the art issue

🎨🖌️Theme: Art in the time of blockchains

Internationally renowned media artist (and visiting researcher & lecturer in UCLA’s Department of Design Media Arts) Refik Anadol made history this year when one of his artworks was acquired by MoMA -- marking the institution's first inclusion of a tokenized artwork in its permanent collection. 

Anadol shares some of his creative work and philosophy at the intersection of humans, machines, and data — including “digitized memories” — in this short talk from our recent a16z crypto Founders Summit. Not only do his site-specific data paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations take many forms, they encourage us (he argues) to rethink our engagement with the physical world, collective experiences, public art, the creative potential of AI, and, decentralized networks.

Anadol’s NFT designs, meanwhile, span “cryptocube” data block sculptures to quantum computing to “space metaverse” (in collaboration with NASA JPL); and also draw on open source/ public coral images from Miami, to high-resolution science imaging camera images from Mars…

watch the talk here 
share: on Twitter | Farcaster

🎙️▶️Listen to the below playlist, curated for this theme: 

• Age of Wonders: NFTs, art, AI, & cycles of computing with Kevin Rose and Chris Dixon 

• The metaverse, crypto, and virtual society with Herman Narula, Elena Burger, and Sonal Chokshi 

• Mainstreaming NFTs: Use cases, art, more with punk6529

• Two crypto creators on art galleries to tokenized collectibles with Murat Pak and Signe Pierce

• Creators, creativity, and technology with Bob Iger

📹▶️Watch the below playlist, curated for this theme:

• Art, authenticity, and anarchy by FEWOCIOUS

• A creator's journey to self-sovereignty: ‘The Why Is in the Who’ by Latashá

• Interactive-storytelling a creator's journey: 'Pleased 2 Meet U' by pplpleasr

📄📝See also: 

• Why NFT creators are going CC0 by FlashRekt and Scott Kominers

🟧🌴Spotlight: Read Write Own at Art Basel Miami 

Pre-ordered your copy of Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet yet? Order soon to unlock a unique generative art NFT via special bookmark, and also receive a discount from the list price. The book comes out in the U.S. on January 30 and in the U.K. on February 1. 

Here’s what others are saying about the book:

~From Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Chris Dixon’s Read Write Own is a must for anyone who wants to better understand the real potential of blockchains and web3 to drive even greater innovation, inspire more imaginative thinking, and ultimately unlock new growth opportunities in the future.”

~From DeepMind co-founder and NYT bestselling author Mustafa Suleyman: "This is a pivotal moment for the internet. Chris Dixon's fascinating book offers a refreshing and radical new take at a time when we need fresh thinking more than ever." 

~From Kevin Kelly, founding editor of WIRED and bestselling author: “This book changed my mind. It’s a clear manifesto for redeeming the internet, and making it the democratic platform we all want. It’s the best positive case for crypto I’ve seen.”

• pre-order here for the special offer 

• share: on Twitter | Farcaster | Instagram

…see snippets from our recent event at Art Basel Miami below/ watch here

native art medium?

-- Sonal Chokshi and a16z crypto teams

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