NFT Collector: Creative AI art, Tomorrowland sells tomorrow’s future

Published

2 years ago

September 7, 2023

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Greg Oakford, co-founder of NFT Fest Australia, is your guide to the world of NFTs from a collector and fan’s perspective.

Seventeen years ago, Pindar Van Arman built a robot that, like him, painted with a brush on canvas.

He has built several robots since, with each iteration possessing a more sophisticated artificial intelligence that tried to paint “more like I painted.”

The term OG can be thrown around often undeservedly, but Van Arman is truly that when it comes to AI art.

He created his first crypto art project in 2015 — titled bitPaintr — and minted his first Ethereum nonfungible token (NFT) in 2018 titled “AI Imagined Portrait Painted by a Robot” on SuperRare.

“It was really hard in 2015 because I had the challenge of trying to explain the tech in an emotional way. It triggered a visceral reaction where people would say, ‘Well, wait, these are robots that can’t be emotional,’” says Van Arman.

“I’d got hate mail back then when people would say it’s hard enough for artists to make a living. Now, we have to compete with robots. There were a lot of barriers back then.”

Validity of AI art

For the cynics that question the validity of AI art, Van Arman agrees with them to a degree but makes a distinction between AI being labeled as an artist versus being creative.

byteGANs collection by Pindar Van Arman. (SuperRare)

“The thing I agree with them on is that AI can’t make art. But AI is a tool that can be used to make art by an artist. When you put it in those terms, no one can really disagree with you. They may not like it, but it’s hard for them to disagree,” Van Arman says.

“Here’s where it gets controversial though, here’s the middle ground that I claim which I know is true because I see it and I program it; AI cannot be an artist. AI can be creative. Creative in a very similar way that humans are creative.”

Van Arman is no stranger to having people’s eyes glaze over when explaining his work.

“All the questioning and doubt over the years told me I was on to the right thing because when you have artists in the art world saying that your stuff is too weird, you sort of know you’re on to something. I mean, artists are the most avant-garde, forward thinking group of people there are,” says Van Arman.

“For artists and art curators not to get something that you know is true and for them to say something’s impossible, you just know the time hasn’t come yet and just keep on pursuing that.”

The Fates by Pindar Van Arman. (SuperRare)

Freedom to transact

Van Arman has frequently spoke in favor of royalties, supporting the current writer’s strike in the United States.

“I’m always in the middle of the royalty debate because I 100% support them and I support them because they exist in the writing world, they exist absolutely in the recording world. Hollywood’s on strike right now because the writers stopped getting royalties on streaming services. This has significantly impacted their lives and now they’re being taken advantage of again. The whole Hollywood strike is about royalties on streaming services like Netflix and others,” Van Arman says.

Van Arman notes the difficult of keeping track of royalties, claiming that the Ethereum network has provided a better means to guarantee the “Freedom to Transact.”

“It’s a new philosophy that the asset has to be 100% sovereign. If you own something, you have total control over it, you should not be forced to pay royalties. I went hard early on against people that were saying royalties are like tips,” Van Arman says.

“I agree with freedom to transact and that means that artists have the right to say, there are royalties on my artwork and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it. No one’s forcing you to buy it and it makes perfect sense to me. But for some reason I have a hard time explaining that to people. They say no, no, no, the asset is worthless unless it has no encumbrance. They might think it’s worthless, but it might be worth something to someone else.”

Notable sales

AI Imagined Portrait Painted by a Robot by Pindar Van Arman sold for 80 Ether (ETH) ($342,100). (SuperRare)

The Cryptographer 10,101 by Pindar Van Arman sold for 21.8 ETH ($93,800). (SuperRare)

Bonni3 by Pindar Van Arman sold for 20 ETH ($68,900). (SuperRare)

Rapid-fire Q&A

When someone looks at your art, are there any particular emotions you hope that they’re experiencing?

“The goal for me of making AI art and the emotion I’m after is for people to not know it was AI art. To feel something and observe something and not know that the image was painted by a robot. And then only afterwards they realized it was painted by a robot, then that becomes part of the narrative. They can do a double take, they learn the story through that.”

Who are the influences on your art career to date?

“I don’t want to answer here. I don’t want to answer because I’m friends with some of them now and I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they were my influencers haha.

If they found out, they’d become intolerable which is absolutely true. This is what I love about this space, I am hanging out with my big influencers and it’s really fun. Love it.”

Who is a notable collector of yours that makes you smile knowing they own one of your pieces?

“There’s one collector I have and that’s unusual and I really enjoy how unusual this collector is because this collector is silent and has possibly the largest AI art collection in the crypto space but has no social media presence. Zero.

This collector is ironically named Blur, not the platform. Why Blur really brings a smile to my face is they are so conscientious about their collecting that they don’t want to influence other people, they don’t want to ape into something and then have other people ape into it because they aped into it. I think that’s really noble, the collecting is coming from the heart and they never advertise their bags yet collect like mad.”

What’s hot elsewhere in NFT art markets

Winds of Yawanawa, a co-creation between the Brazilian Indigenous Yawanawa and Refik Anadol collection, is on fire. The floor ripped through a 10 ETH floor earlier in the week and has more than doubled in the last two weeks.

Other big sales include:

The Monument Game 1 of 1 by Sam Spratt sold for 420.69 ETH ($700,000). (Nifty Gateway)

Ringers #195 by Dmitri Cherniak sold for 35 ETH ($57,184). (OpenSea)

Ethereal by Nude Yoga Girl sold for 33 ETH ($54,259). (X)

Only two fresh Squiggle mints remain

The iconic Chromie Squiggles collection has nearly finished minting. On August 30, founder Erick “Snowfro” Calderon tweeted that 66 fresh Squiggles would be out into the world, leaving only two Squiggles remaining for the 10,000 collection.

Snowfro distributed the 66 to a selection of family, artists, collectors, institutions and friends while announcing Squiggle #9998 will be a special commemorative mint with further details soon and #9999 headed to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Selection of the new 66 fresh Squiggles minted (Proof)

Day 0 Squiggles occurred on November 28, 2020 with approximately 9,000 of the total collection being minted in the first two months after the initial mint. Snowfro decided to keep the remaining mints up his sleeve and has been releasing those at various stages over the last few years as the popularity of his artwork continues to skyrocket.

Tomorrowland surpasses $2 million in NFT sales

World-renowned EDM festival Tomorrowland generated over $2 million in NFT sales on Solana.

Tomorrowland superfans were able to secure pre-sale tickets, access secret gigs, become eligible for giveaways, and be treated to exclusive tours of the festival ground.

Tweet of the week:

The tweet of the week goes to Justin Trimble commenting on Refik Anadol’s work being spectacularly displayed on the new Vegas Sphere. The Sphere was first covered in this article of NFT Collector.

Politics

Plan to tackle rough sleeping unveiled – but charities say it doesn’t go far enough

Published

48 mins ago

December 11, 2025

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Plan to tackle rough sleeping unveiled - but charities say it doesn't go far enough

Homelessness charities have warned that ministers are “falling short of what is desperately needed to end Britain’s homelessness crisis”.

It comes as the government published its new plan to tackle rough sleeping in Britain, which pledges £3.5bn of funding to crackdown on the issue.

But charities have said Labour’s National Plan to End Homelessness “falls short” and contains “important gaps”, meaning the party will not be able to achieve their stated goal of halving the number of homeless people by 2029/30.

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Crisis, an organisation that supports the homeless, also argues that only £100m of the funding announced in the strategy is new.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Paula Barker, who co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for ending homelessness, has told Sky News that the strategy has a “depressing lack of meat on the bone”, looks like it has been “rushed out”, and has left her “disappointed”.

It comes as Shelter warns that 382,618 people in England – including a record 175,025 children – will be homeless this Christmas, equivalent to one in every 153 people.

What does the government’s plan to reduce rough sleeping involve?

The government has made three key pledges in its new plan, unveiled on Wednesday evening.

It says that it is aiming to halve the number of long-term rough sleepers by the end of the parliament, reduce the time families spend living in bed and breakfasts (B&Bs), and prevent more people from becoming homeless in the first place.

To achieve this, the party has set out numerous new measures, schemes and extra funding.

A new £124m supported housing scheme is also being established, and the government hopes that it will help get 2,500 people in England off the streets.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said homelessness is “one of the most profound challenges we face”, and suggested that the strategy will build “a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and not repeated”.

How has the plan been received?

Ms Barker told Sky News she welcomes “the scale of investment”, but is “disappointed by what I have seen”.

The Labour MP explained: “From what I have seen so far, it leaves more questions than it answers – where are the clear measures around prevention? Where is the accommodation for people sleeping rough coming from – has it already been built? What about specialised provision for those fleeing domestic abuse?

“We needed this strategy to be bold.”

Meanwhile, organisations working to support those on the streets have welcomed the plan for its focus on the issue, but warn it leaves it “almost impossible” for many families to avoid homelessness.

Matt Downie, the chief executive of Crisis, said: “Housing benefit remains frozen until at least 2030; there is no coherent approach for supporting refugees and stopping them becoming homeless; and we hear no assurances that the new homes government has pledged to build will be allocated to households experiencing homelessness at the scale required.

“There is a long way to go. Ministers are taking steps in the right direction, but falling short of what’s desperately needed to end Britain’s homelessness crisis.”

Sarah Elliott, head of Shelter, also warned the proposals do not go far enough, saying: “Until a lot more of these social homes are built, one of the only ways to escape homelessness is if you can afford to pay a private rent.

“We know from our frontline services this is almost impossible to do when housing benefit remains frozen, and that is where the homelessness strategy falls short.”

Centrepoint, a charity that supports young people facing homelessness, said that the strategy is “an important step”, and could be “transformative”. But it added that “gaps in the government’s approach remain”, and said increases in funding “don’t face up to the scale of homelessness”.

The Conservatives have said that the strategy means Labour “has completely failed on homelessness”.

Paul Holmes, shadow housing minister, said the number of households and children in temporary accommodation has risen to “record levels”, and pointed to the government’s “abysmal record on house-building” and tackling immigration.

Politics

Australian regulator eases rules for stablecoins and wrapped tokens

Published

1 hour ago

December 11, 2025

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Australian regulator eases rules for stablecoins and wrapped tokens

Australia’s securities regulator has finalized exemptions that will make it easier for businesses to distribute stablecoins and wrapped tokens.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Tuesday announced the new measures, aimed at fostering innovation and growth in the digital assets and payment sectors.

It stated that it was “granting class relief” for intermediaries engaging in the secondary distribution of certain stablecoins and wrapped tokens.

This means that companies no longer need separate, and often expensive, licenses to act as intermediaries in these markets, and they can now use “omnibus accounts” with proper record-keeping.

The new exemptions extend the earlier stablecoin relief by removing the requirement for intermediaries to hold separate Australian Financial Services (AFS) licenses when providing services related to stablecoins or wrapped tokens.

Leveling the playing field for stablecoin issuers

The regulator stated that these omnibus structures were widely used in the industry, offering efficiencies in speed and transaction costs, and helping some entities manage risk and cybersecurity.

“ASIC’s announcement helps level the playing field for stablecoin innovation in Australia,” said Drew Bradford, CEO of Australian stablecoin issuer Macropod.

“By giving both new and established players a clearer, more flexible framework, particularly around reserve and asset-management requirements, it removes friction and gives the sector confidence to build,” he continued.

The old licensing requirements were costly and created compliance headaches, particularly for an industry awaiting broader digital asset reforms.

“This kind of measured clarity is essential for scaling real-world use cases, payments, treasury management, cross-border flows, and onchain settlement,” added Bradford.

“It signals that Australia intends to be competitive globally, while still maintaining the regulatory guardrails that institutions and consumers expect.”

Angela Ang, head of policy and strategic partnerships at TRM Labs, also welcomed the development, stating, “Things are looking up for Australia, and we look forward to digital assets regulation crystallizing further in the coming year — bringing greater clarity to the sector and driving growth and innovation.”