Art and Blockchain: Evolution in Visuals, Memes, and Street Art

There is always this strange experience I have when diving deep into the Imaginarium ocean. It's usually when I catch a great wave of creativity, surfing the streams of synchronicities.  

Ideas are networkings, and lately I been connecting to ideas of blockchain, evolution and art. The main question I been asking myself is how can the Infinite Imaginarium use Minds Token in creative, interesting and fun ways. 

This lead me to reading a lot about Smart Contracts, ERC20 Tokens and CryptoCurrency Eco-systems. Mostly theory and technical in nature, but today in a nice refreshing cosmic giggle I came across this article "Art and Blockchain: Revolution in Art Collecting". That's all it took, sparks of ideas and creativity, synchronicities, dreams of the bridge between technology and art. Thoughts and Ideas are still fermenting, but I thought I would share some of the more amazing visually and conceptually findings.

Artists inspired by Blockchain

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. If art doesn't reflect what's going on, then what's the point?

The impact of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies is the a good source of inspiration for artists. Also if we think about it, art is currency itself. Its high value had been proved by centuries. I recently had a discussion with my cousin from NY, His Dad(married into the family) was pretty important Abstract Expressionist Artist, Harry Jackson. Luke brought up how he looks at cryptocurrencies like high end art, he said something like "It's something only the elite can really afford it", not totally true but I get his point. Which got me thinking...

There is many layers to this, but the central idea of cryptocurrencies is like art, as things that store value, on the surface level is true. So the idea of buying art for cryptocurrencies has something relevant with natural exchange. If art is a currency itself, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at some point is a piece of art. As I told @govspiders many times before "Really good programming is a work of art"

That is what the work of Peter Fröhlich is about:

Mounted on a rosewood panel, inside the baroque gold-plated frame is a small computer and four specialized computing units producing Bitcoins, the most known and used cryptocurrency. The small display shows the current rate of calculation and the exchange rate of Bitcoins to euros.

Youl. “Last Bitcoin Supper”

I found this Bitcoin inspired art piece is the painting by French artist Youl, really interesting. “Last Bitcoin Supper” that was sold in 2014 as a part of “Project Bitcoin” at eBay auction for 4.64 BTC. The author of the project Bitcoincito tells about the painting:

When we started throwing around ideas for the painting, I was struck that we both had stumbled upon the same basic thought: Bitcoin as Jesus. We saw Jesus as a messianic figure who fundamentally changed the world... and for that change, he was both worshipped and despised. We felt that Bitcoin has taken a similar role: thoroughly world-changing, but also worshipped and despised.

After days of discussion, we decided Youl would paint a huge 140x70 centimeter canvas interpretation of Da Vinci's Last Supper. We believed that Youl's painting could tell the story of bitcoin with a profundity few words could even approach.

Blockchain Street Art 

“R.I.P Banking System” by Ludo

This is the artwork that really caught my imagination and made my browser tabs full. This thought-provoking piece of Bitcoin  Street Art. It features a blooming Bitcoin flower rising above the tombstones of four major fiat currencies: US dollar, British pound, Japanese yen, and the Euro.

One of the most impactful pieces of bitcoin art to date. 

For the vast majority of the global population, it’s difficult (some may say “crazy”) to imagine a world where government regulated fiat currencies are overturned for a decentralized and unregulated cryptocurrency.

The truth is, this is VERY possible.

Many of us in the trenches of hyperspace, understand the long-term implications of blockchain technology and can see the “writing on the wall” so to speak for the fiat-based banking system.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have the potential to absorb the capital from all fiat currencies, financial securities, hard assets, and any form of value, really. I am not saying this WILL happen, but it definitely CAN happen, and to some extent, to some degree it will.

A closer look at this bitcoin art piece shows a crucifix for the US dollar, while showing R.I.P. for the other 3 currencies. What can this possibly mean? What are your Thoughts and Theories?(Comment Below Please)

Digital art, Blockchain and Final Thoughts

I think the most interesting contribution Blockchain technology can make to the world is to art and especially digital art. Which directly concerns Minds and Infinite Imaginarium.  

Digital artists face many issues, when it comes to funding, making and getting revenue for  their work, also when it comes to protecting the authenticity and ownership of their pieces, and this is particularly true with images. With Blockchain technology it becomes possible to collect and systematize digital art because Blockchain can be compared to copyright. For a long time, the only way for artists to really build a market around their digital works has been to convert them into physical forms. Blockchain technology solves the problem of provenance and verification of an art piece. It provides an ideal solution to preserve intellectual property, create demand and increase value for digital content.

The successful startups like Monegraph, Ascribe, Verisart suggest the opportunity for the art world to ascribe authenticity to any image. These startups use decentralized technologies to help artists and collectors with new ways to certify, document, verify and enliven their works. The Blockchain is used to build a worldwide ledger of art and collectibles, coupled with museum standard meta data, to provide immediate value for artists, collectors, apparaisers and insurers.

But where it concerns Minds and Imaginarium, I'm wondering can Imaginarium create an creative fuel, to help Minds Artist to create original creative content? There are some interesting models of multi-token systems to evaluate value, creating a more complex and self sustaining token eco-systems.   

Lastly I don't have the answer to this most concerning questions. Honestly, right now I don't think anyone has the answer. But their are good amount of people asking these questions and working on these answer. The truth is, there is no one answer, but multiple answer, that are relative to the desired solution to achieve a given outcome. 

Imaginairum wants to achieve an ecology of ideas, a self organizing collective of artist, programmers, thinkers, dreamer, freaks and regular people, that can come together to think, create and play together. To not only dream up a new story for Humanity but to create and build that story...