Brian Morris is a visionary Illustrator who’s developed a signature style that dissolves visual boundaries. He is known for his transparent portrayal of people and characters as glass vessels containing entire inner worlds, exploring themes of mortality and lived experiences through a psychedelic lens. Imagery is the primary force in Brian’s works, inviting audiences to visually introspect within.

Have you always created digital art? How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

I worked digitally as a designer/creative director for years but kept my art purely physical. Always with pen & ink on bristol board, until someone put an iPad with Procreate in my hands and said "Try it." I ordered an iPad that night and never looked back.

I got into crypto in 2016. Clubhouse was my entry into NFTs. It was exciting to have a real-time audio connection with so many artists; I did not really talk to many prior. We were all learning together. I found myself in conversations about NFTs and was instantly intrigued. Soon, I was selling work on Foundation. It was a magical time. I'm not sure who the first person to mention NFTs to me was, but I vividly recall conversations with Wizard Skull and Drew Anderson. They were using Clubhouse as an open voice call while building out the Diaper Dogs collection by hand. Some days it was just the three of us in the room, and I learned so much by talking to them as they were grinding. Forever grateful for their openness. I try to carry that forward in my actions today. Sharing to help others achieve their goals often leads to great things.

Your 'Insides' series is fascinating. You take well-known characters and people and show their organs, neurons and other body parts beneath their skin. Could you share more about how you started these 'transparent portrayals'? Related to this - do you have a science background?

Insides are my favorite thing to draw! I developed the style purely by accident. It came out of a lifelong love of drawing cars... lots of chrome, candy paint, and highlights. It was natural to take the techniques to a new place and use them to tell a story. I love to study and research, and these give me a way to do that. I have to really understand what I'm trying to draw, and these glass works require it. I love looking for references and spend time doing thumbnail sketches of a character, organ, plant... whatever it might be. I do not have any footing in science or engineering; I'm just curious.

We've read that your art explores themes of mortality and lived experiences through a psychedelic lens. What draws you to these themes?

I don't have a grand statement to make about Awareness or Awakening, but they are of great importance to me. In 2021, my existence was pushed to the brink. The experience broadened my perspective by a magnitude I've yet to begin to understand. Being in the moment, looking as deeply "in" as you dare, and spending as much time as possible in a place of awareness and truth; helps me which helps others. The dissociative effect this has on how one perceives reality is profound. Your awareness is once removed from the physical world, seeing things through a projector almost. My work sometimes likes to mess with that projector, to remind you it's there... that none of this is real.

Your oo000ooohs series is what you used In your collaboration with Denim Coffee for the 'Goood Mornin'' roast. We also showed works from this series at Lume Studios in New York last year with Ghost Club. Could you tell us more about it?

"ooo000ooohs" are always evolving and changing. Simply put, they are simple and inventive eyes/mouth groupings that can express a multitude of feelings at once. They typically look slightly confused or overjoyed but always in the flow and loose. They exist in the space between all things and so may appear anywhere: Pins, NFTs, Coffee, Takeovers at Lume Studios, Prints, animations in Times Square, a Sharpie doodle on a park bench, and I believe many more places to come. When people say the ooo000ooohs make them smile, I feel good. That's all I'm trying to do with them; I just want us to feel good.

Is there anything interesting happening in the web3 space that you have been following recently?

I'm excited to see so many people building on base right now. It has early Tezos art vibes, with a very engaged developer community. When you push those two groups together, magic always happens. Warpcaster/Farcaster has been a great and welcomed breath of fresh air as well. Love it.

If you had one sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would you say?

A melting pot that incentivizes risk and rewards participation.

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment?

Mentorship. Longer-term perspective and thinking by participants. Patience.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

My family is everything. I'd be lost without them - I'm super into them. They rule. I also enjoy building/restoring 50-60's Volkswagen Beetles in the garage. Blowing them apart down to nuts and bolts and then putting them back together again in proper working order has taught me much about cars and patience.

What are the best ways to get onboard to web3?

Find something that sparks your interest and go in slow... very slow. Whether it's connecting with an artist, becoming part of a token-gated community, or even making some money in shitcoins... whatever it is, stay just on the edge of what you know and creep ever further out at your own pace.

*Follow Brian Morris on Twitter and Instagram.

June Kim is an Interdisciplinary Contemporary Artist who connects and builds human relationships with invisible Redthread. She expresses it abstractly through various media such as “phygital” installations, sculptures, digital art, 3D and AI art. Inspired by the ancient Asian Redthread belief, that we are destined to meet through unbreakable invisible Redthread connections. She is a pioneer of the first NFT installation Korean woman artist, active in both IRL physical and Metaverse exhibits.

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

I started NFTs because of Covid. I was locked in home for at least a year in LA during Covid. Since I wasn’t able to go to my IRL studio to create my physical work, I started to create more digital art.

Besides, NFTs became popular in my friends’ group. I’ve been working as a designer/ an art director professionally in the Motion Graphics/Entertainment Industry for over 10 years. Most of my motion friends were comfortable using digital art as a medium and they started to sell their personal work from NFTs platforms like SuperRare or Foundation. So I jumped into NFTs from one of my motion friends, Brian’s invite to Foundation. I used digital art for my daily job but didn’t push digital art as a medium to create my personal work. Since I was attracted to build something tangible like physical sculptures and installations before Covid. I was working with computers all the time where everything was happening inside of the computer screens. I wanted to get out of the screen. Eventually I went back to digital during this time.

During Covid, my physical and digital work merged and led me to innovate my work. The fact I was able to share my art and mint as an NFT on blockchain was truly an evolution since I didn’t really need a gallery representation for sale. Plus I was able to experience my NFTs/digital work travel to all over the world, although my body is trapped in LA home. I realized how powerful digital art is. It can be spreading like a light speed. It is also able to have multiple exhibits simultaneously in various different cities globally, without worrying about shipping and delivery costs.

What motivated you to incorporate the concept of the Redthread into your art?

“Invisible Redthread connects all we destined to meet. It can be tangled but it never breaks.” This is human destiny and the beautiful connections we build in life. I was always curious how we were meeting each other and sometimes I felt it was not our choice like my significant others, my parents, or my family. Although it is invisible how we can be tied together, I wanted to visualize this invisible beauty as a human network. In modern society, It is similar to algorithms. I pay attention to the symbolic meaning of this Redthread legend which is descended from Asia’s ancient belief. Thread as a human life appeals also both western and eastern mythology. The color of Red is coming from red vessels which represent life. Where life and life connect, it becomes human relationship.

My motivation comes from building this personal human network as my life story. I also have a mission to fabricate my own destiny throughout building my Redthread network, expressed through sculptures, installations, digital media art and even recently using AI art to visualize and create this imagined vision of the invisible world. Eventually I also have a mission to reveal all the invisible beauties and humans I meet in life. Hopefully connecting through both physical and digital mediums and making the impossible dream visions to be possible.

How do you blend installations, sculptures, digital art, 3D, and AI to seamlessly express your artistic vision?

Conceptually, I use various mediums to express a cohesive concept of Redthread story and the power of unbreakable connections we build in life. It is all from the same mother.

Visually, I’m using the motif of redthread, which appealing as the warm to cold range of the red hue or the hint of red color throughout the whole body of work. Plus, I tried to make the process of work evolution clearly. For example, I started small size sculptures first as a prototype. After, I was challenged to create a bigger size gradually. A tabletop size sculpture became a room size, later it took over the whole gallery size. After all physical exploration, I made a 3D-rendered installation digitally. This became the first “phygital” exhibition that happened both IRL at 825 Gallery in LA and the Metaverse. Using AI, I started to develop outdoor grand size Redthread installations in nature. I would like to keep building these virtual installations in 4 seasons. I plan on developing AR installations. Currently, I’m building the public art IRL installation in nature as I imagined in my AI vision boards. This whole process became the storytelling of merging new art alive somewhere both physically and digitally. I believe this is a future art where I envision my installations existing and becoming a bridge as it is Redthread connection. It transforms invisible to visible, impossible to possible, and virtual to reality.

Can you share more details about your SuperRare drop?

“Vision of Redthread, Hiems Solaris” is for Surreal Installations to be set in Nature on a grand scale. Inspired by an Asian ancient belief, “Invisible Redthread connects all who are destined to meet.”

Redthread is about human connections and relationships. I wanted to visualize the invisible beautiful connections that we all build in life.

In this specific piece, Redthread connects the natural landscape as a symbol of our origin, like an umbilical cord to our mother nature. In reality, it can be invisible. It still exists in other strange worlds. The hint of red colors appeals to each different nature setting. Overall tones of Red touch warmth in a frozen world that is covered with complete white in contrast. It looks like a blossoming flower in the middle of Winter or building a bridge in Mountain Valleys. I imagined how these Red connections already merged with a part of Winter landscapes. It also transforms into nature as if it is a part of the cycle.

Using AI to conceptually create a vision board first, which will span the course of 4 seasons. Afterward, I will recreate the selected piece in a short film to become dimensionally sound. The Sun will feature dream installations vision and warm connections in the Winter.

Is there anything interesting happening in the web3 space that you've been following recently?

Definitely AI developments and new fun tools developing as a creator. Plus, digital to physical movements and trying to merge web2 and web3.

Besides various cryptocurrencies and rising SOL markets. I enjoy watching creators merging various mediums together as well.

If you had one sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would it be?

Web3 is all about building your own communities.

Aside from crypto-related topics, what else interests you?

Living happy and Financial freedom through the method of artistic vision and creation. Eventually building a creative healthy supportive eco-system I can help others and spotlight hidden beautiful connections in life.

And I love all kinds of tea tasting in nature or a calm beautiful space. I have a soft spot for tea scents. <3

What are the best ways to onboard to web3?

Just do it without thinking and considering. Web3 is moving and fasting at a light speed.

If you want to learn and start web3, the minute you start, things have already changed. Action is the most important to experience new things.

*Follow June Kim on Twitter and Instagram.

Anne Spalter is a pioneering digital artist, celebrated for her multidisciplinary exploration of modern landscapes. She delves into natural and man-made vistas, contemplating societal responses to shifts and transformation. A leading advocate for digital art education, Anne established pioneering courses and authored a widely-used textbook. Alongside Michael Spalter, she stewards Spalter Digital, a notable private collection of early computer art. Anne's recent achievements include participation in the MASS MoCA alumni residency, recognition as a top crypto artist, and exhibitions at prestigious venues. Her NFTs have made waves at Sotheby's and Phillips, solidifying her impact on the ever-evolving digital art market.

ANNE SPALTER: ART FOX. VALUE SYNTHESIS AND AI
7-29 NOVEMBER 2023, at EXPANDED.ART, Berlin

Could you tell us about your art?

As a mixed media digital artist, I explore the modern landscape, creating post-apocalyptic worlds that are often playful takes on supposedly doomed scenarios weaving science fiction with deep-seated Jungian symbols of the collective unconscious, such as Water, Signaling Devices, and Journeys. I forge a tapestry of resilience, hope, and transformation. My works challenge the traditional bleakness associated with the post-apocalyptic genre, offering instead an invigorating, vibrant, and ultimately hopeful interpretation of our collective future. Happy apocalypse.

This past year I was part of MASS MoCA's alumni residency; named as one of the 50 most important crypto artists by Rizzoli; participated in the SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC and the CADAF Art Fair (Nov 11-13);  and released RABBIT TAKEOVER, an NFT project that sold out in under five minutes. My NFT video piece The Bell Machine was acquired by the Buffalo AKG Museum in December 2022.

My artworks can be found in many private collections and museums such as The Victoria and Albert, The AKG Buffalo Art Museum, The RISD Museum, and The Museum of CryptoArt, Flamingo DAO,  the Thoma Collection, and the Progressive Collection. My NFTs have been sold at auction through Sotheby's and Phillips and featured in the New York Times. 

Your first solo exhibition, 'Art Fox,' is set to take place in Berlin this month. Could you share some insights about what it entails?

I am here now in Berlin–installation is tomorrow and the show opens on Tuesday! Art Fox is a show of oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and 3D-printed sculptures, as well NFTs, all based on AI compositions using text-to-image AI platforms. The theme is how one creates value, whether in the art world or other realms, from diamond mining to social media, and what price people will pay to acquire objects of value, both literally and in terms of personal sacrifice and impact on larger issues such as climate change. The Art Fox is an avatar I created to explore this theme and it is depicted extracting rare earth minerals and gems, playing video games, emerging from spaceships, and in a host of other situations reflecting value creation and the role of creativity. 

How does the integration of AI play a role in your exhibition and your artistic process?

AI naturally brings up many issues of value. Is an artist using a textual prompt to create an image based on millions of other images really creating original work? What if other artists' names are used in the text prompts? Should the AI platform(s) be given some kind of credit for the final productions? My process involved multiple AI platforms and usually a lot of work by hand as well, but what if an image is simply the result of one text prompt in one system–is there a value difference between those two things? I took the digital compositions and created time-based NFTs and analog-media works based on them–how does that change the artwork's value, having say, an oil painting vs a digital file? I hope the Art Fox will encourage discussion of these timely topics.

After visitors experience 'Art Fox,' what are the key takeaways or impressions that you hope they will carry with them?

As an artist first and foremost I hope that visitors to the show find the works aesthetically appealing and can engage with them like any other art works, whether analog or digital. After finding the works compelling, I hope they begin to wonder about the surreal compositions and find them a good jumping off place for discussing the role of AI in creativity and value creation.

We're aware that you are also a notable computer art collector, could you provide some insights into the collection you've amassed?

As co-founder and co-steward of the Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection (aka Spalter Digital), I work to support and evangelize early pioneers of computer art. Our collection comprises over 1000 works from the second half of the twentieth century. Spalter Digital focuses on plotter drawings but includes other 2D media as well as sculpture and 16mm film. The collection is home to major and iconic examples from key artists in the field.

Spalter Digital has loaned work to the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (California), the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice), the Daelim Museum (Seoul), and others.

Works are viewable online at Spalter Digital.

Is there a piece in your collection that is very special to you?  

1111 by Kevin Abosch is special to me because I was trying to buy a piece of his work when I first started collecting NFTs and mistakenly bought a fake one. I wrote to Kevin to let him know fake pieces were circulating and he extremely kindly sent me a legitimate version. So this represents both the worst and best of the Web3 space in action. 

Name three artists that you admire in the space.

X-Copy, Matt Kane, and Pindar van Arman. All for jumping in and experimenting and the latter two for also really exploring uses of the blockchain in the creative process.

Any tips for people who are new to the crypto space?

Crypto is initially confusing but it will all start to make sense after a while. Start slowly and don't spend any funds you can't afford to lose.

One sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would you say?

Independent thinkers unite around a new technology for sharing art and ideas. 

In addition to crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

I enjoy many kinds of music, including electronic music for which I even travel to see shows, from OGs in the field like Kraftwerk to up-and-comers like Ben Bohmer. Secondly, I recently wrote a children's book called There's a Rabbit in my Room! You can purchase it on Amazon in paperback or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited.

What are the best ways to get onboard to web3?

Aside from the logistical part of setting up a Coinbase account and Metamask and/or Temple wallet and finding art you love, the key thing is getting on Twitter and engaging with the "crypto Twitter" community there. This is frustrating for artists who have a large presence already on Instagram but has to be done. 

BTW, I wrote up a quick How-To for the logistical parts a while ago – I think still pretty much the same.

*Follow Anne Spalter on Twitter and Instagram.

Ruben Dario Ramirez is a Digital Illustrator and NFT enthusiast. His work is inspired by the cartoons he grew up watching as a child, his inner-city upbringing, and nerd culture.

With over 10 years of experience, his client list includes brands like P&G, Converse, Snipes, and Democracy Now. He has illustrated books for Harper Collins, and authors like Isabela Ayende. His work has been published on the Manhattan Times, and the Bronx Press- as well as featured in The African Museum, and The Bronx Council of The Arts.

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

I first heard about NFTs in late 2020, I kept seeing the term pop up in digital artists’ circles and online videos. Then I was connected to J.N. Silva, a fantastic photographer and NFT enthusiast, via a mutual friend, and he onboarded me to the world of Web3.

Can you tell us about your upcoming drop for the Lindos project? What inspired you to work on this series?

I've been working on the Lindos project for over a year now. I wanted to explore the relationship between humans and technology, inspired by the revolutionary breakthroughs in AI and the response/backlash it caused.

  "PRIME SUBJECTS" is the next phase of my exploration.

As you're working on all these Lindos one by one, what drives you to put in the effort for such a detailed approach?

I just love to draw. I could've easily created a typical "PFP" collection and generated 10 billion images. But I feel like I would've robbed myself of the opportunity to push myself and my creativity- to see how far I can personally go. Plus, there is an intrinsic added value to a piece when you know that someone spent time on each individual aspect.

In the Lindos project, are there any particular interactions or connections you're looking forward to with collectors and the audience?

Seeing people enjoy the whimsical aspect of the work, slowly realizing that there is a deeper, potentially darker tone to the characters and the subject matter.

As an artist, what do you want to focus your time on most: engaging with people and collectors or the creative process? How do you balance these aspects of your artistic journey?

I think every artist would love to just focus on the work- but I do think that successful artists understand that engaging with your audience and collectors is what sets you apart. Plus, seeing and hearing people respond to your work is a gift, allowing you to either be encouraged or challenged to be better.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

I love studying artists and art movements in my spare time. I'm also fascinated by animation and believe it's the next big wave for the digital art space.

What are the best ways to get onboarded to web3?

The best way for artists/collectors to join is to look for art-focused communities in the Web3 space. There is a ton of noise, and many dead ends, but if you focus on the art- you'll find a treasure trove of community and extremely talented people.

*Follow Ruben Dario Ramirez on Twitter.

Hey everyone! Welcome to another special edition of Chitchat, where we are pleased to introduce Rinna Clanuwat (aka Rinna ♥ 猫りんな), the curator of “Sparkle” - ONBD’s latest exhibition on ONBD x SuperRare space.

“Sparkle” aims to celebrate the inner light and unique sparkles within each individual. The show features artists Cheyu Wu, Chromory, Duo, Eri Harigai, Entropy Gurafikku, Gokusai-Studio, Happydrawing, Kior, masaki nakamura, Michael Chuah, New Funky Tribe, OLI, Tomoro Yamanaka.

Your multifaceted role in this space as an artist, community leader, and curator is so impressive. Could you share how your journey first began?

I was on the rise as an illustrator in Japan when my signature was copied by the Web2 gatekeeper. I was harassed badly and lost all my job and career opportunities for trying to protect my own rights. I then found NFT and finally could get back on my feet again. I realized that blockchain technology and decentralization philosophy can be the great doorway to freedom for artists who would like to liberate themselves from the old pyramid of power. I began by teaching traditional artist friends I know in Osaka about NFT. Then in October 2021, I founded ArtGumiDAO, a community of art people who support each other while learning new things and experimenting with new possibilities in using blockchain technology to build a new art world together.

What inspired you to choose "Sparkles" as the theme for this exhibition?

I believe everyone has the sparkles within them. Our inner sparkles can become the light that shines on and inspires others. I would like to see how each artist could shine and sparkle with their own light. I also would like to see the after-effects of each artist’s light which shine on to others in the space.

How did you discover the talented artists featured in the show?

Personally, I enjoy orchestrating an orchestra of unusual talents. As the community leader, I stalk and observe lots of interesting people every day. I always have my secret watch list of people whom I wait for the right moment to support them. I look for someone who has a flickering light inside them. Someone with an interesting obsession/ talent/ and do interesting experiments. I also look for someone who is willing to support each other rather than those who only focus on their own success. I believe that when interesting people come together, great things will happen.

From your perspective as both a curator and an artist, what do you believe artists value most in their relationship with a curator in the NFT space?

Great opportunity to express themselves freely on what they believe in and have fun with their peers at the same time. I try my best to create a good vibe out of a good mixture of people in the flattest manner possible. I don’t believe in the pyramid of power in curation. I think of curation as providing a good stage for artists to bring out their best performance which eventually leads to great shows anyone can enjoy.

Tell us about ArtGumi, what's the mission of it?

ArtGumi is a creative den for art people who are the best at their crafts, coming together to support each other to learn, grow in their own ways, achieve their dreams, and to experiment with new things together. Many of our friends found ArtGumi a cozy homestead for introverts to hide away from the craziness outside, the place where friends of friends come together and focus on creativity. We also look to support and highlight great people and projects that contribute to building a better crypto art world.

Is there anything interesting happening in the crypto space that you have been following recently?

Personally, I am interested in public goods protocols and projects that contribute to building better infrastructures/ecosystems for Ethereum. I am also interested in merging the crypto developer world with the crypto art world. That’s why I joined the ETHGlobal Tokyo Hackathon earlier this year. (See my project "Vibe" —> here ).

I think there is a huge gap of potential left unexplored in this Web3 space between people who are now divided by algorithm. As you may know by now I love putting interesting people from different fields together and seeing how they could unlock limitations of each other. I also look forward to seeing more opportunities for designers in this space rather than just the fine arts aspect. There are so many Web3 people in different areas I look forward to meeting and working with in the future. If you are into art and would like to creatively experiment together, please let me know.

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say?

Community, Transparency, Freedom!! — Web3 is for everyone!

Rinna Clanuwat

Rinna Clanuwat is renowned as Rinna ♥ 猫りんな (Rinna-Neko-Rinna) in the art world. Specializing in creating POPTIMISTIC KAWAII works, she has a keen eye for collecting exceptional art, surrounding herself with kind-hearted individuals, and fostering positive vibes. Through her art, Rinna passionately strives to inspire a world where kindness and positivity prevail.

Adding to her impressive portfolio, Rinna is also the founder of the international art community "ArtGumi." This community serves as a nurturing space where members explore the boundless possibilities of blockchain technology, coming together to redefine and revitalize the art world.

Narisofka (aka Sofia Komarenko), is a Russian artist skilled in illustration, painting, and character creation. With a background in Graphic design from Poland and Spain, she now resides in Russia. Sofia's creative pursuits encompass illustrations for American children's books, educational projects, and the sale of NFTs, prints, canvases, and more. She also shares her knowledge through online art and illustration instruction. Character creation is her true passion, driven by her exploration of human experiences and emotions, translating them into unique characters with vivid color schemes. Her art, found on Tezos, Avalanche, and Ethereum blockchains, reflects her unwavering belief in the future of NFTs and the art world.

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

It's actually funny how it happened because the first time I heard about NFTs was through a post on Instagram on some news page, which mentioned that a ROCK NFT HAD BEEN SOLD FOR a crazy amount of dollars.

That was my very first time. 😁 I thought, if a rock drawn in Microsoft Paint can be sold for millions, why can't my art?

I still haven't sold mine for millions, haha, but anyway, it's worth being here!

Tell us about your art.

My art is a visual storytelling of my journey. This story is in progress so don't expect me to repeat myself. I do love experimenting with art styles, techniques, and the various artistic languages I engage with.

When you zoom out from specific characters and view my entire collection of creatures, you'll notice how different they are, yet they all form a cohesive whole.

I've struggled throughout my life witnessing people not accepting others for being different, including myself within my own family. That's the central idea behind my creations: “celebration of difference, acceptance and love to each and other, freedom of experimenting, but still being a big beautiful union.”

It’s about peace, love, feelings, and differences.

Name one person you admire in the Web3 Space, and tell us why.

I could highlight numerous legends here in Web3 because everyone I've met here is a treasure in my life, and I genuinely love them all. But one person who deserves special recognition is my business partner, best friend, collector, and my unwavering supporter here in Web3, Ben Flouer. We run my Web3 project together, and I couldn't imagine handling a week during bear markets by myself without his help, support, and organization.

We met in the Web3 space as an artist and collector, and our connection has since evolved into a unique collaboration, co-creation, and co-parenting, not only for our Web3 community but also for my art project in the real world. Ben is a legend, and I am honored to share this path with him.

Any tips for artists who are new to the crypto space?

Stay strong, be patient, and be the surfer. Acknowledging the “surfer mentality” helped me a lot in handling life’s waves and the Web3 rollercoaster. Enjoy the ups and downs, and don’t go all-in on Web3, “put your eggs in different baskets” we say and you’ll be safe.

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say?

The spirit of Web3 is wild and if you think you running it soon, it will show how wrong you are.

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment?

The real curation.

Fresh collectors.

Education.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

I do art. I am a children's book illustrator (my new book is launching on October 23 in California). I’m also teaching illustration and art development online. I have a very lovely golden retriever dog which is my very best friend and everyday inspiration. Working on a USA visa to move there soon. I dream of running my own art studio/store in Georgia Atlanta and working part-time in a cartoon-making company.

Narisofka’s Genesis Series is now available on ONBD x SuperRare Space.

‘𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑’

‘𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑’

*Follow Narisofka on Twitter and Instagram.

Sasha Stiles is a first-generation Kalmyk-American poet, language artist, AI researcher widely recognized as a pioneer of algorithmic authorship and blockchain poetics. The author of TECHNELEGY and a co-founder of theVERSEverse, her honors include a Future Art Award, the Lumen Prize shortlist, and nominations for the Forward Prize, Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and she has been named one of the “Top Artists Shaping the Digital Art Scene.”

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

I’d been writing digital poems, exploring AI language, and publishing in literary journals for years when CADAF curated my work into an art show; that’s how I got to know Elena Zavalev, Jess Conatser and Sofia Garcia, who remain some of my dearest friends in this space. They believed early on that poetry belongs in new media. Then, in late 2020, Jess commissioned me to write a poem for Virtual New Year’s Eve, a cutting-edge arts and cultural experience in collaboration with One Times Square, and I saw my verse on view in the metaverse for the first time, alongside works by many incredible digital and crypto artists. It really opened my eyes to the ways in which authorship and readership could be explored in synthetic realities and via the blockchain, even though there were hardly any writers in the space at that time. I did quite a bit of research and legwork getting set up with crypto wallets and was still contemplating where and how to begin minting my work, and grappling with the drawbacks of gas fees and environmental considerations, when I heard about the #Objkt4Objkt initiative on Hic et Nunc, a Tezos marketplace. The brilliant artist Aurece Vettier was one of the first to actively encourage my explorations on that platform, and I haven’t looked back.

MEMENTO MEMORIAE | SASHA STILES

2022
MP4 (with audio), 07:15 min
1080 x 1920 px
Edition of 1

How did the idea to create theVERSEverse come about? What's the mission of theVERSEverse?

There was a very small, fledgling group of writers on Tezos in early 2021, and we sort of gravitated toward one another. Kalen Iwamoto – one of the co-founders of theVERSEverse – started an official CryptoWriters community, and that was a pivotal milestone; I remember many threads and DM conversations with Kalen, Aurece Vettier, James Yu (co-founder of Sudowrite.com) and others about the need for a dedicated poetry hub, a place in web3 for avant-garde literary experiments and strength in numbers, and we were making plans to launch a next-gen zine of sorts. Then a bunch of us were invited to be part of artchick’s ETHERPOEMS Volume 2: Spoken Word, an on-chain project where we met fellow participant Ana Maria Caballero. It was clear we were all on a similar mission, to leverage technology to explore new poetic possibilities. I messaged Ana, who was also musing on an NFT poetry enterprise, we all put heads together, and now here we are. None of it would have been possible without Gisel Florez, our art advisor and a friend of Kalen’s, who helped us launch in November 2021, and without early collectors and supporters like Elsie Edicurial, Fanny Lakoubay, Wes Hazard, Sarah Moosvi, Aleksandra Art, Jesse Damiani, Michael Spalter, and Kevin Abosch, who understood our vision from day 1. Since then, we’ve continued to advocate for web3 as a game-changing innovation for writers, in that it enables us to imbue text – which is generally thought of as infinitely reproducible, able to be endlessly copied and transmitted – with the rarity and value of artwork, and frees us from a lot of the dictates and desires of the literary establishment.

Name one person you admire in the Web3 Space, and tell us why.

Too many to name, but this space is full of some of the most creative and inspired women I’ve ever met in my life. Micol Ap is a shining example of someone with transformative integrity, taste, and clarity of vision, but citing one person is the tip of the iceberg. Nothing in web3 happens without a team, a community, a cross-pollination of ideas and influences and intelligences.

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment?

I wonder a lot about how to reconcile the positive contrarianism that is so integral to artistic innovation with the groupthink of web3, with its pros and cons. As much as the hive mind can enrich, it can also diffuse and dilute and delay and stymy the progress we want and need. Artists, or any leaders, really, need to stay true to themselves and their unique vision just as much as they need to grapple with external influences and inspiration, and that’s often an extremely tough balance to strike in web3.

Aside from crypto-related matters, what else are you interested in?

I have an abiding fascination with text-based art and typography, anything having to do with the material and aesthetic qualities of language – from visual and concrete poetry to font design and papermaking and bookbinding. My professional background is in communications and advertising – how incredibly concise assemblages of words and images evoke emotion and inspire action – and my favorite artists are text-based artists, creatives who consider letters and words themselves to be material, imagistic, aesthetically significant. I’m really inspired by artists like Jenny Holzer who understand how poetic language can become a consumer good, in positive ways; during the pandemic, one of the ways I kept myself occupied was by concepting an AI wellness brand, from products to taglines. At any rate, I’ve been creating my own stationery and logos and brand identities and typefaces and newsletters and signage since I was a kid, and projects like Cursive Binary are an expression of that lifelong passion. My affinity for the ars poetica, positioning poems as artworks, is rooted in an ancient belief that, to paraphrase Simonides of Keos (c. 556 – 468 BC), poems are paintings and paintings are poems, and I love to look at language and absorb its meaning aesthetically as much as I enjoy having a semantic understanding of those words.

Also, I love to sing, though not many people in web3 know that; I was heavily involved in musical theater for a chapter of my life, and spoken word and music are very important to my poetic practice, which is why I turned my book TECHNELEGY into an audiobook/album. By writing with multimedia tools, I’m exploring how haptic elements like music, voice, movement, color, glow and glitch can become part of the formal poetic vernacular, impacting the way a reader engages with a text.

*Follow Sasha Stiles on Twitter and Instagram.

Hello everyone! Welcome to a special edition of Chitchat, where we are thrilled to bring you an exclusive interview with Vienna Kim and Benoît Palop, who are curators of “The Crypto Pawnshop” - ONBD’s upcoming exhibition on ONBD x SuperRare space.

Vienna Kim and Benoît Palop are writers, researchers, and curators of digital art. They met through their shared contribution to SuperRare Magazine and soon found they had common interests in internet (sub)culture, gaming, and of course digital art, NFTs, and the crypto space.

How did you two meet, and what inspired your collaboration to co-curate this show?

Vienna Kim: We met via Instagram! We connected around a year ago, when we were both contributors to SuperRare magazine. Benoit and I were reading each other's articles, and started following each other. Very soon, we realized that we had so many similar interests in terms of internet subcultures, video games, and a mutual love for ramen… we also knew a lot of the same artists!

Benoit Palop:  (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Let me add that our mutual obsession for Animal Crossing Memes and Low Poly visuals played a crucial role in fostering our bond!  

How did the idea for ‘The Crypto Pawnshop’ first originate?

Benoit Palop: The concept behind The Crypto Pawnshop took root during leisurely strolls through Akihabara and Nakano Broadway, two iconic Otaku hubs of tangible nostalgia in Tokyo. This idea blossomed into a vision of connecting these physical realms with the digital and on-chain universe. Vienna and I set out to craft a weird collection, breathing life into sentimental gems and kick-ass tchotchkes.

One of the exhibition's objectives is to connect the past with the present and merge the virtual with the tangible. Can you provide an overview of how the exhibition reflects this?

Benoit Palop: This curatorial project is an abstract playground, weaving together humanity's timeless fascination with collecting, from the Library of Alexandria to NFTs. It's a patchwork of cherished memories and novel experiences, a bridge between the past and present, where we embark on a screen-based treasure hunt. Each curated digital relic is a celebration of design's ability to evoke nostalgia. Yet, it delves deeper, exploring Nonsensical Design, challenging creativity and practicality. In this fusion of form and function, we're reminded that collecting is all about the pure joy of owning what we love, collectively rediscovering our shared valuables. You can read the whole curatorial statement if you want to gain more insight.

How did you discover the talented artists featured in the show?

Vienna Kim: A lot of the artists in this selection are wonderful individuals that we have known - some of them for years - thanks to our various other projects and work. The choice of artists was very specific: you’ll notice, for example, that each artist shares our fascination with technostalgia and speculative vintage gadgets.

'The Crypto Pawnshop' aims to evoke joy in owning items we love. Could you share one thing that you've collected and that brought you great happiness?

Vienna Kim: This was a few years ago, but I have a very small 1957 Moomin print by Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson that I picked up in the antiques section of the Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop here in Paris. It’s one of my prized possessions. I haven’t even taken it out of the plastic film, haha.

Benoit Palop: Choosing just one from my collection is tough since I'm quite attached to everything I've got. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would be my N64 Pikachu edition. It's a bit of a bummer that it's currently at my parents' place in sunny southern France. There's something about that console that always brightens my day, you know? I just love it.

If ‘The Crypto Pawnshop’ were a physical store, what type of music would be playing in the background to enhance the atmosphere?

Vienna Kim: My choice: ’Holiday’ by Doktor Kosmos. I’m not 100% why, but at the same time it just makes sense. I mean look at this music video?!

Benoit Palop: If it existed as a physical store – and, I'll admit, I'm not one to take risks – you'd likely find a track like 'リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー' by Macintosh Plus playing in the background. It's a tried-and-true vaporwave classic, a safe bet to elevate the ambiance with just the right touch of nostalgia and digital vibes.

Is there anything interesting happening in the crypto space that you have been following recently?

Vienna Kim: I’ve been digging into artists who use video games as a medium, and how this relates to the blockchain. I went to the ‘WORLDBUILDING: Jeux vidéo et art à l'ère digitale’ (‘WORLDBUILDING: Videos games and art in the digital age’) exhibition at the Centre Pompidou Metz earlier this year, and it confirmed by belief that many artists use video games as a way to construct speculative worlds that defy current hegemonic biases and political structures. Among those that also mint their work on the blockchain, the movement seems to be geared towards seeking freedom from social and financial repression, and I’m excited to explore the relationship between art games and blockchain as a channel for radical liberation further.

Benoit Palop: Sorry but I've been more into Pikmin 4 these days. Those lil’ guys keep me entertained!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say?

Benoit Palop: I would say that in Web3, we're rewinding to the internet's wild roots – it's a bit like the DIY spirit of the early web, reborn for a new generation.

Vienna Kim: For me, Web3 is the promise of a digital future where we regain control of ourselves–our data, our self-image, our money… We no longer quietly submit to the dictates of Big Tech Moguls and centralised banks, but demand independence.

Vienna Kim

Vienna is an art professional with a specialization in new media and technologies. After obtaining her BA in Art History from the University of St Andrews, and her MA in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London, she has dedicated her career to exploring the intersection of the art market and technology. She has worked as a freelance writer for five years, exploring a range of topics such as how the blockchain can empower African artists, various exhibition reviews, and artist spotlights. Publications include SuperRare, Photo London, and Business of Fashion. Now based in Paris, France, Vienna is the Artistic Manager at digital art and NFT company ARTPOINT. She likes talking about games and NFTs.

Benoît Palop

Benoit is a project coordinator, digital content strategist, writer, and curator based in Tokyo, Japan, with 10+ years of working experience. Originally from the south of France, he has lived in various cities around the world, including Paris, NYC, Miami, and Montreal. He has been exploring web (sub)culture, digital art, and virtual worlds since the early 2000s and deepened his knowledge through an intensive academic journey, including a Master's degree in digital media research from Sorbonne University in Paris. He has collaborated with companies, studios, and media outlets such as SuperRare, Outland, MUTEK, VICE, i-D, Y__D, Society for Arts and Technology, Club Media, and The Creators Project (a collaboration between VICE and Intel), to name a few. Through curatorial projects (presented in diverse contexts, including both in-person and online formats), research, and writing, he enjoys exploring virtual worlds and decentralized networks. He is also passionate about discussing 90s anime, ramen, and NFTs.

Andressa Furletti is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist based in New York. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Group Dot BR, NY's only Brazilian theater company. With a diverse artistic range spanning stage and film acting, performance art, and installation, Andressa's work delves into imperceptible nuances like patterns and the intricate micro and macro universes. Her art serves as a catalyst for contemplation on societal, political, and environmental themes.

Andressa's art creates immersive sensory experiences, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression. She is widely recognized for her NFT collections, exhibitions, and notable works like the immersive play 'Inside the Wild Heart,' impactful NFT performance 'Yes, All Women,' and the upcoming immersive exhibition of the 'Gaia Viva' collection

How did you hear about NFT and start your journey?

Although I have been focused on my theater company Group Dot BR , I have been creating art along the way that fits the visual arts world but never did the work of putting the pieces out there. After almost a year of theaters being closed, Zoom readings, lives on Instagram and a play on the metaverse, I decided it would be a good time to give my visual arts side more attention. So when I joined Clubhouse in early 2021 my first room was a visual arts one. I wanted to start collecting names of galleries, curators, artists, fairs, etc to see where I would fit in. Every now and then NFTs would pop into the conversation of royalties, ownership of digital images and even copywriting but I had no idea what they were talking about. So one person mentioned the club NFTS.tips for learning more and that is what I did. Because of my background in film, I have some projects and ideas for video art, and it all made a lot of sense to me. I kept coming back.

Could you share with us some recent highlights and significant projects or experiences you've been engaged in?

As a multidisciplinary artist, I always had many different things overlapping. For my theater company, we hosted a fundraising party at House of Yes on August 20th, during which we exhibited NFTs by Brazilian artists and are rehearsing our upcoming show "Backlash to Brazilian Happiness," which my partner in my theater company, Debora Balardini, is leading. The play opens in October in NY. I am co-directing the piece with Enrique Pardo, a member of the French theater company Pantheater. Their influence has greatly informed and impacted my company, so I am beyond excited about this collaboration. I had joined Pantheater at the Château de Malérargues in the south of France for their Myth and Theater festival in late June, where I engaged in a week of philosophy, voice, and physical theater work. This experience provided me with valuable material for future creations and advanced the work with Balardini

In the NFT world, I am releasing a new collection titled "Chained Heart." It was an AI-generated and autobiographical collection created in 2022, encapsulating the raw struggle within my own heart. Interlaced chains enveloped the heart, raising the question: was this heart protected or imprisoned? Signifying the delicate balance between safeguarding my emotions and feeling imprisoned. This thought-provoking display delved into the complexities of love, evoking introspection and a longing for emotional liberation. The collection prompted a reflection on relationships, probing the boundaries between protection and captivity, and ultimately confronting the timeless question: How did we navigate the delicate balance between the heart's desires and its need for protection? And coming down the road I’m working on a collaboration with Laurence Fuller mixing poetry, physical acting, AI, and music.

I was invited to be part of the latest People of Tezos season and a test for this project with Laurence ended up being my piece. It's raw and almost behind-the-scenes because the final video will be transformed and elements will change. It shows a lot of who I am as an artist because it mixes physical acting, filmmaking, improvisation, mime, blockchain technology, and many references to the artists who inspire my work. 

Tell us about a piece you created that is very special to you.

The Yes, All Women collection is very special because it talks about an urgent subject which is the alarming number of women who have suffered harassment or abuse. This is one of my projects that was created many years ago but it is now going out in the world because of my journey into the NFT world. The piece is tied to a live performance that I got to perform at CADAF in late 2022 at the Web3 Gallery in NY and at the Synergy Fair in Miami during the Art Basel week in 2022. The responses to the performance take the piece to a whole new level and remind me of the power art has in changing society. 

Naming three of your favorite artists in the space.

I could never name only 3 without being very unfair to so many others who have been part of this journey so I’ll name 3 communities; the friends/teachers from NFTS.tips, the team behind Searchlight, and the amazing friends and artists from the Tezos community. They know who they are!

Is there a story behind your profile picture?

It is a photo of one of my performances called #TakeASelfieOnMe. It is an interactive and durational performance where I wear a costume made of mirrors so when people take a picture it is always a selfie. The idea came from my observation of how many people interact with art nowadays, they look for a few seconds, take a picture and/or a selfie with the piece, and leave looking at the screen. I wanted to create a piece that would dialogue with this urge to document and eventually share on social media platforms. 

Any tips for people who want to collect NFT but haven’t started yet?

It is a very friendly and helpful community, especially on Tezos. Don’t be afraid to ask for guidance in setting up wallets, finding marketplaces, etc. Be comfortable with the process and take your time to research and find what you like and who you like. I can’t give advice to collectors who are short-term investors because that is not how I collect, but for me, it really works when I collect a piece I really like. It is definitely fun to see art you collected increasing in value but if it doesn’t you might as well like what you have. As I’m typing I have a screen in the background rotating pieces I collected and they all give me a feeling: joy, awe, contemplation, inspiration and/or bring a memory. Collecting what I like makes collecting a good experience. Collecting things I don’t like with the hopes to flip only makes me anxious so I had to let that go.

One sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would you say?

A decentralized and community-driven approach that empowers artists by providing them with direct ownership, control, and monetization opportunities for their digital creations.

In addition to crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

Social, political, and environmental subjects draw my attention and influence my art a lot. I’m also very interested in the performing arts in general, theater being the main one, of course, but I also consume a great deal of music and dance. And because of my theater company and my big Brazilian community here in NY, I’m interested in everything related to Brazilian culture. And also very interested in immersive and interactive experiences and installations. 

What are the best ways in your mind to get onboard to web3?

I think it is through other people who can hold your hand along the process. There is a lot of information, blogs, tutorials, etc, but nothing like someone walking you through it. As the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector wrote “Give my hand to someone was always what I expected of joy.”, I think this is so valid when learning something new. 

*Follow Andressa Furlett on Twitter and Instagram.

Seminal video artist Marco Brambilla is poised to break new ground with his NFT collection, The Orders, which will launch on September 19 with a timed edition mint and September 20 with a limited mint of one hundred one-of-one artworks. Presented and commissioned by Artwrld, this innovative project delves into the cryptic world of Masonic iconography and transports it to the digital realm of web3. Renowned for his cutting-edge use of digital imaging technology, Marco Brambilla is embarking on his first large-scale NFT endeavor, challenging the allure of visual culture in the 21st century.

In this exclusive interview, we sat down with Marco to hear about his creative journey for this project.

Your prior works often explore intricate themes like nature versus man-made, reinterpretation of iconic symbols, Hollywood, and consumerism. How did you decide to focus on very limited types of expressions for this project?

Marco Brambilla: This project came about from my involvement on Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. In producing the visuals for a new production in Dresden, I became interested in the Masonic background associated with both the opera and the libretto since Mozart was a Free Mason, the composer of the Libretto was a Free Mason, and Schinkel, the original set designer, was also a Free Mason.

During the research process, I was fascinated by the iconography of the tradition and began to design digital backgrounds for the opera using this iconography. I chose to deconstruct the symbolism and reduce it down to the core objects that relate to each degree of Free Masonry. I then set about modeling and creating digital kinetic sculptures based on those objects.

The material I produced for the project was a natural fit for distribution as NFTs because the very existence of crypto culture and the blockchain has certain similarities to secret societies. This was an instant association which was interesting to express through this project.

The collection with Artwrld, The Orders, is made up of three degrees which becomes a way to differentiate digital scarcity and how desirable different hierarchical representations of knowledge can be.

How does leveraging blockchain technology enable possibilities that were previously inaccessible when working with different formats?

Marco Brambilla: There’s an aspect to the digital art space and specifically NFTs where the transactional aspect and the way you interact with the artwork are fundamentally connected, either conceptually or visually to what you’re making. I think it can be a generic exercise to take a video and call it an NFT. Making work that is native to the NFT space often best starts with the concept itself, and should take advantage of what this new method of transacting digital art and smart contracts have to offer.

This project deals with the three degrees of Free Masonry. I’ve worked with Artwrld from the outset to ensure the structure of the collection relates directly with how you are able to view the digital sculptures as collections as well as the way you are able to purchase and transact. The Artwrld website has three distinct canvases with three different potential ways to purchase the objects. This process was integral to the design of the objects themselves. The minting process on the site has been very carefully considered to mirror the Masonic format and hierarchy.

An Apprentice Object from the Entered Apprentice tier of Marco Brambilla's The Orders

A Fellow Craft one-of-one artwork from the Fellow Craft tier of Marco Brambilla's The Orders

How was this as a first-time experience creating an NFT collection at this scale? What did you discover in the process? Could you share an aspect of this project that fills you with the most pride?

Marco Brambilla: I love working with new technology. In most of my work, I’ve worked across many different forms of technology - with video game engines, with Lidar. This is my first large-scale NFT project.

I tried to create compositions that each suggest a distinct psychological state. You get a very different feeling from each tier of objects. As each degree of artwork transforms, and finally arrives at the Master Mason canvas, ubiquitous symbols like the All-Seeing Eye suggest you have entered a world where understanding is possible.

In a departure from the traditional art world, how do you envision audiences interacting with your NFT-based work?

Marco Brambilla: I always maintain a kind of critical distance from the subject matter - so I think it’s always better that the audience for my work can come to their own interpretation. My intention in making The Orders was not to editorialize or offer an interpretation of power structures and hierarchy, but rather, to present the concept scientifically – the way hierarchy around knowledge functions, the exchange of ideas, and the ultimate transformation through this exchange.

Has this creative journey influenced your approach to crafting future artistic endeavors? Would you consider another NFT project in the future?

Marco Brambilla: I very much enjoyed working in a medium that offers limitless possibilities in the way it is viewed, distributed, and transacted. Most rewarding was to create a set of kinetic digital objects that have an ephemeral quality, that contain an iconography that can be recontextualized and put into conversation with one another as a way of creating new forms of understanding and meaning.

For more information on the project, please find the link here: https://marco.artwrld.com/

Alida Sun is an artist and intersectional futurist based in Berlin. For over 1,600 days and counting, she has created and shared a new generative artwork. Her current art practice spans choreography, code, graphic fiction, installation, and architecture.

As one of the early pioneers in the field of Generative art, what inspired you to explore code as a tool for artistic expression?

I grew up on the Internet and was drawn to code as a creation and augmentation/subversion of worlds.  The possibilities for infinite variation are enchanting.

It's also the most abundant medium in this day and age, for better or worse it's everywhere in almost everything. So it's often a lot of more accessible than traditional (often very costly) mediums that require a whole extra space for a studio.

When created with intention, code can be a form of resistance. In other words, generating and embracing natively digital forms specific to this medium instead of imitating and upholding old art world conventions rooted in hierarchies and cultural erasure.

Alida Sun | NIGHT 1602: Late night strumming

How did you first hear about NFTs and start your journey?

Like other generative artists who share our art online on a frequent basis, several NFT platforms reached out to me in their very early stages. I also had friends who were very into crypto, I was just busy being a full-time artist in Berlin.

I participated in a couple of futurist exhibits about blockchain technology quite early on, but I didn't get around to fully embarking on this journey until Snowfro saw one of my projection mapping assemblages on Twitter. He very kindly invited me to create something that became my Art Blocks Curated project, glitch crystal monsters.

Could you provide a specific example that illustrates how blockchain technology has uniquely converged with art in your work?

glitch crystal monsters, my ArtBlocks Curated project, wasn't just an on-chain project where minting generates the output — the entire concept of immutability influenced the work from conception to execution. Techno Leviathan crypto sovereign floating above our heads. on-chain minting experience.

The project launched in tandem with a solo show of mine in Berlin with dancers and a live coding performance.

What challenges did you face when combining various artistic and technological elements?

Sometimes there was a lack of understanding from some people and the public, but that never really bothered me. I actively sought out experimental processes and forms from the start. 

I'm a self-taught woman artist of color and not one to bootlick systems of violence or barriers to accessibility. Many of my experiences in technology communities have been wonderful, but at times I have encountered a pitiful level of ignorance, lack of inclusivity, and other barriers in certain code/gen art clubs. It's heartening that they're outnumbered by artists and communities of truly great talent and integrity.

Is there anything happening in the Web3 space that you have been following recently?

Generative poetry - I love what Sasha Stiles, AnaMaria Caballero, and the theVERSEverse are doing. Also generative choreography, namely Operator.

RightClickSave's discourse is stellar, I'm an avid reader of Alex Estorick and anyone else who's savvy enough to see how integral ethics and inclusivity are to ensuring the financial health of the space.

Alida Sun x Franny Choi | bewildered with stars, Code, cartography, light, 1920 × 1080, Present by theVERSEverse

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment?

It's wild how for all the talk of decentralization, Web3 is still so dependent on a centralized Big Data platform that's sinking like an overladen trash barge and doesn't suit any media beyond a static image. I'm far from the only one who's pointed out how the space is losing astronomical value due to a lack of design or accommodation for dynamic media alone.

Accessibility is an issue where there's huge room for improvement, both technically and socially. Security could also use a lot of work.

Actual rest as opposed to a 24/7 terminally online state. Work ethic is all well and good but we need to practice a rest ethic as well. It's clear to many folks on the outside that the accelerationism in this space can reach toxic levels of burnout. Burnout may have been a badge of honor a decade ago, but it's become something very cringe, and rightfully so. Web3 and technology in general should improve people's lives, not wreck their health.

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say?

A many sided mutating enterprise of miraculous hope.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

Science fiction and taking naps.

What are the best ways in your mind to get onboard to Web3?

Experiences that foster an inviting, inclusive environment for play, co-creation, and joy (interactive generative art that goes beyond the screen is uniquely suited to this). More multidisciplinary, dynamic IRL gatherings and shows. We need to stop regurgitating traditional conventions and tired social norms. I see too many exhibits that imitate old power structures, which entail very rigid atmospheres where no one actually has fun or feels very welcome.

Joy and inclusivity aren't afterthoughts, they're vital core components to maintain and grow Web3.

I think prioritizing some semblance of a work-life balance will also go a long way in drawing newcomers. Remember nothing in nature blooms year round, so get some rest!

Alida Sun | DAY 1617: absolute bare minimum Monday

*Follow Alida Sun on Twitter and Instagram.

Alejandro Cartagena is a Mexican artist currently based in Monterrey, Mexico, known for his projects that use landscape and portraiture to explore social, urban, and environmental issues. His work has been exhibited in over 50 global exhibitions, including prestigious institutions such as the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris and the CCCB in Barcelona. His art is featured in collections including the San Francisco MOMA and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Cartagena is also a self-publisher and co-editor, with multiple award-winning titles, and his work has been featured in publications like The New York Times and The New Yorker. His photography delves into the constructs of Latin American societies, earning him international recognition.

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

In 2020, a curator from Wetransfer introduced me to the people of Foundation. They had a beta site back in September 2020 and I put some of my images there to be sold.

As a very well-established traditional artist, could you talk a little bit about how Web3 has impacted your work and process?

Web3 has become very integral in my life as an artist turned artist promoter. Through Fellowship.xyz, I am marrying my passion for photography and for supporting artists and their careers. My work in the traditional art world continues as normal through my gallery, museum shows and the publishing of books of my work.

Tell us about Fellowship, what is its mission?

Fellowship is an organization that started as an art collection. We wanted to build a collection that could span 100+ years of the history of photography. On that path we discovered there were many projects we could help build conceptually and curatorially.

Now we focus both on collecting and on producing art projects for emerging and established artists. From photography, to gen art and video. We see photography as part of those mediums and so we are willing to experiment with the limits of our curatorial thesis.

What differences have you found between creating art in a traditional context and in the Web3 environment?

Distribution. In the traditional art market, distribution takes a lot of time. For you to have access to being collected, especially as an emerging artist, it is very complicated. The Web3 space offers opportunities for artists to find support earlier in their careers. Now. Is that good or bad? Both. Because of the efficiency of the market; doing art and finding a way to sell the art, cycles of the creative process tend to be smaller. For some artists this is great, but for others, it means putting out work that might actually need time to mature. Web3 is basically an alternative to start your career as a selling artist.

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say?

An experimental art space for artists and collectors.

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment?

Integration to the art world at large. I believe that there are many great Web3 artists who need to confront their art to the larger art world and see what happens. Test themselves and consolidate their visions with the rest of the artists working today.
We have to build an ecosystem that has a balance between the commercial and the artistic development of the artists and the collectors. Art accrues value not only through buying and selling, but through its circulation as a work of art, commanding criticism, enjoyment, research, and social sharing. To pursue art to work with those functions will allow the work to mature as part of the art culture. The more that that happens, the stronger the art piece becomes, independent of market fluctuations. 

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

I am an avid collector of photobooks. I adore listening to music.

What are the best ways to get onboard to Web3?

With no expectations. You create NFTs because you want to explore new ways of distributing your work. You want to experiment. And maybe most importantly, DYOR of how the space functions and then take a leap of faith into it. 

Hear more from Alejandro Cartagena:

ONBD Magazine

The impact of AI: framing the future

Alejandro Cartagena, co-founder of Fellowship, an arts organisation dedicated to photography and its influence on other visual mediums, explores how AI could be impacting the Post Photographic era. Could another revolution in image creation transform how we view the world around us…

Read more

3 years ago · ONBD

*Follow Alejandro Cartagena and Fellowship.

Angelo Alessio is the founder of build_cities.  Prior to build_, Angelo previously led Product & Growth at Harvest Platform, an AI chatbot that automatically negotiated over $6M in bank fee refunds and interest charges for legacy banking consumers before getting acquired by Acorns where he served as Director of Product.

Prior to Harvest, Angelo was a freelancer for startups in both Techstars and Y-Combinator ecosystems assisting primarily with product, growth, and branding while attending NYU Stern for his MBA. Prior to NYU, Angelo served in the US Army as an Engineer Officer leading tactical and strategic operations for organizations up to 350+ personnel. 

How did you hear about crypto and start your journey?

It was actually my wife who told me about Bitcoin.  I was regrettably dismissive at first but once I started dabbling it became pretty evident pretty quickly that Bitcoin and crypto at large would be introducing some seismic shifts in the way the world could work.  It got a hold of me pretty quickly and before you know it I had a mining rig, experimenting with DeFi lending, etc.

How did the idea to start build_cities come about?

So it was kind of a mix of several factors all at once.  From a macro view, it was really evident that online communities were becoming incredibly cohesive, especially post-COVID, to the point where it now feels totally normal and destigmatized to meet people online and then meetup offline.  Pre-COVID this trend was primarily found in dating apps (Tinder, Hinge, etc.) but I think the pandemic normalized it for professional and platonic relationships.

So I thought about this as well against the backdrop of the commercial real estate exodus where a lot of people were working from home and probably going to fight pretty hard to NOT go back to an office.  At the same time, working from home all the time definitely exacerbates feelings of isolation and there exists this gap now where we want to find and connect with people like us, ideally in our own cities where our neighbors now double as coworkers to create new value together wherever we are.

Now to answer your question more literally, the idea actually started with a very minimalist logo “build_”, a whitepaper outlining all these concepts, a Twitter account, and a Discord server.  I put all of this out there and immediately we got a ton of response so I knew there was enough to work with and dive in full-time.  From that response we found a team entirely online first as part of our thesis and got building.

Tell us about the mission of build_cities.

The mission of build_cities is really all about unlocking the hidden equity in communities around the globe. For most of human history, economic activity has been primarily tied to geography, leading to the consolidation of resources and associated labor in the most fitting markets.

Fast forward to today and there is a considerable portion of GDP that is created entirely from the internet which has no latitude or longitude coordinates.  When you add the cross-border financial capabilities of crypto and increasing internet penetration (Starlink extends this even further now), economic value can be created literally anywhere.

All this amounts to the ability to create new economic value from the cloud in any geography and reinvest that locally.  These iterations start to compound to form real markets, ecosystems, and eventually cities in both existing areas and entirely new ones altogether.  And the tailwinds for this couldn’t be stronger already.  The value of the top 100 emerging startup ecosystems experienced a 96% increase from 2021 to 2022 alone.

Web3 has been a great way to fund charitable initiatives. Do you envision this being a role that build_cities could play?

Absolutely.  We kind of vie “charitable initiatives” more as public goods.  For example today we pay city taxes that ideally could end in the development and maintenance of a public park near us, bike lanes, or better roads.

We’ve actually already done a few pilots for these kinds of projects such as the crowdfund of residential solar for developers in an emerging market that is typically prone to frequent power outages.  Now these developers have more consistent access to new online opportunities and a significant impact to their earning potential in the web3 space and just software development in general..  It’s investments like these that are unique to each area but go a long way in our mission to unlock the hidden equity in communities around the world.

Do you plan on creating IRL meetups for the city DAOs?  

Yes, we already host a series of events called “Sov City Happy Hour” and will soon have a feature in the platform that will be able to facilitate IRL events globally.

Is there anything interesting happening in the Web3 space that you have been following recently?

Real World Asset Tokenization, especially as it relates to real estate, is particularly fascinating to me and obviously relevant to what we are doing at build_cities.  I think this category has the potential to really break down the barriers to ownership of an incredibly coveted asset class, especially as real estate becomes increasingly out of reach for the average person.  

Not too long ago we partnered with a real estate DAO called Cougar DAO which was really just a bunch of internet friends and we bought a 160-acre farm property in NE Colorado that is now generating revenue.  I don’t know much about agricultural real estate and if you told me to go buy a farm the traditional way it would take me some time to figure out.  But when you combine expertise (one of the members happens to be an Ag financier) then it made the process surprisingly smooth and we all complement each other’s skillsets in the DAO. 

We’re looking forward to creating the tools to enable the acquisition and tokenization of more real estate properties as part of the build_cities platform.

Name one person you admire in the Web3 Space, and tell us why.

I’ve always respected Jack Dorsey’s work in Fintech and that has carried over to web3 as well, even though all of his work is with BTC-related products.  But the way he’s able to capture the intersection of culture and finance with his ecosystem coupled with a very composed conviction is really challenging.  I think sometimes his convictions even hamper his abilities as CEO (of Twitter for example) which from the outside may look like a withdrawal/resignation but I think at his core he is a systems hacker at the end of the day which is the first thing you need to do in order to set up the foundation for something new.

If you had one sentence to describe the Web3 spirit, what would you say? 

So I heard this one from Mike Fraietta, the founder of Empire DAO, and he said “Web3 is a mix of Wall Street, Woodstock, and Hollywood.”

That captures the “spirit” pretty succinctly I have to say.

What are a few things that are lacking in the Web3 space at the moment? 

A lot of really promising projects with high-utility are obfuscated by a lot of noise.  Reversing this trend or creating better signal filters would do the space a lot of good.

Have you collected any NFTs? Tell us about a piece in your collection that is very special to you.

I’m gonna be biased here a bit and say it’s the NFT from the collection that we created!  Only about 2 weeks ago we released a feature called build_dreams.  The way it works was inspired by r/place which if you’re not familiar was a open canvas that anybody could come to and paint a pixel, creating an ever-changing digital mosaic.

In build_dreams, we took this same approach to prompt engineering where anybody can come in to add, replace, or delete words from a community prompt canvas.  A new AI image gets generated every 3 minutes from whatever the current prompt shows and people can mint the current “Dream” NFT.  This doubles as not only membership into build_ but 90% of the proceeds actually go to the cities we support on our platform.  So the Dream NFT I minted is pretty significant to me for a lot of reasons.

What are the best ways to get onboard to Web3?

Find your rabbit hole on the buildcities.network platform!  You only need a Discord account to login and from there you can explore over 800+ networks that span across cultural communities, coliving, DeFi protocols,  NFT projects, and everything in between.

Any tips for newbies in the crypto space?

Well I think everyone learns differently but for me it has always been to just dabble head on and learn about the services by using them with a small amount of funds.  There is absolutely a learning curve and I’m still not comfortable with everything DeFi/web3 has to offer but I will say it has solved some very real needs for me that I would otherwise have not been able to fulfill in traditional financial services.  Just by experiencing this makes me even more optimistic for what it can offer.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

Kind of boring but cycling is my reprieve.  There’s a lot of beautiful spots I’ve just been discovering recently in the Northeast that always helps clear my head and reshuffle the brain synapses.  Oftentimes a lot of my best new ideas or breakthroughs have been during a long ride.

I’ve also been having this strong desire recently to do more woodworking.  I made a live-edge dining room table a few years ago and find myself plotting the next build out or series of build outs and actually have it as a side gig.  I find working on more tangible goods (anything without a screen)  is pretty therapeutic, at least for me.

*Follow build_ on Twitter; Join build_cities on Discord

Sutu (aka Stuart Campbell) uses art and technology in new ways to tell stories. He has been commissioned by the likes of Marvel, Google and Disney to create VR art for properties such as Doctor Strange and Ready Player One. He has also created three VR documentaries; Inside Manus for SBS, Mind at War for Ryot Films and The Battle of Hamel for the Australian War Memorial. He is also known for his interactive comics including the Webby Award-winning Nawlz, Neomad, Modern Polaxis and the Eisner-nominated These Memories Won’t Last. He holds a Honorary Doctorate of Digital Media from Central Queensland University, is a Sundance and Tribeca Fellow and is the co-founder of EyeJack an Augmented Reality company.

How did you hear about NFT and start your journey?

It was my friends Sean Gardener and Jimi Frew from Emanate who initially roped me in. They invited me to collaborate on an NFT with deadmau5. I had some other friends like the artist Giant Swan from Australia telling me for months that I needed to get into it before that, but I was too busy at the time to get started. However, Sean and Jimi finally twisted my arm and our first drop was incredibly successful; it kinda blew my mind. My whole life I have been making digital projects and always experimenting with ways to monetize my work, I have done kickstarters and sold apps on the App Store, but often these alternative marketplaces relied on additional experiences and merchandising for their value to be seen. It wasn’t until NFTs that native digital work could be owned and valued for what it was. 

“In Titan's Light” - The First NFT Drop by Sutu

Could you name one person you admire in the Web3 Space, and tell us why?

I’m grateful to have had the mentoring and support from Coldie - who is a very important and poignant artist in our generation. He has been recognized internationally for his iconic work that often comments on contemporary digital and tech culture. At the same time, he has been an important community builder and very supportive of me personally by providing a lot of advice. He helped me out on the deadmau5 dropped and has collected a bunch of my works over the years.  Total legend!

Could you tell us about your company EyeJack and the product you're currently developing?

I’m a digital artist, and I have my personal website at sutueatsflies. I also co-founded a company called EyeJack that creates immersive art experiences and technology. For most processes, I will design a new kind of digital experience for my own art. For example, in the past, I made Augmented Reality comic books, and then I will reverse-engineer that process to develop software that enables other artists to make similar experiences, so from that I made some software that lets anyone make AR books very easily.

Lately at EyeJack, we've been working on a new webXR format which I’m calling a multiverse cube. It’s a cube where each side of the cube shows you a view into a different 3d world. So there are 6 sides of the cube looking into 6 different worlds. And now I’m curating an exhibition featuring 30 artists who are all using our multiverse cube technology to create their own cubes.  And the thing about this new format is, it’s XR, meaning it works perfectly in the browser, AR, VR, and it’s a collectible NFT format. I’m super excited about this because it’s my dream to create collectible digital experiences. 

Tell us about an artwork you created that is very special to you.

One of my favorite pieces is (Never) Lonely Boy The project is a mix of nostalgia and futurism. It shows a boy playing on a tyre swing in an abandoned lot, and then suddenly he is surrounded by holographic virtual friends. The work often provokes feelings of playfulness and melancholy at the same time. Audiences might appreciate the color and energy of the animations, but ultimately the Boy is still arguably alone in that he is spending his time with virtual friends instead of real friends. For me, it explores the idea of becoming so immersed in our own fantasy worlds, that it can often impact our sense of connection and reality.

(Never) Lonely Boy by Sutu

In addition to art, what else are you interested in?

I’ve been getting into web3 gaming and interactive world-building. I built my first web3 game Circuit Breaker at sutuverse.com.  It’s a speed run game where players can play as my Neonz avatars and then run through a 3d neon maze to try to get the fastest time. I recorded the fastest times on the blockchain and have a community leaderboard. I also regularly set bounties for different ways to complete the levels and compete against one another. What I love about it is seeing how crazy good players are at completing their speed runs. There are so many players way better than me, and they are very inventive in how they figure out the fastest time. I'm looking forward to expanding this universe with more levels and beginning to create some original Neonz stories.

A Trailer for Neonz and Circuit Breaker

*Follow Sutu on Twitter.

Takakurakazuki is a Japanese artist based in Kyoto, who utilizes technologies such as game theory, 3DCG, pixel animation, AI, VR, and NFTs to create artworks with themes centered around redefining the rules of contemporary art through Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and exploring new value in digital data. They have developed NFT series such as 'BUDDHA VERSE' and 'HYPER SHRINE.' Their art pieces have been exhibited in various locations, including Boston, Miami, Mexico, and South Korea. In 2023, they were showcased at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art. Additionally, they serve as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts.

How did you hear about NFTs and start your journey?

I first got to know them when the Japanese blockchain company, startbahn, reached out to me to create artwork related to NFTs for their booth at Ars Electronica (At that time, they referred to it as Art Blockchain Network instead of NFTs). Subsequently, as I continued creating artwork in digital formats, my interest in NFTs grew, leading me to incorporate them as a medium for showcasing my creations.

I gained a more in-depth understanding of NFTs from Takuma Nakata of BASSDRUM. He taught me how to create a Metamask wallet and register on Foundation. I listed my first NFT on Foundation in April 2021. Later, while playing Minecraft with Emi Kusano, I discovered her son Zombiezookeeper's NFTs and became intrigued. In fact, I became his first buyer. Drawing inspiration from his approach of creating numerous characters, I started selling my own NFT series "NFT BUDDHA" on Opensea in September 2021.

As an artist yourself, could you talk a little bit about how Web3 has impacted your work and process? 

Selling visual and digital art as traditional art has historically been quite challenging, especially when creating unique pieces. Because of this, I took on numerous projects in television animation and music videos. (I even participated in pixel art for Pharrell Williams' "it girl").

With the advent of NFTs, I could now sell digital artwork in its original digital form. This allowed me to create small digital pieces daily, much like a ceramic artist, and sustain my livelihood through their sales. Furthermore, the ability to directly sell to my fans enabled me to establish strong communication with them. Over time, fans began promoting my NFTs, and a team formed, collaborating on strategies.

I believe I might be the only contemporary artist in the world who has an udon shop handling their marketing！

How would you describe your artistic style in three words?

Asian philosophy, pixel art, digital data research.

Could you tell us more about the Hyper Shrine Project? 

"HYPER SHRINE" is an NFT series that characterizes 15 types of digital file extensions (jpg, png, gif, mov, xls, zip, pdf, html, ppt, obj, doc, mp3, svg, txt, doc) as deities or "KAMIs." Buyers have the opportunity to enshrine these digital deities on a web-based altar and create their own original shrines. Placing the purchased NFT on the altar generates a unique URL, which can be shared on social media to attract worshippers. Each visitor can pay their respects once a day. As the character receives more visits, it levels up and evolves.

Scheduled for release in 2024, the 2D metaverse "NEO TOKOYO" will allow NFT holders to use their acquired KAMIs as avatars, engaging in a project where "celebrations" and "curses" are exchanged and collected within the metaverse. This project aims to reflect on what occurred in our hearts during the 2020 pandemic.

In 2025, a real shrine will be established on Naoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, where 450 KAMIs from NFT holders will be enshrined. This will mark the first-ever shrine dedicated to digital file extensions.

"HYPER SHRINE" delves deep into the core of character culture in Asian traditions. From various deities and yokai to Pokémon, Japan has a rich history of creating characters based on the aesthetics of variation. This project aims to elevate this aesthetic of variation into the realm of art.

The project deconstructs and reinterprets religious motifs into art; it is not a religious endeavor itself. Owners of "HYPER SHRINE" act as shrine keepers, freely sharing their digital shrines online with others. This also represents the open-sourcing of beliefs—a project that celebrates diverse and free hearts of faith.

Conceived and graphically designed by takakurakazuki, this project is supported by the development efforts of YUMEMI Inc. Produced by Shigeo Goto, and marketing assistance from udon1GO, naritai, and uni. A collaboration of exceptional talents.

Name three of your favorite artists in the space.

Terry Gilliam, Osamu Tezuka, and Jan Švankmajer.

If you had one sentence to describe the web3 spirit, what would you say?

Web3 is akin to "returning to conventional communication via the internet," in my view. It eliminates intermediaries such as agencies and advertising firms, enabling direct communication between artists and collectors. This dynamic resembles the relationship between artists and patrons during the expressionist era, where they engaged directly。

Any tips for artists who are new to the crypto space?

We have inherently owned digital data from the beginning, stored on items like game cassettes, floppy disks, and CDs. However, the advent of the internet led us to overlook this fact. Web2 saw the dominance of major corporations through subscription services and advertising, essentially devouring all digital content. Web3 offers us the opportunity to reclaim our digital data as individuals and to wield it freely. For digital artists, this is a fantastic realm to explore.

Aside from crypto-related stuff, what else are you interested in?

Philosophy of AI, characters from global myths and religions, game theory.

Learn more about HYPER SHRINE:

ONBD Magazine

Takakurakazuki's Hyper Shrine: The Fusion of Beliefs, Technology, and Art

In the vibrant arena of digital art, Japanese luminary Takakurakazuki is rewriting the rules. His NFT-BUDDHA creations showcase a unique blend of contemporary technologies like AI, VR, and pixel animation, all interwoven with Eastern philosophies. Yet, his latest venture, the …

Read more

3 years ago · ONBD

*Follow Takakurakazuki on Twitter.

Boris Pevzner is the CEO & Co-Founder of LiveArt, a Web3 platform for art and culture. Boris had previously founded Collectrium, a global digital platform for managing, discovering, sharing, and trading art (acquired by Christie’s). Prior to Collectrium, Boris co-founded xfire, a high-growth social networking platform for computer gaming (acquired by Viacom); Centrata, a pioneering cloud computing platform for enterprise data centers; and greenscreens.ai (formerly Carggo), a two-sided marketplace for freight transportation. Boris holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Can you provide an introduction to LiveArt? What is being built on this platform and what is its vision?

LiveArt is the Web3 Platform for Art and Culture. With the founders and team background at the intersection of the traditional art market (Christie's & Sotheby's) and technology, it is well positioned to bring drops by blue-chip traditional artists & digital artists to audiences worldwide. 

Through its intimate knowledge of the art market, unique access to high-quality traditional & digital art, and curation, LiveArt creates the highest quality collecting experience powered by blockchain technology and AI. 

LiveArt has become a home for top-tier artists like Yue Minjun, Huang Yuxing, and Chen Man in this new digital world. LiveArt's price database provides market data analytics to position and price NFT artworks as an extension of the artist's existing art market.

Pre-revealed asset, Chen Man, The Last Human, 2023

Meta Morphic Collection, Huang Yuxing, 2023

Can you tell us more about LiveArt's token $ART?

LiveArt's $ART utility token aims to empower LiveArt's ecosystem users (curators, artists, collectors, partners) by offering special incentives to participate actively in everything it offers. 

Benefits include LiveArt platform governance, access to exclusive Web3 IRL events presented by LiveArt, opportunities to showcase and sell digital art at one or more LiveArt global Web3 collector salon events, allowlist access to drops, and much more.

Are there any recent exciting art projects at LiveArt that you would like to share with us?

We are most excited about the first Web3 project of one of the top contemporary Chinese artists, Yue Minjun 岳敏君, called Kingdom of the Laughing Man.

Kingdom of the Laughing Man launches with Boundless, a generative collection of 999 unique NFT artworks inspired by Yue Minjun's iconic self-portraits. Each NFT in this collection is one-of-a-kind, providing collectors with a unique ownership experience. Every element of each artwork in Yue Minjun's NFT collection is 100% created by the artist, adding an extra layer of significance to these digital masterpieces. 

The collection sold out in just under two hours and achieved a total sales volume of $1m one hour later, continuing to be top trending across major NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Blur. The works are now available on the secondary market on OpenSea.

Yue Minjun's art is celebrated worldwide, and we are honored and excited for the historic opportunity to introduce his inaugural Web3 project to LiveArt Collectors on August 8. The artist’s works fetch millions of dollars at global auctions (USD 6.9 million sales record at Christie's HK), have aggregate auction sales of over USD 150,000,000 and are in permanent collections of major art institutions such as SFMoma, Denver Art Museum, The Culture Centre of Francois Mitterrand, Guangdong Museum of Art, Shenzhen Art Museum, M+ Museum in Hong Kong and many more.

In a single sentence, how would you describe the spirit of web3?

Collaborative, inspiring, and forward-looking!

*Follow Boris Pevzner on Twitter.

*Follow LiveArt on Twitter.

In the latest installment of the "Artist as Curator" program, we are thrilled to have Stwwts, the artist who kicked off this project with his drop 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢, as our curator. He has chosen a fellow Thai artist wawawawin to be his curatorial subject, and we couldn’t be more excited for the drop. wawawawin’s 1/1 SupeRare Genesis will be unveiled this week on our ONBD x SuperRare Space.

In today’s chitchat, Stwwts will guide us on an immersive journey into the world of wawawawin.

Stwwts: What inspired you to become an artist?

wawawawin: I have been drawing since I was a kid. I drew before I could read and the first kind of books that I read were comic books and manga - they were my favorite form of escapism - so I decided that I wanted to be a cartoonist. As time passed I realized that there are other routes that I can take to draw for a living, like being an illustrator and artist and I have been lucky enough to become one. I think It’s really a privilege to communicate with others through art.

Stwwts: Can you give us an introduction to the piece you're about to release?

wawawawin: After working for a while I noticed that I have 2 kinds of art styles that serve different purposes. Firstly, there are pieces that I want to express my feelings, and those are suited to my watercolor paintings. And Secondly, I have a more casual style that is humorous and playful, with vivid colors. For this release, I would like to develop my art style by combining these styles together.

For the new piece, In modern life, without realizing it we tend to suppress our thoughts and feelings with overstimulation in our daily routines. As a Thai person, we also lived under the junta government for about 9 years. Many young activists had been imprisoned for participating in basic human rights protests to monarchy-related stuff which we aren’t allowed to talk about. A few months ago, as I was sketching, two girls named ‘Bam’ and ‘Tawan’ (which means sun/sunflower) had been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days - they wanted to secure the release of political prisoners who were captured due to a crackdown on free speech. These kinds of injustices have floated in the air for years and make us depressed.

With the evolution of A.I. that is moving so fast, and which I have mixed feelings about combined with other world situations, I have found myself feeling overwhelmed many times.

I made this piece to calm myself down and it is a reminder that sometimes it’s ok to take a break and be with your feelings whether there is sadness, self-doubt, anger or fear of the unknown future. Even if they are the sides of you that you don’t want to accept right now, it’s alright.

Stwwts: Name your greatest of all-time artists.

wawawawin: I have so many favorite artists but one artist that comes to mind would be Tezuka Osamu, a Japanese cartoonist, who created the Classic character ‘Astro Boy.’ His works really push the boundaries of what Manga can be and how he can balance his simple and cute art style with a serious theme is amazing. I would recommend everyone I know to read his work ‘Black Jack’.

Edward Hopper is also my favorite painter who could capture the isolated feelings and loneliness of modern life in the frame, which really inspired a lot of artists and filmmakers.

I also have a soft spot for storytellers so the list can go on and on.

For me, works that people can see some flaws in but that they can still relate to, or relate to some of the elements within them, these works make people feel connected and also make our world more worth living in :)

Stwwts: How has NFT technology impacted the creative community and your artistic journey?

wawawawin: As an artist who lived in Bangkok, there are so many limited creative choices, such as a limited market, and also creating art about human rights comes with some taboos. During the bull market in 2021 Thai artists were able to communicate to a wider audience without boundaries.

Stwwts: In one sentence, how would you describe the spirit of web3?

wawawawin: Empowering Artists and Community.

Stwwts: What advice do you have for aspiring artists exploring the NFT realm?

wawawawin: Have fun and be open-minded; the market is not the same as the bull market in 2021 but you can still discover many great artists and people in the space. And you can make friends with each other even though you have different styles of work or even work with different mediums. 

Stwwts: What Video games have you played lately?

wawawawin: I currently enjoy playing Pikmin 1 and 2 from the Nintendo Gamecube era, I really adore Nintendo's philosophy on game design.

Stwwts: Apart from crypto-related topics, what else interests you?

wawawawin: Pop culture like comics, films, and music are always my fuels for life and making works. Previous NFT pieces of mine are influenced a lot from memes and internet culture. The name of the new piece ‘Look Back in Anger’ comes from my favorite 90s anthem ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis. Books and video games are also essential to me.

I also think it is important for artists to participate in social events or be some kind of active citizen in the issues that you stand for. Nowadays basically most Thai artists are activists in some way, which I think is a good movement indeed.

wawawawin’s 1/1 SupeRare Genesis will be unveiled on August 3rd on ONBD x SuperRare Space.

Introducing Ana María Caballero

Ana María Caballero is a first-generation Colombian-American poet and artist. Her work explores how biology delimits societal and cultural rites, ripping the veil off romanticized motherhood and questioning notions that package sacrifice as a virtue. She is the recipient of the Beverly International Prize, Colombia’s José Manuel Arango National Poetry Prize, the Steel Toe Books Poetry Prize, and a Sevens Foundation Grant and has been a finalist for seven additional literary prizes. Her Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net-nominated work has been widely published and exhibited internationally, recently at bitforms in New York, Gazelli Art House and UNIT in London, Nighttimestory and Epoch Gallery in Los Angeles and L’Avant Galerie Vossen in Paris. She became the first artist to sell a poem at live auction in Spain, and her digital poems are held in both public and private collections, including the Museum of Nordic Digital Art, the Museum of Wild & Newfangled Art and the NFT Museum.

Recognized as a Web3 poetry pioneer, her work has been covered by major media outlets, such as Diario ABC, LAWeekly, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Elle UK and ARTNews. She’s been a speaker at events organized by the University of the Arts London, Sovereign Nature Institute, Untitled Art Fair, JustMAD, AWP, and the International Women of Blockchain Conference. She’s the author of five books and has a sixth volume forthcoming in 2024. As co-founder and curator at digital poetry gallery theVERSEverse, she’s transforming the way poetry is experienced, exhibited and transacted.

How did you hear about NFT and start your journey?

As soon as I read about Web3 in early 2021, I had the idea to create a digital poetry gallery where I could share my own work and the work of my poet friends. theVERSEverse’s name came to me in a supermarket parking lot, and I immediately bought it, feeling deep in my bones that it would work magic.   

Having published poetry, fiction and nonfiction traditionally for nearly two decades, I felt that the life of a published poem was too short, too quiet, too insular. So I began turning my published work into spoken-word video poems that I shared on social media. The jump from Web2 from Web3 was a very natural one–and there’s not going back for me. 

Ana Maria Caballero | Things We Are Saving to Write, MP4, 2023, bitforms gallery, New York

Could you tell us about your poetry?

My poetry is rooted in the deeply intimate details of my day. Our desires, regrets, quests for purpose are inseparable from the logistics of living. We rip envelopes, answer emails, towel children, boil eggs, all while pondering the ultimate meaning of our existence. 

I tend to be very direct in my writing. When we over embellish what we’re feeling, it’s often because we’re afraid of feeling it. I believe that only brutally honest and personal writing can be relatable–much less universal. Language doesn’t need to adorn itself to be powerful or beautiful.   

Much of my work explores how biology determines heteronormative societal rites, ripping the veil off romanticized motherhood—particularly notions that package female sacrifice as virtue. My poems are moments of observation, but also rebellion.

I like to employ rhyme, which, in conversational texts, becomes a marked departure from our normal speech patterns and adds intention, play and subversion to a text.

Sometimes, I feel like a conceptual artist, drafting poems borne of ideas, of messages I want to communicate, putting my tools at the service of concept. Other times I feel like a landscape painter, making suggestions based on what I see. 

I believe the act of reading is one of the closest forms of communion between two minds—that of author & reader. A mind deeply engaged with a text allows the language of the text to become its own. Thus, poetry’s power can extend beyond that of the aesthetic because words enter our mind to become indistinguishable from our thoughts, revealing emotions, ideas, beliefs we didn’t even know we shared.

My poems are heavily influenced by the works of poets such as T.S. Eliot, Louise Gluck, Lucille Clifton & Sharon Olds—authors with unmistakable poetic voices. Beyond the form & diction of a poem, whether it be page-based or digital, the soul of the poet must be palpable in order for the poem to speak the language of emotions. 

Believing that few things are as intimate as the sound of our voice, my digital poems include a spoken-word component, combining poetic and physical voice to create a deeply immersive experience.

My spoken-word video poems fit within a long trajectory of text-based art, much of which could be considered performative, as the use of language implies an active rather than passive exchange with the work’s audience. From Ed Ruscha’s word paintings, to John Baldessari’s “Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell,” to Tracey Emin’s starkly straightforward neon signs, text in art overtly presents words as vessels of meaning. In doing so, such works touch upon the instability of language itself as a mechanism of storing and transmitting meaning. Words mean different things to each of us; meaning can evolve over time. Yet, it is precisely this vulnerability that draws me to words

I believe poems are works of art.

Ana Maria Caballero | Oración, MP4, 2023, Epoch Gallery, Los Angeles

Is there a story behind your profile picture?

My profile picture is taken from the cover of my first book mid-life. The cover artwork was created by a local Miami muralist named Adrián Avila, who also created the cover for my most recent book A Petit Mal. Both covers are canvas portraits of me painted by Adrian, then rendered digitally.

I worked very closely with Adrian on both covers, mapping out the concepts and visual narratives I wanted him to tell. I’d seen his murals of figures with bandaged eyes in the streets of Miami’s Wynwood area and was struck by their power. 

I wanted Adrian to turn me into a blind poet for the cover of mid-life, a book that explores the grueling intersection of birth and death that occurs as we enter that stage in life when parents age and babies arrive. Suddenly, we find ourselves guarding both young and old, feeling drained as caregivers. This sense of vulnerability is present in Adrian’s image, but I also love that my face transmits strength and determination, capturing the wide spectrum of emotions that underpin our realities.

Tell us about a piece in your collection that is very special to you.

I love all the artwork I collect, though there is a special place in my heart for my literary NFTs. I’m proud to have works by poets and artists such as Julie Marie Wade x Layla Pizarro, encapsuled’s brilliant ArtBlocks drop, Elisabeth Sweet, Skye Nicholas, Christian Bök, Gisel Florez, Sarah Ridgley,  Mieke Marple, Laurence Fuller, Breanna Faye, MS Bourland, to name a few. 

I also recently collected an entire set of theVERSEverse’s Feral File exhibition, with works by artists Dina Chang, Diane Drubay, Connie Bakshi, Sasha Stiles, Gretta Louw, Solimán López, Nathaniel Stern, Julien Silvano, Nancy Baker Cahill, Alexandra Crouwers and Helena Sarin. I really believe the beauty of this collection will survive the test of time. 

Could you share some advice for artists who are new to the crypto space?

I hold very dear the words that the immensely talented Colombian-American abstract artist Jimena Buena Vida once said to me: “Your art is your power.” To this day, this remains the best advice I’ve received in Web3.

For artists, it’s very important to find a tribe of kindred minds. I feel fortunate to have met Kalen Iwamoto very early on in my Web3 path and to have been invited into the wonderful CryptoWriters community she founded on Discord, where I learned so much. I was also lucky to find the crew from The Tickle, the pioneering Web3-native literary and arts journal founded by Maia Mellier and Johnny Dean Mann, where my poems were so thoughtfully and generously shared. 

If you enter Web3 with a desire to learn and connect, to share your work thoughtfully with new audiences, armed with a message that is greater than yourself, you will grow as an artist and as a person. You might even find you’ve “made it.”  

Ana Maria Caballero | Fathomless, MP4, 2022, Gazelli Art House, London

*Follow Ana Maria Caballero on Twitter and Instagram.

*Follow theVERSEverse on Twitter.

Introducing LVCIDIA:

LVCIDIA is building a native 3D space that serves as a creative destination for artists and collectors alike. By supporting purposeful artists and developing innovative tools, LVCIDIA aims to extend the boundaries of artistic expression and shape the next digital art renaissance.

ONBD Magazine is delighted to extend a warm welcome to two core members from LVCIDIA.

Join us as we dive into the depths of this extraordinary project.

Can you tell us about what you're building for Lvcidia?

Manny: We want to build an immersive platform that will act as a creative space for digital artists to create and sell art, as a trusted space for collectors to buy and engage with digital art and as a cultural space for anyone who wants to be inspired and transformed by digital art.
When you think about it, cinematographers have movie theatres, painters have museums, photographers have art galleries, but digital artists don’t have that space to distribute their art and engage with their community. They still rely on social media and marketplaces to do so, and those platforms are not created with that purpose. So for us, it made sense to create that natively 3D space specifically designed for digital artists.

Are you building this metaverse from the ground up? It sounds very technically complex.

Sacha: Pretty much yeah, FVCKRENDER was the first one to create a downloadable prototype in Unreal Engine 4 a few years ago called Fvckrenderverse that didn’t have any web3 functionalities. It was made so he could showcase his own art.
After that, FVCKRENDER signed a partnership with a game development company to launch a streamable version of Fvckrenderverse, then renamed LVCIDIA. You could connect your wallet and have a custom experience based on what you had in your wallet, but it was pretty limited.
Now that I’m part of the team, the goal is to build an internal team from the ground up and relaunch LVCIDIA with more web3 functionalities, better graphics (we’re moving to Unreal Engine 5) and the ability to support multiplayer.

What is the vision of Lvcidia? What's the purpose behind the project - is it more of a game or to showcase art, or both? 

Manny: I’d say a perfect balance of both because one of the things we realized early on is that in order to grow outside of the “web3” space and have a sustainable revenue model, we have to be flexible and hybrid in our approach. If we were only focusing on building a virtual museum selling artwork (NFTs), we would only have a spike in traffic when a new digital art exhibition (Experience) would be released. So to be able to keep users constantly interested in LVCIDIA, we needed a reason for them to come again and again, and this is where we decided to add game-like mechanics to our platform. I’m talking about leveling up your character, unlocking challenges, and completing milestones, just to name a few examples.
I think that way, we can utilize NFTs in a way that's accessible to people who may not be as invested in understanding the technology. In other words, we realized that this technology should be supporting what we’re building, and not forced into what we’re building.

Is there a story or narrative that is part of the game?

Sacha: The game prioritizes offering an experiential journey over weaving a plot-driven story. However, we've integrated a narrative arc to enrich the immersive experience. The emphasis is primarily on the exploration of LVCIDIA, an endeavour designed to resonate with players, enabling them to tap into a collective memory long lost — a past brimming with wisdom, knowledge, and artistry. Without revealing too much of the narrative, it's focused on chronicling the individual awakening journey of each player.

We heard that there will be a virtual museum inside the game - what will be shown inside?

Manny: At LVCIDIA, our initiatives are centred around Eras, and during an Era, 6 Experiences are launched. Those monthly art experiences are created in collaboration with renowned digital artists in the space. The goal is to elevate the experience of creating and selling digital art for artists, while also elevating the experience of buying and owning digital art for collectors.
We launched our first one last month with Mad Dog Jones and we have 5 more coming in the next 5 months.
So for now, those first 6 Experiences will live on our website, but the objective is to integrate them as soon as possible inside LVCIDIA, the Unreal Engine platform, and present them as virtual art exhibitions.
So to answer your question, everything that was in the original Fvckrenderverse will be featured in LVCIDIA, which was mostly filled with Fvckrender’s artwork.
But the big change moving forward is that we’ll also feature monthly Experiences from other digital artists inside LVCIDIA that the collectors will be able to purchase or engage with.

How hands-on is Fvckrender with the project, and what's it like to work with him?

Manny: Fvckrender is a very trusting person, but he also knows exactly what he wants. So for someone like me, working on LVCIDIA is motivating, because I have a lot of freedom and a lot of room to grow, but I also have to be a perfectionist because Fvckrender is. Which is perfect because I naturally am.
Now for the involvement of Fvckrender, I would say that he is involved on a higher level. At the end of the day, he is an artist with a successful career, an investor on many projects, and a founder of a few other companies, so I can’t be bothering him with little day-to-day issues. I always consult him for big-picture stuff and important decisions because, although Fvckrender is involved in a lot of projects, he cares very deeply about every single one of them.

Can non-Fvckrender NFT collections be used inside Lvcidia?

Manny: As hinted previously, the goal is to expand LVCIDIA beyond what Fvckrender is doing by having monthly Experiences with renowned digital artists. So featuring other artists than Fvckrender inside LVCIDIA is exactly what we want to do.
Now, to be clear, those artists featured inside LVCIDIA with our Experiences will be the results of collaboration and agreements, so to have other artwork in your wallet to be featured inside LVCIDIA would require custom agreement to make it compatible with our platform. Since we’re building in Unreal Engine, we have to convert often the artists’ assets to integrate them, so it’s a lot of work but it’s doable.
We’re already thinking about creating a process to facilitate this because I think the artists, LVCIDIA and the collectors are all wishing for a platform that is as much interoperable as possible. 

Any alpha that you can share with our audience?

Manny: From the current internal roadmap we have, we are expected to relaunch LVCIDIA by the end of the year, which would be huge for us. In the coming weeks, we’re already having an Alpha version deployed internally for testing. It might not look like much, but this is the first time that we’re publicly giving a timeline for the relaunch of our platform.
And if everything goes well, that would mean that all Experiences of Era 3 would be launched inside LVCIDIA. 

If you had to describe the spirit of web3 in one word, what would it be?

Manny: Empowering. Web3 feels to me like a way to hack every industry we don’t like and turn them into something more empowering for the users.

Sacha: I will have to copy Manny on this one, it’s Empowerment. Web3 is about putting power back into the hands of the users, enabling us to control our own data and digital assets by removing the necessity for a third-party that stands in between users.

In your opinion, what are the best ways to get involved with web3?

Manny: I think this is much easier than people might think. Honestly, as someone who is leading a web3 project, anyone with a particular talent and enough motivation will get me interested. I think people who are still interested in being involved when times are a bit rougher will stand out.
So just engaging with the artists or projects you like, following them, commenting on their stuff, joining their discord, and offering solutions and your help is generally enough to be noticed. In my case, I was able to join 2 other web3 projects before LVCIDIA just by doing the above.

Sacha: In my opinion, the most effective route to immerse oneself in the world of web3 revolves around a blend of curiosity and active participation. An inherent curiosity plays a crucial role in any new technology. When you have a genuine interest in something, things will come your way naturally. My own journey began many years ago with a newly discovered fascination for blockchain technology - the underpinning structure for innovations such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Translating this interest into action was key for me. I didn't just stop at learning; it inspired me to pivot my career towards a direction more aligned with web3. I sought out and landed roles that allowed me to actively contribute to and shape the web3 ecosystem.

Apart from crypto-related topics, what else are you interested in?

Manny: I actually am an artist myself when I’m not managing the operations of LVCIDIA. I’ve been a successful photographer for years before LVCIDIA and I’ve composed a lot of songs in my free time, even tho I never released anything.

Sacha: Since the young age of 5, I’ve always had an immense passion for video games. But aside from gaming, I’ve picked up playing bass guitar a couple of years ago and love to jam with friends, funk music being the genre I like the most.

*Follow LVCIDIA

Hello everyone! Welcome to a special edition of Chitchat, where we are thrilled to bring you an exclusive group interview with artists who will grace our upcoming exhibition on ONBD's SuperRare space.

In this interview, we will delve deep into the artists' inspirations, exploring their unique artistic expressions and examining the profound impact of NFTs on their creative journeys.

What inspired you to become an artist?

Lele Gastini: My family’s background is surrounded by Art. My grandfather was a traditional art collector, he stimulated me to become an artist when I was just a child, joking with lines and inks. My inspiration mostly comes from society, emotions, and philosophy. I love to depict the role of human beings on the planet through symbols and seemingly chaotic elements.

Franklin: I have been drawing all my life. I just love drawing. It gives me freedom when I draw.

Bianca: I think my curiosity gifted my aesthetics and inspired me to become an artist.  I find my inspiration usually from my day-to-day life observations. I believe we are living in a time where we can find pieces of inspiration in each corner, we just need to be great observers.

Freemann: Opportunity through art to express your thoughts and feelings and betray your vision of the world.

ELnaz: As an experimental interdisciplinary artist, I have always had the desire to embrace everything that comes my way and incorporate it into my artistic journey. My inspiration is drawn from sources that I find beautiful in my eyes. Like many artists, I am constantly inspired by the world around me. Two things that have always been particularly inspiring to me are the world of dreams and the human body. I would love to delve deeper into exploring the human body in my future artistic career.

Narisofka: I'd say humans, feelings, and the uniqueness of each of us. I started taking art seriously when I was 17 years old, doing it intuitively, simply inspired by cartoons and the idea of how we can send kind messages to each other through the vibe of our art. Art can save the world, and I'm here for that!

How has NFT technology impacted the creative community and your artistic journey?

Franklin: It's a great chance to show your art to the whole world through NFT platforms. Through social networks, you reach many more people. It gives me a chance for more people to see my art.

Bianca:  I think it's hard not to be influenced by what's happening around you in this space. There are a lot of quick changes that happen, and you always need to adapt and stay grounded. I also believe there isn’t a fear of not being recognized anymore if you try to change or experiment. You always need to find a perfect balance.

ELnaz: As an NFT artist, I am empowered with the ability to truly embrace and express my style and vision. This technology has provided a platform where artists can showcase their work directly to a global audience, breaking free from the traditional gatekeepers of the art world. It has opened up new ways for collaboration, allowing artists to connect with collectors and enthusiasts from around the world. Talented artists thriving in the NFT space constantly inspire me, as their different styles, techniques, and perspectives are truly awe-inspiring.

Freemann: NFT technology has transformed the creative community and my own creative journey by offering new ways to sell and distribute works, providing transparency and value to artists, and increasing community collaboration.

Narisofka: Thanks to NFTs, I connected with my audience and it helped me become an artist who sells personal art, not just commissions. I met an incredible number of beautiful souls, including amazing artists, lovely collector friends, real-world friends, and even a boyfriend! NFTs are also my tool for finding inspiration.

Lele Gastini: The creative community has been overwhelmed by this incredible word: NFT. Someone jumped in someone not. Connections and art markets went crazy and became super inspiring. For me, the first period was stressful but also highly stimulating. The incredible power that digital art and traditional artists have reached through this space is astonishing.

What is the most challenging aspect of creating illustrations in the NFT space?

Lele Gastini: You absolutely need to train your trait and be more and more recognizable and original. Developing a personal style is key—it defines everything.

Narisofka: Always compare myself to other digital painters. They are just too expressive and cool. I wanna be like them but I also face the struggle of staying true to my own style and creating cartoons.

Freemann: For me, the most difficult thing in creating NFT art is to finish my art and stop constantly refining and redoing it, bringing it to perfection.

Bianca: I would say that being patient and gradually building a supportive community around you is crucial. They will continuously motivate you to become the best version of yourself. You have to build everything brick by brick

ELnaz: Creating illustrations in the NFT space comes with its challenges, but I see them as opportunities for growth. I have always struggled with new trends like other artists I think; however, I don't always see them as negative aspects. I sometimes try to personalize them and as I mentioned earlier, I embrace whatever comes my way. Meanwhile, I remain dedicated to maintaining and improving my own unique style.

Franklin: For me the hardest part is marketing. It's challenging for artists to create and develop marketing strategies while also focusing on creating their art and selling it.

What advice do you have for aspiring artists exploring the NFT realm?

Franklin: Don't be afraid to experiment, learn new things, and develop yourself.

Bianca: Embrace your uniqueness, draw inspiration from various sources, and value the feedback you receive. This space offers immense potential for growth, connecting with like-minded individuals, and discovering new opportunities. Stay curious, keep creating, and enjoy the journey.

Lele Gastini: Tell your world slowly, spontaneously, and personally. Work hard on your creations and effectively convey your message and emotions. Avoid excessive anxiety about selling or becoming "famous." Time to time!

Narisofka: NFT is a tool that you, as an artist, can use wisely. But don’t rely on it entirely. Put your eggs in different pots we say and you’ll be cool!

Freemann:  Believe in your art and always strive for improvement. Don't be afraid to experiment, be patient, and engage with the art community. Most importantly, enjoy what you are doing.

ELnaz: Present your best self, don't be afraid to experience, and always stay connected with the community.