09/12/2021 HTC Launches Vive Arts NFT Store

louvre htc mona lisa

HTC Vive is getting into VR NFTs. But don’t pick up the pitchforks yet; maybe the idea of a VR NFTs works?Maybe?

Ablog post today announcedthe launch of the Vive Arts NFT store. It’s essentially abrowser-based sales gallery– the platform will reportedly offer a chance for artists to sell art made in VR and AR as well as other digital works.

HTC says creators will be able to decide the amount of copies of a work they can sell as well as whether to accept cryptocurrency or actual currency (for lack of a better term). The NFT Store will be hosting a sales meeting on December 17 in which it will feature NFT-ized works from Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha (pictured below) in collaboration with the Mucha Foundation.

HTC Vive Arts VR NFT

Before we make too much fun of the news (tempting as it is), there is perhaps some merit to the concept of a VR NFT. Works created in apps like Tilt Brush and Quill aren’t simple images or videos and, while you could still download and view them on lots of flatscreen devices when they’re hosted on platforms like Sketchfab, there is legitimacy in the idea of a VR artist selling a unique copy of their work. It’s not like a Tilt Brush expert can hang up a 3D model at a gallery and pass it over to someone else, and similarly you can’t just screencap a picture of a model and get the full experience of viewing inside VR.

Think of this as simply selling VR artwork and push the term NFT out of your mind and it kind of makes sense.Granted the works in the first sales meeting next week aren’t actually VR works, but the point remains. HTC also isn’t the first to touch on the possibility of VR NFTs; Mark Zuckerberg noted that they could be a part of Meta’s vision of the Metaverse at the Connect conference in October.

Arts

https://uploadvr.com/htc-vive-arts-nft-store/

Interesting NFTs
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).
CryptoKitties
*hissing noises*! I'm Kitty #442263. In high school, I was voted biggest teacher's pet. I once pawed at a rhino. I don't like to talk about it. I hope you like kitten around as much as I do!
No Future #9/15
None
Clock
one thousand four hundred forty one
Poem by Motoyoshi Shinno, from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Poem by Motoyoshi Shinno, from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse late 1830s - Japan