A Path Towards Decentralized Curation and Other Crypto Concepts In The Art World / Sam Gittis

Transcript

foreign [Applause] all right wow we are at an interesting point right now with art and Technology intersecting with this web3 revolution we have a lot of new artists coming on board we have a lot of different people using this to benefit themselves we have a lot of value being created but with great power comes great responsibility so this talk is about what we can do to benefit the emerging digital art market and how crypto ethos and the pillars of

building crypto projects and the core ethos are really entering the art World via nfts and crypto art so according to NASDAQ core values behind crypto decentralization democratization and transparency these are huge for artists for artists these are things that are usually played with in order to take advantage of them or in order to push a certain agenda in the Art Market or in the Arts field we have a lot of different artists who want to express themselves and maybe with some of these core pillars of these ethos similar to as the Art Market pushes

artists into other ethos we have a new digital Revolution not only in the terms of style or technology but also in terms of why things are created and how people are leveling the playing field to provide individual freedom and sovereignty which for an artist is amazing that's something that a lot of artists strive for a lot of artists get into the creative mindset by using this inspiration from within to be individually free to use this technology to provide art to the masses and to benefit themselves um so quick hi I'm Sam a lot of this uh

talk comes from anecdotal experiences from my experience at crypto portal I'm not sure if some of you have been to crypto portal maybe it's a nft Galler we had in the center of Prague we've been working with artists we've been onboarding we've been working with International artists local Czech artists helping people mint their first nft helping provide a platform for artists to meet collectors and having a conversation in the space about digital art and crypto art I'm also a musician and DJ so I see a lot of parallels between the traditional industry between streaming and how record labels work as well with the

nfts with the opposite effect and using this I've worked on collaborations with solos which is generative painting projects with Jeremiah palacek and we've done a collaboration which one this one yeah with generative audio mixed with generative traditional media so we had a combination of audio visuals nope so what it means for artists how can we start to use beyond the technology but the ethos of crypto to empower new emerging artists we can really see a you know network of digital artists connecting together on

social media due to like the legitimization of digital art via nfts and in the crypto art world we don't have to be in a big city we don't have to move to London we don't have to move to a larger capital in order to express ourselves or make connections within the Arts industry so it doesn't matter if you are remote it doesn't matter if you don't have access physically to a lot of places it's more about the connections you make um remote or where you can really Express Yourself via internet so a lot of these Concepts work hand in hand with the internet Revolution and also with this emerging digital art Revolution

um democratization is huge the dependence on labels and galleries to promote artists is really limiting and very centralized it doesn't provide much power to the artists they are really dependent on these centralized groups in order to express themselves they have to sometimes fit a box in order to make it into a gallery sometimes it's not about um what the art is but it's about how it is and I think that a great example was x copy put that his art teacher told me he would never make it as an artist that it wouldn't be possible with this style of art to become an artist and this is

an example of the democratization of nfts where we can have anybody start to express themselves and really build their own sovereignty and freedom from crypto art they can use this technology to be a little bit more transparent and have a conversation with their audience rather than lying on a label or gallerist to push them forward um transparency is a huge one uh have a story of conversation uh with Jeremiah when we started crypto portal we were really talking about like should we put the price on display should we let people know the price of it and honestly it's a

tough call because I don't want people to be intimidated by a price or I don't want people to feel have to be impressed because of the financial value attached to it but he brought a great Point as well is that this increased transparency is something that doesn't exist in traditional art markets for a gallery if you want to buy a piece you have to make a appointment with someone who will give you a price based on a lot of factors who you are where it's going to be they kind of go through and give a rating to you based on how much you will pay for it so this is an example the transparency that exists in crypto art

and in nfts where we can get to like a transparent like this is how much it is for anybody and without these borders of and blurred lines between price for individuals or depending on your status we can really have a more transparent Art Market and that's really huge as well for the streaming industry where the streaming industry and having music we don't know exactly where the funds go or how much artists are really making through these centralized platforms it's definitely helpful and a lot of artists are making it but the thing is is they aren't making it on their own and they're not making it independently they kind of have to rely on these streaming

platforms to pay them out instead of having the direct relationship with the consumers or with the patrons of Art so how do consumers get the art this is the main thing is how to reach it it goes from artists as the starting point but we have a lot of other people in between we got a lot of different mediums that are in stakeholders that happen between the art creation and the consumer there are galleries that presented record labels like I said um to Showcase this there are definitely um a lot of people and stakeholders individuals that hold power in the Art

Market that provide this value such as curators and ours taste makers in general these are people who have value in the Art Market without being directly connected to the creation of art or to or itself they are ones that provide value um but without having the direct connection to Art itself so where is the value created this is the main question because we have so much value in art based on style history we have a lot of different people who have their own opinion on which art is valuable which Collectibles are valuable there is lots of different ways that we can explore this value

um we would love to think as artists that it only matters about the art it only matters about what we see we would love to think this this is the best case scenario um but the value is created via a wide network of a lot of different stakeholders and people who are participating in this a big one uh here we have the art ecosystem model this is a big big chart and it shows how many people are involved we have so many people involved that we start here we have artists usually in art school usually they start with a connection to the to the market they have a system they have ways of going from being in

the classroom to being in a gallery to being in a private collection there are systems in place for them to to take advantage of in the traditional Art Market whether it's a centralized location like a school who's pushing them forward or it's on their own where they kind of connect to their peers so having art as the starting point in the Art Market it matters about the individual's Journey as the starting point it's so important that art schools are improving and teaching the individuals they're bringing them up and maybe a slightly spiritual artistic way in order to present their work they're preparing them for the real world they're preparing them to get into the market they're preparing them for

different critics different dealers galleries these are all part of Art School besides the actual artist itself artist peers is a great one to go for next um because this is the connections that happen the collaborations this is where they start to make connections having peers around giving feedback this is a big part of the art Network and being able to be an artist and being able to live from your art um we have a couple different other ways where we go to like artist-led or curated exhibitions this is really popular in art schools where we kind of have a presentation of the art we also have small publicly funded spaces where artists can interact

showcase the work start to get into the system start to Showcase start to show people what they're about we have art dealers and critics and these are also existent in the crypto Art Market and in the nft market we can see on Twitter critics of art all the time we've all seen it um and also dealers and providing the secondary market so a lot of these parallels still exist but a big part that is different in the crypto Art Market is this big section over here where we have Regional independent galleries public collections major public Gallery exhibitions these aren't really so

common in digital art there are digital there are exhibitions featuring digital art more and more it's getting very common to have a place to Showcase digital art popping up everywhere like crypto portal like other digital art galleries but it's not kind of in the same system it's not in the same uh ecosystem as a traditional Art Market some parallels are that like private collectors are a big goal huge goal for artists this is like the way to make it into a collection when you get to have private collectors and this is usually unknown

there's no transparency sometimes you don't even know who bought your work your work is sold at a gallery and it's gone to stay in a free port to be a liability that's really sometimes the reality for artists and now we kind of know private collectors we have a Personal Collection with a lot of them um so that's a big aspect that's connected but in the kind of ecosystem in nfts we have a little bit of a difference we're kind of missing a bunch I replaced some of them with things I believe are super important in the emerging digital art ecosystem uh social media being a big one talking about peers earlier and talking about art

school peers we're making connections on social media I'm sure a lot of us have seen a huge influx of digital art into our lives recently and I believe social media is one of the biggest uh sources with a lot of artists post on social media before they take it to a Marketplace or before they start trying to actively sell their work they showcase it on social media social media is becoming the way to connect to others maybe we don't need art school maybe we can use YouTube we have these other mediums coming into play that are emerging and evolving so quickly like Ai and 3D art

um we can debate what is art and what isn't and that's what's going to be next but the traditional Market versus the nft market is changing and things are getting different uh going between private collectors in the secondary market and back and forth is a way for artists to spread their their value it's a way for artists to use their power of connections and to make it an impact in others lives we have daos and we see these artist collectives becoming more and more popular we have a lot of different huge institutions who are buying up crypto art and curating their own collection uh to support smaller artists or projects and we have um

galleries in the metaverse and in real life that are also helping connect between private collectors and Dows and collectives of art we kind of have this ecosystem a little a little broken compared to the last one we're still building a lot of these tools and we're still going forward in the Art Market as digital art evolves in terms of the value and legitimization but this is um a big missing chunk this is a really big missing chunk of it and we have to look forward to our opportunity this is our opportunity here where we have another different aspect of you know providing value in terms of what we

feel is digital art so I would really like to focus on what we can make a difference in when we start to talk about digital art being legitimized on the blockchain how can we provide our value and our opportunity to become curators and to be and to say what is crypto art because right now there's a bunch of definitions we have some pfps we have some OG 3D artists we have different collectors and collector dials who focus on certain Styles um Flamingo Dao which is an amazing amazing Collective for for nfts they collect everything they have some Collectibles they have some 3D art generative art the Museum of crypto art

they're a little more focused and curated on digital art that's considered um OG as in before 2020. so there's some missions that are in place to State what is crypto art we have Galleries and and museums also lending a hand into this decentralized curation of deciding what it is and this is our responsibility to kind of show what is digital art uh having on-chain insights I believe will be a very big key to this we kind of have the top five uh selling on open C but this is not the way to do it if you look right now I don't think we

should consider it crypto art this is the conversation to have uh the curation of information like on Reddit where they show the upvotes and downvotes I believe that's really key having a kind of you know decentralized consensus of what we should see I believe having this pop-up will continue to create a sort of hive mind of digital art once we start adding value based on our attention based on our social um and cultural capital we'll be able to see what we can what we can curate as digital art we can start to see um different roles and directions and dials popping up to say like here's what we believe

um Digital Arts should look like or what it it can be decentralizing curation doesn't mean what's on display at a gallery it can mean what it means for artists what it means for creators I think a couple years ago we remember having crypto art be a 3D rendered image with a Bitcoin just placed somewhere in it that was a big part of crypto art a couple years ago um and now that style is changing so we can start to talk about it and have this conversation with nfts to show what we believe is the future um and we have the future of crypto portal uh I really see a lot of changes happening I really see so much potential

based on the community that we've gathered we've gathered a great Community um of different artists and collectors and I believe that we can all start having this conversation together um and this is at the gallery uh here and shout out to Derek for the awesome photo um so yeah I think the future of crypto portal as I see it as a small part of this big ecosystem that we're developing I believe I see a patronage and a combination of the power to curate coming into play kind of a reciprocal change of information and power um having a semi-centralized place I think we can start to have these conversations a little easier than

online and we can experiment in Creative Capital allocation I don't think this has been a big topic and I really think that creative Capital allocation and using on-chain voting and um different styles of assigning tokens can be really helpful to to curation and to building artists um that's about that's about it um we have a lot of control in this digital art Renaissance I would really like and invite you to be mindful about it what's coming next and take a look at at digital art and the curation of it in a really open way um so thanks so much we can connect uh

Sam giddis crypto portal art um if you have any ideas and you want to offer any kind of hand in this new era please connect and we can uh we can talk about it okay cool thank you thank you okay there are some roving mics in the audience and I'm expecting there will be questions but I sometimes have big expectations anyone questions this man talked a lot about some interesting topics you're all here listening any questions oh don't leave me hanging on stage like this come on my job is to get the audience you've got a question every hour with a question over here thank you all right cool I've actually been to

crypto portal uh so I recommend you to go there it's quite nice uh I I have a question what are your thoughts on IRL minting IRL minting yeah you're telling like bright moments yeah I think in this area yeah this is cool and this is actually kind of what I was talking about with this like semi-centralized I think live minting and something like pone is doing back here where they're like getting you to interact with smart contracts on the spot I believe that's a great way for onboarding and these in real life experiences are just going to become more and more accessible because we need onboarding right now we need to get more people involved so IRL minting something like that that's semi-centralized I think is a great way

to get people dipping their toes in the water um so I'm definitely a big fan can I share something with you okay with you so what we have here I'll show this to the camera in a minute but it's a live stream inside the nft of us talking on the stage I'll bring it to the camera over here here it is so maybe can we put this camera up on the main screen big screen so the audience can watch it's really nft camera yeah here we are and there it is there it is so this opens is this going to work open seats of it are my hands shaking yeah too close so this this is the live stream stage nice inside an nft on opacity it's called eth Prague live I don't know we were thinking about

lending these out using poon Finance I think it's the way to do it I think it's okay we'll talk about that a bit more later anyone else got any questions on anything yeah we've got a question here in the middle hooray the questions have started yes the question trained oh yeah okay um hi I'm uh I come from Art Market background so I'm with you on a lot of what you've talked about but uh I think my like question like or I'm interested in your opinion about like how does like the future of crypto art gets to like Quality Art so that it wouldn't be like democratization is like a lot of people voting and stuff they have no idea about and like how do you actually get to the Quality Art that might be like you know

in minority it might be unpopular but it might be some like a really um interesting movement without basically Creed creating the same gatekeeping structures of curators and people who know about art um as we see it you know currently in the Art Market no exactly because as as we see with like decentralization in general we have a lot of influx of of art which can be as simple as getting some assets from a blender store dropping them and blender printing it uploading it to openc now you're an nft artist it can be that simple and I really believe that that's part of the creative Capital allocation

that we kind of need we need people who are um we can say ogs or somebody who is into digital art um I know some friends um like felt design who have been in the field for a while I would say these kind of like proofs we can't do it on chain yet but at the beginning we can start to allocate this creative Capital based on our attention so it's I think a huge um kind of slip up right now in the market is a lot of attention is python Collectibles or these generative um pfps which is a huge part of it but once we get to like what quality digital art is and where we see the attention of some big collectors like uh Flamingo Dao or Cosmo de Medici or something like

Museum of crypto art I think they have a huge creative Capital where they can start to help us Point towards quality because right now that's a I agree a huge um a huge barrier to show and to have uh decentralized level of what is the quality that deserves to be called crypto art or digital art right and there's something for me here about like you you've got Web 2.0 and web 3.0 and I think a lot about like how can we make sure we build web 3.0 to be something new instead of just replicate Web 2.0 on a blockchain to take that analogy further there's like let's say the old art world is art 2.0 and this is Art 3.0 I see people trying to make traditional

World art on chain but actually should we just be burning everything to the ground and creating new art 3.0 and acoustic artist style censorship resistant you can do whatever you want now artists it's only in your brain it's all in your brain too um but that's a big one yeah for sure they're definitely going to be these these conversations popping up and what can be considered crypto order art 3.0 right it's going to be really cool to see like the the future of it and I believe we have that conversation opening um with these IRL Galleries and everything like this and these are creators tools like Adobe they're going to start offering these Services of showing like how much work the artist put in they're going to start showing that this nft came directly from Photoshop and here's maybe some steps or

layers of it I think that this kind of transparency will devolve evolve in the Creator tools publish to be hands or publish to ethereum yeah basically exactly okay because I think two more minutes for questions I'm sure Sam and I could just keep doing some anyone please anyone or from the live stream audience we are on the live stream the live stream is up here Sam you see the live stream there that's the camera that camera that's called the live stream that's where your family is watching okay so do you have any questions from the live stream I can't hear you ah we can't hear them oh yeah yeah cheers but no questions okay then I think we're done here thank you so much for the next talk thank you

thank you thank you Chris thank you thank you cheers jingle jingle