NFT y propuestas artísticas híbridas en el crypto arte

Good afternoon everyone, welcome. We are about to begin the fourth edition of Builder Series. Asa Santizo is with us right now. As you know, this is our third edition and we have been constantly inviting speakers through our Tali link who want to share their experiences in different niches and ecosystems of the blockchain. That's where it was chalked.

She is an audiovisual artist, and she is a doctoral candidate in the artistic production research line of the doctoral program in fine arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. She is also a graduate of the same institution with a degree in Fine Arts and a master's degree in art and creation. His research focuses on studies of postmedia and disruptive emerging technologies, blockchain web 3 and NFTs. As a visual artist, she has worked in video installation, new media, NFTs, and photography. Her work has been exhibited at events such as the Havana Viennas, in its 11th edition and at the 12th NFT New York City in 2023, and Casa América in Madrid.

Hey, Aisa Santizo, here's your pass so you can share about your experiences, and I think you're already enabled for the presentation. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mariana, for the introduction. Uh, thanks to the entire organizing team of NFT Lima, of Ethereum Lima, for inviting, well, for inviting me here to give these talks, uh, to share with you all and well, yes, we will be, as the presentation says, talking about art in the web 3 ecosystem, art especially in blockchain.

NFTs and hybrid artistic proposals in the ecosystem, because we're going to see that this goes beyond NFTs, right? So, let's share here and get into a bit of a debate. Okay, well, this isn't... this is more like an introduction to what we're going to be seeing, right? Within this ecosystem, we are very accustomed, especially to the visual practices, the more artistic ones that we are seeing, particularly on many platforms, especially marketplaces or various scenarios within the ecosystem, being very focused on NFTs.

But this is an ecosystem that predates NFTs and includes a multitude of artistic practices and practices that are not necessarily anchored to the art system itself, but rather are from the peripheries around it. These practices are also building synergies, knowledge, and, of course, shifting a series of paradigms and foundations that were established even in digital arts, and have expanded much further to a much more open audience where accessibility to these types of practices was not so viable before. So, to focus on this topic, I'm going to start with two models that have already been discussed regarding what crypto art is. Um, one of the models, uh, some of you probably know it, comes from Jason Bailey, uh, especially since he launched around 2000, around 2017, uh, a series of articles, especially two articles on his Arnomi block, uh, where, well, this first one, which is The Blockchain Art Market, is this article, what is an article directed above all at the system, uh, beyond the institutional art system, it's talking about the system as such of galleries, of the art market, of the big art auctions, Sachi Sotterby, uh, about what this technology is bringing to an ecosystem that isn't connected with, uh, with digital artistic practices, or what is known as digital art. Of course, it's a practice that didn't have many ways to be commercialized, right?

There have been links, but they have always been very close and managed through trust, practically a very institutional collecting, right?, of these big fairs. So, through this article, I propose to communicate to this circle what the advantages of blockchain, decentralized technologies, and all decentralized accounting technologies can bring to the ecosystem, and I develop it in four points, right? Boosting digital art sales through digital scarcity. Well, this is a bit of what NFTs are all about, uh, democratizing investment in fine arts, which has always been an extremely exclusive sector, right?

, for a very small group, for an extremely small community. Improving provenance and reducing the falsification of works of art, especially for people who work more in the field of heritage, because this is a technology that, being a public accounting technology, that is, we are talking about a public blockchain, right?, distributed, allows for a kind of tracing and tracking, right?, for other agents, beyond the artists, but the other cultural agents who also have an important and weighty job, right?, in the preservation of what is cultural memory.

Uh, and well, and then creating more ethical ways of paying artists, which we know is also, well, the whole humanities system, but above all also the arts system, and I'm talking about visual arts too, right? Because it's a very broad field, it's also a topic for everyone; it's a medium that's becoming increasingly precarious, isn't it? Also in legal terms, in a series of issues that this technology brings to the table, especially for digital artists who have had very little access to enter a market, right? An art market. Uh, to get into Cryptoart, then he comes and comments about 2018, he brings out another article that is called more about cryptoart, right?

Where in this article, which is more focused on the practices of NFTs, this is 2018, the great collectibles have already come out, it develops a series of 10 patterns, that is, 10 points, patterns are not points, where it tries more to communicate to an audience that is entering, right?, into this whole ecosystem of what crypto art is, right? And I mention that these 10 points are mainly focused on what an NFT is, which is good, many of them are already somewhat well known, right? Natively digital, but also agnostic, democratized, permissionless, decentralized, anonymous, magnetic, reference, that is, all this is a bit of what we are practically used to seeing more in the ecosystem. This was written in 2018, well, 2019, 2020, the pandemic, and the NFT boom in 2021.

This really resonates with us, does n't it? And one of the points that practically linked many people, right?, in this medium is that, of course, it's for the first time, for example, what blockchain technology is as infrastructure and NFTs as, as, this token with a unique identifier, what it brings is that for the first time, from a much more expanded, much more democratic point of view, it was possible to produce, distribute, market, and collect. uh digital art in its own digital medium, right? Without having to mutate to other media, such as in the collecting of contemporary art, collecting of modern art, classical art, right?

And this is a bit of what's good, what it gives us. That's why NFTs also became so prevalent as a technology, right? For uh as a means for what is the dissemination and creation of a type of digital art, uh no uh that also has many other forms. So, I'm going to come in here with another model, another definition of cryptoart, because we think that cryptoart is a term that is being agreed upon; there is no single definition, but rather it is a concept that is still trying to define itself and has many implications, which is what we will be looking at here. Uh, I bring this other model that I also found that was written by an artist named Martín Lucas eh Ostashovski, synonymous with MLO.

Ah, and then it talks about how in crypto art as such there are four ways in which there has been interaction with the blockchain, right? One of them is the NFTs and it has two divisions, Art NFTs and Utility NFTs. NFTs, uh, which are also for the game, for gaming, ah, crypto art and from here later we look at other concepts within what is defined as crypto art, digital art, uh, and well, and physical works related to the blockchain, but we don't necessarily go step by step. Uh, NFTs, well, we've been talking about this for a little while. Well, according to Milo's criteria, he categorizes it as good, like all that artistic creation that is tokenized, a non-fusible touch, he knows what an NFT is, right?

Eh, it can be on chain or off chain. Ah, and well, that's practically what we're seeing, right? It can be anything that can be perfectly linked or tokenized as FT, whether it's photography, illustration, performance, 3D music, pixelation, and so on, right? Many practices and it has, well, it has a strategy, right? It's a very specific methodology that's closely linked to the token, right?

to the token, uh, to the standard model token , the F3 standards which is RC 221 and, well, RC 1155 which is a bit more flexible but is also within the dynamics of the NFPs. And then there are NFT utilities, which still have these same standards, but whose purpose isn't necessarily focused specifically on artistic dynamics, dynamics of, well, authorial expression or expression of, I mean, those intended only for contemplation or aesthetic enjoyment, but are more concentrated on, well, developing these utilities, whether through, because they are NFTs designed to build a metaverse, they are NFTs because they are designed as, as, memberships, as, seeds, and so on, right? They are also designed with a business logic behind them or for use on other types of platforms, right? Also, the NFPTs generated for video games would also fall under this type of logic, which is good, I do remember that there was a time when there was a lot of debate about whether all NFTs are art and not all NFTs are art, right? Or how does the artistic NFT, which I know, well, I still know as one-to-one NFT, come into play?

Within these dynamics, which are the utilities, right? Um, it's a bit like Milo's concept is more separated, saying, "Well, within NFTs there are like two worlds that interact with each other, but that respond to different interests. Well, after that, this second concept is generated, which is a bit more open, right? Which he calls art. For me, the practices in this category speak above all to the blockchain medium and its ecosystems, but they don't necessarily have to be an NFT, but they must be tokenized within the blockchain system.

What are we referring to by this? We're referring, for example, to what we'll see little by little, right?, which is the AR protocol, which is to intervene artistically in smart contracts, that is, the smart contract itself as a written document and as a conceptual act is also a means of critical expression for artistic expression, right? To directly influence and manipulate the smart contract itself so that it is in itself an artistic work. Then there are digital performances, which are those...

let me explain, These are the ones that also have inscribed performative actions, they have a kind of intention regarding creation, regarding the works that are linked to a writing process, that use not only the RC21 token, that is, the NFT token, but can also use the RC20 token standards. Among them, they generate coins, or well, our inscriptions like the HR, which were one of the first inclusions seen in the ecosystem, right? Very early in 2011, even much earlier. Well, these practices are also included within forms of performance, right? The digital ecosystem, right?

Or the ecosystem on the network. And well, this concept that can be known as New Net or Netart.3, which is very much linked to the practice of Net, which is, well, they were experimental practices, especially with very customized HTML pages. artistic. And well, linking it also to the infrastructure of the blockchain itself.

In this, it might sound a bit more like a personalized marketplace for artists, or artists or people who have created any kind of platform, marketplace, right?, completely autonomous where they also market their work. So we explain this concept of what it means to act on chain. This is one of the first practices that emerged in the blockchain ecosystem very early on, around 2011, which was before unprogrammable blockchains even existed. It was practically at the very beginning of Bitcoin's launch, and it's simply registration, that is, leaving messages recorded in the transactions that were made in Bitcoin, which are really economic transactions.

And this is when a key point is reached, which is that these ecosystems, especially the blockchain ecosystem, begin to be thought of as extremely transactional, as a A means to preserve cultural memory and also a means of artistic expression, right? So, many of these practices are anonymous, and they're also activist practices because they're heavily influenced by, well, by all the counterculture that came out of the '80s and ' 90s in Netar, and also by all the synergy that existed, right? Also, at the precise moment it emerged with the community itself. These are practices that aren't gone, that is, they continue to happen, they haven't disappeared, in fact, well, we'll come back to this a bit later, right? Within these digital performances, which is what they were telling us about, there are these projects, well, as I said, they're searches that continue to be generated, there are these projects, messages, Message from the Miles by Project Bridge, you can even look it up, it's a website where what they did was collect a whole record up to, I think, 2018, 2009, up to 2018, well, of all those , , hidden, encrypted messages, all those messages.

These conversations that exist and persist, right? What is on the Bitcoin blockchain. This is also a form of performance, right? A form of artistic practice, it's a digital performance, it's also a way to generate knowledge, to generate culture, right? And to communicate it.

The other project, Bitcoins.com, Bitcoin by And. Well, this is even a program of its own creation that you can also consult, and well, this is a completely permanent program. Every file that is recorded, well, I even included one of the last conversations that are still happening on Bacon. Within the other digital performances, we had also talked about other artistic forms such as altcoins, right?

This, this, what is well, there is the Nilly Coins Project, which is even much earlier, this is early 2014, it's by the artist Nil Learner, and well, I consider it one of the first antecedents of NT. Well, now, taking it also from references of others, Right? It's one of the antecedents of Nestis. Um, before this concept existed, well, yes, it did trade, I mean, it generated its own coins or its own hardcoins, and it linked them to JPGs, right? In Bitcoin forums, to explore, well, to explore these tensions and limits of what was considered art, of what was considered artistic, permissible within an ecosystem that wasn't yet entering into these kinds of synergies.

This is very early. 2014. Um, there's another practice that's still happening, and I want to say that this artist, Myers, practically inaugurated it in 2014, right at the launch of Ethereum, right? Ethereum, with what it means, or what Ethereum meant, as a programmable blockchain ecosystem, brings these ideas. Expanded, well, this is an ecosystem not only to be considered from a transactional perspective, from economic transfers, but it's also for decentralizing and for really rethinking, right?

, other infrastructures that transcend the economic ecosystem, right? That also includes social ecosystems, artistic ecosystems , legal ecosystems, in short, right? Much broader ecosystems. And well, Protocol R, the proposal that Rea Myers brought to the table is to intervene in the matrix, one of the matrices, right?, that creates an unprogrammable blog, which is the intelligent contract.

So, I generate, well, that he wrote and that, according to the interactions I was telling you about, this game, this conceptual game of whether this contract is art or not, right? The semiotics very typical of conceptual art from the 60s and since the 90s, well, it already works. And it also generates a whole precedent that continues to be repeated in other practices that continue to happen on the network, right? This is known as a protocol, which is the protocol itself, that is, the protocol of the program, of the smart contract in this case, right? It is in itself an artistic gesture.

Well , these are some of the practices that we can also find, which are completely visible, and well, yes, for example, this other project, much more recent, I think from 2023, approximately, well, 2024 actually, which is the World Computers Culture Garden, which you can also consult, is a series, a compilation of several intelligent contracts, of several intervened contracts, and of course, performed on the web, right? Yes, it's a kind of collective exhibition on the Net, which you can consult, right? And it has many of these practices of inscription, many of these practices of intervention, of pushing the boundaries of, well, of what is considered art or not art Within this space, right? Which is an extremely relational space. Uh, these are just many examples; there are many more.

I suggest you also visit it, right? It's an open proposal. Uh, then within this whole umbrella that is crypto-art, according to de Milo's criteria, uh, well, we can see these other proposals, which is Net Art 3.0 or Newnet Art, as you prefer to call it, uh, well, it's practical, well, it's practically a fusion between what is the first web, that is, the creative practices of Web 1.0 with, well, linked to the infrastructure of the Web.

There are proposals, for example, like that of Gen Computer Gomby, who was a Brazilian artist, very well known in the ecosystem around 2021. Uh, and well, and from there, uh, there are many other proposals that are also flowing in the space that, well, right? That continue to rescue these There are some very curious fusions between these two traditions, between the nostalgia of Net Art, and experimentation on the web, with platforms that generate our own marketplaces, our own markets, our own proposals from a more autonomous point of view within the ecosystem. We also have the proposal of this artist, Canel Zapata, from Mexico. It's a different proposal, but it follows the same lines.

His website is his artistic practice; it's his proposal, his work, his portfolio. It has a whole conceptual intention, so I 've also considered it a work of art, and at the same time, it's a container for many other works where other types of practices are also mixed . And within generative practices, there's also... They've arrived at the ecosystem; there's this generative metaverse proposal based on Ana's ideas, it's called Anavers, and well, yes, it's a metaverse that I have active, a generative metaverse, in which each person, with their own tokens, generates their own metaverse. That is, a unique structure, right?

, for each person who visits it and who can perfectly interact within it, right? Generate their own spaces for their events, exhibitions, and well, it's also another way of performing, well, performative practices in the space, in the ecosystem, or not generated for these infrastructures. And well, within this whole definition, the third point that Milo defines is digital art. And I add digital art on blockchain because digital art is very broad and not subject to Web 3 and blockchain. But well, in this case, supporting it, is how he defines it as another A facet, right?

And they are digital artworks, which isn't so much defined as untokenized digital artworks , but rather works traded with cryptocurrencies or that link cryptocurrencies in some part. And well, here it is a type of practice that has a strong connection with post-internet art, right? Post-internet practices, especially practices that come a lot from Northern Europe, and that are roughly from after the 2000s, well, they still continue, right? Among them are these sculptural performance actions, and Tactical Media performance actions . Within sculptural performances, I wanted to point out this example, which is from Filipi's Primavera.

She was also one of the very early artists to produce, or rather, to think, in this technology. I also believe she is a professor at MIT, and well, she also has many writings, she is a very research-oriented person and has many writings related to what is... Blockchains, governance issues, DOS, right? And well, also some synergies in artistic practices. In this case, that's because this sculpture, which is a sculpture that functioned, that is, every time some kind of donation was given to the sculpture, regardless of whether it reacted with all the money collected from the donations, it generated a kind of DAO in which the community itself, through what I programmed, decided whether the piece continued to be reproduced or not, that is, whether it generated open online calls to invite new artists to think of other versions of this kind of electronic flower, which the public, well, the public that belonged to that DAO, selected the proposal and it was carried out, so that it was a cycle that was constantly fed, among other things, so that once, well, a cycle that It was repeated with that innovative culture that was emerging, so the same pattern would emerge; they would do it again, and from there it would continue to be reproduced within the performative actions of Tactical Media.

Tactical Media, which was, and still is, a very concrete methodology within the art of new media on the internet, is to use technological media as a tactical tool to generate online activism, that is, to put them to work for a protest against something specific. And these kinds of practices have also been done in the Web 3 ecosystem. Well, in this case, I bring you this example that many of us know, which is Memo Arken, and above all, he did this in 2000 and 2021 based on all the policies that were generated around the high energy and ecological cost that NFTs were having , right? Especially in the high that it represented, well, 2020-2021. And well, it generated this kind of In practice, these types of pages, like a series of articles and tests, were also provided and followed by the entire scientific community, and well, right?

And all the publicity that this page generated afterward, which led to its closure, right? This is also another type of practice and another way of assuming this way of making performative art within tactical media, within the blockchain as well. You'll see that it's very early, right? This 14th is also the action of this group, Group BNIC, which, well, I think is a Swiss group, where what they did at the time was generate a bot. It would buy all kinds of items on the Dark Web, illegal and illicit goods or services , and pay for them in Bitcoin, and well, it puts them as a kind of dispositive installation in space.

It's designed especially for a very specific audience, right? An audience that consumes this type of work, because it's very linked to these practices, right? To the practices From the new media that came from the internal well, right? This type of fusion, but it's still being repeated. Uh, then it goes to the last point that Mailo defines, to finish with this section of points in definitions, right?

What crypto art is, for this researcher and artist, is physical works of art that are related to the blockchain, but they aren't necessarily tokenized or commercialized. Well, this is a bit relative, but they kind of fall outside the realm of computing, right? The technological realm, uh, and they use it with elements that are more, let's say, geared towards crafts. We're talking about graphic solutions, sculptural solutions, right? To illustrate this, I'll bring up this intervention that was also done very early on .

Uh, well, yes, this was in 2017. It's also a performative action with paint. Uh, and the interesting thing about this intervention that the artist did, well, with his anonymous Coin Artis, with Reyer's support of course , hid a Bitcoin wallet inside this painting. It contained a significant amount of Bitcoin, and she turned it into an online challenge. The person who deciphered it would keep the wallet and the money—the X amount of Bitcoin it contained.

And well, three years later, someone discovered it and kept it. This wallet, I do n't remember its value at the time, but today it's worth a considerable amount . Another performance piece by this Mexican artist, Gerald Din Suárez, involved creating a barbecue with the wallet. She copied it onto a hard drive and burned it, creating a scene with its sounds. And then we also have the video performances, which are also forms of art.

We can, as a kind of digital art, also engage in dialogue about these blockchain ecosystems, about the Web 3 ecosystem, each from its own dynamics, but it's not necessarily so much that it says, " Well, here we're going to enter into what would be hybrid performative interactions." This is also a proposal I'm bringing to you, in which we're going to see how all these practices we were seeing earlier, between Johnson B's criteria and Milo's criteria, intertwine. These very structured ways of dividing artistic practices into categories, categories that are indeed prevalent these days, and these other forms , completely intertwine, to generate a much broader conception of what art is within blockchain technology, or art that engages in dialogue within this ecosystem. In addition to what we've seen, I propose these types of interactions. Hybrid performatives, among which we would also include the two—and I'm not referring here to all kinds of, well, yes, but I'm not referring to all kinds of dice, but to very specific dice, like artistic dice, cultural dice, educational dice.

Um, what is this? Followed performative interactions. We're also talking about generative cryptopoetry as visual poetry and also crypto-textual critiques, right? I'm going to explain a little bit about what each one is based on. And well, regarding the two, well, we all know what an autonomous community is, a decentralized autonomous organization, which are these kinds of associations where decisions are made collectively to generate a more horizontal kind of consensus , although it also has its tensions, right?

It's an extremely complex and necessary experiment. Um, well, as is this dynamic Oh, right? It comes mainly from a very practical, very technical methodology within what is the writing or smart contract, which coordinates actions through online voting , and these practices are also taken and transferred to areas outside of the smart content and intertwine with spontaneous dynamics, with other arbitrary dynamics, and well, in this case specifically with art, with artistic practices. I give the example of Ardo, which is a DAO, eh, of several other, eh, several other artistic dice. Uh, and well, all the answers they have also fall within the intersections between art, between postnet art, between crypto art, NFTs, right?

based on all this political poetics, activist technique of what they were dreaming of. Although these kinds of artistic and cultural dice also, regardless of whether they engage in dialogue for a very open audience, they also engage specifically for an audience that consumes visual arts and contemporary visual arts . Their digital and online spaces, right? They also have very specific audiences. Um, then, well, I would also like to cover, in addition to artistic dice, uh, well, dice from artistic communities, also dice that uh have a cultural function, but also an educational function, although their main objective is not focused on what is artistic practice, type of methodology, uh yes they are dice, they are organizations, right?

Um, like for example these events that are in charge of, or have also taken on the mission of, generating culture, right? It's about generating culture through the dissemination and generation of knowledge, right? So that this knowledge ceases to be a closed framework, with very specific beginnings, and becomes a more decentralized knowledge, a knowledge that most people can access, right? This, thinking about the other. Uh, and this type of Claro, and it's also a way of proposing that also comes from artistic research or from the ways of generating symbolic cultural processes, because art invades that, it's not just about producing things, it's not about producing objects, it's not about producing images or content, it's about producing more than producing, about generating symbolic content through critical thinking, right?

And these are also practices that challenge ways of knowing that were felt as if they were known, and that, well, that are constantly moving and in crisis, are also activators of culture. Uh, we're getting into what is generative cryptopoetry. Look, this is also a topic that particularly [clears throat] interests me, because I see it as very related to what is, I can say, the essence of what blockchain can be, not what an infrastructure is, because blockchain is still a point of view. Uh, it's a large archive, uh, to a certain extent, uh, immutable, but it's a kind of archive that acquires a practice of inscription, a practice of inscription. Code is language, code is inscription, right?

And what is the uh and they have to do an inscription has a whole writing process, right? For fun, all this technology arises from what all the crypto wars, the crypto wars, weighed on from the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2012 and were based on that, right? That's great, the fact that technology, citography, and code as a language, is a right, is a right that should be distributed and accessible to everyone, right? Well, specifically they want it very concretely because it is protected by the fourth amendment, point four, I think, in the American Constitution, as in the end, as in doing the whole process, the whole code, a writing process, it is also tied to the fact that there has to be freedom of expression, right? which in the end is also their form of language and that's where all these discussions come from, also from a legal point of view, right?

, in relation to the tensions that arose between digital art, code, cryptography and well, all these other forms of writing that are on the web and from artistic practices this is also greatly enhanced. One of these versions, one of them could be generative cryptopoetry, which is generative art, but it is a generative art also based on the word, also based on discourse, based on this text that is constructed and deconstructed because the code is also text. And we also have, well, within these writing practices, these practices of inscribing also memory, collective memory, individual memory, artistic memory, visual memory, there is filter poetry, also visual, right? He is very focused. Well, just like cryopoetry is, well, how we would understand poetry as very linked to literature, visual poetry is also another form of writing, visual writing, writing through, and it also includes many other forms, like audiovisual, NFTs, and it's also linked to other practices that can come from similarism, from ecologies, and also from other areas, right?

And this type of relationship has been generated between visual art code, blockchain with language inscription, right? It's a type of practice that is very process-oriented, it happens in the moment, they are not works that remain fixed like a work of art, but rather they are constantly being voted on, right? They are very process-oriented in terms of relating. And well, cybertextual practices in crypto, following this same line, well, this is literally not artistic practices of performative inscription that can be within blockchain or can be designed for the web 3 ecosystem without necessarily being inscribed within a blockchain. Among them we can find practices or these forms of representation, these forms of expression that can be in libraries on GitHub, such as interactions within smart contracts like those we have seen previously, such as those registered in economic taxations on the Bitcoin network.

In short, they are not cybertextual practices that generate a much broader content; they are a means to an end, uh, they are practices linked to many other manifestations, they are very much linked to the visual practices of these codes, uh, and well, right? And they enhance what is, well, they are very much linked to the origins of what blockchain is, right? Ultimately, it's a cultural record through the coining of language, isn't it? in cyberspace and well and in a very specific type of infrastructure . Uh, and well, I hope that with this, this has practically been my presentation, uh, the purpose of bringing you this is to talk about all these examples, right?

, all these practices is also to put on the table that NFTs are not the only way to generate symbolic content or the only ways or means for creative expression, for artistic expression, or for expression in all kinds of senses, right? Regardless of their aims, there are many other ways to demonstrate, many other forms that are already done, others that are in process, those that are still being voted on, right? And it's a very broad field, eh, very rich, isn't it? To continue experimenting and, above all, to continue thinking together, what is this thing we call culture, what is this thing we call cryptoart? And how do we interact, fit in, right?

So we continue to generate culture, thought and value, right?, within the ecosystem. Each of us from our own places, from our own contexts and also from our own possibilities, because if this is a space, it is a space for everyone. So there you have it. Questions.

Let's see. And how is it? Many thanks to ISO for the presentation. While the others are, let's say, thinking of their questions, they can type them in via the meeting chat. Uh, yes, I wanted to ask Isa about the current situation with NFTs, because, let's say, with projects like Judge Monkey and those other investors in NFTs, it's like the hype has died down, right?

There's a boom now due to the connection being made through crypto games, but what's the current situation regarding NFTs, right? Well, you pretty much said it, did n't you? Well, as such, let's see, what happened is that we also have to position ourselves in a certain way , right? The hype surrounding NFTs in 2020-2021 is not a coincidence that it emerged in the midst of a pandemic when all economic and financial activity around the world had come to a standstill. And I'm also talking about a very specific sector, which is the art auction sector, which are totally elitist media that needed a physical presence.

And they found in NFTs, in that particular case, a means to continue maintaining their financial activity, because it is a very lucrative business. I'm talking about the big auctions, not small auctions, not small galleries, not small groups, not small associations, right? I'm talking about the contemporary art market, an extremely speculative market that needed these kinds of means to continue maintaining its activity. Um, I mean, there was a lot of speculation, but also because many other interests were at play, right? And many people joined in too, right?

Because there was also a great deal of institutional funding. Uh, it was a very special moment, wasn't it? In other words, the context was, is, and has been important and decisive, right? This is the current context, where we've all practically returned, we've stepped back from the screens a bit , you could say, right? Other activities have been reactivated.

There isn't as much funding, or the institutional funding that there was has gone to other places. Many other inventions have emerged in the ecosystem, and well, NFTs, or NFTs linked to art at that time, were not new. There was also too much speculation, which wasn't very good because practices already existed. Many of the practices in the examples I presented—we're talking about 2014, 2015, 2016—had already emerged, they were already there, and they were doing a lot of NTS experiments, even with the NSTs themselves. But anyway, this was a sector, it was a very specific moment where there was a lot of speculation, there was a lot of hype, and well, the investors were simply there and then they turned to other things, right?

Many other things also happened; there was a lot of waste in the ecosystem due to external factors. Uh, I agree FTX was a huge hit too, right? At a time when, well, they fell a lot , investment after that, right? And then there are the different types of exploits, you know, right? It's as if one's gaze turns towards others or other spaces, but one is still alive.

In other words, art continues to be created, markets continue to exist, the only difference is that these markets are very focused on their own spaces. That is, whether it's because there are galleries that promote this type of practice or art, they have their artists with their own platforms, like NTS, and they market there to an audience that is interested in this type of work, right? Specialized audiences. I'm talking about the art system; NFTs aren't just for art, it's the beautiful thing you have that encompasses many other things, right? You 're already saying it, aren't you?

From the game. And the suggestion is that all practices are valid, that is, there are many ways to link these two ecosystems, this ecosystem, from many practices or ways of doing things beyond NFTs, which are also traded, which are also in dialogue with blockchain technology, with the Web 3 space, with the Ethereum context, above all, there is a lot of... well, nothing, it's putting your hands in the fire and not giving up, right? Thank you so much. Uh, let's see.

Hm. [clears throat] Yes. Oh, right. And to finish, uh, for example, on other occasions we have talked about the index that you have been doing of the crypto art initiatives at TAM. Let's talk about the behavior that occurs in our region, uh, how does it differ from other parts of the world?

Well, what I generally like about TAN is that it doesn't have it, well, it's not that it's different, right? That makes it unique. First, there's one thing I like, right? Because it starts in 2021, right? With this whole Nis thing, with a series of factors, this awareness of the TAM is something that emerges practically during this date, right?

It is a feeling that unites a lot of people, a lot of countries, territories that have practically been disconnected. And I'm talking about Latin America, I'm also talking about the Caribbean, uh, people who are inside these territories and who are outside these territories too, but who belong to them, right? And that they are very often also linked by language. Uh, it's a space that is extremely relational, it's very communicative. For example, because of course, blockchain as such, this ecosystem, first started in Anglo-Saxon countries.

That's Anglo- Saxon technology. And there is a difference, for example, between how the Anglo-Saxons see the relationship between policies, governance, financial relationships, that is, the type of freedoms, the type of decentralization, as we understand it, from my point of view. Well, for them there can be no political freedom, only financial freedom. In other words, they are like two realities that are very closely linked to each other, they are not inseparable. From our point of view, we have some agencies that are a little more separated.

In this sense, they have more autonomous accreditations where one and the other are not in contradiction, but they are spaces with different problems and different types of... So we have a very extremely communicational, very activist, very political part, very much about, look, we have to act, right? I can act from sociological practice, from the practices of the C, from our positions and our local problems, because another thing we have, right?, that we have in those territories is that we have known how to use technology from a very pragmatic vision, a vision in which, of course, it can help us to manage, to self-manage, right?, the anarchist part that is to self-manage problems and situations that we have in our territories that have not been resolved by the people who should do it, right?

or by the institutions or by the organizations that should be, because well, we are talking about these territories, territories where I come from that have been completely drained by extractive policies, where there is a lot of corruption, where there is a lot of inequality, there is no welfare state, and where well, no, these are a tool that generally enables us to do our own. No, not to take a voice, not to take a place, eh, without having to ask permission or having to wait here for someone to give us something we can claim from now on, because the internet is not a totally free space, it is a space that is full of controls, it is a space that is totally, I mean, that has servers and very specific places, right? And from a financial point of view, it's also much clearer. And this is another type of technology that, because it is based on a completely different, decentralized infrastructure, right?, in its, well, it puts a lot of other factors in crisis, right?

, in how the distribution of the world has been organized. Well, I don't want to go off on a tangent, but I do see that in Latin America there is very strong activism from all kinds of places, right? even within the creative industries, and it's something that isn't very common; for example, in other parts of the world, the circumstances are different. I see it as very powerful, not very latent and very alive. Everything that for me is a territory that has seen the potential of this technology and that doesn't go around half-heartedly.

It's not very easy to do. I think I've answered you a little. Yes. Um, to give you some context, because there are so many crypto art initiatives, and within your index, I don't know how many you've been able to compile so far. It's also quite important work within academia because we're also trying to build our entire database, and we're putting out a call for different types of speakers so they can, let's say, motivate different kinds of technology-related communities to make the leap from Web 2 to Web 3.

And yes, that's more or less why the adoption is quite strong, right? In countries like Argentina and Venezuela, right? Where they've had a rather complicated process, right? Politically. And I don't know, let's say, from those countries or what initiatives you could give as an example, right?

, from which you have been able to gather, right? Uh, in Argentina, well, in Argentina, well, in Argentina it's celebrated, well, those I've seen I've looked at more in what would be the Tesos community, but it's also difficult to track because many projects are disappearing too. And but I think it happens every year too, I don't know if it's every year, but this Tesos event is recurring annually and [clears throat] to Tesos that a lot of people from, well, from Latin America and outside and from Europe too go there, uh, and it's a very good event, right? Within this type of community, well, within the Ethereum community, every time there's Ethereum in Argentina, well, it also stirs up a lot from sectors, initiatives and things like that within the artistic scene, look, I was looking at a project, of course, I'm focusing on projects that are a bit self-managed, uh, self-managed projects, but projects that are a bit outside the mainstream. There is a project called Bosque Gracia, which is great because it's located in Patagonia, Argentina.

I think they've been rebuilding it lately because part of what was planned as a residential area was burned down in the recent fires. It's a program hosted by an artist named Rocío Miro. Hey, Rocío Mío, sorry. Well , it's also a space that's connected to another very active group, especially in Buenos Aires, and well, it's not a group to connect with, to generate this, right? To generate interventions in space, thinking, well, right?

How are we going to revitalize rural areas? Um, the rural or ancestral practices or other types or the more individual practices plus those we have, uh, we audiovisual ones from the city with, well, with the rural ecosystem and above all also with technology, right? How do we also link these spaces, how do we also link other community spaces to the ecosystem? And in Venezuela, what I've seen more or less, well, many also know that Gerdao also has one in Venezuela. Well, one group that is also building from there is Gerdao, although it is a global association connected mainly for developers, well, it also includes many others, right?

It's a very large group of women who dedicate themselves to building tools for everyone, right? very linked in what is in business practices, in entertainment games practices , I forgot how and outside of that, well probably many more. Right now, none come to mind. If you want, I can send it to you because the index is still in process, it's not finished. I know I have compiled about 150 projects, right?

But they are each in their own place. There are what are communities, there are what would be DOS e and there are what would be artistic practices, right? And I do what would be projects; I haven't focused on websites for specific artists, but rather on artistic projects. So, if anyone wants to collaborate, I'd be very happy because, well, it's going to be an index that will be created primarily for the community, so that anyone can have a kind of record, or records can be linked, and so that there's also a record of everything that's been done because, of course, all this technology is constantly changing, and there are many contextual and political situations that sometimes cause projects to disappear. And if there isn't a record of all the work that's been done, then what will be left for those who come after us?

So, well, it's a bit of a mission I've set myself at the moment to compile or try to compile some projects that I remember from when I entered in 2021, other projects that I've looked at because those people have left a record , other projects that are still standing, others that have mutated, right? They have trained a lot. So I try to collect them as best I can, right? It's a slightly more independent job. On my website, on my Twitter, I also have a kind of form in case anyone knows of a project, a group, something good that you know of and want to share.

I would really appreciate it because the reach it might have individually isn't very limited, is it? So, well, this would be very good, especially for the community. What the academic community did, it also did in the fine arts community, which we think is something that has been assimilated, although it is still unknown in many spaces, right? And it's good that they think that, well, this is a place where many actors are involved, not only graduates of fine arts or this field, but that it is a totally transdisciplinary space and that a lot of research work has been done , a lot of work of, well, this, right? of creation and that's great, we have to enjoy it, that's what we're here for .

Thank you very much, Aisa. Okay, anyway, we'll coordinate so you can also join the Ethereum Peru community, and you can also send us the link to your Index, from your social media, right? And to see how we can contribute to the dissemination of this great effort you are making. Oh, thank you very much, and see you another time. Okay, now I'm ending our session.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you all for being here.