*Highlights and fireworks from the Meme Maxis, weeks of June 5th + 12th, 2023 — cover image excerpted from the overhead view of a rooftop stage dive during The Memes’s first anniversary party in the Open Metaverse, courtesy paulwilsonimage.*

In the beginning punk6529 created the gradients and the memes. Now the memes were a formless void and darkness covered the surface of the deep. And the Stylus of 6529er was hovering over the surface of the open sea.

And punk6529 said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And he saw that both were good, and he separated the light from the darkness, with a combination light-dark animated gif in between. Punk6529 called the light “gradients 1 through 49,” and the darkness he called “gradients 51 through 101.”

On June the Ninth Day, punk6529 said, “Let the memes be gathered under one contract, so that they may spread our messages far and wide, in as many places as possible; and that we may run experiments in emergent community behavior.” And it was so.

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1534965126901682181?s=20

One circular course around the sun: here we are, someplace entirely new.

A birthday’s greatest gift is the way it funnels our attention into the present moment, synchronizing our natures, gathering us into ourselves, together, for a communal cause at once monumental yet delicate in its care.

Basically meaning we jump around like hooligans.

Still, a proper commemoration of Year One of The Memes must reckon with one hundred artists, eight-thousand collectors with a stake in the mission of decentralization; a banner of freedom flown guerilla-style down the streets of São Paulo, a restaurant from the future, and NFT gallery events held in-metaverse and across cities the world over; three SZNs of learning and building and complaining and tweeting and deleting gms (among mission-critical developments) every single day.

On Friday, 6/9, 2023, though — with Freedom summer-break right around the corner — it’s time to party.

Open Metaverse Ambassador to the Memes art_icu_late single-handedly wrangles logistics for a bash in OM: purchasing a birthday cake and recruiting the talents of nft_lady_007 (landscape mural), mohammadalihd (party balloons), and mbstuart (sk8r punku) for bespoke paraphernalia populating those perpetually pastel skies. teexels announces:

shubh24k throws down on the dance floor during DarrenSRS’s crowd-rousing, on-point MC’ing and party initiation beatstravaganza executed with expert flair, in front of nft_lady_007‘s selfie-ready mural:

To snap this iconic bird’s-eye view of the party, SevenSaints__ … rollerskates … up the side of some balloons ?

pandelic plays a live show — prompting some partygoers to fall off the roof — performance #3 of the first-ever Open Metaverse instrumental concert series, this time acoustic piano improv. Here’s AHOLSNIFFSGLUE bringing some swagger to the SeizeJPGs-bedecked roof plaza:

Meysvm snapping party pics — including this side view with mbstuart’s metamodern backdrop:

…and Ars0nic’s Sgt. Pepe, running the hottest photo booth in OM, spotted here hangin’ with a colorful crew (courtesy SevenSaints__) —

Leave it to fmiasp to roll up to the OM red carpet in a tricked-out custom caravan, now that a funny-lookin’ joyrider has hopped on (teaser announcement and onchain 3d model) —

Did someone whisper the words “Music Treasure Hunt”? Birthday festivities in OM are officially extended over the next two weeks, spotlighting a scavenger quest that’s open ‘round-the-clock for anyone curious to explore the mysterious alleyways of the 6529 Museum District, ears perked for hints of tunes richocheting off ivory walls.

The Treasures of The Hunt: 11 live pieces, played during instrumental concert #2 in OM during The Awakening celebration. pandelic and WintermuteGAN team up to present a collection of the first-ever musical ReMemes — a.k.a. ReMusics — a 70-minute suite of generative improvised keyboards with synth effects.

Archangel art_icu_late once again swoops from the heavens to orchestrate the layout and presentation of les objets de la chasse, coordinated with a pristine placement of balloons, and illuminated with an intriguing backstory that leaves some of us with more questions than answers…

The 11 tracks take inspiration from meme cards, living onchain as cc0 1/1s, free to remix/sample once each piece is collected. Like art NFTs, the music album can be listened to for free and collected on Catalog. Here’s “Vibe Check (Live)”, leaping off from drifterShoots’s card 44 and reimagined by WintermuteGAN (announcement) —

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x0bC2A24ce568DAd89691116d5B34DEB6C203F342/853

An invaluable recap of the first year of the Memes can be found with TheMeansCreator, once again performing storytelling magic:

https://twitter.com/themeanscreator/status/1667114468092854272

The generative king yungwknd makes an official Memes debut this birthday week — though he’s been helping behind the scenes for a while — and what an expedition! (6529Collections announcement)

This striking card is full of nuance: generative art processes colliding with a seminal pop culture emblem, its cannonball throwback to 6529er’s One Pepe Bill, and the slow coalescence of elements in the animation reinforcing a core message: never FOMO, else get rekt. (Alternatively belted out as a set of new lyrics to the chorus; liner notes available as metadata onchain.)

yungwknd excels at generative art collections that are immediately visceral yet still invite the viewer to downshift towards a calmer, more receptive state of mind. Countless pieces present an intriguing, dare we say seductive demeanor, only to lure the viewer into a slowly unfolding process of crystallization. Take a gander at his collections at yungwknd.xyz, and follow his journey.

WintermuteGAN’s PreMeme for this card also evokes a more stately awareness than what we might be accustomed to among the hubbub of the crypto art scene (artist profile on brookr’s om.pub) —

Reverse-sides of Meme Cards are all the rampage these days, in huge portion thanks to remix-engineer G9ralt, who shares a glimpse of the track listing and back cover art of “Survive | Never Fomo”:

BREAKING: NFTs are over! ZacharyHSmall, writing for artnews, has announced the shuttering:

What better way to wrap up the whole shaky endeavor than with a record-breaking auction? In accordance with the DIY ethos of crypto communities everywhere, artists and collectors are responsible for their own part in liquidating their portion of the $1-trillion asset class before returning home to live in their parents’ basements.

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1676697387220316160

The Ringers collection by dmitricherniak surfaces years of work on code-generated art. Dmitri delves into the “why”, as well as an evolution of the process in an interview with artxcode_io:

The 6529Museum’s acquisition of Ringers #879 highlights its additional uniqueness above and beyond an already exemplary collection. dmitricherniak shares creator’s insights, while punk6529 writes about the piece with context around the broader artform, how the work came to be known as “The Goose” — and of course, his journey towards collecting it, with assists from 6529Guardian, itsjpower, ACthecollector, and phon_ro.

Heartwarming tributes to the momentous acquisition pour in — here’s beeple‘s:

krybharat honing in on an inviolable truth of the cosmos:

https://twitter.com/krybharat/status/1669439641534058512

a peek into the grail factory, courtesy lphaCentauriKid — the audio on this is money too:

…and the thrilling final moments of the auction, thanks to fly-on-the-wall fmiasp:

https://twitter.com/fmiasp/status/1669686706985992192

Gaggles of remixes flock to Ringers #879 via migratory paths from every direction, resulting in an ever-growing bounty of artwork. There’s something edifying about such collections — here’s roughly 50, thanks to aljaparis and joynxyz, with more to be found under the #gooseremix tag — where participants and witnesses are invited to experience collaborative spirit on display, not too distant from the vibe of songs sung around a bonfire.

From antiquity (by FilthyTrikksEth, h/t NotablePepes) —

to maximalist-post-minimalist tributes with making-of videos (by zancan) —

with a stopover in freedom country (by MariaMu1988, synthesizing noble compounds together, in this case admixing Vincent_Van_Dough’s card 67) —

plus playful approaches in between. Here’s nft_lady_007’s vivacious entry to a spin-off contest by Artifaction2, calling for animations of “The Goose” in dialogue with another iconic Ringer nicknamed “The Dog”:

We’ll close out this chapter with guidance from beloved poet Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your placein the family of things.

“Wild Geese” (also read aloud by the author)

https://twitter.com/DongluYu/status/1667209089133191168

Artist and dreamer DongluYu invites us into her multidimensional galaxy through the wonder of imagined possibilities, all existing in shimmering simultaneity. What indeed happens to us should we enter the portal? Or is the more salient question have we already?

She shares some stills from the animation, each one more mesmerizing than the last. A prominent electric current runs through her work—combining extraordinary curiosity with a fluid sense for worldbuilding at ever-deeper levels of detail. And her process appears to be fascinating as well: take a look at these befores-and-afters and tell me we aren’t in the company of a human summoner of the AI diffusion process, except with intention and meaning.

Visit Donglu’s collections at SuperRare, Foundation, and beyond.

Mr. Punku’s Neighborhood welcomes a new house down the block: gregarious folk who waste no time immediately setting up a sociable atmosphere. Stewie Smyth, a.k.a. smpsmyth88, launches a podcast through Cassie Agency (a.k.a. CassieBuilds) featuring interviews with a cast of vivid Meme Artists in thoughtful, inspired fireside chat.

The inaugural episode features none other than MattScobel, on double-duty this week discussing with smpsmyth88 his journey — alongside inquiries into our relationships with our surroundings — and also co-hosting with Ellen_Boho an interview (on the Scobelverse discord) with apeinacoupe:

apeinacoupe’s (a.k.a. cadmonkey.eth) computational art forms must be witnessed “in performance” to be appreciated, and so a visit to cad’s Foundation collections pairs well as an aperitif to the Q&A artist spotlight.

Hot on the heels of our Year One birthday party comes a backwards foot forward into Meme City, where this sort of ol’ fashioned street trampling seems to happen on the reg (announcement) —

They say it’s Mayor Kong’s way of showing love. Reporters on the scene have verified that this method of seizing — swatting away Curtiss F8C Falcons as though they be newspapers for gnats — is, indeed, not only valid but also preferred, securing Meme Kong a coveted “Phase 1” allowlist spot for the majority of mints (disclaimer: though the editors have not been able to verify ownership, “6529kong.eth” has been rumored to pop up from time to time on secondary markets as a ruthless undercuttooor).

Gorilla-tamer and artist 6529er deserves twelve skyscrapers’ worth of accolades, each corresponding to an instantly iconic piece of meme art, anchoring the entire sweep The Memes’ offering with poise and a touch of class.

A 1/1 piece from 6529er is a rare event, especially as measured by the clock on display, the anticipation of a last-minute stasis extended eternally (6529er’s teaser and 6529Collections‘s announcement) —

Before you’ve entered full hypnosis by the hands of the above snapshot of “The 11th Hour”, you simply must spend time with the dynamic piece: face its contemplative ticking and its messages shall flow through you. Does the 12 mark momentary reprieve…or moment of alarm?

sertx92 and mfer2355 contribute a birthday pop-up with cake and balloons, also entitled “Year One” (announcement) —

…as well as “Feelings Aside”, their decidedly dystopic take on Eric Rubens, a.k.a. erubes1’s card 76, to the topsy-turvy world of 9256memes (announcement) —

Three cards from TheMeansCreator this week, spanning “Mission 6529” (based on ArnoKiss’s card 80), “Decentralizing Station” (based on GrantYun2’s card 52), and “Alice in the Window” (based on lunaleonis’s card 83). Here’s “Mission 6529” paired with a special category of incitement, ignited, by punk6529:

The legend depicted in Le serment des Horaces continues unfurling, with latter millennia adding their due chapters in layers of contemporary color. Seventh-century-BCE events told as tales of patriotism (an enduring meme if ever there were) by Titus Livius (Roman, 24 BCE), interpreted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Greek, 15 BCE), then re-imagined for canvas by Jacques-Louis David on the eve of the French Revolution — this 18th-century proof-of-work is bestowed a new conception, now June 2023, by YuLiang Liu, a.k.a. YuYu / cyber_yuyu. Here at last, gentle-anons, is “God Save the Key” (announcement) —

The need for a crowd of lamenting women has perhaps lessened in recent centuries. cyber_yuyu replaces them from the original Serment with the lions of Briton Riviere’s Daniel’s Answer to the King (1890), frescoes onto the rear wall Karl Bryullov’s The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–33), and swaps out the battle victor for cyber_yuyu (!), clad in 6529-Thong regalia, brandishing a hardware crypto wallet, among other Jewels.

It’s a story endlessly ripe for retellings, particularly so in current form. aRegularDad helps us out with a deep thread on the elements remixed for this masterwork, along with a compelling interpretation contextualized for The Memes by 6529.

Lose yourself in YuYu’s collections at SuperRare, follow cyber_yuyu’s journey, and check out artist dossiers written by KALTBLUT and Sotheby’s with more pieces on display. This is “Beyond the Frame” —

Threads of premonition arrive, streamed through a parallel universe by WintermuteGAN’s PreMeme prowess (om.pub artist tableau) —

Collection of this Burnasso 1/1 comes with the stipulation that the buyer determines what happens to the proceeds of the sale (announcement) —

“Evolution” by Zigmarillion mixes media for an enlightening result (announcement) —

“Stuck in Time” with MeltedMindz (announcement) —

“gm” from the latest punk6529 lookbook, courtesy sartocrates:

and our buddy summer.jpg finds love at last, thanks to matchmaker NeonGlitch86:

Photographer and glitchy artist yakobelmoussa regales us with a new story, old as the ancients (announcement) —

Here we ask the most fundamental questions — “what if” and “who am I” — questions intractable, eternal, confounding, … liberating? With work that calls out to be shown on city-sized billboards and yet is perfectly comfortable broadcast from palm-sized displays, yakob’s art welcomes you into its world with no promises guaranteeing you’ll be able to leave the experience unchanged.

Explore yakobelmoussa’s collections at SuperRare, further on his website, and listen to his interview on Norcal and Shill.

Every week’s roundup of odds and ends offers a sprinkling of zeitgeist surrounding The Memes; arguably these bits could end up the heavy lifter, come unknown future epochs when sentient [currently lifeless entity-]historians try to make sense of 1) what happened. We won’t predict what will occur—merely report it exactly as it shall be.

• nftnow pens an introductory guide to The Memes: Building an Open Metaverse through Humor

• Founder and CEO rayan_oncyber was always building for Apple VisionPro and beyond

• While we’re on the subject, punk6529’s got a legitimate concern

• milestones_nft donates to Doctors Without Borders in the name of The Memes 💗

• RikOostenbroek’s meme card in a brilliant pass to pro football player MarioGoetze for his birthday

• At the current pace of AI-improvement, this will look quaint by next week, so here is a bookmark from StabilityAI_JP

• Live from NFCSummit, some photo and video impressions from ChrizRoc

• A local event by

• Blouny Mag … live!

• parachicaa illuminates the significance of lphaCentauriKid’s “The Great Restoration”

• Fantastic writing by Jacob__Siegel for tabletmag on how disinformation has evolved to modern form: A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century (h/t johnrobb)

• Covid research project funding on a significant scale, thanks to

Happy meme-seizing and life-seizing to all ~

🧩

*Highlights and fireworks from the Meme Maxis, weeks of June 5th + 12th, 2023 — cover image excerpted from the overhead view of a rooftop stage dive during The Memes’s first anniversary party in the Open Metaverse, courtesy paulwilsonimage.*

In the beginning punk6529 created the gradients and the memes. Now the memes were a formless void and darkness covered the surface of the deep. And the Stylus of 6529er was hovering over the surface of the open sea.

And punk6529 said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And he saw that both were good, and he separated the light from the darkness, with a combination light-dark animated gif in between. Punk6529 called the light “gradients 1 through 49,” and the darkness he called “gradients 51 through 101.”

On June the Ninth Day, punk6529 said, “Let the memes be gathered under one contract, so that they may spread our messages far and wide, in as many places as possible; and that we may run experiments in emergent community behavior.” And it was so.

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1534965126901682181?s=20

One circular course around the sun: here we are, someplace entirely new.

A birthday’s greatest gift is the way it funnels our attention into the present moment, synchronizing our natures, gathering us into ourselves, together, for a communal cause at once monumental yet delicate in its care.

Basically meaning we jump around like hooligans.

Still, a proper commemoration of Year One of The Memes must reckon with one hundred artists, eight-thousand collectors with a stake in the mission of decentralization; a banner of freedom flown guerilla-style down the streets of São Paulo, a restaurant from the future, and NFT gallery events held in-metaverse and across cities the world over; three SZNs of learning and building and complaining and tweeting and deleting gms (among mission-critical developments) every single day.

On Friday, 6/9, 2023, though — with Freedom summer-break right around the corner — it’s time to party.

Open Metaverse Ambassador to the Memes art_icu_late single-handedly wrangles logistics for a bash in OM: purchasing a birthday cake and recruiting the talents of nft_lady_007 (landscape mural), mohammadalihd (party balloons), and mbstuart (sk8r punku) for bespoke paraphernalia populating those perpetually pastel skies. teexels announces:

shubh24k throws down on the dance floor during DarrenSRS’s crowd-rousing, on-point MC’ing and party initiation beatstravaganza executed with expert flair, in front of nft_lady_007‘s selfie-ready mural:

To snap this iconic bird’s-eye view of the party, SevenSaints__ … rollerskates … up the side of some balloons ?

pandelic plays a live show — prompting some partygoers to fall off the roof — performance #3 of the first-ever Open Metaverse instrumental concert series, this time acoustic piano improv. Here’s AHOLSNIFFSGLUE bringing some swagger to the SeizeJPGs-bedecked roof plaza:

Meysvm snapping party pics — including this side view with mbstuart’s metamodern backdrop:

…and Ars0nic’s Sgt. Pepe, running the hottest photo booth in OM, spotted here hangin’ with a colorful crew (courtesy SevenSaints__) —

Leave it to fmiasp to roll up to the OM red carpet in a tricked-out custom caravan, now that a funny-lookin’ joyrider has hopped on (teaser announcement and onchain 3d model) —

Did someone whisper the words “Music Treasure Hunt”? Birthday festivities in OM are officially extended over the next two weeks, spotlighting a scavenger quest that’s open ‘round-the-clock for anyone curious to explore the mysterious alleyways of the 6529 Museum District, ears perked for hints of tunes richocheting off ivory walls.

The Treasures of The Hunt: 11 live pieces, played during instrumental concert #2 in OM during The Awakening celebration. pandelic and WintermuteGAN team up to present a collection of the first-ever musical ReMemes — a.k.a. ReMusics — a 70-minute suite of generative improvised keyboards with synth effects.

Archangel art_icu_late once again swoops from the heavens to orchestrate the layout and presentation of les objets de la chasse, coordinated with a pristine placement of balloons, and illuminated with an intriguing backstory that leaves some of us with more questions than answers…

The 11 tracks take inspiration from meme cards, living onchain as cc0 1/1s, free to remix/sample once each piece is collected. Like art NFTs, the music album can be listened to for free and collected on Catalog. Here’s “Vibe Check (Live)”, leaping off from drifterShoots’s card 44 and reimagined by WintermuteGAN (announcement) —

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x0bC2A24ce568DAd89691116d5B34DEB6C203F342/853

An invaluable recap of the first year of the Memes can be found with TheMeansCreator, once again performing storytelling magic:

https://twitter.com/themeanscreator/status/1667114468092854272

The generative king yungwknd makes an official Memes debut this birthday week — though he’s been helping behind the scenes for a while — and what an expedition! (6529Collections announcement)

This striking card is full of nuance: generative art processes colliding with a seminal pop culture emblem, its cannonball throwback to 6529er’s One Pepe Bill, and the slow coalescence of elements in the animation reinforcing a core message: never FOMO, else get rekt. (Alternatively belted out as a set of new lyrics to the chorus; liner notes available as metadata onchain.)

yungwknd excels at generative art collections that are immediately visceral yet still invite the viewer to downshift towards a calmer, more receptive state of mind. Countless pieces present an intriguing, dare we say seductive demeanor, only to lure the viewer into a slowly unfolding process of crystallization. Take a gander at his collections at yungwknd.xyz, and follow his journey.

WintermuteGAN’s PreMeme for this card also evokes a more stately awareness than what we might be accustomed to among the hubbub of the crypto art scene (artist profile on brookr’s om.pub) —

Reverse-sides of Meme Cards are all the rampage these days, in huge portion thanks to remix-engineer G9ralt, who shares a glimpse of the track listing and back cover art of “Survive | Never Fomo”:

BREAKING: NFTs are over! ZacharyHSmall, writing for artnews, has announced the shuttering:

What better way to wrap up the whole shaky endeavor than with a record-breaking auction? In accordance with the DIY ethos of crypto communities everywhere, artists and collectors are responsible for their own part in liquidating their portion of the $1-trillion asset class before returning home to live in their parents’ basements.

https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1676697387220316160

The Ringers collection by dmitricherniak surfaces years of work on code-generated art. Dmitri delves into the “why”, as well as an evolution of the process in an interview with artxcode_io:

The 6529Museum’s acquisition of Ringers #879 highlights its additional uniqueness above and beyond an already exemplary collection. dmitricherniak shares creator’s insights, while punk6529 writes about the piece with context around the broader artform, how the work came to be known as “The Goose” — and of course, his journey towards collecting it, with assists from 6529Guardian, itsjpower, ACthecollector, and phon_ro.

Heartwarming tributes to the momentous acquisition pour in — here’s beeple‘s:

krybharat honing in on an inviolable truth of the cosmos:

https://twitter.com/krybharat/status/1669439641534058512

a peek into the grail factory, courtesy lphaCentauriKid — the audio on this is money too:

…and the thrilling final moments of the auction, thanks to fly-on-the-wall fmiasp:

https://twitter.com/fmiasp/status/1669686706985992192

Gaggles of remixes flock to Ringers #879 via migratory paths from every direction, resulting in an ever-growing bounty of artwork. There’s something edifying about such collections — here’s roughly 50, thanks to aljaparis and joynxyz, with more to be found under the #gooseremix tag — where participants and witnesses are invited to experience collaborative spirit on display, not too distant from the vibe of songs sung around a bonfire.

From antiquity (by FilthyTrikksEth, h/t NotablePepes) —

to maximalist-post-minimalist tributes with making-of videos (by zancan) —

with a stopover in freedom country (by MariaMu1988, synthesizing noble compounds together, in this case admixing Vincent_Van_Dough’s card 67) —

plus playful approaches in between. Here’s nft_lady_007’s vivacious entry to a spin-off contest by Artifaction2, calling for animations of “The Goose” in dialogue with another iconic Ringer nicknamed “The Dog”:

We’ll close out this chapter with guidance from beloved poet Mary Oliver:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your placein the family of things.

“Wild Geese” (also read aloud by the author)

https://twitter.com/DongluYu/status/1667209089133191168

Artist and dreamer DongluYu invites us into her multidimensional galaxy through the wonder of imagined possibilities, all existing in shimmering simultaneity. What indeed happens to us should we enter the portal? Or is the more salient question have we already?

She shares some stills from the animation, each one more mesmerizing than the last. A prominent electric current runs through her work—combining extraordinary curiosity with a fluid sense for worldbuilding at ever-deeper levels of detail. And her process appears to be fascinating as well: take a look at these befores-and-afters and tell me we aren’t in the company of a human summoner of the AI diffusion process, except with intention and meaning.

Visit Donglu’s collections at SuperRare, Foundation, and beyond.

Mr. Punku’s Neighborhood welcomes a new house down the block: gregarious folk who waste no time immediately setting up a sociable atmosphere. Stewie Smyth, a.k.a. smpsmyth88, launches a podcast through Cassie Agency (a.k.a. CassieBuilds) featuring interviews with a cast of vivid Meme Artists in thoughtful, inspired fireside chat.

The inaugural episode features none other than MattScobel, on double-duty this week discussing with smpsmyth88 his journey — alongside inquiries into our relationships with our surroundings — and also co-hosting with Ellen_Boho an interview (on the Scobelverse discord) with apeinacoupe:

apeinacoupe’s (a.k.a. cadmonkey.eth) computational art forms must be witnessed “in performance” to be appreciated, and so a visit to cad’s Foundation collections pairs well as an aperitif to the Q&A artist spotlight.

Hot on the heels of our Year One birthday party comes a backwards foot forward into Meme City, where this sort of ol’ fashioned street trampling seems to happen on the reg (announcement) —

They say it’s Mayor Kong’s way of showing love. Reporters on the scene have verified that this method of seizing — swatting away Curtiss F8C Falcons as though they be newspapers for gnats — is, indeed, not only valid but also preferred, securing Meme Kong a coveted “Phase 1” allowlist spot for the majority of mints (disclaimer: though the editors have not been able to verify ownership, “6529kong.eth” has been rumored to pop up from time to time on secondary markets as a ruthless undercuttooor).

Gorilla-tamer and artist 6529er deserves twelve skyscrapers’ worth of accolades, each corresponding to an instantly iconic piece of meme art, anchoring the entire sweep The Memes’ offering with poise and a touch of class.

A 1/1 piece from 6529er is a rare event, especially as measured by the clock on display, the anticipation of a last-minute stasis extended eternally (6529er’s teaser and 6529Collections‘s announcement) —

Before you’ve entered full hypnosis by the hands of the above snapshot of “The 11th Hour”, you simply must spend time with the dynamic piece: face its contemplative ticking and its messages shall flow through you. Does the 12 mark momentary reprieve…or moment of alarm?

sertx92 and mfer2355 contribute a birthday pop-up with cake and balloons, also entitled “Year One” (announcement) —

…as well as “Feelings Aside”, their decidedly dystopic take on Eric Rubens, a.k.a. erubes1’s card 76, to the topsy-turvy world of 9256memes (announcement) —

Three cards from TheMeansCreator this week, spanning “Mission 6529” (based on ArnoKiss’s card 80), “Decentralizing Station” (based on GrantYun2’s card 52), and “Alice in the Window” (based on lunaleonis’s card 83). Here’s “Mission 6529” paired with a special category of incitement, ignited, by punk6529:

The legend depicted in Le serment des Horaces continues unfurling, with latter millennia adding their due chapters in layers of contemporary color. Seventh-century-BCE events told as tales of patriotism (an enduring meme if ever there were) by Titus Livius (Roman, 24 BCE), interpreted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Greek, 15 BCE), then re-imagined for canvas by Jacques-Louis David on the eve of the French Revolution — this 18th-century proof-of-work is bestowed a new conception, now June 2023, by YuLiang Liu, a.k.a. YuYu / cyber_yuyu. Here at last, gentle-anons, is “God Save the Key” (announcement) —

The need for a crowd of lamenting women has perhaps lessened in recent centuries. cyber_yuyu replaces them from the original Serment with the lions of Briton Riviere’s Daniel’s Answer to the King (1890), frescoes onto the rear wall Karl Bryullov’s The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–33), and swaps out the battle victor for cyber_yuyu (!), clad in 6529-Thong regalia, brandishing a hardware crypto wallet, among other Jewels.

It’s a story endlessly ripe for retellings, particularly so in current form. aRegularDad helps us out with a deep thread on the elements remixed for this masterwork, along with a compelling interpretation contextualized for The Memes by 6529.

Lose yourself in YuYu’s collections at SuperRare, follow cyber_yuyu’s journey, and check out artist dossiers written by KALTBLUT and Sotheby’s with more pieces on display. This is “Beyond the Frame” —

Threads of premonition arrive, streamed through a parallel universe by WintermuteGAN’s PreMeme prowess (om.pub artist tableau) —

Collection of this Burnasso 1/1 comes with the stipulation that the buyer determines what happens to the proceeds of the sale (announcement) —

“Evolution” by Zigmarillion mixes media for an enlightening result (announcement) —

“Stuck in Time” with MeltedMindz (announcement) —

“gm” from the latest punk6529 lookbook, courtesy sartocrates:

and our buddy summer.jpg finds love at last, thanks to matchmaker NeonGlitch86:

Photographer and glitchy artist yakobelmoussa regales us with a new story, old as the ancients (announcement) —

Here we ask the most fundamental questions — “what if” and “who am I” — questions intractable, eternal, confounding, … liberating? With work that calls out to be shown on city-sized billboards and yet is perfectly comfortable broadcast from palm-sized displays, yakob’s art welcomes you into its world with no promises guaranteeing you’ll be able to leave the experience unchanged.

Explore yakobelmoussa’s collections at SuperRare, further on his website, and listen to his interview on Norcal and Shill.

Every week’s roundup of odds and ends offers a sprinkling of zeitgeist surrounding The Memes; arguably these bits could end up the heavy lifter, come unknown future epochs when sentient [currently lifeless entity-]historians try to make sense of 1) what happened. We won’t predict what will occur—merely report it exactly as it shall be.

• nftnow pens an introductory guide to The Memes: Building an Open Metaverse through Humor

• Founder and CEO rayan_oncyber was always building for Apple VisionPro and beyond

• While we’re on the subject, punk6529’s got a legitimate concern

• milestones_nft donates to Doctors Without Borders in the name of The Memes 💗

• RikOostenbroek’s meme card in a brilliant pass to pro football player MarioGoetze for his birthday

• At the current pace of AI-improvement, this will look quaint by next week, so here is a bookmark from StabilityAI_JP

• Live from NFCSummit, some photo and video impressions from ChrizRoc

• A local event by

• Blouny Mag … live!

• parachicaa illuminates the significance of lphaCentauriKid’s “The Great Restoration”

• Fantastic writing by Jacob__Siegel for tabletmag on how disinformation has evolved to modern form: A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century (h/t johnrobb)

• Covid research project funding on a significant scale, thanks to

Happy meme-seizing and life-seizing to all ~

🧩