without secondary royalties. By the end of March 2020, all the major platforms of the time had agreed in principle to an “industry-wide standard of minimum 10% secondary sale royalties for artist minted NFTs.”
Now, essentially a year later, much has changed with varied progress beyond these initial shared goals. Secondary sale royalties became an expected feature of Ethereum-based NFT platforms and, as new platforms launched and followed suit, the standard was shown to be set. However, though NFT art minting and sales are finally showing results on blockchains beyond Ethereum, royalties and similar standards are not following suit.
Perhaps the next major step in unifying smart contracts and royalty standards on Ethereum, the development of EIP-2981: NFT Royalty Standard, can also affect awareness of such issues on other chains. Its authors, Zach Burks, James Morgan, Blaine Malone, James Seibel, are creating a standard that “allows contracts…to signal a royalty amount to be paid to the NFT creator or rights holder every time the NFT is sold or re-sold. This is intended for NFT marketplaces that want to support the ongoing funding of artists and other NFT creators.”
The proposal closes for review this month and currently seems to be the most promising effort to bring together platform stakeholders around a practical initiative with potentially far-reaching consequences. Artists aware of this proposal have shown a positive response. While voluntary, this approach sets a concrete standard.
It seems likely that most participants in the Ethereum NFT ecosystem will find common ground around an effort such as EIP-2981. Ideally, such actions will raise awareness beyond Ethereum and help all artists understand why, as noted NFT collector and entrepreneur Pranksy states, “The news of only 1% artist secondary royalties on offer from @binance is insulting to creators.”
Such awareness helped focus 2020’s efforts to make 10% royalties a community standard setting the stage for concrete industry standards. As Matt Kane notes, the effort’s success is due, in part, to asking the “platforms and collectors to join the artists as ALLIES in making NFTs stronger,” rather than targeting them as opponents. Those seeking standardized royalties across blockchains will likely find such a unifying approach key to long-term success.
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SUMMARY
Tech Talk Media LLC, an award-winning US production company, announced its production of a new documentary series called NFTme. The series will cover the NFT Digital Art & Cryptocurrency industries, both of which are currently experiencing rapid growth.
About Tech Talk Media LLC
Co-founded by serial entrepreneur and creator Jonny Caplan, the award-winning production company Tech Talk Mediais renowned for creating high-production factual TV and film content for tier-one broadcasters. Their programming features technology, innovation, outstanding individuals, and major lifestyle shifts.
Photo credit: Tech Talk Media LLC
In addition to being a hit Amazon series, Tech Talk Media‘s flagship production, “TechTalk,” may now be viewed on Apple TV, Discovery, Roku, and Peacock (NBC) reaching 500m viewers monthly and broadcasts in 80+ countries. PwC & NASA also signed strategic alliances with the company in 2020, which has received 15 International Film Festival Awards. Moreover, since the series debuted in October 2019, more than $350 million in funds and strategic partnerships have been raised by 50+ under-the-radar tech start-ups on TechTalk.
There are several upcoming productions by Tech Talk Media, including Inside NASA’s Innovations – inside NASA’s US facilities and technology innovation – The Rise of A.I. – a peek into the artificial intelligence industry – The Cannabis Biz – discovering the Cannabis market, innovators, and brands – TechHeroes – a sustainability competition series – and Women in Charge – a docu-series on female entrepreneurship – among others.
Jonny Caplan has a diverse range of talents and skills. In addition to being an architect and multidisciplinary artist, he is also a successful entrepreneur and NFT artist. He was often featured on television and the front page, and social media of major NFT platforms. He was also one of the featured artists in the NFTs.Tips 2021 Miami exhibition.
“Total sales in the online art and antique market worldwide roughly doubled in 2020 over the previous year, as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced auction houses and dealers to find alternatives to in-person events. Overall, global online art and antique sales amounted to 12.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, rising from six billion U.S. dollars in 2019.” – Statistica
Being Executive Director, Producer/Director, CEO, and Co-Founder on most projects, Caplan notes that he is very enthusiastic about the NFT market. After noticing the wealth of activity, innovation, support, and creativity, Once he’d researched the space, Caplan remarked “This is exactly what the world needs right now: an army of creatives and innovators to make a positive impact and global effect. The spirit and unity inside the NFT community is something I haven’t seen before, the sense of community, the supportive nature, generous actions, and commitment are second to none. Frankly, the world is missing these very values, and I am hugely encouraged by what I have witnessed over the last few months.”
By producing the NFT Documentary Series, Caplan, who was reluctant to share too much information about the Series at this early point in its production, intends to make an important contribution to society. He says, “We are currently in pre-production, with an incredible guest list and spectrum of content. The idea is to educate the masses on the wonderful innovation and community inside this fast-growing industry. I mean, if we can really make a change in the world, it’s to accelerate its exponential growth and transmit all these values across the globe.”
“2020 was undoubtedly a turning point for the online art market. Auction houses and art fairs boosted their digital presence, relying on formats such as Online Viewing Rooms (OVRs) – letting art collectors and enthusiasts experience 3D digital reproductions of artworks – as well as streaming auctions and events. During ONE, a global online auction organized by Christies, a Roy Lichtenstein’s painting was sold for more than 46 million U.S. dollars, making it the most expensive lot sold by Christies in 2020. 2021 also looks to be an important year for online art sales, with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto art hitting the news when a digital collage by American artist Beeple was sold in an online-only auction by Christies for 69.3 million U.S. dollars.” – Statistica
The company has stated that they will launch NFT utility tokens alongside the production, connected to the production, and give individuals a chance to collaborate and participate. In short, NFTme Season One will feature 50 Utility NFTs which will be released in July 2021– accessing a share of the profits from the production along with their pro-rata DAO on the content direction.
In addition to their track record of award-winning productions, Tech Talk Media specializes in business, innovation, technology & media, making it the perfect time to create a documentary series like this. “No doubt can be made on the shift, uptrend and global interest in NFTs, as of June 15, 2021, the aggregated sales value of NFTs over 30 days amounted to approximately 58.4 million” – Statistica
Featured Image: Photo Source: Tech Talk Media LLC – CEO & Co-Founder Jonny Caplan
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Bobby Davidson is a Brooklyn-based artist and cinematographer.Bobby has established himself as an interdisciplinary artist using painting, sculpture, video, and virtual reality. Assembling works from both the physical and digital world, he has sequentially created a lineage of works that navigate beyond a singular dimension, capturing an extension of both the physical and nonphysical world we live in today. Bobby’s series Parasitic Capacitance is currently on view with Launch F18 Gallery in New York City, and he is the first artist to debut his NFT as part of their virtual “Viewing Room” series.
Bobby Davidson
Much of your recent work comments on technology, old and new, and employs digital manipulation to bend reality with references to art history. Do you feel a viewer must be aware of these processes and concepts to appreciate your work?
My relationship with art and art history really grew out of a passion for learning about the masters, which lead me to examine my own personal motivations to become an artist, specifically beginning with photography. My interest in technology and the mechanics of how things are created allowed me to experiment and expand in my artistic practice arriving at a place where I feel most comfortable not being defined as an artist only working in any one given medium.
I try to be as enigmatic as possible but for a purpose. My goal is to give a subtle wink to the audience but at the same time have the viewer think beyond their own conventions and sensibilities so they might find greater meaning in their own everyday lives.
Bobby Davidson
Who are your biggest influences?
The Pictures Generation had a huge influence on me. This was the first time I thought outside traditional means of producing. I think this movement really challenges traditional art forms. Ideas like authorship and appropriation really resonated with me, challenging me to start thinking about what can and can’t be art. When image culture and media are your subject matter, all of a sudden, there are limitless possibilities. This was a huge growth period for me as an artist.
Both your digital and physical works push boundaries relating to the limitations of traditional film and photography. What have you discovered about these mediums that you hadn’t considered and/or wish to explore further?
Using a doorknob as an example…From a utilitarian standpoint, a doorknob serves a purpose; to be used to open and close a door. But the practicality of that doorknob can represent so many other purposes. The ability to recontextualize any object in order to have a dialogue is why I think art is so special. The doorknob can be many different things in this case.
My practice is slowly moving towards simplicity and I’m finding a synthesis in the process of making work, especially with NFTs. I feel like I can explore augmented and virtual reality and find conversation with a community already engaged in these discussions and new ways of creating.
Do you feel more creative freedom as a multidisciplinary artist? How do you define your style as an artist who explores a variety of mediums?
In a strange way I’ve always wanted my work to come across as author-less, but at the same time still, maintain certain characteristics. I think that’s why my work often takes on a variety of forms. It’s my way of not taking the work so seriously and allows for a bit of mystery and humor. There is always a through-line with my work but with the purpose of not being so rigid or self-conscious.
I recently published an interactive augmented reality zine called Ultra HD Premium Features. The zine invigorates the viewing experience through the playful use of augmented reality. Much like photography, cinematography is constantly innovating and evolving and as a result, it’s become a highly scrutinized medium. From dynamic range of an image, resolution size, full-frame versus Super 35mm, anamorphic versus spherical, and signal to noise ratio – the tools are seemingly endless…We have lost sight of what these tools were actually designed to do which is to help us tell a story. These are the methods I used in the zine, teasing out different materials to create a dialogue about a time-based medium that’s also a physical object that you can interact with virtually using a smartphone.
Your current series Parasitic Capacitance is a body of work that explores several mediums including a variety of digital pieces. Can you speak about the genesis of this series and the ideas behind these works?
This work really grew out of my unending reliance on screens, whether that be on my smartphone or studio workstation. It would be easy for me to say that this daily consumption has had a negative impact on my everyday life. But instead, I feel these tools, which by using on a regular basis, become a performative experience of our everyday screen-based lives where we can begin to consider technology as not in conflict with nature but possibly an extension of the human realm and how we define the authentic connection in these times. I wanted to play with this duality of worlds by creating the architecture of connecting the physical with the non-physical or technological. It was also a way for me to recontextualize some of my older work but also challenge myself to explore new realms such as virtual and augmented realities.
What was the inspiration and story behind your current NFT titled New American Landscape?
New American Landscape is actually based on a Frederic Edwin Church painting titled Twilight. I was drawn to his highly romanticized and oftentimes photorealistic depictions of nature. I found myself seeing deeply into these paintings, falling through the canvas, much like we fall through our screens and devices. I’m interested in how we can communicate, explore, and play with modern-day escapism.
The New American Landscape NFT is a vignette that examines the aberrations of screens and dissection of what is real. It’s the ‘what are we looking at?’ at any given moment that I find to be both uncanny and exciting. Reshaping the conversation around humanity, media consumption, climate change, natural disasters, and how our views can be skewed by experiencing different forms of reality; the limitlessness of digital manipulation coupled with elements of the real world is what I find to be intriguing.
To learn more about Bobby check out his website and follow him online:
Anyone who can make a living doing what they love should consider themselves lucky. Yet for blockchain copywriter and Etherpoet Margaret Corvid, also known as MargaretLabour, her luck never stopped, all thanks to her day job. Since selling her Reply Guy NFT for 50Ξ ($110,000), a gift from Twitter for tweeting her NFT poem, it’s back to business as usual for Corvid, whose recent streak of crypto successes is barely luck; not by a longshot.
“I only owned the NFT for I think like an hour, and then I picked up my phone and there was an email from Rarible, and I looked at it, and then I started swearing and shouting at my husband,” Corvid recalls. “And then, obviously, I had questions, so I went to my favorite servers which are Etherpoems and Taylor.wtf’s Discord—they’re full of really wise people—they gave me good advice, so I took the bid,” she said. “And then I looked in my fucking Metamask and there was $110,000 in there.”
Here within, a note to @twitter from this humble etherpoet, lifted racing heart a-flitter celebrating drops. I know it seems a strange one, @jack knows best the art form, to enshrine and haunt it, I hope that I pass the test because, dear friends, I really want it! #nftpoemhttps://t.co/vjo3BNoBse
— Margaret Corvid is currently taking commissions🕷 (@MargaretLabour) June 30, 2021
While acknowledging that none of this is financial advice, Corvid shared her philosophy about cryptocurrency, which has always been to not use it as a speculative tool primarily, but more so to invest sweat equity—i.e., labor, in exchange for cryptocurrency.
“I don’t want to be spending this principle really at all,” Corvid said of her cryptocurrency coffer. “I want to be earning crypto through the sweat of my brow,” she emphasized. Corvid is currently taking poetry commissions in addition to her work as a copywriter for NFT artists. Painter and art collector Dario De Siena is among her current contractual and collaborative clients.
“I looked around the markets, like OpenSea, and I immediately saw a need for someone with my skills,” Corvid said. I saw a lot of really talented artists with amazing work, but they don’t necessarily carry the confidence in presenting their work in words and descriptions,” she realized. “This is something that I can do.” Corvid’s way with words helps artists articulate what they want readers to connect with about their art—whether it’s helping to establish their identity and brand story in their artist bios, or crafting the narrative for artist statements, grants, contest submissions, artist residencies, exhibitions, and more.
Corvid also writes about the creative process and symbolism in an artist’s work, which she is uniquely skilled to articulate. Her role as a writer and poet in collaborations with other artists often serves to connect visual and literary elements. Being involved with a branded content agency in fiat, Corvid knows how to work through the editing process and give the client exactly what they want. Her experience contributing to publications like The Guardian affects her ability to deliver freelance copywriting services at the highest professional standards.
When you’re working for crypto, you have to be your own bank. That’s the whole point of decentralized finance, which can lead to financial freedom and generational wealth. DeFi isn’t easy to learn, and if it was, everybody would be doing it. It’s a privilege and a given that you’re down for doing your own DeFi when you’re banking on the blockchain.
Remember doing decimals in math class? Did you ever take a home economics class and talk about Compound interest or dollar-cost averaging? That’s the essential math we need to grasp to be our own brokers. Yes, our computers can solve these equations, yet we need to know what to ask them in order to benefit from knowing the answer.
Corvid started counting crypto in 2012 when she first bought Bitcoin. Now that NFTs are here, there’s no question where her focus is, and of course, she’s at the forefront of the crypto art movement. One of her clients even pays her in NFT collectibles. “Those NFTs perform better than any currency I got, so yeah, I’ll take ‘em,” Corvid says. She’s doing the math.
Since becoming 50Ξ richer, Corvid rolled up her sleeves and returned to work as a writer—like her 15 minutes of Twitter fame never happened—except now she’s the proud new owner of a CryptoPunk; one of the very first NFTs minted on the Ethereum blockchain. Corvid’s CryptoPunk purchase for 17.7Ξ has effectively minted her belief in the crypto community she is writing and fighting for every day.
“Instead of looking in my wallet, and knowing I had $110,000Ξ yesterday, then seeing I have $101,000Ξ today, this CryptoPunk sort of hedges me a little bit and I actually feel a lot calmer about it now,” Corvid reflects. “I’m a lot more confident.” Her CryptoPunk makes her an ambassador for blockchain culture and a visible reminder of stored value. CryptoPunk owners command a level of respect in the crypto hierarchy of notoriety and influence that is immediately bestowed upon their owners. As a cultural status symbol, CryptoPunks enhance the value proposition in every crypto space they occupy. While presenting itself as a privileged asset of choice among a forward-thinking few. CryptoPunk ownership embodies Corvid’s enduring presence in the NFT community even while her immutable legacy is still being written.
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The use of NFTs as futuristic sales tags that automate complex processes is growing not just for physical items but also for more abstract entities such as royalty streams. While this shift may seem to be another logical use of NFTs, taking advantage of blockchains as open ledgers. It will also bring the issues accountants encounter in other fields to the shores of NFT Land. In the case of A Tribe Called Quest, what at first looked like a basic false claim appears to be a legitimate claim to long-forgotten royalty rights that simply caught the artist by surprise. Unfortunately, the resulting headlines will likely increase the growing mental connection between NFTs, and digital crime.
Though NFTs have many possible use cases, art and media ownership has received the most attention to date. However, using an NFT for a transaction that not only reassigns royalty rights but provides data for automated distribution of a percentage of those rights at a later date is one of the more widespread use cases currently under development. In the example of music royalties, companies such as Royalty Exchange have been exploring the concept of auctioning music rights for many years, before the popularization of NFTs. Thus, they are well-positioned to develop related NFT use.
At the end of June, news spread that Royalty Exchange’s new NFT program was being used to sell a percentage of the rights to early albums from legendary hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Within less than a week, the rights sold, A Tribe Called Quest denied the validity of the sale and then, after sorting out the situation, explained the backstory. Definitely worth a read in that it gives one a bit more insight into some of the peculiar arrangements that occur in the music industry, causing problems years later. In this case, the rights ownership appears legit, and the NFT listing is still live on Royalty Exchange’s site.
Another situation giving outsiders a look at the twisted world of music industry deals and disputes as intensified (or illuminated) by NFTs involves the 25th anniversary of Jay-Z’s iconic hip hop album “Reasonable Doubt.” A confusing lawsuit regarding Dame Dash’s activities around a different “Reasonable Doubt” NFT continues to twist and turn with an official Jay-Z directed NFT now in the mix. Note that a related lawsuit involving the original album cover photographer does not involve NFTs and one begins to realize that NFTs may not be the problem here.
Ntfs indeed offer quicker resolutions to processes which can also benefit scammers desiring a quick exit. But a certain amount of what NFTfi news hits the press in the coming months and years will be the direct result of NFT and blockchain tech bringing industry-specific issues into the light. Unfortunately, the juxtaposition of “NFT” and “lawsuit” in headlines may cause general readers to assume that the NFTs were part of the problem. When, in fact, they actually may reveal and address issues with already existing standard industry procedures. As difficult as it will be for some to understand, NFTs may not just reveal such problems but sometimes offer solutions as well.
I had the privilege to sit down with Mr. Y and discuss his latest NFT project called Crypto Quartz. 111 handcrafted, beautifully rendered 3D quartz crystals with varying degrees of rarities and special traits. I asked Richard (aka Mr. Y), what the inspiration for this project was, and his answer painted a picture of the human behind this creation, which made me want to know more. Living in a small town of around only 3,000 people in Austria, Mr. Y discovered a small quartz crystal shop in town and was fascinated by these chaotic creations of nature. He described to me “I loved the colours and the look, and how nature creates something with chaos; because they are basically pure chaos” I found that answer and his enthusiasm about the aesthetics of these natural crystals to be thought-provoking. The natural processes that go into the formation of these types of gems are indeed pure chaos. Often violent and destructive forces combine with just the right levels of pressure, heat, and magical Earth alchemy. And in the end, these elements form these incredibly beautiful quartz crystals.
These are the 55 CryptoQuartz of Series One that are dropping on Saturday for 0.2 ETH.
Some of them are running on a 24h Auction, some are listed.
For those who may not have experienced Mr. Y’s work, it is quite eclectic and out of this world. I really enjoy the randomness of his different works and his style demonstrates a really vast mastery of various forms of art. You can see some of his incredible works here on Super rare.
NYC Love by Mr Y
The Crypto Quartz project was conceived rather quickly after he felt inspired by the local shop in his town, and so he created a prototype that was sold with added utility for the holder of this NFT that would grant them a super special ‘Crypto Quartz’ NFT once the project was ready. One of the other really cool aspects of this NFT series is that not only are each of the 111 crystals meticulously handcrafted over months but also the final files were rendered by The distributed GPU rendering network on the blockchain called RenderToken. When is the Drop?
Starting on the 9th of July 2021 the 24-hour auction for the first 10 Crypto Quartz NFTs will begin, and the remaining 45 will go on sale for .2 ETH on July 10th at 10 am EST/2 pm UTC/10 pm ET. This drop will be split into different stages, with the first 55 NFTs dropping on July 9-10 2021.
“Be The House.” That’s the motto and key strategy for Decentral Games founder and project lead, Miles Anthony, aka “Baus.” With a capital raise of $5 Million USD, Baus and his team are ready to expand their impressive metaverse casinos.
Decentral Games (DG) is the first metaverse casino business on the Ethereum blockchain. They operate virtually in Decentraland (not affiliated), an open-world metaverse platform with a rapidly growing community. What sets DG apart is their decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which allows the company’s future to be voted on by holders of their $DG token.
These tokens give users a say in company policies as well as an attractive return on investment when staked. These tokens can be bought and exchanged like most cryptocurrencies, but many choose to ‘mine’ the token through DG’s unique play-to-earn model. By betting cryptocurrencies on blackjack, roulette, and in the near future, poker: users earn $DG tokens. The more users play, the more $DG they earn. This model has led to a very active and loyal community, making these casinos high-roller hotspots.
“Decentral Games offers players both the novelty of avatars gambling in a virtual world and the great user experience that gamers demand. We’re excited to back Scott, Miles and the team as they continue to bring the massive opportunity in blockchain-enabled gaming to life.”
– Casey Taylor, VP of Development at Digital Currency Group. (Source)
With a successful capital raise from strategic partners, DG is ready to continue its trailblaze through the metaverse.
I spoke with Miles Anthony about how DG has evolved since its founding and the exciting plans his team has in store:
Miles as his avatar, ‘Baus’, in Tominoya Casino
Has your vision stayed the same for DG or has it changed now that you’ve been in the space for a year?
It’s similar but our vision kind of shifted when we introduced our token [$DG]. I didn’t write the white paper until, I think it was around August, September of 2020. So when we raised the original equity round, run by Digital Currency Group, we were thinking it more along the lines of just having a traditional casino structure where it’s basically just run by the shareholders and the company would make money from the proceeds of the casino. I think I’ve touched upon this in other pieces, but basically, I kind of felt with the whole narrative growing around DeFi and these community governed treasuries that projects are based around, we would be in the position to grow a bit faster because we include our players and our community on the upside of the growth of the project. I think it was good to kind of couple that with this whole narrative around play-to-earn and DeFi where you give tokens away to the people who are using the product. It creates this interesting fly-wheel where every one of your users kind of turns into an evangelist because they obviously have a vested interest in the project growing.
I feel like that is the most unique aspect, being able to empower the players.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think there are a few other projects that are trying to do something but not entirely along the same lines as us with our DAO-governed casino and then distributing the tokens, dropping them out to people that are playing the games with real money. So yeah, I’m really glad that we introduced that because I don’t think we would be where we are today without that aspect. […] The people that were early on mining DG back when it was $15 or $20 a token, I know a few of them. The ones that held and mined a bunch early, they’re sitting on pretty big bags of $DG so their expected value is actually pretty positive.
DG Roundtable
I can’t imagine that happening in a real-life casino. To be able to profit on the side that’s not directly related to gambling.
Exactly. I mean, we do kind of take some things from the playbooks of traditional casinos in the sense that they’re focused on entertainment and usually, they have a hotel, they run shows like Cirque du Soleil and concerts.
We have all these types of artists that want to do shows, even stand-up comedians. Stuff that gets people excited about being in the metaverse that will add entertainment for a bunch of these virtual events, because we feel like the virtual events are really what the whole metaverse is about. The games are really, from a user experience standpoint, almost secondary — like they are something to do while socializing.
With this recent capital raise of five million, do you feel like a lot of that is going towards those entertainment efforts? I don’t think too much. We’re going to put up the site and have a featured section where we can show our artists’ information and the ability to buy their NFTs. But I would say the majority of development funds are really around games. I feel like we’ve expanded the team considerably over the last 2 months. I would say we’ve made eight to ten hires mainly in just the technical areas.
Atari Casino
What do you feel was so attractive for investors to put forth large sums of capital towards DG?
It was really tough raising our round last year. I spent months talking to people and we’re raising like 300K. It was like pulling teeth to get people to invest in equity of a gambling company that’s a gaming start-up, so that versus this last raise we did is like night and day. But I would say, just from a product standpoint, I think a lot of investors just realize that the metaverse is going to be big. Obviously, we’re very early. We still have performance issues with ‘X’ amount of users and Decentraland is working on these issues.
We’re basically one of the only projects that are built in the metaverse that generates real volume and real cash flow other than NFT projects. Axie is another great example of a project that’s blowing up right now in this metaverse space, but the main volume is around the kind of trading NFTs and a marketplace.
The fact that people keep coming back and it is generating dollars that are profitable from the games, I think was really attractive to [investors]. They say, “a rising tide raises all the ships.” So I think us being early, it’s definitely helped us in a lot of ways, like for example, getting LAND cheap that’s obviously gone up a lot in value. But I think they’re making a big bet on the metaverse.
Do you feel that having DG be a DAO-governed entity is a benefit or does it raise a potential risk for incorrect decisions?
That’s a good question. I mean, it’s interesting, over the last several months there have been people that bundle up a lot of tokens and become pretty influential in the community. I feel like that aspect has a lot of value and ultimately, you know, even though I’m the founder and project leader of the project, what really motivates me to go to build this is this idea that what I’m building is not for me, it’s for the community of people that are holding $DG. At the end of the day, if $DG holders want something that’s not necessarily aligned, it’s really about what they want because the product is used by and is owned by the community ultimately, and I think that’s exciting from a lot of different standpoints.
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As Decentral Games continues to expand its vision for the metaverse, it is clear the strategic use of play-to-earn and decentralized governance can lead to amazing experiences.
You can visit Decentral Games’ casinos in Decentraland:
Ishita Banerjee is a Canadian artist and creator. Ishita moved to Canada from India in 2010 to pursue a full-time art career under the name Soul Curry Art. With a specialization in visual narrative art. She trained as a classical fine artist. Her art is an assimilation of her life experiences, largely influenced by her relationship to impatience and impulsivity. Ishita merges imagination and memory to create vivid and bold abstracts, people, faces and non-traditional portraiture, rendered in strong colour, motifs and details. Her work is deeply inspired by the Cubist style of art, unconstrained, and breaking free of traditional rules of perspectives.
Inshita Banerjee
You’ve made a career in the field of broadcast design and book publishing and as a lecturer at the Delhi College of Art. How did you arrive in the visual arts?
I started my art journey by going down the traditional art school route. Pursuing a Bachelor’s in a Fine Arts degree and then a Masters in Fine Arts […] helped me delve deep into the various techniques, methods and materials of art. Art College helped sharpen my artistic instincts and also helped me understand and accept critique. Working as a lecturer in art and design opened my mind into teaching art, mentoring students and helping them to appreciate and approach design projects with an artistic vision. My many years in the broadcast design space introduced me to design software, motion design, animation and post-production techniques. I was able to visualize art concepts, branding and network designs for some of the world’s largest broadcasters. Through these experiences, I felt my art horizon-broadening and I was able to embrace multimedia experiences in my own art practice in the contemporary art space.
How did your journey with cubism begin and what attracted you to this style of art?
My final year MFA dissertation was on the sociology-cultural impacts of the Cubist art movement and that propelled me into learning deeply about the art philosophy of Cubist Art. Drawing upon Paul Cezanne’s emphasis on the underlying architecture of form, Cubists used multiple vantage points to fracture images into geometric forms. Figures were depicted as dynamic arrangements of volumes and planes where background and foreground merged. This was an aspect that fascinated me. Positive and negative spaces were unified and the same objects were broken and represented in multiple vantage points. I loved playing with the human face, breaking it apart, exploring how our narratives as humans and emotions flowed and fit into one another’s. I found myself experiencing and experimenting with this style over and over again until it became my signature style.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Human interactions, emotions, moods, and feelings inspire my work. I love abstracting these feelings and associations. Depicting people and nature in their tempestuous forms plays a big role in my work. Actively seeking out gnarled, broken, rocky, cyclic, layered, and grungy aspects of nature, I try to find the beauty in the bizarre, the unexplained.
Through my art, I strive to give tangible forms to complex emotions like grief, longing, loss, love, suffering. The interplay of human relationships, whether with one’s own self or with others is a recurrent theme in the pieces I make. Threading lines, textures and markings in my work tell the story of the passage of time, the inter-connections of forms, both tangible and abstract.
As a woman how do you feel about your place in art history being part of an art movement traditionally occupied by men?
Cubist artwork is often associated with a very “aggressive” style and has long been a space dominated mostly by men. In my early days, working under my brand name of Soul Curry Art, many people often mistook my work to be that of a man’s. However, the universal feelings of love, longing, and loss that I explore in my artworks are free from the constraints of gender. All-encompassing abstract moods, feelings, and associations, find their way into my artworks and I soften the hard planar angles of this art form. I continue to be fearless in my use of vivid colours, bold faces, and compositional choices. I think my art perhaps is an act of striding confidently and making my presence felt in a male-dominated field.
As you moved into a digital space with your work did your process change?
I continue to straddle both traditional mediums and digital mediums in my artworks. Most often, my pieces begin on board, canvas, or paper. I work in acrylics, archival ink, gouache, and markers. I love textures, play on light, and the balance of positive and negative spaces. I use collage techniques and layer photography in some of my work as well. Some of my artworks are natively created on Procreate and I love the ease of having my studio at my fingertips with drawing and painting digitally. I’ve been able to push myself creatively after experimenting with uniquely digital artworks. Adding motion, light and music also have been a learning experience and the resulting art pieces have been a sheer joy to create.
Image by Inshita Banerjee
What has your experience been so far specifically with your NFT’s featured on several platforms? Do you feel inspired to continue creating in this space?
Recently making my foray into the NFT space, I have been successful at selling my NFT’s on Foundation and OpenSea. My genesis piece “Shiva” was sold within a few days along with a number of other pieces already in the secondary market.
Being in the NFT space absolutely inspires me. It fuels a fire not just to create, but to experiment, learn, grow and evolve. Actively seeking out what I can do in this space rather than what this space can do for me, it has been a very rewarding few months, creating, connecting, and building a community. Collaborative projects and bigger ideas are what I’m working on next. Working with other artists, musicians, and developers to realize larger projects. I also want to showcase new and emerging artists from underrepresented communities, work towards curating NFT exhibitions and continue to push boundaries in my own work. I hope to never stop learning and playing through my art.
From revolutionary outsider to an entrenched gatekeeper, Jay-Z enters the NFT space like a whale in a Bodega. Litigation, speculation, and recriminations abound as the 25th anniversary of his breakout album Reasonable Doubt rolls around—the leading players involved in the project attempt to reap the whirlwind that is the NFT market today.
There were two NFT offerings slated to celebrate the 25 anniversary of Mr. Carter’s seminal work. Still, earlier this week, a judge halted Damon Dash’s proposed auction of his version of a Commemorative NFT, the specifics of which still remain cloudy. The optics of competing NFT’s from rival owners of the same intellectual property were enough to set the Twitterverse aflame with wild speculation and lukewarm hot takes.
Reasonable Doubt Image from thesource.com
HOV is most assuredly a zealous protector of the image and reputation that he’s built up over decades of dominating pop culture. And clearly has no problem using the courts to his advantage. The lessons those of us studying the space are learning by watching the things that he’s been able to block from being minted, and the other moves made in the space are invaluable to us as early adopters.
After a lifetime of setting trends, he seems to be playing catchup and overcompensating to the casual observer. Though that belies the fact that with Tidal and Twitter firmly in his corner, Jigga has unparalleled insight into the culture as an aggregate, even if he does seem to be missing some of the finer nuances of the crypto and NFT space as evidenced by changing his avatar to a cryptopunk like this was 2017. Ya gotta get a Bored Ape fam?
Greg Allen/Invision/AP (Jay-Z); AP (Dorsey)
But I digress. lol, the scope of Jay’s influence on the culture can not be overstated. The millions of people discovering NFT’s and crypto due to Jay-Z minting a one-of-one NFT will only lead to a fresh wave of newly minted crypto enthusiasts and NFT noobs. Without a doubt, it would have been better for those of us native to the space if he would have descended onto one of the platforms that could act as a larger onramp to the space than a Sotheby’s, which is the definition of exclusive, and by design seeks to limit the number of people who participate in their auctions. However, access appears to be a blindspot that executive HOV has, which may have developed from having very few doors closed to him. A recent twitter spaces event held by Jack Dorsey with independent artists featured on the Tidal Platform had a lack of access as a recurring theme, from playlist generation to fan engagements. The problems that up and coming artists are facing today no longer seem to be high on the priority list.
I started writing this before a lot of legal issues went down. In light of all that has happened since– lookout for a follow-up/update article from me next week.
