NFT Collector: Creative AI art, Tomorrowland sells tomorrow’s future
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.
“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.”
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
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.”
Read also
What’s your favorite NFT in your wallet that’s not your own NFT?
“The one that gives me the most joy is my CryptoPunk. I own punk 7627. That’s actually a really obvious choice when I think of my collection.”
What does Pindar listen to when creating art:
“A lot of EDM music. Also Pink Floyd once in a while.”
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:
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.
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.
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Former deputy prime minister Sir Oliver Dowden has become the most senior ally of Rishi Sunak to be interviewed in the official investigation into betting on the date of the general election, Sky News understands.
He follows Mr Sunak’s former parliamentary aide Craig Williams and former Downing Street chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith in being questioned by the Gambling Commission, the statutory body that regulates betting in the UK.
Mr Sunak has not yet been interviewed, Sky News understands, though “numerous people” including Conservative Party officials have been.
Tory conference latest: Maternity pay is ‘excessive’, Badenoch argues
A source close to Sir Oliver said the former senior cabinet minister is not and was never under investigation himself.
It is understood Sir Oliver spoke to the police to assist with their inquiries as part of their investigation into others. This is said to have taken place in early summertime and the officers involved were part of the Gambling Commission.
The inquiry – launched in June – is set to continue for another three to six months.
News of Sir Oliver’s interview, along with the seizing of “hundreds of documents” from Tory HQ by the commission, has emerged on the day the Conservative Party Conference opened in Birmingham.
Ironically, the Gambling Commission’s head office, on the fourth floor of Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, is just a half-mile, 10-minute walk from the ICC, where the Tory conference is taking place.
Sir Oliver was knighted and Mr Booth-Smith was awarded a peerage in the former prime minister’s dissolution honours, announced less than an hour before the polls closed on 4 July.
The commission is investigating whether bets were placed on a July election by people with inside knowledge – in breach of gambling rules – in the days leading up to Mr Sunak’s shock announcement of the election date on 22 May.
A source told Sky News: “The general election betting investigation is still ongoing. Hundreds of documents have been seized by the Gambling Commission from CCHQ.
“The Gambling Commission has also employed more ex-police as investigators to take the case forward. It’s expected the case will continue for three to six months.”
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Gambling scandal: Another bruise for the Tories?
Asked if Mr Sunak has been interviewed, the source said: “I don’t believe so. Numerous people have been interviewed, in and out of CCHQ.
“Gambling Commission investigators have made numerous visits to CCHQ. Oliver Dowden was interviewed.”
What is the election betting scandal?
The election date betting scandal began in June when Craig Williams, formerly MP for Montgomeryshire and Mr Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, admitted he was being investigated by the Gambling Commission.
Mr Williams had placed a £100 bet on a July election at Ladbrokes in his constituency just days before Mr Sunak announced on 22 May that the election would be held on 4 July. Based on odds at the time, he would have won £500.
“I put a flutter on the General Election some weeks ago,” he said in a post on X on 13 June. “This has resulted in some routine inquiries and I confirm I will fully co-operate with these.
“I don’t want it to be a distraction from the campaign. I should have thought through how it looks.”
The commission is investigating whether bets were placed on a July election. Pic: Reuters
Mr Williams, who admitted he had made a “huge error”, was dropped by the Tories as their candidate in the new seat of Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr but remained on the ballot paper, but was defeated, coming third behind Labour and Reform UK.
As the Gambling Commission proceeded, Tony Lee, the party’s director of campaigns, and his wife Laura Saunders, who was Tory candidate for Bristol North West, were placed under investigation.
In a statement on the day news of the investigation was first reported, Saunders said she would be “cooperating with the Gambling Commission”, while Lee took a leave of absence from his role.
Then Nick Mason, the party’s chief data officer, became the fourth Conservative candidate or official to be investigated. He took a leave of absence and denied any wrongdoing.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
In a bizarre twist, a Labour candidate in the election, Kevin Craig, was then suspended by his party after betting against himself and the Gambling Commission launched an investigation into him.
Mr Craig, candidate in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, posted on X that he had “enjoyed the odd bet for fun” throughout his life.
“A few weeks ago when I thought I would never win this seat I put a bet on the Tories to win here with the intention of giving any winnings to local charities,” he said.
“While I did not place this bet with any prior knowledge of the outcome, this was a huge mistake, for which I apologise unreservedly.”
Craig Williams admitted to betting on the election date. Pic: PA
Then on 27 June Sky News revealed that Mr Booth-Smith, then Mr Sunak’s most senior adviser in Downing Street, had been interviewed by senior Gambling Commission officials and questioned about who knew about the timing of the election.
Sources emphasised, however, that Mr Booth-Smith was not a suspect and was interviewed as a witness and was “asked for help”.
Sky News has approached Mr Dowden and the Conservative Party for comment.
According to the FTX bankruptcy estate, total claims from injured parties top $11 billion, as a court hearing to confirm the plan looms.
Kemi Badenoch has said her remarks about maternity pay have been “misrepresented”, as she called for an “honest campaign” for the Tory leadership.
The first day of the Conservative Party conference saw a row erupt over comments made by the shadow housing secretary, where she appeared to call the current level of the benefit “excessive”.
But speaking to Sky News on Sunday evening, Ms Badenoch said she believed maternity pay was “a good thing”, adding: “I don’t think it is excessive.”
Politics live: All the news from Tory party conference
Instead, she claimed there was “some mischief being made on social media trying to misrepresent me” amid the race to take over from Rishi Sunak.
“I want to talk about serious things, hard truths during this campaign,” said the leadership hopeful. “I want to talk about my previous job as business secretary, what businesses told me [about] excessive business regulation.
“Maternity pay isn’t one of those, but other things are. That is how we are going to get back on track.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
She added: “It is really important that this leadership contest is one where we have honesty and truth and not misrepresentation of remarks.
“I am not somebody who is fazed by that [but] the members of our party want to see an honest campaign, and that’s what I am fighting for.”
Ms Badenoch first made her remarks about maternity pay on Times Radio, saying the benefit was a “function of tax”.
“Tax comes from people who are working, we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another,” she added. “This, in my view, is excessive.”
Challenged on saying maternity pay is “excessive”, the former minister said: “I think it’s gone too far, too far the other way, in terms of general business regulation, we need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of their own decisions.
“The exact amount of maternity pay, in my view, is neither here nor there. We need to make sure that we are creating an environment where people can work and people can have more freedom to make their individual decisions.”
After the interview, one of her rivals in the Tory leadership contest, Robert Jenrick, told a fringe event at the conference he disagreed with her, and as a father of three daughters, he “wants to see them get the support they need”.
The former immigration minister said maternity pay in the UK was already “among the lowest in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)”, before adding: “We should firmly be on the side of… working mums trying to get on… why would we want to make it harder on them?”
However, when asked by reporters if he would like maternity pay to rise, he said he would like it to stay “at the level where it is” – just not lowered further.
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