I’m obsessed.
I feel like I’ve theorized a new phase of matter.
That theory:
Using NFTs as art media evolves artistry, enhances craftsmanship, and unleashes more beauty.
It evolves artistry beyond the limitations of the physical world we must accept, adopting the options of the digital worlds we can design.
It enhances craftsmanship from just budgeting the scarcity of atoms, to also embracing the abundance of bits.
It unleashes more beauty by unlocking more dimensions.
I really do see NFTs as options of artistry, abundance of craftsmanship, and dimensions of beauty. It’s fun to theorize, and more fun to manifest.
The key to my approach is to develop NFTs that unlock dimensions, specifically through variables that can take on more values when you go from ‘physical’ to ‘digital’.
Which variables?
Well this is part of the fun!
Here are some examples:
- Collateralization, now without middlemen: You lend me stablecoin, I put up my picture as collateral. If I don’t pay you back per our terms, you keep my picture.
Want weirder? Replace ‘picture’ with ‘book’. - Collaboration, now with access controls: You start a public augmented reality sculpture installation, but NFT-gating controls who in a community can contribute & how.
Want weirder? Replace ‘sculpture’ with ‘social justice dashboard’. - Sampling, now with payment automated: You release your song, with its tracks. I sample a track into my song. You automatically get attribution and a cut of revenue when I release mine.
Want weirder? Replace ‘song’ with ‘idea’.
Now… because you can… mash ’em all together to show an odd example of what NFTs can enable when used as building blocks for art and not just the art itself:
- Put up for loan the ownership, and revenue rights, of a social justice piece that captures a moment in time, partially crowd-sourced, inspired by a protest song and a social media post. If the loan defaults, and the new owner of the piece ever sells, the song writer and post author will get a cut of the sale.
You can similarly analyze how DeFi evolved TradFi:
- Settlement time, now shorter: Security ownership settled from T+2 to T+0.
- Ownership, now split: Revenue from a building is automatically distributed amongst holders of a fractionalized ownership token.
- Currency, now with custom perks: Y’want a stablecoin? Y’got options.
This focus on variables transforms my initial grandiose statements into components of a tomorrow I get to build today.
So… today… I get to build.
I get to build the new and wacky ways I want to unleashedly create.
I’m not sure I’ve explicitly answered all the questions I set out last week to help me unmuddle how I talk about my not-fully-baked passion, but I’m at greater peace with ‘the why’ because after some soul-searching, it pulls from a deep truth for me: I just want to make the random portfolio of shit I come up with.
The Rockopera suite of products is an art project, enabling my other art projects.
That’s why I’m obsessed. (…THIS cupcake is MUCH better…)