Floor is Rising
NFT collector @Sabretooth and contemporary art critic @Kizu deep dive into NFTs. We discuss all the topics that are top of mind. Are NFTs more akin to the world of contemporary art or collectibles? Is it mostly about memes, clout harvesting, social capital flexes, or crypto wealth flaunting? Is this only for Gen Z, or can Boomers also get into the ring? Discord or Twitter? OpenSea, Superrare, Foundation, Makersplace, ArtBlocks, Hic et Nunc? In a space defined by homage, riffing and copying, and iterating, what’s left of the idea of copyright or originality, and the value arising from it? Ar...
S1 E80 · Mon, April 03, 2023
Non-speculative NFT search engine - Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey, Karthik Thiyagarajan
The Founders of https://twitter.com/lasso_labs https://twitter.com/nnhafrey and Karthik Thiyagarajan talk about the NFT search engine they built. Summary How did you get into NFTs? 0:00 Combining NFT data silos seamlessly to power new use cases. 4:26 Non-speculative use cases of NFTs. 9:39 Crypto-native games. 15:07 How Lassolabs index NFT data. 19:27 Learnings from early product feedback from users. 25:24 Utility as a proxy for NFT community health. 30:08
S1 E79 · Sun, February 05, 2023
NFT AMMs - Spencer Yang
Timestamps; How Spencer got involved with Crypto Kitties in Asia? 2:27 What’s unique about the asian market in the NFT space? 5:00 The current landscape of the NFT trading market. 11:22 What does the future of NFT trading marketplaces look like? 20:49 How are NFT AMMs superior to regular NFT marketplaces. 23:41 New usecases for NFT AMMs specifically for NFT projects in bootstrapping liquidity. 27:04 Collection.xyz how does it work? 33:44 Links https://twitter.com/spenceryang https://twitter.com/collectionweb3
S1 E78 · Thu, November 17, 2022
Reddit NFTs - 0xBoffin - Bull thesis
Boffin talks about how NFTs is an emotionally loaded term, and that many people would buy NFTs if they were not called that. Boffin talks his theory of why reddit NFTs will accrue value, and the longer the collectible lasts, the more people get on board, the oldest ones will be worth the most. Boffin says the earliest people have the best handles on twitter, and that they can use flex to stand out. Boffin says that Reddit NFTs is a pretty big bet personally for him on the long term future of them. Boffin talks about how the product decisions of the Reddit team have an impact on the future value of Reddit NFTs and how much they want to support the project. Boffin says owning the collectible avatars makes owners financially invested in reddit making good product decisions going forward. Boffin mentions the governance stack they’ve built on Arbitrum. Boffin talks about how he evaluates projects in general and talks about how to predict if a narrative will take off. Boffin talks about various narratives that he thought would take off but hasn't including Cool Cats . It has been directionless and the floor of the cool cats community has dropped. Boffin discusses the narrative of Squiggles as another example of a narrative that didn't take off like he thought. Boffin discusses his favourite nfts and says he like buying from small artists. Timestamps How he got into crypto in 2013. 1:33 The amount of capital he’s spent on reddit NFTs. 7:41 How to stand out in a digital world. 16:58 How much does reddit want to continue to support NFTs? 22:50 How traits work in Reddit NFTs - 25:56 NFT thesis that didn’t work out. 32:46 Coolcats, an example of a narrative that didn’t take off. 39:09 What is your favourite NTFT and why? - 43:30 Links; https://twitter.com/NinjaBoffin/status/1585626484731174912 https://twitter.com/NinjaBoffin/
S1 E77 · Tue, November 08, 2022
Capital markets for the Metaverse - present and future - David Choi, Conor Moore - Metastreet
Episode Show Notes Conor Moore discusses the two schools of thought on NFT lending markets, the peer to peer market vs the peer to pool market. And the various pros and cons of each approach. Conor Moore talks about how the inspiration for Metastreet vaults was to take the benefits of peer to pool and overlay that behind the peer to peer market. David Choi discusses Powersweep, an integration to increase captive use case for the vaults. David Choi notes that early on, users of the vaults were doing a positive carry trade because of the low cost of capital. That use case disappeared with the bear market onset. Now, they are pioneering use cases around leveraged NFT trading. Conor Moore talks about the how the leveraged purchase of NFTs is similar to real world examples of leveraged purchases such as real estate. David Choi notes that he didn't like the trad art lending markets because it’s slimy, fascinated by cash flow generating NFTs. David Choi talks about his vision for what Metastreet is building. David Choi discusses the Metaverse Economic Forum (MEF) and notes that their goal is to bring builders together into a more cohesive community to create the capital markets of the metaverse. David Choi and Conor Moore talk about what their favourite NFTs are. Timestamps The bad and the good of peer-to-peer lending markets. 6:06 What is the use case for NFT lending? 11:17 What are the differences between how people use borrowed funds in the art lending market vs. NFT lending? 16:12 What is the non-recourse art lending industry? 19:43 Do you think that a completely different demographic of people needs to come in order for NFTs to go "mainstream"? 25:15 What’s the future of capital markets in the metaverse? 29:34 Liquidity and price discovery in the metaverse. 37:41 Links https://metastreet.xyz/ https://mobile.twitter.com/_conormoore https://twitter.com/ktkzergs
S1 E76 · Tue, September 13, 2022
How to get beyond speculation in web3 gaming - 0xKepler
If you’re interested in the Web3 gaming space then today’s episode is for you! We’ll be unpacking where Web3 gaming is currently at, the trends we’ve been noticing, and what developments we expect to see from this field going forward. Here to help us unpack this topic is special guest, Kepler, a builder, and writer who specializes in crypto and the Web3 gaming space. Tuning in you’ll hear us discuss the state of Web3 gaming, the role that speculation plays in feeding this ecosystem, and how these games are succeeding (and failing) at creating new genres and formats. Our conversation covers some of the challenges that Web3 gaming is currently facing, including how to support both investors and gamers, and what it means to create an infrastructure that accommodates a range of risk profiles. We also discuss the concept of social innovation in gaming, how Web3 is facilitating it, and what some of our favourite Web3 games. Key Points From This Episode: Get to know today’s guest, Kepler, and how he got into the Web3 gaming space. Top takeaways from the recent article that Kepler wrote on Web3 gaming. Kepler’s thoughts on the future of Web3 gaming and how to limit speculation. The potential for people to play Web3 games for fun, and not just with an earning mindset. An overview of battle royale games and how they are significant to Web3 gaming. The potential role that esports and streamers could play in Web3 gaming. A breakdown of the analogy that compares Web3 games to nightclubs. How to create a Web3 game that accommodates a range of players. Why Web3 games should have the option of playing with different risk profiles. The concept of permadeath and how it affects your gaming experience. The difficult decision many Web3 games are facing when it comes to prioritizing their investors or their gamers. The new genres and functionalities that crypto and Web3 gaming could potentially offer. How Web3 gameplay is paving the way for social innovation. Why developers need to understand what different players are motivated by. The benefits of giving people the opportunity to explore all your gaming features. The real reasons why NFT and Web3 gaming has grown so quickly. Learn what Kepler’s favourite Web3 game of the moment is! Tweetables: “When you open the economy to everyone, even players that are not inside the game, and you allow for trading, you also open it up to speculation. And that can basically destroy your whole game.” — Kepler “You probably shouldn't make every asset into an NFT. Because it just becomes way harder for you to control the economy.” “Crypto is basically risky. So what you could do is have players self-select a risk profile. So when you're looking at an esports game, some people just want to
S1 E75 · Mon, September 05, 2022
Inside the Japanese NFT Scene - Takuya Kitagawa and AT
Ever wondered how different the world of NFTs is in Japan? Well, today we are lucky enough to be joined by two great guests, Takuya Kitagawa and AT , to give us some real, first-hand insight into the overlaps and contrasts that are happening with regard to the burgeoning scene. We have a great conversation unpacking some basics about our guests' entry into the NFT space, and what initially drew them in. From there we look at the major hallmarks of what is popular right now in Japan, and how this compares to the rest of the world, before talking about important aspects of the field such as influencer and celebrity marketing. Takuya and AT then spend some time illuminating the inner workings of Nannda, and some more general thoughts on game design, and we finish off our chat by considering which types of games appeal to different Japanese demographics and why. Join us to hear it all! Key Points From This Episode: Our guests' paths into working in the NFT space, and their initial excitement about it. Insight into the state of the Japanese scene right now. Thoughts on the current NFT projects that are having success in Japan. Contextualising differences in the Japanese market and some reasons for popularity. Influencer marketing of NFTs and the main drives for demand. The culture of big celebrity endorsement for brands and how this figures into the NFT landscape. Barriers to entry that are influencing the Japanese market right now. Comparing the mechanism at Nannda to other examples of play-to-earn. Risk and reward in the two different approaches to game design. The importance of the social dimension to games to increase engagement and difficulty. Japanese audiences' attitudes towards different types of games. Favourite NFT picks from Takuya and AT! Tweetables: “Influencer marketing itself is big in Japan, YouTubers are big, TikTokers are big. But this actually hasn't come to the NFT world yet.” “Japanese audiences play any kind of game, individual oriented game or a social game. Either way works. If it is a more individual game, you typically have to do more campaigns.” “When I see the Nouns community evolving really well, I get really excited, seeing that maybe that is the future of NFTs.” Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: AT Takuya Kitagawa on Twitter Floor Is Rising
S1 E74 · Tue, August 30, 2022
2022 FIR NFT Awards: Category - Gaming
This week we continue with our NFT awards. Today’s category is people’s favourite NFT games. Joining us in conversation is one of the most influential voices in the NFT space today, Mete Gultekin aka Vader Research! Tune in to hear about the games that ranked in the top three, the strategy of game-makers, and why liquidity is essential within the NFT marketplace. You’ll also hear our thoughts on whether compelling NFT gaming is possible, how our game that ranked first brought people into the world of NFTs, NFT gaming, and crypto. Our guest also reveals the unexpected similarities between the gaming and nightclub promotional models and touches on the sociological implications of the changing gaming space. Tune in today to hear more from this expert in all things NFT gaming! Key Points From This Episode: Today’s topic, continuing in our conversation on NFT awards: your favourite NFT games. Gods Unchained, how it works, and why it ranked third place in the NFT game awards. How blockchain-based games strategise monetarily. What Web3 games will change about their approach going forwards. Why trading mechanisms depend on a healthy secondary market and a friction-free marketplace. The importance of liquidity and balance within the NFT marketplace. Second place: Forgotten Runes. The crossover between art, metaverse, NFTs, and gaming. Answering the question of whether compelling gaming is possible. Our game that ranked first and how it brought people into NFTs, NFT gaming, and crypto. What has driven growth for Axie Infinity, and why the number of game players has dropped even though the quality has improved. How the NFT gaming space can be approached in the same way as the nightclub model. The expectations for Axie that have not been met and why it is increasingly difficult to get gamers’ attention. Game design and the different roles one can have, from pure enjoyment to monetary gain. Our guest’s thoughts on what makes for compelling gameplay. Answering the question of whether it’s truly possible to make game play fun in NFT gaming. The sociological implications of the changing gaming space. Tweetables: “Having liquidity is definitely important; otherwise, it’s going to be a very frustrating experience for the players.” — @DeFiVader “Forgotten Runes is not a typical NFT game in that it appeals to a different crowd. There is a pretty strong delineation between people who are interested in PFPs, people who are interested in art, [and] people who are interested in NFT gaming. There’s some crossover but not a lot.” @SabretoothSG “One of the things that could create a compelling gameplay, and not just in terms of being fun and enjoyable, where you want to spend ten hours on it, but rather that it i
S1 E73 · Tue, August 16, 2022
2022 FIR NFT Awards: Category - Metaverse
Today, we will discuss the results of the top metaverse projects with a special guest, Ogar. He originally worked in design and production in the video game and the esports industry for 10 years until he found his true calling in NFTs, blockchains, and the metaverse. Ogar launched his company in 2019, Ogar Production, to pursue his passion for alternative art that embraces the voxel atheistic. His work focuses on creating buildings and assets within the metaverse space, one block at a time! In this episode, we go through the various winners and discuss what makes them stand out, as well as the future potential and challenges for the metaverse space. We learn details about the winners, what Ogar thinks about the various projects, aspects that make each project special, the role of big corporations in the space, the value of indie projects, and much more! Tune in to hear from a leader and respected figure within this cutting-edge industry, Ogar! Key Points From This Episode: We learn how Ogar first started in the NFT space and what he is currently working on. Background about Sandbox and why he thinks it is an interesting project. What Ogar sees as the competitive advantage of Sandbox compared to similar projects. How he thinks Sandbox can strike a balance between people and technology. He shares what he thinks about the future potential and challenges are for Sandbox. What the new OM project is and how Ogar would characterize it. Whether OM will be able to meet the promises of users and be sustainable. Discussion about the narrative of OM and how it is beneficial to scaling the project. Learn about Cryptovoxels and what makes it different to other metaverses. Aspects that he enjoys the most about Cryptovoxels and why he values it the most. The vision that the developers of Cryptovoxels have in common with Ogar. Some of the problems and challenges that Cryptovoxels may have in future. Comparison of Cryptovoxels to other metaverses. The characteristics of Cryptovoxels that makes it appealing to people. How Ogar feels about Cryptovoxels’ focus on art within the digital space. An overview of the winner of the vote: Decentraland. Why Ogar thinks Decentraland won and what is the mass appeal. Ogar gives us his opinion on the role of Facebook in popularising metaverse. We end the show by finding out what Ogar’s favorite metaverse project is. Tweetables: “Whatever you deliver, you deliver it in a better world.” — @Dat_Ogar [0:12:56] “I believe that the metaverse will be the one to clear the path and act like a laboratory of metaverse societies that will function under the development of decentralized contracts.” — @Dat_Ogar [0:24:22] “In Cryptovoxels, I feel l
S1 E72 · Sun, July 31, 2022
2022 FIR NFT Awards: Category - Artist
In 2017, Jason Bailey immersed himself in the world of NFTs, with the hope of slowly shaping a better art world. Four years later, the industry exploded into the mainstream, and although it looks different from what Jason had imagined, the increased levels of access and democratization keep him passionate about, and inspired by, the space. Even before becoming involved with NFTs, Jason lived his life at the intersection of art and technology, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in art and 20 years of experience working for tech startups. For these reasons, we thought he would be the perfect guest to join us for a deep dive into the work of the winners of this year’s FIR Awards! Listen in as Jason shares his thoughts on artists Cath Simard, Deafbeef, Beeple, and XCOPY, and why the legacy of the NFT revolution will be the social change that it has brought about. Key Points From This Episode: An overview of Jason’s journey navigating the intersection between art and technology. Jason’s entry into the world of NFTs in 2017, and how things have changed since then. Motivation behind the founding of ClubNFT. An introduction to the work of NFT artist Cath Simard. The original crypto art collectors and what that bulk of new NFT collectors are buying. Factors that make the work of Deafbeef unusual in the NFT space. Thoughts on the accessibility of Deafbeef’s work. How most of the traditional art world views NFTs, and why Jason disagrees. Changes to the art world brought about by the NFT revolution. Jason’s love/hate relationship with Beeple’s $69 million sale. Exploring the work of XCOPY, the winner of the FIR Awards! Tweetables: “In NFTs, it’s not just that the art stands alone, but there’s also a sense that you can follow along with the artist, look up to the artist, or at least admire them for their principles and their approach.” — Jason Bailey “[NFTs] really did, to some degree, democratize who gets to make art and ways of selling art and who feels comfortable collecting art. We probably have more art collectors today than we’ve ever had in history, and maybe more artists selling work than we’ve ever had in history.” — Jason Bailey Jason Bailey Floor Is Rising
S1 E71 · Mon, July 25, 2022
2022 FIR NFT Awards: Category - PFPs
For today's show we welcome back Brandon Buchanan, to discuss the intriguing results of our 2022 NFT Awards where we surveyed friends of the show and look at the top four PFPs. This category of the awards was by far the most popular, receiving more votes than any other. And we have to be honest, there were some surprises! We get to hear some really interesting perspectives from Brandon on our top four projects, Doodles, Nouns, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks. We discuss Pharrell Williams' involvement with Doodles, how Bored Ape Yacht Club rewrote the playbook for NFTs, the unusual roadmap that Nouns have created for themselves, and why CryptoPunks are still the most important player in the history of the game. Key Points From This Episode: Building a brand beyond the world of NFTs; Brandon's thoughts on funding and investment. Weighing Pharrell Williams' decision to come on board with Doodles and what this means. Nouns' daily options and the implications of this relating to pricing and demand. Looking at the Nouns trajectory and the long horizon they have laid out. Board Ape Yacht Club's serious impact on the PFP sphere, and their polarising status. Misunderstandings about the way that Bored Ape flipped the crypto playbook. Considering the influence of fashion, memes, and more general rules of branding. Why CryptoPunks are the Michael Jordan of the NFT PFP space! Thoughts on the role of the CryptoPunks founders and why they broke the mould. Tweetables: “I like that we are moving away from this idea that PFPs are just there to flex. I like this idea that NFTs can be a gateway to community, a gateway to participating in governance.” — Brandon Buchanan [0:07:14] “I think Bored Ape's contribution to the NFT space, particularly with the the PFPs has to be revered, they have done so much across the board.” — Brandon Buchanan [0:33:51] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:s Brandon Buchanan Brandon Buchanan on LinkedIn Doodles Pharrell Williams Nina Chanel Abney Meek Mill J
S1 E70 · Mon, June 20, 2022
Lucas Pontes - Fingerprints DAO, RAW DAO, NFT collector DAOs
Show Notes. Just as NFT technology has disrupted the way art is commercialised, so too is it disrupting the way art is curated. Joining us today to break down the role of curatorial DAOs is Lucas Pontes. Lucas is part of Fingerprints DAO and RAW DAO, in this episode, he fills us in on the greatest issues NFT collector DAOs face, as well as the solutions they aim to solve. We discover the parallels between the traditional art world and the NFT art world, in terms of legislation and curation, as well as the novel, decentralised curatorial system of RAW DAO and its subsequent challenges. Lucas predicts the evolution of the DAO as a format, before delving into NFT photography and what it means for the traditional photography space. Tune in to find out more about all things DAO, and how curation competence is ensured in the ever-evolving world of NFTs! Key Points From This Episode: How Lucas Pontes got into NFTs and how he got involved with Fingerprints DAO. Lucas explains Fingerprints DAO and his role in the DAO. The biggest issue with NFT collector DAOs: the unclear business model. Fingerprints DAO’s current business model and brand attributes. The solution Fingerprints is selling to NFT collectors. The balance between the DAO as a format and the art itself in terms of creating, retaining, and returning value. The novel and decentralised curatorial system of RAW DAO. The meticulous art-centred curatorial process of Fingerprints. How DAO members make decisions about acquisitions. The similarities between gallery and DAO acquisition processes. The parallels between the traditional art world and the NFT art world. The challenges of the decentralised curation model and ensuring curation competence. Fingerprints DAO’s plans to stray from solely Ethereum acquisitions to include real-world acquisitions. The impact of the NFT market on photography. The criteria by which RAW DAO deems a piece of NFT photography valuable. Lucas’ prediction of the evolution of the DAO as a format. How NFT technology disrupted the way art is commercialised. The differences between photography NFTs and traditional photography. Lucas’s favourite artists. Tweetables: “Perhaps the biggest issue with collector DAOs is there isn’t a very clear business model.” — @lucasponn “The main purpose of [Fingerprints DAO] is fostering the best collection that we can.” — @lucasponn “In RAW DAO there is a more decentralised curatorial system in place, which is quite interesting.” — @lucasponn “As much as people rely on experts, you can’t just say anything is art.” — @lucasponn “There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the traditional art world
S1 E69 · Mon, June 13, 2022
Cole Sternberg - "Crossing Over" from Contemporary Art to NFTs
Show Notes Cole Sternberg is a critically acclaimed contemporary artist who is now entering the world of NFTs. His first NFT drop was on June 10th and in this episode, we hear about the broader concept of his work and how it manifests through the process of relinquishing control to code. Cole fills us in on what it is that he loves about generative work, and why he chose to embrace the technology tied to NFTs rather than simply turn his physical art into jpegs. We also find out more about the differences between the physical art world and the NFT world in terms of ranking and collector trends, interactions, and expectations. As a ‘crossover’ artist, if you will, Cole explains the dynamic (and the thrill) of exploring the new medium of NFTs, as well as the digital literacy gap between physical art and the NFT space. Tune in to hear about Cole’s exploration process, how his themes of human erasure manifest in his NFT works, and how NFTs act as a commentary on society! Key Points From This Episode: Why Cole Sternberg chose to enter the NFT world via Art Blocks. Cole’s choice to embrace the technology tied to NFTs, rather than turn physical art into jpegs. The themes of his work: erasure of the human hand, and the earth itself as a composer. How his upcoming NFT collection addresses these themes in the digital form. What Cole loves about generative work. How it feels to relinquish control to code versus nature. Cole’s learning process of thinking more abstractly and getting to his imagined final product. How interactions with collectors differ in the physical art world versus the NFT world. Why ranking NFTs according to their floor price is detrimental. How NFT curatorial concepts can (and should) evolve. The crossover dynamic of established contemporary artists moving into the NFT space. The digital literacy gap between the physical art world and the NFT world. NFTs as a commentary on society. Speculation on how Light and Space artists would have approached NFTs. Cole’s favourite artists! Tweetables: “All these different things emerge when you expose paintings physically to the elements.” — @colesternberg “That broad idea of erasing the human hand and giving it back to the earth, I wanted to address that in the digital form.” — @colesternberg “There’s not much transparency in the physical art world but there’s basically infinite transparency in the NFT world.” — @colesternberg “There’s an inherent crossover that should be irresistible to most artists.” — @colesternberg “It’s a crazy thing that a medium can come over a few-year period, tops, and become so prevalent in the world and in the market.” — @colesternberg Lin
S1 E68 · Mon, June 06, 2022
NFT crosschain - The Teleportation Paradox - Drew Beller, Prateek Shah - Spanning Labs
Today on the Floor Is Rising Podcast we are joined by Prateek Shah and Drew Beller, the two Co-Founders of Spanning Labs, to speak about what their company is offering the world of NFTs and why artists and collectors should be excited about the expansion of possibilities they are bringing to the space. We get to hear all about the company and how our guests made their way to the advent of this project before we dive into their vision for cross-chain interoperability and the practicalities of what this will mean when they launch publicly early next year. Along the way, we cover some interesting ground, hearing from Drew and Prateek about the lessons in consensus the blockchain space has taken from robotics, what they see on the near horizon for the NFT markets, some of their competitors, and how they differentiate themselves, and a little about the architecture of their solution. So, in order to hear all about an exciting addition that might be the answer to your needs, be sure to press play! Key Points From This Episode: Our guests' backgrounds and journey into their current roles working in the NFT realm. Cross-pollination between robotics and the blockchain space. Spanning Labs' solution for cross-chain interoperability. Detailing how ownership changes in NFTs under the Spanning Labs NFT framework and what is meant by 'moving owners around'. The intricacies of blockchains like Solana and how the Spanning network fits into these transactions. Potential changes to the NFT landscape in the next few years, with increasingly lower barriers to entry. More power and control for creators to make decisions about their art. Drew and Prateek's perspectives on competition in their section of the market. Differences between Spanning Labs and competitive solutions such as LayerZero. Integration with OpenSea and how Spanning NFTs can be deployed and function. An explanation of multi-chain addresses in the current climate. Adoption strategies from Spanning Labs in the context of the bear market. The modular architecture of Spanning, and what this enables for transfers. Where and how to learn more about Spanning Labs! Drew and Prateek's favourite NFT artists and projects, and what they are most excited about on the horizon. Tweetables: “There won't be one blockchain to rule them all, but there might be one blockchain that's the best at payment processing.” — @DrewBeller “It's really important to us that an NFT is always owned by the user.” — @DrewBeller “The important thing to keep in mind is that it's not possible for a contract to meant
S1 E67 · Mon, May 30, 2022
P1xelfool - Lo-fi conceptual generative artist
Episode 66: Show Notes. Today we have a great chat with generative artist, p1xelfool, about how NFTs became his main practice and source of income, and his philosophy towards the evolution of the art world. p1xelfool tells us about his focus on the feelings that art can evoke, and why he values these over intellectualisation and representation. We also discuss why making his work look distinctly digital is a central part of what he does at the moment, and how his path diverged from his focus on a more classical painting practice. As a relative newcomer to the world of NFTs, p1xelfool's story is one that many artists might relate to; we speak about the possibilities of the future, what it means to stand out in these burgeoning and sometimes overcrowded spaces, and where and who he draws most of his inspiration from. To hear it all from this great guest, join us! Key Points From This Episode: p1xelfool's route into the world of NFTs and the part that using Bitcoin played. The decision that p1xelfool had to make between pursuing generative art and painting. p1xelfool's innate attraction to obsolete technologies and low-resolution work. The market's appreciation of difficult mediums such as generative art. A look at the tools that are used in p1xelfool's creative process. Thoughts on 'concrete' and abstract generative works and why our guest shifted gears in his latest project. The challenge of standing out in the digital realm; how our guest approaches catching viewers attention. p1xelfool's thoughts on the current stage of his career and hopes for the future. The big influence that Nicolas Sassoon has had on p1xelfool's work and attitude. Tweetables: “I have always loved the idea of playing with obsolete technologies.” — @p1xelfool [0:05:40] “One of the things that I like about low-resolution works is that it is very restrictive, and I see that as a challenge.” — @p1xelfool [0:09:12] “When I started p1xelfool, I decided that I wanted to create something that is more sparkly, in some way.” — @p1xelfool [0:12:27] “I try not to represent anything. What I try to do is somehow evoke feelings or try to examine the feelings that a work brings in.” — @p1xelfool [0:14:40] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: p1xelfool p1xelfool on Twitter Nicolas Sassoon on Twitter Floor
S1 E66 · Mon, May 23, 2022
Hemba - Earliest largest cryptopunk holder -> controversial founder of "V1 Cryptopunks"
Welcome to the podcast Floor is Rising. During today’s conversation, we are visited by special guest Hemba, a famous collector in the CryptoPunks community. He is the founder of CryptoPunks V1 and tells us the story of how he claimed his first Punk and became the largest punk holder. Next, we dive into the history of the CryptoPunks trading market, the “hack” that led to the “hard fork”. Hear Hemba tell the drama filled lore of his journey in the crypto punk community and why he believes the story needs to be told. Thanks for tuning in! Key Points From This Episode: Welcome to today’s guest, Hemba, founder of CryptoPunk V1. The story of how he got into NFTs. How he claimed his first punk and realised what he was up against. The story of how the cryptopunk trading market started and how you can look back on the early Reddit posts to see the energy around even small amounts being spent. How he “hacked” the original cryptopunk contract that led to a “hard fork”. The 82 transactions that were completed before the second Cryptopunks contract, of which 69 were Hemba. How he ended up selling all of his punks by 2020 How he came to start CryptoPunk V1 and collaborated with Frank to create the V1 wrapper. Why he believes the CryptoPunk story needs to be told. Why he believes that the cryptopunk community needs to unite rather than fighting each other as the best way forward. How Yuga buying Cryptopunks affected the rights you have as holders of the token, to freely trade, exhibit, and trade. His focus on education, installations, and events, and why he believes CryptoPunks are an important part of art history. Tweetables: “I think the CryptoPunk story must be told, and the CryptoPunks community must come together to share it.” — @soldthebottom [0:33:57] “The path forward is finding some kind of acceptance and peace. Really I think this is an opportunity for the whole community of Punk lovers to go, this is our chance to do something with CryptoPunks.” — @soldthebottom [0:38:27] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Hemba on Twitter Floor Is Rising
S1 E65 · Mon, May 16, 2022
MetaKovan - Beyond the "Beeple Sale"
Episode 65: Show Notes. MetaKovan made history by kicking off the biggest NFT boom by purchasing the most expensive NFT on record, Beeple's 'The First 5000 Days'. MetaKovan is also the founder of the Metapurse Fund, and NFT studio and investment fund, and we get to talk to him today, hearing all about his philosophy, current projects, and where he sees the world of art and NFTs heading in the near future. Our guest shares some really thought-provoking views on the societal functions of art, where art's value really lies, and why personal relationships with pieces of work are so important. For MetaKovan, art is all about experience and interaction, and he sees the hoarding and private storing of important pieces as a waste and misuse of their power. So to hear it all from a truly central member of this new world, be sure to join us for this great episode! Key Points From This Episode: Thoughts on the power of crypto and art as equalising forces in the contemporary world. MetaKovan’s decision to invest in Beeple and the process of consideration. Issues with infrastructure for artists outside of the western context. The long-term impact of MetaKovan’s groundbreaking purchase. What most excited MetaKovan’s about purchasing a piece of art from Beeple. Evolving attitudes about the role of the artist and the growth of the idea of creators as designers. Commission and co-creation; how MetaKovan fits into the NFT ecosystem. MetaKovan unpacks his assertion about the public utility of art. How MetaKovan sees money and the Metaverse developing in the coming years. MetaKovan shares his favourite up-and-coming NFT artist and the excitement he has about them! Tweetables: “Art has this nature where its value, that accrues to the art itself, is very different to the market.” — @MetaKovan [0:04:30] “How does art become valuable? In a lot of ways it's the story, it's how people hold it over time.” — @MetaKovan [0:04:58] “That's where I am now, thinking about how do we make sure that use this phenomenal change that has happened in a way that is sustainable, and has lasting impact.” — @MetaKovan [0:06:02] “In a few years, I'll be really proud if I am able to buy art from different parts of the world.” — @MetaKovan [0:12:51] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: <a hr
S1 E64 · Mon, May 09, 2022
Mark Soares - Tezos NFT ecosystem post Hic Et Nunc "incident"
FIR with Mark Soares On today’s episode of the ‘ Floor Is Rising’, hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Mark Soares, CMO/Founder at Blokhaus, a Marketing Agency, associated with the Tezos Blockchain, discusses NFTs and Tezos. Episode Highlights 01:19 – Mark shares the story of how he became aware of NFTs. 04:40 – Around April, and May 2021, it started taking off in terms of people's realization that there's a carbon footprint to Ethereum. 06:38 - After Hic et Nunc took off In May 2021 they started looking at opportunities with institutions, Art Fairs, and Art Basel. 08:25 – A lot of people don't realize that the teams that work within the Tezos Ecosystem are long time Tezos nerds. 13:00 – It's hard to kill a platform that's decentralized, or that's built in a way that can be redeployed seamlessly. 15:25 – After HEN was rugged, the team were kind of in limbo, trying to determine how, and where we are going to drive traffic to for the artists because they had their work there. 17:30 – People are asking where are the NFT stored? Are you building it? Can I still access it? Those are really important questions to answer, mentions Mark. 19:30 - It's interesting in terms of how different categories of arts receive work and what is being sold. 21:15 – Can we solidify the rules of engagement when you're selling for a use case, and not necessarily selling the work itself. 26:31- It's a big selling point for Tezos as a brand and as an Ecosystem to have all these. All these cool people are creating amazing artwork. 28:25 – Sabre enquires that there's an indie side and then there’s a lot of corporate stuff going on so how does Mark coexist not just now but going into the future? 32:50 – Mark refers to the NFT of a large global brand like Coca-Cola as an example. Two Key Points There are three things that make Tezos attractive to do NFTs on and it's important from a positioning standpoint. Number one is little transaction fees, number two is the energy-efficient story, and number three is on-chain governance, which allows you to self-upgrade and evolve. Mark feels that the two camps have to coexist (Corporate and Artist camp) both provide different use cases. The corporate camp is more driven towards utility and it's more of the architecture or the infrastructure of the NFC that's attractive to them as a means of engaging their very large user bases. Then there is the artist’s community which really started the whole NFT movement, and they want to preserve the authenticity and the creativity of the artwork, and many of them don't want to add too much utility or even consider it because they want it to be Art. You have to educate each one or at least engage with each one and solve problems for each one. Tweetable Quotes <u
S1 E63 · Wed, May 04, 2022
The Grail Thesis NFT fund - Meta4 - Brandon Buchanan
Brandon Buchanan On today’s episode of ‘ Floor Is Rising’ podcast, hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Brandon Buchanan, Founder and Managing Partner at Meta4 Capital, been in crypto a long time and now running an NFT fund. He explains why the Grail Thesis of investing in NFTs is the way to go. Episode Highlights 00:58 – Brandon shares how he got into NFTs and also how he came to found the Meta4 NFT Fund. 03:15 –They've been trying to acquire the best assets, and most innovative and important collections dating back all the way to 2014. 05:25 - Michael Jordan rookie card is considered a Grail and they certainly have some of those in NFT’s space. 07:35 – Crypto Punks certainly continue to be, if not the top collection of all time, they are still amongst the top. So from a number’s perspective, it's still there, says Brandon. 09:20 – Brandon says, when they first put out the Bored Apes, even they themselves would admit that they didn't think the project was probably going to be as big as it is now. 11:48 - When they were mapping out the deployment of the fund, a lot of it meant doing this retrospective of NFTs to show where they've been, where they are now, and where they could potentially be headed. 13:35 – Brandon wanted to have their own internal tools that they can use to be able to execute such a strategy. 15:00 - When you look at the earlier NFTs like Rare Pepe or a Crypto Punk. They'd be very hard-pressed to say that's a security, but that is essentially a form of digital art or digital collectible, states Brandon. 17:35 - There's just something so beautiful about hearing the base that everything else is built on top of, and it's the same way with NFT's. 19:25 – There is just a ton of demand for new launches, and new projects that people want to get on the ground floor. 21:34 – Brendon thinks, if they didn't make that purchase, then at the outset, they probably could have gotten it for somewhat a bit of discount today. 23:14 - Brendon talks what NFT projects are right now seems to be pretty fairly valued. 25:35 – Sabre enquires, who these individual institutions are who will come into the NFT space? 30:02 - We do need to De-Risk and help with UX, UI way so that people can interact with NFTs and that’s all part of the process. 32:00 – Media is definitely going to play a more prominent role over the next several months in educating the market. 34:00 - Brendon shares about his favourite NFT Artist and his favourite NFT collection. Two Key Points Once you get into this realm, where you are doing Airdrops, where there is an expectation from the consumer that they're going to profit based on the efforts of the folks that are running the enterprise, you start to get in a grey area of what's the security
S1 E62 · Mon, April 25, 2022
Jordi Alexander - NFT market crystal ball gazing
FIR with Jordi Alexander On today’s episode of ‘ Floor Is Rising’, hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Jordi Alexander, Game Theorist and 1st Principles Thinker, CIO of Selini Capital & Advisor to many NFT Projects, All-around games expert, and former poker player who has a lot of opinions on things to Crypto. He shares his opinions on a variety of subjects related to NFT's. Episode Highlights 01:45 – Jordi shares how he got into Crypto and his first introduction to NFTs. 03:35 - There's a lot more psychology involved behind thesis in NFTs, says Jordi. 05:35 – Sabre and Jordi discuss the BAYC flipping of the Punks pfps. 07:25 – Jordi talks about the two things that he finds interesting in his current role. 09:38 – Jordi thinks a lot about the fragmentation of liquidity and what does that end game look like? 12:28 – Kizu asks if the community is driving the price or if the price is driving the community. 14:07 – The best practice that most people think of in the NFT space is post hoc rationalization. This is valuable because it increased the price thus, it is now valuable. 16:00 - The price has been a reflection of what has gone right and what has gone wrong, states Jordi 17:35 – Jordi explains the concept of risk-adjusted investing. 19:54 – Jordi discusses NFT from a legal and security perspective. 22:17 - There are arguments to be made that they are securities and this creates a lot of legal battles that are going to have to be fought, highlights Jordi 24:00 – The NFT being part of the community, it is good if you reward people in that NFT community. If they're being active in the community, you want to give them something that's the very basic thing. 26:11 – When you add financial incentives to a particular game design or game mechanic that didn't have that before, it turns into completely something else. 29:33 – Jordi expresses his view on how he feels about attempting to dethrone the open sea situation that probably will play out in the next few years. 32:43 - We will have wallets specially designed for NFTs where we’ll have our wallet address and for all the other EVM chains and everything else that exists, states Jordi. 34:35 - It's a little bit of a circular thing where people are paying fees to themselves to get a slightly higher percentage of rewards, mentions Jordi. 36:22 – Jordi is very curious to see how digital artists start to create modes for themselves where their art cannot be as easily replicated and that is quite sustainable. 38:00 – Jordi shares about building community when it is one on one. 40:00 - The benefit of NFT is that everybody can look at it. It's not like it's locked up somewhere. Everybody's looking at the creation and there is the status aspect as well. 42:
S1 E61 · Tue, April 19, 2022
Kevin Abosch - OG best-selling NFT artist
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: Kevin Abosch Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode, SabreTooth and Kizu interview Kevin Abosch, an OG crypto artist. Kevin began formal practice as an artist 33 years ago. Beginning with digital photography, he explains his art as always have been at the intersection of art and technology. After getting publicity from a project he built in which users of the portal could communicate anonymously, he was approached by a number of Bitcoin wallet companies who wanted to acquire the same technology. This sent him into a deepdive on all things blockchain. In January of 2018, Kevin made his first big statement by tokenizing himself in the form of 10 million ERC-20 tokens. This idea for I AM A COIN came to him after many years of feeling commodified as an artist. When Kevin released his book Bank in 2013, few people seemed to show interest in the subject matter. In fact, he explains, the mainstream is only just now beginning to show interest in crypto, which has previously been seen as an alien. For decades, digital art was very marginalized from the professional art world. Many early practitioners of digital art were not prolific and spoke the language of technology, which most traditional artists did not have in common. Art institutions are only growing interest in digital art now because of the monetary potential seen in the medium’s growing popularity. There is very little consensus on what crypto and NFT art means, though for Kevin it is simply a methodology of creation. The traditional art world has been hesitant to accept pioneers of digital art, though they are slowly coming around. Kevin ultimately believes that if there is money to be made in this field, then those with money and in power positions will control the narrative, show, media and marketplace. They discuss trash art among other prominent “newer” art movements. Historically, we know that the art world loves a movement, as there is power in numbers. Among many NFT artists, it is clear that there is a lack of understanding regarding how their practice fits into the context of the tradition of making art for thousands of years. The “new” concepts, such as trash art and found art, have really been done for decades and are nothing new at all. Kevin discusses his first major NFT project 1111 . Though the amount of work it required nearly killed him, it was a satisfying and well received project overall. The most challenging thing, he recalls, was finding the ability to sit back and watch his work be commodified. He prefers to know that his work has made it into good hands and people are finding
S1 E60 · Thu, April 14, 2022
Mario Gabriele - Writing article about Opensea->Starting a NFT project
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: Mario Gabriele Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host Sabre Tooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode of Floor is Rising , host Sabre Tooth is joined by Mario Gabriele, founder of The Generalist and one of the best writers on the internet. He found NFTs last year, like so many others, through Twitter. He’s always been interested in crypto and understanding that world, so when NFTs popped off, it was a natural fit for him. The inflection point for him was when Apes hit the market. Writing a piece for The Generalist led him to buying and creating his own NFTs. He felt like there was a missed opportunity in the market because it was so aesthetic-based, and the source material wasn’t super deep. He wanted to view NFTs as a literary character and filter them less by aesthetic and more about their character. It was this line of thinking that led him to creating Philosophical Foxes. Inspired by BAYC, he aims to build out the lore of his Foxes and wants to tell stories with them using novel technology. The market can be irrational and fickle, so he hopes his community and narrative are the measures of success he’s judged upon, rather than how much the price is. Of course he wants a triple hit in which the price is competitive, but he believes that comes after the success of the story. The ultimate NFT bottleneck is the noise in the market. Many are cool projects, but Mario explains that there are also bad projects and scams out there. Literary projects, he believes, will be a slower burn as people begin to diversify their interest in NFTs. They want to infiltrate everything, film, media, digital, and more. He’s sure that some will be broad and hit all of those markets, but others may niche down to just eBooks, or instagram. The thing he’s currently most interested in is the immediate social capital given to NFTs. One of the first things Mario did when creating Foxes is setting their values. One of the first ones was Philosophy not Floor. The people who have a bunch of Foxes are some of the best builders in the world, so while he wants to be literary and philosophical, he doesn’t want to be precious. Foxes are in the beginning stages, so he’s excited to move into the messy middle. Lastly, Mario explains his current favorite artist is Dom Hoffman, and his work in Corruptions. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review! Timestamps: 1:00 – Introduction to this ep
S1 E59 · Thu, April 07, 2022
Sasha Fleyshman - Arca NFT portfolio manager - NFT gaming
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: Sasha Fleyshman Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host Sabre Tooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode of Floor is Rising , host Sabre Tooth is joined by Sasha Fleyshman, Arca Chemist on Twitter and Portfolio Manager at Arca , one of the biggest brand names in crypto funds. The episode begins with Sasha talking about how he got into NFTs and became the portfolio manager at Arca. He began by helping to test the different products and shares how his unique skills and experience in gaming helped him in this field. He had always found it interesting and was an expert in the mechanics of it, which helped him grow in his knowledge and reach his current position. He also shares about his role in helping pitch ideas to the team and begin running new strategies on an institutional level. Next, Sasha and Sabre discuss the differences between individuals buying NFTs versus institutions buying them. First, Sasha points out how everyone does it in different ways with different strategies. However, he encourages all buyers to look at the underlying project of the NFT as well as the relationship of the success of the profit to the success of the asset to help inform decisions. The NFT gaming sector has grown largely in recent years, and Sasha also discusses two of the leading factors in this growth, specifically in how Covid increased involvement. Moving on to the specifics of the NFT gaming sector, Sasha next discusses the different ways that the playing fields are made even and fair. He also dives into the enhanced PvP mechanics of this field. These originally started out as unsustainable because of low effort games being put out into the field, however, Sasha shares his confidence that the games which build IP will survive and thrive. He lists some of the games about to be dropped soon which he has high hopes for and points out the importance of gaining attention from gamers through the creation of backstories. Sasha then gives insight into how to assess a game’s solid IP. Because this field is still in the early stages of its growth and development, it can be difficult to truly assess them. However, he does discuss the benefits of looking for an alpha or beta, asking questions directly to the team, and reading whitepapers to make sure everything checks out. Another important key Sasha encourages listeners to look out for is how the assets correlate to the project. He gives some examples of different games that
S1 E58 · Tue, March 29, 2022
Investing in Virtual Land - Market Structure and Usecases - PangeaDAO
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: PangeaDAO Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode, SabreTooth and Kizu interview the two pseudonymous founders of PangeaDAO, Punk8621 and Albert Wegener. As Albert and Punk explain, PangeaDAO is a collective of investors, artists, creators, builders, and people who want to create cool things in the metaverse and to gain exposure to different kinds of metaverse land ("land" that is perhaps better understood with the analogy of a software engineering SDK). PangeaDAO is designed to bring people together to acquire metaverse land and develop on it, creating revenue-generating ventures. The work of PangeaDAO is not all about revenue, though, but is about creating things of lasting value that benefit the community, as well as making an easy way for any individual or retail investor to get access to a diversified portfolio of metaverse land assets. This focus on access works against the current barriers to entry for individuals and investors who are not associated with large companies, and intends to make the metaverse a more equitable space. The focus also represents the central concern that drove Punk and Albert to develop the plan for PangeaDAO in the first place. They describe their respective backgrounds in the NFT space, and how they arrived at the realization that people need relationships and networks in order to acquire metaverse land. Without ample funds and the right contacts, small retail investors have a disadvantage in their efforts to buy, and the advantages enjoyed by larger companies skew areas of the metaverse in their favor. Given the fact that land is only as valuable as what you do with it, Punk and Albert established their cooperative in order to do something productive with land using a network of creatives. While big companies are currently snapping up land to hold as a revenue-generating asset, organizations like PangeaDAO intend to build gallery spaces, in-world games, and other such ventures that offer long-term value. While use cases like in-world games are currently popular in the metaverse, they are only the beginning. Punk and Albert expect the metaverse to shape the future of work and social media, and much more. The metaverse in general offers a place to connect, host, and bring in culture, and Punk and Albert expect that it is only the first iteration of the next version of the internet! Even with all the efforts toward metaverse decentralization, its free market will always mean that there are winners and losers, as well as trends of gentrification. However, if a world constructed within the metaverse becomes unpalatable to those in it, people are fre
S1 E57 · Fri, March 25, 2022
Jenny Sutto - Tiktok Twins -> Head of Marketing ->NFT Podcast host
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: FIR - Jenny Sutto Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Jenny Sutto, aka “Jenny from the Blockchain” and host of the NFT Catcher Podcast. As the conversation begins, Jenny shares her background in the NFT space. It was her twin sister who introduced her to crypto in 2017, and to NFTs in 2020. Jenny’s first NFTs were a dozen cryptokitties and, shortly after, she got into NBA Top Shot quite early. Now, Jenny is fully immersed in the world of NFTs and is Head of Market for Evaluate Market. She decided to start making weekly update videos detailing what was happening in Top Shot and offer tips for beginners. She quickly gained subscribers and was offered the position with Evaluate. When she retired from making Youtube videos, her podcast began. Before making her Top Shot videos on YouTube, Jenny was actually a content creator on TikTok. She speaks about the differences in making short vs. long term content and the ability for TikToks to draw people’s interest towards new things. Though short term content is overly flashy and doesn’t always show the whole story to things, it’s very nature of being attention-grabbing helps introduce more people to NFTs. Then, Jenny reflects on the NFTs about which she initially didn’t understand the hype, such as Bored Apes. She didn’t like the art or profile pictures of the apes which was her initial turn off. Anyone can make a profit by flipping, but it takes a certain person to hold on to diamond hands until the end. SabreTooth shares his theory that people holding onto NFTs are similar to the hypebeast fashion community. Thus, the experience you bring with you into the NFT space will inform what projects you will get and diamond hand, and which you will not get and flip. Jenny herself got into Top Shot because she was already into Blockchain technology. She spent much time learning about crypto before ever putting any money into it. When you have been holding onto something for long enough, she reveals, it gets harder and harder to allow yourself to let go of it. Many people are beginning to value their digital identity over their real life one. Jenny believes this is because you can have a bigger impact online and reach more people. For this reason it will likely become more popular to own things digitally because more people can see the things you have. The value of NFTs is largely dependent on the price and the aura around it. Patience and discipline are a huge part of being in this space. In closing, she shares her favorite artist. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a rev
S1 E56 · Tue, March 22, 2022
Martin Lukas Ostachowski - Crypto Art Historian
Podcast: Floor Is Rising Episode: FIR - MLO Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you’re a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in! On today’s episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Martin Lukas Ostachowski (MLO), a crypto artist and crypto art historian who got his artistic start in painting before beginning to incorporate digital tools into his process and eventually shift to thinking digital first. Around 2017, Martin developed an interest in crypto (the technology more than the currency), and he looked for applications in the art space. As he moved his practice more digital, he began to develop a body of work with an educational tone that helped bridge the gap between complex emerging digital technologies and everyday people. Martin explains why he adopted clouds as an artistic focus, and then shares how he got into documenting the history of crypto art (first in a blog and then a list of milestones) because of his conviction that innovation in art requires a knowledge of what came before. Moving forward, Martin and his hosts turn to the topic of definitions. Martin prefers the term "crypto art" to "NFT" or "NFT art," even though the former has fallen out of popularity. One of Martin's current projects centers on clarifying definitions relevant to digital art, and Martin is actively pushing for the use of "crypto art" because of its wide and interesting meaning. The terms also feed into a discussion of how digital art relates to traditional art, and after commenting on this relationship, Martin explains the good that crypto art brought to the general art space as well as the belief he holds that there is a way for crypto art to break into traditional art. This way exists even though the pariah of the digital art world - NFT - has been given its own world. We are currently in the eye of the NFT tornado, but in light of the whole scope both of digital art history and Martin's own history as an artist, he testifies to the evolution that continually takes place. NFT isn't everything, and there are many examples of past works with a far greater scope than what NFT can boast. Since art evolves in a cyclical manner, Martin believes that not only will we see other work with a broad scope come to the fore, but that we will remember and come to value older work and artists that are currently overlooked. Even as the digital art space has morphed, different camps of artists have gained prominence: those who became influential through crypto/NFT art, and those who gained fame through other art avenues before entering the crypto/NFT art space. If crypto art is to be the inclusive movement it aims to be, both groups must be considered legitimate. Both groups must be able to contribute to crypto art history
S1 E55 · Fri, March 18, 2022
Jehan Chu - Unicorn - Crypto OG and Trad Art OG
https://www.floorisrising.com/jehan-chu-nft-investing/ On today’s episode SabreTooth and Kizu are joined by special guest Jehan Chu. Jehan is Chairman and Founder of Kinetic, a crypto VC firm, as well as Chairman and co-Founder of Social Alpha Foundation. Because of his background as an art dealer and his early involvement in NFTs, Jean is a perfect guest for the show. Jehan’s interest in NFTs began through investing in Decentraland. His firm Kinetic was the first blockchain VC in Hong Kong and one of the earliest in Asia when they got started in 2016. Kinetic were seed investors in Decentraland, the first decentralized metaverse, in 2017. The company did much research on digital value and how it converted to real world real estate fundamentals and investment strategies. Jehan began his career as a front end developer before he was recruited by Sotheby’s, and transferred to Hong Kong in 2006. Two years later, he left the company and became an art dealer and advisor immersed in the contemporary art world. He identifies the three major pillars of art collecting: the critical importance of the artwork, the work’s market position and your personal relationship to it. These principles serve the same framework when applied to NFTs. Jehan became interested in crypto in 2013 and left the art world professionally in 2016, when he founded Kinetic. Jehan considers PFPs to be collectibles, representative of community, self expression and membership, rather than fine art. While NFTs are creative and artistic, he doesn’t consider them to be art themselves. He reveals that the context for fine art is missing in the NFT space, because the NFT space is far too generalized, and the conflict between both sides is a result of misunderstanding on both ends. The institutions of fine art have been around for many years and are unlikely to be overrun now. Aside from influencer signaling, price is the only other reference for the value of an NFT. As more PFPs come into play, engagement and commitments of communities often drop. As a result, the NFT world is on a very weak foundation. There needs to be a broader understanding of the cultural significance of NFTs to bridge the gap between NFTs and art. Elaborating on the tension between crypto artists and artists just joining the space who have made a name for themselves otherwise, Jehan reveals the world of NFT is not filled with artists, but designers. There must be education in the art schools to understand the tools and concepts of the NFT medium. As today’s episode draws to a close, Jehan highlights a few of his favorite artists in the space. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review! Timestamps: 0:44 - Introducing Jehan Chu. 1:23 - How Jehan got into the world of NFTs. 3:13 - The con
S1 E54 · Tue, March 15, 2022
Pixelord - Music NFTs and being an NFT artist in Russia
https://www.floorisrising.com/pixelord / On today’s episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Pixelord, whose decade-long music career has in the past year expanded into work with NFTs. Pixelord considers himself an audiovisual artist, bringing together music and images, and has been both collaborating on NFT ventures with fellow artists and developing his own NFT collection. He joins the podcast today to share about his background and art, his entrance into and thoughts on the NFT space, and how his identity as a Russian individual shapes his experience. As the conversation begins, Pixelord overviews his recent move into the NFT space before diving more deeply into the dynamics of the transition through the lens of his nationality. He appeals to both Russian and more international, English-speaking audiences, but he found his audience shifted when he entered the world of NFTs. After all, the world of his music and that of NFTs naturally draw different crowds. Pixelord's music has long drawn audiences - many of them Russian - who resonate with his "vaporwave" aesthetic. The aesthetic is rooted in Pixelord's Russian heritage, and carries darker, dystopian, and melancholic vibes. The music incorporates a fusion of styles, but they are generally united by a sense of surreal nostalgia. NFTs, on the other hand, catch the attention of artists, collectors, and people looking to make a profit. Conversations surrounding NFTs tend to take place on Twitter, and are international in nature (and so carried out in English). NFT buyers are mostly American and European, with Asian buyers also gaining a prominent place in recent days. The big collectors are not Russian, and the Russian art scene has simply not been very well penetrated by NFTs (or even use of Twitter!) at this point. Russians looking to access art have their own ways of doing so, and often would not have the money to spend on NFTs even if they were interested in doing so. Moving forward, SabreTooth, Kizu, and Pixelord discuss the current NFT market. At this point, music NFTs have not been given as much attention as visual NFTs. While Pixelord notes that there is mixing of visual and musical components within NFTs, he also explains why he expects the presence of music in NFTs to grow and how he anticipates it will be incentivized. In the visual space, many collectors have collected NFTs for the appreciation of value, but for music, this has not been the case. Already, Pixelord sees other incentive systems in place and expects them to develop further; these systems, he says, include the ability to buy a music copy to sell later when a musician gains prominence, the option to buy a component of the rights to music, and the chance to work in musical collections (as Pixelord is doing now with his small collection of handmade NFTs). As the conversation wraps up, Pixelord shares
S1 E53 · Thu, March 10, 2022
How to find investible NFTs - Business Times SG interview
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/nfts-finding-the-diamonds-among-the-duds Interviewed for the article in Business Times above, full interview below https://www.floorisrising.com/diamonds-among-duds/ NFTs: Finding the diamonds among the duds 10/03/2022 - 18:25 EXACTLY one year ago, a non-fungible token (NFT) artwork sold for US$69 million to a Singapore-based technopreneur. Since then, the NFT space has ballooned from a US$2 million market into a US$25 billion one, showed figures from market tracker DappRadar. With millions of cartoon apes and pixellated characters to choose from, how do you find the best NFTs to hold or flip? Are there tools to select investment-grade NFTs? Is there even such a thing as investment-grade NFTs when many cultural establishments, such as museums, steer clear of them? We speak with three experts who have been watching the space from the beginning: Clara Che Wei Peh is an art curator best known for curating the groundbreaking NFT exhibition at Fine Art Storage Services in Le Freeport in 2021. She is also the founder of the Discord group NFT Asia , a community for Asian NFT artists with over 3,600 members. Kizu (not his real name) is a Singapore art critic who has written for Wall Street Journal, ArtAsiaPacific , and other titles. While he's well-known in Singapore's art circles, he prefers to use the pseudonym Kizu when he co-hosts the NFT podcast Floor Is Rising . His fellow co-host, Sabretooth (also not his real name), is a serial technopreneur who calls himself "a professional NFT collector". His publicly accessible NFT wallet contains over 1,000 NFTs. (The interviews were conducted separately. But in the interest of brevity and clarity, they are merged here and edited to reflect the range of responses.) Q: How does one pick investment-grade NFTs if one intends to hold them for long or flip them quickly? Clara: Everyone has different criteria for buying NFTs they wish to hold. Some people would look at the reputation of the creative team and the artwork itself, whether the project has the potential to scale up and deliver value over time. Value can come in different forms - it could be, for example, a game that's really enjoyable; it could be further airdrops or tokens that can bring utility. I
S1 E52 · Tue, March 08, 2022
MIchael Gord - Renting virtual land for fun and profit
https://www.floorisrising.com/michael-gord-metaverse-landlord/ https://twitter.com/FloorisRising/status/1501128443903156226
S1 E51 · Fri, March 04, 2022
Kaloh - Generative art thought leader
https://www.floorisrising.com/kaloh/ https://www.kaloh.xyz/
S1 E50 · Fri, February 18, 2022
Christian Ogier - Art Market Manipulations and NFTs
Notes to come; https://www.floorisrising.com/art-market-manipulations/ https://www.sepia.fr/
S1 E49 · Tue, February 15, 2022
Mitchell Chan - What does "The institutions are coming" actually look like in NFTs?
Show notes Here; https://www.floorisrising.com/mitchell-chan/
S1 E48 · Fri, February 11, 2022
Les Borsai - NFT fund - How he invests in NFTs
https://www.floorisrising.com/les-borsai-nft-fund/
S1 E47 · Tue, February 08, 2022
PolyAnnie - First? Adult content NFT Creator
Notes here. https://www.floorisrising.com/polyannie-porn-nfts/
Mon, February 07, 2022
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S1 E46 · Fri, February 04, 2022
Artist - Robness - How meme culture became NFT culture
Longer notes to come - @robnessofficial - how meme culture became NFT culture - Which celebs coming in to NFTs are doing it the "right way". Why the secret anon drops that happened on #hicetnunc. WHY #ROBNESS TWEETS ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME?
S1 E45 · Tue, February 01, 2022
Collector: Carlini8 NFT OG - NFT Boxes - Purrnelopes
New Episode - OG NFT degen @carlini8N explains how his personal philosophy on NFTs which led to his split with #PranksyNFT and leaving #NFTBoxes to start #purrnelopescc .
Sat, January 29, 2022
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Sat, January 29, 2022
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Sat, January 29, 2022
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Fri, January 28, 2022
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S1 E44 · Thu, January 27, 2022
Sutu, Neonz & Metaverse
New episode - @sutu_eats_flies joins us to discuss #NEONz and the #Sutuverse , an indie metaverse he's creating in opposition to VC and corporate funded metaverses. We also talk politics and the time he was denied entry to the US cos of TRUMP? o
Fri, January 21, 2022
Testing
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S1 E43 · Wed, January 19, 2022
Introduction to NFTs - Q&A - FAQ - Part 2
How can we classify the different works and styles within crypto art and NFTs? We tend to think of the major art styles (impressionism, abstract expressionism, surrealism, etc.) as they relate to a visual structure or language. For crypto art this understanding has been somewhat alighted. In a way we can think of PFP projects as their own style because visually there is something in common, they work as a personal likeness or avatar. That being said most are just jpegs and not necessarily art that has been enabled by the blockchain. Generative art however produces a certain aesthetic due to how that work is generated by code which could (somewhat) be classified as a NFT art style. Good examples of this would be OG artists like Eric Paul Rhodes or Tyler Hobbs, specifically his Fidenza series. In these cases, because of the algorithmic mechanism which is medium-native to crypto art, there are stylistic similarities which Kizu feels would classify as a major art style within NFT art. Beyond this we also have things such as illustration or painting, which could be used as classifiers but these come from a time before crypto art and we can not really view or classify them in the same way. Moreover, those are merely techniques, which can be helpful for ranking skill level, but in the end that doesn’t really get to the point of why we classify art. While Kizu and Sabretooth both acknowledge their level of cynicism, they bring up the idea that ultimately, art being classified is a biproduct of the market. Sabretooth talks about how collectors will buy a certain artists and then look for a narrative in which to place these artists. The reason being that, works are worth more if they are part of something bigger than just the work itself. Sabretooth finds that overall this effort has been unsuccessful in the sense that they have not been powerful enough to break through to the traditional art world. He gives the example of Beeple who has sold for ridiculous amounts of money, has a large fan base in the crypto community, but is not accepted by traditional art people. Kizu talks about the use of of Punks as profile pics or RTFKT sneakers and the signaling of value in the metaverse, how we communicate, the transactions, etc. to point out that there is a narrative and it is about the money. He also draws a comparison between the NFT space and the art world of the 90s where, art from the developing world got recognized because there was a movement to promote these artists. It wasn’t really about their style or aesthetic rather their background and what they stood for. What’s up with music in the NFT space? Many major DJs are launching projects and that’s not a surprise as DJs and NFTs are both on the cutting edge of popular culture. Despi
S1 E42 · Thu, January 13, 2022
Introduction to NFTs - Q&A - FAQ - Part 1
Part 1/2 - Newbie interview episode with Meta, the podcast assistant, find her on Twitter Time Stamps [00:32 – 4:38] Meta asks what websites to use for references, specifically sites like RaritySniper and Rarible . Sabertooth says if you need to use these type of websites, you probably don’t know enough about that project to be investing in it. For kizu, the analysis is useful in an objective comparison. Sabertooth disagrees and says it is actually subjective. He also warns to check out the business model for those sites. [4:38 – 6:52] Sabertooth says that he doesn’t personally use any websites for educational purposes and recommends that you simply listen to Floor is Rising for the info you need regarding trends, projects, etc. Continuing, he does says that a helpful way to get more information is by looking at wallets. Using the example of CryptoPunks he says, check out what wallets have Punks then see what other NFTs that wallet owns. By this you will see patterns and transactions. [6:52 – 11:55] Meta asks about the distinction between the different marketplaces. Sabertooth notes that it is helpful to break them down in to categories of primary and secondary sale. Primary examples would be; SuperRare , NiftyGateway , Foundation , async.art , NewWorld , etc. In these cases the artist is minting a particular work and you buy directly from him via listing or auction. Secondary sale sites include; OpenSea , Rarible , Zora , and you would buy from collectors. These previously mentioned pertain to Ethereum . Hic et Nunc is different, it is on Tezos . Ev
S1 E41 · Fri, December 31, 2021
Artist - 10/x - Jon Burgerman - Talent scouted by Nifty Gateway
Jon Burgerman Jon’s website Social Media Twitter - @jonburgerman Instagram - Jon Burgerman Facebook Youtube: Jon Burgerman Shop BurgerPlex Art listed on Nifty Gateway https://superrare.com/jonburgerman Foundation Time Stamps [1:01 – 3:41] Jon was introduced to NFTs in 2019-2020 when he was approached by Nifty Gateway (founded by Griffin Cock Foster and Duncan Cock Foster and later acquired by Gemini run by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss ) to drop NFTs on the then new platform. He began working on NFTs in the spring of 2020. The first drop sold out quickly. Jon credits this with giving him a lifeline in the pandemic when everything else was being cancelled and closing down. [4:40 – 6:34] Jon doesn’t know why Nifty Gateway contacted him early on, but says they saw his work in other forms, and imagined it would work on their platform. Jon has a traditional background, but his work has existed across different mediums over the years, including digital stickers and wearables for @PlayStation Home. [7:35 – 10:26] Jon says his career is like a pizza with each slice it’s own medium (painting, books, etc) but as a whole it’s complete. His advice is to make your work and put it out there. Once you make something, people see your concept and how your work would look. People are looking for good work and good artists - it’s important to make your work discoverable. [10:45 – 12:36] When working in different mediums, Jon leans into what that medium can do that others can’t. With NFTs he likes that you can interact with people, build up c
S1 E40 · Fri, December 24, 2021
Artist - 9/x - RubenFro - VFX master
RubenFro Ruben’s website Social Media Twitter Facebook Instagram Videos YouTube Vimeo Art listed on objkt.com Foundation SuperRare Showtime NFT Kalamint DAT Collections Henext Audio Tracks Soundcloud Time Stamps [0:58 – 1:23] Ruben’s first experience with NFTs was March 2021. He was working on the @pussyrrriot music video Panic Attack and they released an NFT collectible of the music video divided into four parts. [1:32 – 1:48] Ruben is Italian and moved to Tokyo 15 years ago to work in software development and was doing that until 2 years ago. [1:53 – 3:10] Ruben has always been fascinated by interactive installations. Two years ago he went to France to do an installation. Inspiration came from Rhizomatiks and @daitomanabe . Installations work was small but grew. Stopped when the pandemic hit. A year ago started doing more video art, but plans to go back to interactive art. [3:14 – 5:47] Ruben discusses his process. He uses @unity for 3d art and started looking into point cloud. He got into using Unity more and going deeper and built his framework with shaders he built in Unity. He uses photogrammetry mixed with 360 photography to capture large areas. This allowed him to move into large areas to record
S1 E39 · Tue, December 21, 2021
A.I. - 1/x - Does Botto dream of electric sheep?
Episode interview with some of the Botto team ( choobie , Mario Klingemann , Simon Hudson ) find their Twitter or more info on their website Time Stamps [0:55 – 3:16] Mario is the artist behind and the project and he has been doing generative, algorithmic and AI art for about 20 years. He says that at some point when dealing with these mediums you start to wonder, can I pass this last step of choosing and learning to a machine? With blockchain taking off in 2018, Mario felt that this could be the time for this project, but he couldn’t do it alone. So he built a team to help him with the other side of things. [3:16 – 6:37] Kizu asks about decentralized art and other movements where artists were so engaged with the community. Mario laughingly states that he would never use the term decentralized art and that for him the most question for him is, if a machine can reach true autonomy. He feels that, if possible, decentralized systems and DAOs are the tools that would allow the machine to do . Right now they are still working to get to a level where the machine could be so autonomous that it could make its own decisions, even fire/hire people. For now, Botto is still in a toddler phase, the AI needs help making decisions, and that’s why the community of stakeholders is so important. [6:37 – 10:04] Simon started as a member of the community then decided to get more involved. Simon elaborates on the idea of decentralized governance and DAOs - the emerging subtleties of structures and principles that are needed to uphold them. Simon was working in AI for the past five years and became fascinated with Mario’s work back in 2016. He was drawn to the idea of open, community oriented sourcing as a way to train AI as a reflection of taste. And within that, crypto as a great tool for getting the value to loop back to that same community. [10:04 – 13:30] Sabretooth notes that Botto is using GPT3 neural network which is widely used in other NFT projects such as Pak’s LostPoets , he asks about the feedback loop and how the experiment evolves to be more autonomous over time. Mario comments that Botto uses GPT3 for the d
S1 E38 · Thu, December 16, 2021
Artist - 8/x - Dalek - Return of the Space Monkey
Dalek’s website Social Media Twitter - @DALEKSPACEMONKY Instagram - dalek2020 Art listed on OpenSea Hic Et Nunc Time Stamps [0:55 – 2:41] Dalek was introduced to NFTs by his friend, @lurklovesyou , who told him about @hicetnunc2000 on @tezos . Lurk told him that it was easy, no gas, cheap to mint, and easy to put work out. Lurk set up a clubhouse Dalek joined with @mumbot and @_sampierson and other artists. Dalek liked the community aspect. [3:01 – 9:29] Dalek got into anime and comic book culture going to high school in Japan. He was into punk rock and early hip hop such as RunDMC , @KurtisBlow1 , @DJFlash4eva , SugarHill Gang. He moved to Chicago and got into graffiti in the early 90s. TD who ran Undercover Magazine and Kaws were big influences on Dalek. He moved to California and met and was mentored by Chris Cycle and Mike Giant , Greg Carroll. This was the era of Twist, Amaze, REVOK, @Saber . Kris Markovich convinced him to move to San Diego where he met @OBEYGIANT , the founder of Obey, who introduced him to printmaking and stickers, and taught him to use Illustrator. Dalek did group shows with @new_image_art curated by Rich Jacobs and included Mark Gonzales, @TempletonEd , Chris Johansen, and Barry McGee. He says he still didn’t know how to be a professional artist. He moved to New York to ta
S1 E37 · Tue, December 07, 2021
Trad art crossover - 2/x - Christian Andersen - Michael Jeppesen - Trad Art Gallerists turned NFT marketplace
Christian’s Social Media Facebook Instagram Michael website Social Media Instagram LinkedIn Twitter June Art Fair website Social Media Facebook Instagram Twitter [1:11 - 4:01] Christian was introduced to NFTs when Michael approached him with the idea of bringing NFTs to the JuneArt Fair . With the emergence of NBA Top Shot and Beeple he saw a need for something for the established art world. Michael said you could have NFTs created by artists of the caliber of Jeff Koons and NFTs collectors wouldn’t know who it was. Michael wanted a place more in line with the old fashioned art world where art is curated and JuneArt came from this. [4:27 - 6:52] Michael says there is a difference between the traditional artists and crypto artists. Generative art projects may look interesting, but mostly sell because people want to make money. Bored Apes and Crypto Punks are interesting from a cultural perspective, but not as art works. Vice Magazine has linked NFTs to a generation. Michael credits the internet with the ability for anyone to use OpenSea<
S1 E36 · Fri, December 03, 2021
Artist - 7/x - Olive Allen - Drop OG
Website: https://oliveallen.com/ Linktr.ee https://linktr.ee/oliveallen Olive’s website Social Media Twitter Facebook Instagram Art listed on OpenSea Nifty Gateway SuperRare Christie’s online Time Stamps [1:02 – 2:32] Olive got into NFTs in 2017 after learning about Crypto Kitties . She delved deeper when she travelled to Asia and heard about ERC 721s. Olive played the game Fortnight in those days and had the idea that it would be great if she could trade skins she held in the game and give those virtual items a status. This gave her the idea for her startup company, Decadent. [2:49 – 5:04] Decadent was an early version of marketplaces that exist today. The idea was a marketplace to exchange virtual objects such as game items, art, music, film aviators, and more. Olive moved to Silicon Valley and met with VCs to raise money and faced resistance to investing in crypto. She thinks she had bad timing. She decided to focus more on being a creator vs a company founder which tied her up with administrative tasks with less time for being creative. She moved back to New York in 2019. [5:19 – 6:48] Olive’s career took off when she was 17 living in New York and creating as a traditional painter. At that time she was in a group show that was critically acclaimed. She wanted to be more innovative and create something remarkable. She always felt tech was the future. 13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items was the first drop in the history of the NFT space. This drop got the attention of <a href="https://twitter.com/dccockfoste
S1 E35 · Fri, November 26, 2021
Artists - 6/x - A.L Crego - GIF maxi
Episode interview with A L Crego, find his Twitter and some of his works at MakersPlace Time Stamps [1:11 – 4:23] For Crego, NFTs were a natural step and it was as far back as 2014 that he started to use the internet as his canvas. Originally he moved to crypto more for protection than sales. By 2019 he was contacted by MakersPlace to be a new artist on the platform (where he now curates). Connecting more with the NFT scene happened once Crego joined Twitter. Crego clarifies that his work is actually not generative and that he does it by hand, frame by frame. That people are often confused even as to what a GIF is, despite it existing for 34 years now. [4:23 – 13:56] Regarding underrated artist, Crego feels that most of the artist who started digital art are underrated. His position comes from noting that many people in the crypto scene only look to those who are on Twitter and ignore those artist like Pi-Slices , Kidmograph , Glitch Black , and Etienne Jacob who were doing digital art long before on places like Tumblr. He finds it painful when people call him and above mentioned artist as emergent. Crego goes on to talk about his dissonance towards social media and the business of NFTs as a whole. [13:56 – 17:49 ] Crego has coined the term GIFtilism as a homage to Impressionist pointillism. Crego explains; what the point was to traditional art is now what the square or pixel is in digital art. He goes on to make a correlation between comics and GIFs; while comics were originally not taken seriously they have evolved into a high form of literature and he feels that GIF art now being sold on the blockchain also has the room to evolve into something of more value. [17:49 – 21:43] Looking to the importance of a pixel, Kizu brings up Murat Pak’s sale of a single pixel for $5 million. For Crego, he respects Pak’s work (and even did a similar piece) but finds it to be a bit repetitive. Crego first got into GIF art as he saw that it was a space that could still be improved. That many of the artist in the space moved on to produce video art but that he stayed with GIFs because he found them to be a powerful tool. He sees the repetitive loop of a GIF as the visual equivalent of a Tibetan mantra. [21:43 – 26:48]</st
S1 E34 · Tue, November 23, 2021
Artists - 5/x - Lawrence Fuller - Poet, Actor
Episode interview with Laurence Fuller, find his Twitter @LaurenceFuller and check out some of his works on his website Time Stamps [0:48 – 2:06] Laurence got into crypto in 2017. In 2020 when blockchain got one of its first big use cases in NFTs, Laurence felt connected enough to start speaking up about his interest in crypto. [2:06 – 3:10] Kizu congratulates Laurence on his screenplay, Modern Art , which won the “Best Adapted Screenplay” award at the Burbank Film Festival last year. The film was based on his father, Peter Fuller who started, Modern Painters , a magazine that Kizu has previously written for. [3:10 – 5:12] Laurence talks about his father who was a controversial figure in the art scene of the time due to his outspoken love for beauty during the avant-garde movement which favored more experimentalism. [5:12 – 6:58] Caught in the Hollywood ecosystem of labor, Laurence felt disconnected from his journey as an artist. Researching his father drew him back to a sense of connection. During this research he also was inspired by the sense of community that used to exist within the art world. This is also why Laurence loves NFTs, because he feels that it embodies these values of community and belonging. [6:58 – 10:36] Sabretooth notes that Laurence’s works, which combine poetry with neo-classical imagery set in motion, is very different from other NFTs. Laurence says that he was first inspired by his friend Sima Jo and their collaborations. He then started posting those works on social media but notes there wasn’t really an audience. With the NFT space he feels there is finally a niche for video art. [10:36 – 13:20] Inquiring about what Laurence thinks his father’s position would be on NFTs, it comes out that Laurence will be playing the role of David Hockney in a HBO series (due to having the best Yorkshire accent). Hockney, who was one of Laurence’s father’s favorite artists, has been really negative in his position on NFTs. Laurence feels that this is likely due to how they are portrayed in mainstream media and says that this how many people are forming their views toward the scene. [13:20 – 19:25] Discussing the recent shutdown of Hic et Nunc (HEN), Laurence says he was drawn to HEN because it was a way for him to create his own world. He laments its termination but will now mint his works on <a href="https://obj
S1 E33 · Fri, November 19, 2021
RTFKT x Takashi Murakami - Chris Le - Clonex
Episode interview with Chris Le, find his Twitter @clegfx and check out his new avatar project dropping soon CloneX Time Stamps [0:33 – 1:11] Chris is the co-founder of Studio RTFKT and soon dropping CloneX , a collaboration with Takashi Murakami . [1:16 – 8:40] Chris has worked in all forms of entertainment some of the artists e has worked with include; Anderson Paak , NAS , and Rick Ross . From music industry to film he has done it all but always with an emphasis in visual effects (CGI or VFX background) then moved into game skins. Chris developed a lot of skins for the Steam Workshop Platform . In his view skins are the same concept as NFTs. He then had the idea to put these skins on sneakers and was introduced to Benito through his friend Brock Hofer (Hyperbeast). From there they teamed up with Zaptio to create a digital sneaker brand that could be forged for physicals. They got funded in 2019 by Galaxy Digital then later by GFR Fund and RTFKT launched in 2020. They returned to NFTs in late 2020 with their release of Cyber Sneaker on Superman. [8:40 – 11:35] For Kizu he sees a lot of overlap between Chris and Murakami’s background. Starting in fashion, then later moving into the hip-hop industry (Murakami’s colaborations: LVMH , Supreme , Off-White , <a hr
S1 E32 · Tue, November 16, 2021
NFT Collectors 5/x - Denzuul - Accidental NFT influencer through shitposting
Episode interview with Denzuul, find his Twitter @Denzuul [0:53 – 4:50] Denzuul bought bitcoin as far back as 2011, started to really get into it by 2015. Last year (2020) noticed investment potential of NFTs and from there fell in love with the art side of things. When Denzuul started off with NFTs he thought projects like Kitties and Punks were dumb. Aesthetically he still doesn’t quite get it but, understanding the technology and community behind these projects his respect and understanding has grown. [4:50 – 7:00] Kizu also agrees that the meme and PFP projects do not do much for him aesthetically which brings up the question, why are these projects so popular? Sabretooth points out that crypto is, at its core, antagonistic (towards Wall Street or traditional finance). NFTs inherited this antagonism and thus also look to undermine the traditional art world and its values. That is the point or the greatness of it. [7:00 – 8:26] Kizu talks about the identifying factors of the G’Evol project, and what elements people might identify with. Denzuul denies involvement in the project and states that he is merely a huge fan. That when he first saw a baby in a ski mask, he felt it was tru;y different from other projects and there was something there he identified with. [8:59 – 10:53] Sabretooth notes that, people come into the NFT space usually because they are attracted to the money that can be made but that this often evolves into a deeper love for the art. Denzuul finds that what actually moved him to feel more connected to the scene was shit posting. This was what brought him to really love the scene. [10:53 – 12:45] Denzuul was always a shit poster, even back in the crypto scene. He used to have multiple personas, he now almost exclusively focuses on Denzuul profile. [12:45 – 14:41] Denzull thinks that if Ethereum doesn’t come out with the 2.0 version in the next year or two, that they will start loosing the NFT market, but not their DeFi market. He thinks that art doesn’t have the same need for security as finance. That it is not worth paying $400 per transaction for the extra security and that HEN will take their place if they don’t fix issues around gas fees . [14:41 – 16:19] Denzuul says that gas fees were really high in sp
S1 E31 · Thu, November 11, 2021
Artists - 4/x - Vimal Chandran - Indofuturism pioneer
Episode interview with Vimal Chandran, find his Twitter and Instagram https://vimalchandran.com/ Time Stamps [0:51 - 2:55] Sabretooth starts by asking Vimal how he started with NFTs. Vimal learned about the large profits artists were making through NFTs in February 2021, specifically the Beeple $69m sale. Since then he has been exploring and learning about NFTs, crypto, and bitcoin. [2:56 - 5:44] Sabretooth asks Vimal what his move to NFTs means for his art. Vimal started with watercolor illustrations as a kid and moved to digital art in 2012. He started with a Wacom tablet and drawing in Photoshop . When holding an exhibition, people preferred physical work though. He was split between his traditional artwork for a profit and digital for personal use. It was revolutionary for him to discover NFTs. This allowed him to make a career out of digital art and not just client work. [5:45 - 9:21] Vimal has much of his work within the Indian market. Sabretooth is inquiring if his work will go beyond Vimal’s traditional client base. Vimal focuses on storytelling that comes from the area where he lives. For his NFTs, he focused on global and futuristic. He sees his pieces as reaching a global audience. While everyone may not understand the traditional intricacies of Indian culture, the Scifi movement and his execution reaches far beyond. [9:58 - 13:54 ] Vimal’s series that he is dropping on WazirX and Foundation is a narrative about the issues happening around him. Vimal grew up in Kerala, a region of India with many folk stories. It also has an inclination towards art. Growing up he would read a Sci Fi comic distributed by the Soviet embassy and moved to Bangalore in 2005. Vimal then started to explore these two very different environments. He calls it Indo Futurism. It is a genre that even Bollywood hasn’t explored. [13:54 - 16:43 ] Sabretooth asks Vimal to explain how he is balancing his design work, gallery and NFT career, and cultivating his social media. Vimal started in 2005 with Facebook and how he started with brands reaching out to him. He believes that there is a different audience on social media than NFTs. He feels like he is starting from scratch again within the NFT space, but wants to continue to complete more of his own artwork in the future. Vimal has reduced his client base and will continue to focus on NFTs. He wants to be known for mixing indi
S1 E30 · Tue, November 09, 2021
Trad Art Crossover 1/x - Kenny Schachter - Unfiltered takes on NFTs
Episode Interview with Kenny Schachter, find his twitter @kennyschac , his website https://www.kennyschachter.art/ and check out Crypto Mutts . Time Stamps [0:58 – 3:31] Kenny was introduced to NFTs in September 2020. Made art prior to NFTs but never felt comfortable calling himself an artist. After learning about NFTs, he made some NFTs and realized how revolutionary NFTs would be to the art world. Wrote about NFTs in the journal, The Art Newspaper . He was introduced to Nifty Gateway by Tommy Kimmelman and in December 2020 sold several NFTs on the platform. Has pursued NFTs since then. [3:47 – 7:46] Kenny explains that art is about communication. NFTs are being communicated in different ways. The CryptoPunks set a precedent and people are poking fun at themselves. Kenny created PFPs called the CryptoMutts as satire. Kennys says right now you can also buy a masterpiece NFT, but people are more focused on using PFPs as a substitute for digital currency (which he says is a no-no). Kenny says art is a slow burning process. The NFT community is full of all different people making relevant and meaningful art. Sabretooth mentions tension between artists and feelings toward PFP collectibles. He references the value of Crypto Punks for being OG art of NFTs, and compares it to Bitcoin being the oldest crypto. He asks Kenny’s thoughts on the thesis that PFPs won’t hold in that high value as more traditional art people come into NFTs. [9:26 – 13:55] Kenny thinks there are pockets of overvaluation. His own CryptoMutt collection was to create a community and also gave a reduction to an ArtNet subscription. He didn’t like Crypto Punks at first but has grown to appreciate what they signify. He thinks eventually PFPs will go away because they are now just copying what has been successful and don’t have any meaning. He says the market changes swiftly and references art blocks , and generative NFTs from g
S1 E29 · Fri, November 05, 2021
Artists - 3/x - Stuz0r - Everydays since 2016
Episode interview with Stuart Lippincott, find his twitter and SuperRare . Time Stamps [0:53 - 4:39] Sabretooth starts by asking Stuart how he started with NFTs. Stuart started to join the NFT world because of the crazy money currently being made. Stuart’s work is very futuristic with an utopian or dystopian feel and pairs with music bands. Kizu asks if there are any influencers that have remained consistent in his work. Stuart explains that he imagines a universe where all creatures and people all live in the same realm. Music is a large contributing factor to his art. [4:39 - 8:26] Stuart started out using Maya 3D , the 3Ds Max , and now Cinema 4D . Sabretooth asks if Stuart sees the tools as what he can do with them or seeks out tools to create what he wishes to create. Stuart landed on Cinema 4D because it is fairly fast and an easy user interface. He then started to use Octane Render. Octane Render would take a significant amount of time. When Octane came out for Cinema 4D, he challenged himself to learn all there was about the software. Then in late 2015, he came across Beeple’s Everydays . Beeple uses Cinema 4D with Octane and Stuart really started to learn it then. With plugins and addons, Stuart tries to learn as many tools as he can to get his ideas across. [8:25 - 11:29 ] Kizu discusses how successful artists have a bigger following and others do not have that recognition. Stuart explains how previous to his first sale, he did not know how cryptocurrency worked. He then sold his first piece and continued to sell really well. Then one day the selling stopped. He took a couple of months break and then posted pieces that were popular on Instagram and Twitter. These did not sell either though. Despite his large Instagram following and his Twitter account, it is not the case. He is still trying to figure out his own place in the NFT world. [11:29 - 13:29 ] To explain this trend in Stuart’s sales, Sabretooth gives his opinion on NFT’s speculation premium. Sabretooth says that people are buying at a premium and that premium says that the price will go up. When the speculation
S1 E28 · Tue, November 02, 2021
NFT collectors series 4/x - NorCal Guy - Crypto OG turned NFT genesis Art Collector
Episode interview with NorCalGuy, find his Twitter GuyNorcal and check out his podcast NorCal and Shill Time Stamps [1:11 – 2:14] Heard about CryptoKitties back in 2017, thought it was just people paying money for a jpeg. By the end of 2020 he got into TopShot . [2:20 – 3:57] TopShot appealed to NorCalGuy because it seemed like something normies could get into not just crypto guys. His friends like sports so it was a good place to start. Moved to a love of generative art . Building relationship with artist through purchases brought him to really love 1/1s. [3:52 – 5:45] PFPs are more of a quick income generator, 1/1s are more long term. Generative art falls between the two. This value pyramid is based on the fact that PFPs are just easier to sell. People like, Cath Simard for example, who work hard and get into the community, NorCalGuy feels those works will appreciate. [5:45 – 6:34] This echoes similar comments from traditional art collectors who are trying to cross over. Some of them see an appeal of flippable projects but others really still value the due diligence of traditional relationships. [6:34 – 7:56] NorCalGuy feels that most PFPs don’t have enough community behind them. Instead, with 1/1s, if it’s the art that you like and you can connect with that artist and what they do, then you can gauge better the outcome. Most of his 1/1s have come with a physical copy. If getting into it now he would buy established PFP projects like a Punk or an Ape as a hedge against the 1/1s. [7:56 – 9:31] For Kizu this is similar to a traditional gallery space, not wanting to be purely commercial while also wanting to support experimental work. Flippable projects subsidize love for less commercial works. He compares this to how NorCalGuy collects. [9:31 – 11:48] Sabretooth talks about how the 1/1 format of collecting really started with SuperRare and this is now common, but before that 1/1s were not really native to crypto art. Looking at we
S1 E27 · Thu, October 28, 2021
Artists - 2/x - Khaled Makhshoush - Saudi pixel artist
Episode interview with Khaled Makhshoush, find his twitter and SuperRare . Time Stamps [0:53 - 3:26] Sabretooth starts by asking Kaled how he started with NFTs. Kaled explains that it was last year when he received a direct message from a collector who introduced him to NFTs and SuperRare. After a month of deliberating, he applied and sold his first piece of art on SuperRare. Sabretooth believes that collectors or fans encouraging an artist to go into NFTs will become increasingly popular. Khaled explains that his biggest concern was selling the copyright to his artwork. Once he understood the technology though, he believed there was no harm in trying. [3:27 - 7:46] Kizu asks Khaled about his background of playing and developing video games. Khaled answers how in 2016 he created video games at the Ludum Dare Video Jam . Through his frustration of not being able to create the video game the way he envisioned it, he decided to learn pixel art. He does not focus on game development much anymore because he enjoys expressing himself and creating an attachment to the artwork. After Kizu inquires about how Khaled’s work came first and then the NFT medium being secondary, Khaled agrees. He is able to create his artwork from an idea that he is interested in. [7:47 - 8:25] Pixel art is one of the most popular mediums with CryptoPunk being one of the most well known NFTs. Ethereum is an NFT collection that holds a large number of varying styles of pixel art that were inspired by the early 70s and 80s video games. Sabretooth wonders what pixel art is to Khaled personally. [8:27 - 11:29 ] Khaled explains how you draw with a grid. Each square of the grid is a color and he creates a mosaic type of artwork. Through technology any drawing software can be used, but each line is very crisp and pixelated. Following tradition that began due to limited technology, pixel art has a very limited color palette and canvas size. Khaled works on a large canvas with few colors. It is these limiting factors that give pixel art a unique look. Sabretooth points out with how Pixel art is one of the dominant forms in NFTs and inquires if pixel artis in NFTs and those who are not are progressing in different directions. [11:29 - 15:26 ] Khaled agrees that in NFTs there are people who represent various scenes that come from the larger pixel art scene. Creating collectables is currently popular right now, but there is a divide occu
S1 E26 · Tue, October 26, 2021
NFT Collectors series - 3/x - Chris Wallace - Tezos to Woodies
Episode interview with Chris Wallace, find his Twitter chriswallace and check out his new project Woodies Time Stamps [1:02 – 2:27] Chris got into NFTs in March of 2021 when a friend invited him to the Foundation platform with a creator invite . He started posting pieces and people were buying them. From there he got really involved in Tezos with Hic et Nunc (HEN). He now has about 3500 NFTs. [2:50 – 5:32] As artists were looking for a greener solution to NFTs, Hic et Nunc launched. Chris saw value in this system as it favored proof-of-stake instead of proof-of-work . He also thought it was cool that it went beyond the 10,000 piece generative projects that were popular in April 2021 and that in general it just felt like a more creative and underground spot. Affordability and getting a better ROI were also contributing factors. [5:46 – 8:22] Where on Ethereum artists may stick to generative or collective approaches that attract more money, with Tezos and HEN, minting is more affordable which is providing artist with an outlet that allows them to put out more interesting and experimental works. Chris gives the example of seeing really interesting GAN works on Tezos. [8:22 – 9:57] The cost of minting has encouraged artists to have multiple personas or sub-portfolios, almost as if they had split-personalities. In a way this correlates with the traditional art world where, sometimes artists will prefer to work with smaller art fairs as it allows them to create without the heavy pressure of producing something more commercial. [11:05 - ] Chris’s projects like Ultra DAO and Woodies are on Ethereum because at the time his developers had more experience writing in th
S1 E25 · Thu, October 21, 2021
Artists - 1/x - Josh Pierce - What is originality in NFT art?
Episode interview with Josh Pierce, find his twitter , website , and SuperRare . [0:51 - 2:46] Josh Pierce has been following Beeple's work since 2012 when he started to post everyday artwork. He has been longtime friends and fans since they work with the same software. In November of last year he was contacted by tommyk_eth from Nifty Gateway to post his own artwork. Josh started in December after other artists dropped art on SuperRare , he posted his piece Genesis. [2:46 - 3:26] Kizu points out how trash art follows the development of a medium, but finds Josh and similar artists to be independent to historical trends. Kizu wonders if Josh sees a diverse audience and market among the scene for all different types of art. [3:58 - 6:07 ] Josh explains how it was around ten years ago when social media was expanding quickly, that there was a movement of artists creating everydays. Joey Camacho from Raw and Rendered was a pioneer for this movement. The challenge and different technology then started to sculpt artists into different styles and categories. Josh joined in and has been creating art with his own themes and ideas. He believes that the fact that it’s digital lends itself to blockchain. [6:08 - 11:30] Sabretooth asks Josh about the evolution of the technology that he uses, especially Cinema 4D. Sabretooth wonders with technology constantly being updated,will today’s art become ordinary in a few years. Josh has been using Cinema 4D since 2001. It wasn’t until the technology upgraded in 2015 with Octane that there was a shift in power. Josh states that this shift was monumental. It was this that allowed him to create art that he always dreamed about. Art that has significance is what people have never seen before. He believes it is that art, that will make history books and gives something significance. [11:21 - 14:45] Kizu wonders what Josh considers originality in the NFT space or if it is even possible to achieve. While Josh believes it can be unfair for artists to not get the recognition they deserve, true artists know that it is between the artist, audience, and universe. It is ultimately a greater creative force that come
S1 E24 · Thu, October 14, 2021
NFT Collectors series - 2/x - Colborn Bell - Museum of Crypto Art
Episode Interview with Colborn, find his twitter colbornbell and check out his Museum of Crypto Art ( MOCA ) Time Stamps [1:01 – 2:10] Colborn’s intro to NFTs was with Moon Cats . When these later had a resurgence in the NFT scene he was able to go back and recover 17 from his original mission. [2:58 – 4:13] First inspired by the Inhotim Museum in Brazil, when building MOCA Colborn looked to the history of physical museums. From this he adopted the rule to NOT participate in the commercial side of the artwork. Art and artists in the NFT scene often get overlooked and Colborn found it was important to favor them over the market. https://verticalcrypto.art/a-recap-of-the-interview-with-colborn-bell-from-the-museum-of-crypto-art-and-micol-from-verticalcrypto-art [4:13 – 5:36] Looking to use crypto currency as a tool for empowerment and a way to flatten identity biases. Just like the visual language of crypto, it is important for Colborn that the NFT scene has its own heroes. Along with this he also feels it is important that the scene is empowering creatives and pushing forth the melding of technology with creativity. [6:10 – 8:44] Colborn finds that through the curatorial nature of most traditional art spaces there is a certain level of sterility and that this can be combated by providing the audience with the tools to explore for themselves. Similar to Somnium Space , leaving the experience to the viewer’s eye is empowering. With MOCA Colborn looks to bend realities and possibilities in hopes to convey to others what can be possible and to get them thinking. [10:12 – 12:37] Art should not be put into a narrow category. When it comes to MOCA Colborn plans to include all forms of digital art as they all have their place within the history of NFTs. What worries Colborn is that the trend of profile pics feels a lot like the late stage 2017 ICO boom ; people are making a lot of money but at some point the bottom will inevitably fall out. [13:54 – 15:40] People getting in just to flip doesn’t hold value. Colborn hopes the profile picture phenomenon is waning. He finds other new pro
S1 E23 · Fri, October 08, 2021
NFT Collectors series 1/x - Deeze - PTSD from 2018 made him sell too early
Interview with Deeze, find his twitter DeezeFi and his project Fractional Time Stamps [1:03 – 2:59] In 2017 Deeze was involved in crypto and had made some money through altcoins but didn’t know what an NFT was. By 2020 gets his own wallet, in September after the uniswap run he bought his first NFT. Recognized the value system at play with Punks and started to go down the rabbit-hole of NFTs. [3:40 - 6:14] Punks: Deeze used to trade in order to make money and afford the ones he really wanted. Noting how much money he was able to make off flipping Punks made him realize that he should focus on trading NFTs instead of just crypto. Trading Punks is different now. Before you could sit in larvavalabs discord, watch the bot, and act off gut feeling. Now there are external bots that will always act before you can. In order to make money now you have to think on a longer time frame of holding then selling in a few months or more. [6:43 – 10:09] Deeze knew he was going to leave his normal job but made the leap once joining the Fractional team. The main function of fractional.art is turning an ERC 721 or an NFT into ERC 20 tokens which are tradable and usable. Project took off when PleasrDAO managed to get ahold of some of the original doge meme pictures taken by Atsuko Sato . PleasrDAO had the idea of fractionalizing it as a way to give back to the community. Doge meme serves as a good example of how fractionalization can change collecting. [10:35 - 14:09] Fractional ownership feels better for Deeze. The market can be hard to access; more known projects are too expensive and lesser known ones too unpredictable. Factional NFTs help get people access to blue-chips . [14:47 – 18:14] There are other fractional projects out there but they each have their own styles and mechanisms. The market will decide what works best. Fractional is working with PartyBid . Deeze sees that a one-on-one in group ownership is go
S1 E22 · Thu, September 30, 2021
NFTs and the Law - Ryan Su Art Lawyer
Ryan Su is a well known international art lawyer based in Singapore - https://twitter.com/TheRyanSu Special counsel at OC Queen Street [01:19-03:22]Was a young law student and fell into art law by accident on exchange to Europe. A lot of pro-bono work on behalf of artists. [03:22-09:45] Beeple’s $69million sale was the moment that Trad art took notice. Decided to write a contract for Artists getting into NFTs, and make if available on the latest issue of Art Asia Pacific, a ton of the traditional art artists that wanted to get into NFTs were very worried about IP issues and how to protect IP if they were to do a NFT. In Trad art world, usually the gallery makes every collector sign a contract, and usually that contract is to protect against flipping. And not the collector side, they want protection against fakes. However these issues are not really present in NFTs. [09:45-15:46] Sabretooth argues that these concerns that are primary to trad art artists, are not actually that relevant in NFTs because you want a lot of reproduction and derivatives, and that resale royalties are a better way of capturing value than IP enforcements. Ryan explains the history of the artist resale right comes from artists like Robert Rauschenberg that affords artists resale royalties in some countries even if there was no explicit contract stating so. [15:46-21:15] Discussion occurs on how sales contracts that are signed in meatspace will be enforced in NFTs since buyers and sellers are anonymous. Delve into the history of the how resale rights came about from the Siegelaub contract , which really relies on an honour system and many people just ignore it. Still feels there is a barrier for traditional artists to embrace NFTs because ownership data, legal contracts are in different places. Sabretooth explains that enforcement of resale rights work much better on the blockchain. And that because transactions are so transparent, artists will attempt to use whitelists and blacklists to encourage compliance with people who might want to circumvent the royalty. [21:15-27:49] Ryan sees a clear segmentation of NFT buyers and Trad art buyers and very little overlap currently. Also sees the possibility of new norms being established int he NFT world that is different than the Art world, especially one to do with copyright and copyleft, where ownership of the original is more important
S1 E21 · Wed, September 22, 2021
Debate - Are NFTs a scam? - Dennis Porter - Bitcoin Maxi
Episode interview with Dennis Porter, find his twitter Dennis Porter Time Stamps [0:54 - 3:29] Dennis got involved with Bitcoin in 2017 by starting with mining and trading. When the shutdowns occurred in 2020 he decided to join the new Clubhouse App and quickly became addicted to talking about Bitcoin. Soon after he started his podcast called Smart People . Then switched to Twitter full time. Dennis refers to himself as a Bitcoin maximalist and claims that NFT's themselves are not scams. Recently he held a debate with Udi Wertheimer . Udi found one tweet where Dennis accidentally referred to NFT’s as a scam and thought Dennis’ view to be mute moving forward. [3:29 - 5:26] While what anyone says in one tweet is not really the basis for an argument. Dennis’ argument against the NFT being that you don’t own the copyright to the what NFT is. If you buy an NFT that an artist has released, you're just buying the NFT. The copyright always stays with the artist. He does not agree with the way it is being marketed. Dennis tries to educate the average investor so that they’re aware of what they are purchasing. [5:28 - 8:27 ] Sabretooth points out that the copyright on an NFT is not any different than other physical objects such as paintings, collectibles, comic books which all hold value without copyright. Dennis finds that the difference between digital art and physical art is that digital art can be copied perfectly by anyone at any time. He also points out that with digital art you can not control the actions of others. There are no rules when it comes to copying or uses. He believes that it is important to ensure that copyright and IP is included when buying these items to be able to ensure control. [8:28 - 13:16] Sabretooth discusses the framework of ownership being redefined for blockchain, cryptocurrencies, both fungible tokens and non fungible tokens. How ownership as a construct is purely man-made and has no meaning outside of what humans give it. Ownership in a cryptographic sense you have control of the the private key basically, that's what ownership means. He believes a large part of the disagreement is actually the usage of these words. Dennis' difficulties with ownership and NFTs lay where in order to have true ownership it needs to be enforced by the laws. [13:18 -
S1 E20 · Sat, September 18, 2021
$TRSH art series 3/3 - Yuna - Feminist NFT OG
CryptYuna twitter https://twitter.com/cryptoyuna Website: http://cryptoyuna.art/ Avatar project: https://lostavatars.art/ [0.55-03.25] Yuna first got into NFTs when she saw a tweet by OG $TRSH artist Robness on twitter. [3:46-7:14] She orignially was an oil painter in traditional art and wanted to paint realism, but when she got into NFTs, realised that she had to switch to digital techniques, so started learning how to use Procreate on an iPAD. She became part of a artist community on Telegram that became the $TRSH Art group. She gets bored easily, so resisted having a "signature" style for a while in her career, but eventually she did develop a recognisable signature style. [7:43-9:28] Yuna doesn't consider her Art "$TRSH art" anymore, sees it as a distinct time period in CryptoArt history. Was a reaction against people disparaging the artists, and sees a lot of the pieces as an inside joke that was remixed and shared amongst artists. [9:57 - 13:37]Yuna along with Stina Jones , Angie Taylor and Sparrow started WOCA organised the first female NFT art show CryptoVoxels called She ART . This led to an even bigger all female exhibition organised by GraffitiKINGS and Darren Cullen and supported by WOCA that was featured in NBC News called Graffiti Queens that spanned 9 galleries and over 300 works. [13:47 - 19:11] Yuna's kids kept asking her why she wasn't doing NFT game, and she saw a lot of other profile picture projects where she didn't like the art and wondered why Artsts were not doing these projects. So decided to push the boundaries and do Lost Avatars with GraffitiKings and Arnold Which is set to launch soon. [19:32- 22:26] Yuna talks about future plans, including buying land in the Metaverse, holding concerts there for her avatars, doing exhibitions in China and Korea.
S1 E19 · Thu, September 09, 2021
$TRSH art series 2/3 - Max Osiris - F*CK the DMCA
Episode interview with Max Osiris. Find his twitter Max Osiris Art and his blog at Max Osiris . Time Stamps [00:37 - 01:30] Max was bitten by the NFT crypto art bug in 2018 when, during his research on blockchain, he stumbled across SuperRare and the concept of art as NFTs on the blockchain. “It [NFT crypto art] seemed naturally like the evolution of art. I had the intuitive sense that this is going to be big.” [01:31 - 02:53] Max then started submitting artwork to SuperRare, describing it as a digital and modern fine art gallery. “They [SuperRare] looked like Sotheby’s .” [02:54 - 04:19] Describes himself as a transdimensional artist. Has been called a digital shaman, which he understands he might have earned through his interests in psychedelics and visionary states. [04:20 - 04:59] Some of Max’s favorite art is art that speaks to something (be it political issues or philosophical issues). Feels crypto art is a good vehicle for capturing the zeitgeist. [05:03 - 07:20] Feels that the democratization of art is one of the most exciting aspects of NFT crypto art. Resents the idea that there is an exclusive group of people like Kenny Schachter who have “great taste in art” and who, thus, dictate what great art is. [07:25 - 08:50] Loves that crypto art has disintermediated the art world, making traditional art galleries and curators less important than they used to be. Notes that individuals can now show off their NFT crypto art collections (like Robness , X Copy , etc) on sites like Cyber . [08:51 - 12:14] Has had to mint art on different platforms like KnownOrigin , Rarible , and OpenSea because, at some point, he was kicked off another platform. Was kicked off SuperRare because he used portions of Hackatao in his “<a href="https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/i1o-i1o-i1o-[ed
S1 E18 · Thu, September 02, 2021
$TRSH art series 1/3 - Is $TRSH art the most important NFT movement? Interview with Eric Paul Rhodes
Episode interview with Eric Paul Rhodes, find his twitter Second Realm and his blog at The Outer Realm Time Stamps [1:03 - 1:53] Eric fell down the NFT crypto art rabbit hole on twitter and was introduced to artists such as X Copy , Coldy , Robness , maxosiris , Jay Delay . [2:10 - 4:12] Wanted to become a TRSH art historian because he saw the narrative was being shifted after the fact, he wanted to give an unbiased 5000 foot overview of the movement https://www.theouterrealm.io/blog/a-short-history-of-nft-trash-art https://www.theouterrealm.io/blog/the-origins-of-trash-art Darren Kleine first wrote about it. https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/2020/03/24/immutable-trash-crypto-art-censorship-meaning [4:26 - 9:31] TRSH art movement came about because the whales of SuperRare specifically led by Whaleshark were determining what was eligible to be on the platform. A lot of artists that didn't meet a certain aesthetic criteria was pushed off the platform. Eric felt that Superrare sided with the whales and not the artists. j1mmyeth was the one who coined the term $TRSH Art. Eric led a mass exodus of artists to the Rarible platform, having it gain in popularity. [10:08 - 13:04] Trash art is a decentralised movement which has evolved and shaped the current NFT space. The idea of limited or no gatekeeping on platforms today is heavily because of trash artists pushed back and meme'd their way to victory. Comprises 3 main areas today, the idea of openness and onboarding as many people as possible int
S1 E17 · Mon, August 30, 2021
Manolo Gamboa Naon - Generative artist series 6/6 - Old School Self-Curation Generative Artist
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Show Notes; Artist Curated generative art rather than using the now popular Drop mechanic. His art is sold more traditionally similar to Fine Art NFTs. Manolo is able to generate generative works that are similar to the style of Kadinsky, Max Ernst, Delaunay, are the machines going to take over? Kizu makes fun of Sabretooth calling himself a serious collector Is generative art going to emerge as the defining art style of this era? Manolo Gamboa Naon SuperRare; https://superrare.com/manoloide Artnome article on Manolo; https://www.artnome.com/news/2018/8/8/generative-art-finds-its-prodigy
S1 E16 · Fri, August 27, 2021
Kjetil Golid - Generative artist series 5/6 - OG artblocks generative artist
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Show Notes; Kjetil's Archetypes was Fidenza before Fidenza, his paper armadas drop sat for weeks without selling out. Kizu says his favourite Kjetil work is his self-curated "Dual" 1/1s, explores the difference between random curation ala art blocks and artist curation, old school vs new school generative art. Kjetil Golid Twitter; https://twitter.com/kGolid https://generated.space/ Paper Armadas; https://opensea.io/assets/art-blocks-playground?search[stringTraits][0][name]=Paper%20Armada&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20Paper%20Armadas Archetype; https://opensea.io/assets/art-blocks?search[stringTraits][0][name]=Archetype&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20Archetypes
S1 E15 · Wed, August 25, 2021
Matt Deslauriers - Generative artist series 4/6 - A new breed of coder entering generative art NFTs
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Show notes; Matt's drops Subscapes on Artblocks, but also drops companion pieces on HEN at the same time, one of the first instances of multi-platform drops. How Matt is a new breed of coders who come into NFTs not from a "maxi" tech background but more platform/chain agnostic. Matt Deslauriers website; https://www.mattdesl.com/ Subscapes on Opensea https://opensea.io/collection/art-blocks?search[sortAscending]=true&search[sortBy]=PRICE&search[stringTraits][0][name]=Subscapes&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20Subscapes Matt's HEN site https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/tz/tz1XHADaUcMSkTN9gdmtRqcnrrZfs4tNkCPg Subscapes companion pieces on HEN; https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/72424 https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/objkt/72420
S1 E14 · Mon, August 23, 2021
Tyler Hobbs - Generative artist series 3/6 - Fidenza sets records in secondary sales
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Episode Notes; Fidenza has the classical generative art aesthetics that current collectors love, it set records of how fast the price has appeciated on secondary markets. The collection contains multiple visual styles in the same collection, calls into the question the whole concept of categorising art visually. Discuss secondary market premiums for pieces, and how great communication ability like Tyler does on social media can translate to secondary market premiums. Tyler Hobbs twitter; https://twitter.com/tylerxhobbs The rise of Long-Form Generative Art; https://tylerxhobbs.com/essays/2021/the-rise-of-long-form-generative-art Fidenza on Opensea; https://opensea.io/assets/art-blocks?search[stringTraits][0][name]=Fidenza&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20Fidenzas
S1 E13 · Thu, August 19, 2021
Rafaël Rozendaal - Generative artist series 2/6 - Net Art OG turns to NFT generative Art
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Episode Notes; Rafaël's Artblocks drop was the first one where Artblocks moved from a gas war drop to a dutch auction drop. Kizu talks about Rafaël's net art OG status and what he talked about in interviews way back. Sabretooth talks about the trend of net art OGs coming to NFTs including the genesis episode John Karel Comparing the visuals of Endless Nameless to Tyler Hobbs Fidenza drop and how it's not a classically generative art aesthetic. Rafaël Rozendaal's Endless Nameless Arblocks series; https://opensea.io/assets/art-blocks?search[stringTraits][0][name]=Endless%20Nameless&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20Endless%20Nameless Rafaël Rozendaal's Twitter; https://twitter.com/newrafael Rafaël Rozendaal's Net Art: http://papertoilet.com/ https://trashloop.com
S1 E12 · Mon, August 16, 2021
Shvembldr - Generative artist series 1/6 - Small time HEN artist to major league platform builder
This is an 6 episode series on generative artists who we found interesting. 6 artists in total who we found contributes something unique in the current generative art landscape, they span different blockchains/platforms/aesthetics/personal histories. Episode Notes; Rags to riches story, started off dropping pieces for only $3-$10 per piece in HEN, now his works are selling for $20,000+ Parallels to career development in trad art where artists move from smaller galleries to super galleries Comparison between selling individual pieces of a generative algorithm, vs selling the generator itself, Shvembldr has done both. Kizu talks about Picasso's sculptures and how they illustrate a point about current art drops. Sabretooth talks about how the lootbox mechanic in generative art drops bridges the two worlds of collectible NFTs and Fine Art NFTs. Shvembldr's The blocks of Art series; https://opensea.io/collection/art-blocks?search[sortAscending]=true&search[sortBy]=PRICE&search[stringTraits][0][name]=The%20Blocks%20of%20Art&search[stringTraits][0][values][0]=All%20The%20Blocks%20of%20Arts Shvembldr's HEN generative art https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/Shvembldr/creations Shvembldr twitter; https://twitter.com/shvembldr
S1 E11 · Thu, August 12, 2021
Malaysian NFT Artist - Chong yan Chuah - Architect turned Artist
8 min 31 sec Malaysian Artist Chong Yan Chuah Traditional artist that is dipping his toes into NFT market, very tech heavy traditional artist Kizu discusses artist's style and how that is translating to NFTs Sabretooth disagrees on the NFT strategy of artist, discusses nuances to how an artist positions themselves within the NFT space Chong Yan Chuah's website https://chongyanchuah.com/
S1 E10 · Mon, August 09, 2021
Indonesian NFT Artist - hariprast - comic book turned NFTs
9 min 59 sec Episode; Hariprast's comic book illustration style and how it translates to NFTs Comparison of what is happening on NFT platforms like Hic Et Nunc to the MMA(mixed martial arts) invention in the 90s Specifically how comic book artists have monetized in the past in countries like Japan and what it looks like now with NFTs. Hariprast's twitter; https://twitter.com/hariprast/
S1 E9 · Thu, August 05, 2021
Singaporean NFT artist - Shavonne Wong - Photography
10 min 13 sec episode Shavonne's career as a commercially successful photographer and how she transitioned into a NFT career How she has ported her practise from trad art to NFT world and the efforts to be more "medium native" Price differences between photography NFTs vs prices at art fairs What other successful traditional artists can learn from Shavonne's move into NFTs EDIT: Shavonne reached out to us to clarify some things in the episode; Shavonne's NFT works are not animated photography. They are done using realistic 3D virtual models. The 14/21ETH listing on Foundation are secondary sales listing not primary sales. Shavonne's photography comes from a fashion and commercial background, not through traditional art galleries. Hence it's a brand new practice built on the experience and background of a fashion photography career. Additional links about Shavonne sg.asiatatler.com/life/singapore… straitstimes.com/life/arts/as-t… allships.co/article/interv… businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/feat…
S1 E8 · Mon, August 02, 2021
Ethereum Generative Art projects: Framergence + Pulsquares - The mysterious pseudonymous Arihz
15 min 57 second episode; History of Framergence and how the genesis minting came about The deflationary mechanics of both Framergence and Pulsquares and how it works A stylistic comparison of the aesthetics of Framergence to early internet art and how the generative genre could develop similar to internet art How onchain generative art compares with offchain generative art How the valuation of generative art reminds of cutting edge avante garde art from the 60s by artists like Allan Kaprow Kizu finds the constellations mechanic in Pulsquares disappointing visually Discuss the recent price surge in both Framergence and Pulsquares and what that means for the generative art market going forward Arihz's projects on Ethereum https://pulsquares.art/ https://framergence.art/ https://avidlines.art/
S1 E7 · Thu, July 29, 2021
Indonesian Artist - Diela Maharanie is one woman brand
8 minutes 52 second Episode Diela's style and how it expands across objkts into objects How Diela's brand building in Indonesia is a result of pioneers like Murakami Diela is a self taught artist, exploring what that means not just in terms of style but also commercial paths Diela's twitter. https://twitter.com/dielamaharanie
S1 E6 · Mon, July 26, 2021
Filipino NFT scene - Bjorn Calleja + Axie stories
Short episode 8:31 How Bjorn's NFT style is very contemporaneous and represents a certain art culture from modern Philippines. Comparison of the Filipino art scene to other neighbouring countries and both stylistic and structural similarities and differences The Filipino NFT scene and talking about the impact of Axie Infinity the game has on the country and specifically Gabby Dizon's Yield Guild Links of resources mentioned in podcast Bjorn Calleja https://linktr.ee/bjorncalleja Gabby Dizon https://twitter.com/gabusch Axie infinity https://axieinfinity.com/
S1 E5 · Sun, July 18, 2021
Emergency $20m Damien Hirst "The Currency" Drop episode
Damien Hirst released a $20m drop called "The currency" on Heni.com. Sabretooth and Kizu review the drop and discuss; The $2000 per piece and $20m project price tag, is it worth it? How the art of "The currency" fits with the historical context of Hirst's works The possible motivations of Hirst to do an NFT drop at this stage in his career The possible emergence of NFT vs Crypto market cycle timings The gatekeeping mechanism in this drop vs traditional art scene The mechanics of the interaction between the NFT and Physical prints in this drop and how to think about the game theory involved. The problems associated with bridging NFTs across blockchains PREDICTIONS: Which pieces are going to worth the most PREDICTIONS: Which traits will drive price appreciation
S1 E4 · Sat, July 10, 2021
Price Manipulation in NFTs, What is it and how is it done.
Podcast summary service @Thereadingape did a good summary of this podcast https://thereadingape.substack.com/p/floor-is-rising-ep-4-price-manipulationWhy nobody wants to talk about it. It's not much discussion because Promoters of NFTs don't want to talk about this because it will damage the NFT market Others just don't collect enough NFTs to know anything about this Beeple's history making sale 5000 Days involved a multi-month plan to increase the hype and prices around Beeple. The rise of pricing for Cryptopunks with stories of specific celebrities who raised the floor with their purchases. Gatekeeping methods in the traditional art markets will come into play in cryptoart markets as well.
S1 E3 · Sat, July 03, 2021
Murat Pak's Sotheby's single pixel sale, is it the Crypto version of Cattelan's Banana on a wall?
Murat Pak's Sotheby's Single Pixel sale. Is it similar to Cattelan's Banana on a wall? How Christie's and Sotheby's are positioning themselves into different camps already when it comes to types of NFT art and artists. Is Pak boxed in by the genre of Art he is doing? How was Pak's debut piece on Hic Et Nunc received?
S1 E2 · Sat, June 19, 2021
Is Brazil the new NFT powerhouse? Reviews of @fiedler_jpg @estelle_flores_ @eventualghost @blackcollage_
We look at 4 Brazilian artists and discuss their art and NFT styles. Fiedler Estelle Flores Gio Mariani Thais Silva Transcript below; [0:05] Sabretooth: Welcome to the floor is rising, I'm Sabretooth with me is Kizu. Today we're going to talk about Brazilian art, Hic et Nunc, was founded by Raphael Lima, who is Brazilian. And some of the most interesting artists on the platform are also Brazilian. Definitely not a country that is usually associated with sort of emerging art or very interesting art. But in the NFT world, and especially Hic et Nunc, they are a, I would say, a dominant presence on the platform. And none other than probably one of the most popular artists anywhere, not just on Hic et Nunc but belting all of NFT is Fiedler, who is a Brazilian artist that from a sales perspective is basically selling out the moment that he drops anything, his secondary sales is very, very strong. And not just on Hic et Nunc, but also on ethereum and opensea as well. And I want to throw it to you Kizu. What do you think of Fiedler? [1:12] Kizu: Well, I would dispute what you said about Braziil not being a usual suspect in terms of contemporary, I think maybe at the moment, early 2020s 2010s. Yeah, it's been a bit quieter, I think. But I would say that Brazil has always been a very strong creative force, maybe not in the fine art world, I just want to give that kind of overview. I think that there's obviously a huge country in the pig population, a lot of intersecting cultures, he's got a very patchy and checkered history of colonialism, very kind of tense divide between haves, have nots, black culture, white culture, kind of that mix. So you know, I think that's very fertile ground for creatives and artists. But to come back to 2021 where we are, I think that the the fact that the founder being Brazilian has a little bit to do with that. So I think that helps to know that there's a kind of community that's sprung out of that. But to go to the art specifically, I think that it's an aesthetic that I was trying to put my finger on. It's reminiscent of many other both Fine Art idioms, as well as more poster art, comic art kind of styles. The one thing that actually jumps into my mind right away actually was, I don't know if you're familiar with the Australian kind of surf brand Mambo, which started out in the 80s. I think it came out of Australian post punk scene. So there was obviously the mus
S1 E1 · Sun, May 30, 2021
Is NFT artist John Karel the next Beeple?
Everyone has heard of Beeple, but not many people have heard of John Karel. The hottest NFT platform currently is not on Ethereum but on Tezos. HicEtNunc.xyz is the platform. We talk about Karel and his move from Ethereum to Tezos and how climate change plays a crucial role in the move. We also discuss the aesthetics of John Karel's artistic style. What influences we see in it. We talk about how John Karel has in such a short space of time become influential within the artists that make up the HEN collective. Transcript Below; ---------------------------------- Sabretooth: Welcome to the Floor is rising podcast. We talked about NFTs I'm sabretooth with me is Kizu. Kizu: So today's topic is really about another artist that has been very active in generating a lot of attention. For his art on a different platform. And that artist is John Karel. He has basically been the, hot new property on the block. I think his artistic style is one of the things obviously, but I think a lot of, attention has also been paid to the platform that he's active on, which is a Hic Et Nunc, which is Latin for here and now, hic Et Nunc which has been abbreviated to hen or hen. And specifically the blockchain and the token that it's being active on is, Tezos. Sabretooth: Tezos, is one of those OG layer, one blockchains. They did their ICO, you know, ancient like six years ago to 2015, I believe raised around $500 million. And basically since then, no, one's heard a peep about. basically anything happening there. Most people have kind of written them off. And lo and behold, in sort of Feb, March of this year, 2021, this sort of platform, Hic Et Nunc, just comes roaring on the scene. Basically out of nowhere. And as of today a lot of people say that it's sort of, up there with open sea as the largest NFT platform in the world, essentially. And a very unlikely story to come out of Tezos. No one knows exactly how and why it became so popular, but the topic for today's conversation, John Karel I think personally is somewhat responsible for that popularity. I mean, he was. Quite early on the platform. Kizu: I think that there's a bit of a deja VU element I think, in, in Karel's work. That's not to say that, you know, Beeple's work isn't derivative or doesn't have references to, you know, early two thousands, 2010s internet culture, which it does, obviously. I think that's very much foregrounded and I think it's a big part of. The way that it's resonated with particular than slightly younger gen YZ demographic. And I think there's something similar in John Karel except that I think that the kind of timeframe that's referenced is a little bit earlier. Specifically, if Beeple is more like a 2010s meme based kind of, aesthetic, I think Karel's is about 10 years prior to that, I t
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