17/02/2023 Art Blocks and NFT Gallery Bright Moments Team Up to Bring Generative Art IRL

The two companies are partnering to create NFTs with in-person experiences for collectors, beginning with a collection from generative artist Mpkoz.

Metropolis (mpkoz)

Generative art non-fungible token (NFT) collective Art Blocks and NFT gallery Bright Moments are creating a unique project that ties NFTs to real-life, in-person experiences for collectors. Every NFT will have a second, physical activation which can only be minted in a specific city tied to that NFT.

The two companies have commissioned artist Michael Kozlowski, commonly known as Mpkoz, to release a collection for this partnership. Titled Metropolis, the body of work features generative art NFTs based on architectural influences from London, Berlin, New York, Mexico City and Los Angeles – five cities where Bright Moments galleries are located.

Kozlowski told CoinDesk that he’s enthusiastic that the collection will help bring generative art, a genre that’s recently been defying the downward trends of NFT markets, in front of the eyes of crypto and non-crypto native collectors.

“The fact that you don't know what you're getting when you're a collector, and you get to see [the mint] happen in front of your eyes while you're standing next to the artists that made it in sort of a unique situation catered to the specific project that you're minting,” said Kozlowski. “It's just very special.”

The 500-unit collection’s minting begins online Feb. 22, but the in-person component will depend on which city each Metropolis NFT corresponds to. At the designated time, holders will be able to mint “a diptych” – a counterpart to the original NFT. The second work of art, which is free, can only be minted in real life.

Art Blocks and Bright Moments laid plans to team up in January to produce “experiential collaborations.” Art Blocks previously partnered with Pace Galleryin June to further its mission to bring generative art to wider audiences.

Kozlowski is the artist behind Chimera, an early NFT collection minted on Art Blocks. According todata from OpenSea, the collection has a 2.16 ETH or about $3700 floor price, and a trading volume of 3,753 ETH, nearly $6.4 million.

Arts

https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/02/16/art-blocks-and-nft-gallery-bright-moments-team-up-to-bring-generative-art-irl/

Interesting NFTs
Source Code for the WWW
OWNER: Sir Tim Berners-Lee Sir Tim Berners-Lee, b. 1955 Source Code for the WWW 1990-1991 Work includes: Original archive of dated and time-stamped files containing the source code, written between 3 October 1990 and 24 August 1991. These files contain code with approximately 9,555 lines, the contents of which include implementations of the three languages and protocols invented by Sir Tim; HTML (Hypertext Markup Language); HTTP (Hyper Transfer Protocol); and URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), as well as the original HTML documents that instructed early web users on how to use the application Animated visualization of the code being written (Video, black & white, silent), lasting 30 minutes 25 seconds A Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) representation of the full code (A0 841mm wide by 1189 mm high), created by Sir Tim from the original files using Python, with a graphic representation of his physical signature at lower right A letter written in the README.md file (in “markdown” format) by Sir Tim in June of 2021, reflecting upon the code and his process of creating it Non-fungible Token ERC-721 Minted on June 15, 2021, ed. 1/1 Smart Contract Address: 0x86ade256037d80d6d42df8df96d5be21cd25bd8f
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
Erotica
“There is a perfection in everything that cannot be owned.” Anaïs Nin
The Harvest
An anthropomorphic figure stands, wide eyed, staring at the viewer; its body masculine, muscular, and humanoid. Its “mind” dissociates into a conglomerate of structures resembling feathers, grain, teeth–as well as a radial flower “node”, casting linear rays throughout the composition. To his left, a vat of bodies gesture and writhe in a kind of amniotic soup, attended by a video game robot. The bot's red display reads “uWu”. Behind the robot and filling the left side of the composition is an archaic figure composed of a variety of vintage objects and symbols. Among them are a hardbound book with ancient cuneiform scripts, indicating barley, beer, bread, ox, house, and sky, behind which is a grimacing, salivating jagged toothed maw; and an old Commodore floppy drive. The figure’s head tilts toward an illuminated crescent moon, suggesting the Egyptian Sacred Bull. The archaic figure is composed of a variety of mutating cells, which shift in color, and pattern; eventually breaking free into an ephemeral broadcast of bubbles which move across the background. The work came into being against a psychological introspection, which included associations to pop culture such as alien abduction and pod people, as well as quite a bit of reflection on grains as a symbol of civilization, agriculture, sustenance, life, and imbibing (mainly whiskies).
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