About a week ago I started writing things down, to try explain my reaction to the personas introduced by Lascaux; an anon artist that came about a few months back as part of the Noble Cards collection (something similar to the early-BTC pepe cards). Quick-fire: proceeded to drop SuperRare 1/1s, other artwork and a set of lower-priced Lascaux Editions.
Christmas came and went, yet the project moved at pace; seemingly travelling in just about every possible direction at the same time. It’s actually been really fun ride so far (blog here).
Lascaux Editions had caught my eye and I grabbed a bunch. I was intrigued by what I saw from the Twitter account - mysterious references to Banksy, “the background looks like XCOPY” and the speculation went on and on and on… but there’s a whole bunch of reasons why it couldn’t be him; so maybe that’s a discussion for a day in the future.
N00bFT
I’ve been “NFTing” for about 12 months. I got involved after I heard about the Bored Ape Yacht Club frenzy (and since controversies). I was never really into crypto - lost a couple thousand back in 2018 but didn’t everyone?
My first NFT was a Thorguard which I minted in November 2021. I’d downloaded Discord, spammed/bullshitted my up the levels over a few days and got whitelisted. I minted 2-3 and held one to support the project which I think is still going.
I had a few small wins and was ‘up a bit’ on profit and confidence. So I bought a little more. My first big win came with RTFKT. I aped in on the post-reveal dip and just a few hours later - POW! - Nike acquisition and I’m fucking hookt!
Christmas came and so did the RTFKT/OnCyber SpacePod drop. This is the Metaverse! (and it’s literally worth $20k+!). WTTFF! How was still sustainable? (‘RTFKT Set’ round-tripped - $5k → $50k → $15k 🤦).
Along the way I’d begun to engage with various personalities on the Internet - some mundane, others obscure. It somehow felt the extremities of character were broader. Introverts became the squeaky wheel, extroverts quiet observers. Yet there was no harm, no malice - be whoever you want to be, and generally just fuck about - without the same consequences to yourself or others as in real life. This feels like a good thing.
Around the same time, my IRL crypto-pals were sharing “Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs” - the sentiment was negative, and shortly after so were the markets. Proper Fukt! that YouTuber was so on-point.
…..
Burning Man
At some point, I became intrigued about the anon artist Pak. The art was a bit bland for my taste but they were doing things differently with tokens - specifically to do with burning and other ‘dev stuff’.
Most other projects were busy launching secondary, tertiary collections and shipping merch whilst trying to define roadmaps and utility. But when the ‘genesis collection’ keeps dumping hard and you don’t know why, community = pissed-off + disengaged.
(There are some amazing web3 communities out there. Just be careful - look closely, ask questions and you’ll find the good guys).
April 2022 - I’d become a touch disillusioned with the whole NFT thing. A few IRL pals of mine had also dabbled JPEGs but they’d lost interest. I couldn’t blame them… the stuff I’d shilled them was down, and a 1-2 even got their wallets drained.
We moved on… to talking about the War in Ukraine, the shitty state of the economy and laughing wtf was going on with the the World Cup in Qatar. Most of us work in tech - even that seems shaky rn.
Yet the culture of Web3 had kept me captivated. I continued to spend time weaving and wandering through the Discords, Twitter GCs and Spaces becoming distantly-close to a variety of interesting characters.
The 8liens PFP collection is when I started paying attention to CryptoArt. I’d collected a bunch of 10k stuff but they’d become dull; and aside from a small handful they felt nothing to me, and had no value to anyone else.
8liens is focussed on art. I’m not an artist but I became to appreciate ‘glitch’ and AI = dank AF. I pictured a future where the physical/virtual walls of luxury hotel brands and corporate headquarters would be adorned with the code of today. I believe, Blockchain is forever.
I came across an artist called ACK (Alpha Centauri Kid) - his art is dope but way out of my range. So when he dropped an Open Edition I got involved and minted a few.
What I didn’t realise is that I wasn’t simply buying glitch-art, I was also receiving a ticket to a performance (Goblintown tried this and fukt it up but hey they still look cool).
ACK began tell a story through Twitter - nothing short of incredible (honestly, better than Netflix!) - which focussed on acquiring and burning digital art in exchange for better/different art.
Can your love be a currency?
What’s new with ACK’s The Great Colour Study, and what we are now seeing with Lascaux is that it’s incredibly viable for artists create a supply of their individual selves (time + effort) and make choices in terms of how they manage this with their appreciators. Capture attention, stimulate demand, test/learn, pivot, succeed.
Art as an art form in itself.
I can thrive by creating something that I love, by sharing this in the hope that others love it too.
Some examples:
Established artist (supply) - could offer a limited-period open edition (OE) to raise ETH up-front. This gives the creator time and headspace to create something even more valuable → then offered in exchange for the previous work. The previous may be burnt to moderate the artist’s supply and therefore its value.
Emerging artist (supply) - seeks to pique the interest of new collectors through a series of editions - Manifold makes this so easy! They could push out a range of affordable pieces to test/learn and find their style. If no one likes it? Burn the old stuff, make something better.
Degens (demand) - who seek out (commit time) to identify value and meaning in art, which also translates to others. In exchange, they may receive trading profits or art. However, for this to function, trust is essential between collectors and creators. Like any value-chain, anonymous or not.
Like anything in life, there’s always an element of skill/luck. Not all artists will break-out and not all degens will see generational wealth.
The past 12 months have been costly - financially, perhaps physically - but in exchange many have become rich in learning. What’s important is that we never forget the lessons.
Let’s go?
