The renowned art museum LACMA continues its investigation of NFT with a Deafbeef that interprets the nineteenth-century work of Eadweard Muybridge.
In a significant move into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced in February that it had acquired a valuable collection of tokenized artwork. In addition to collecting, the renowned art museum collaborates with notable Web3 creators to pay tribute to classic art in innovative ways.
This week, LACMA’s “Remembrance of Things Future” initiative continues with the release of two interactive NFT collections by renowned pseudonymous artist Deafbeef, who creates distinctive work using a C code compiler.
Inspired by the pioneering work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge, the Ethereum NFT project titled “Noumenon + Chronophotograph” has been created by him.
The 19th-century photographer studied motion through a series of photos, the most famous of which was “The Horse in Motion,” which shows a horse running. These studies helped shape film, animation, and other forms of art. The scenes were mentioned in Jordan Peele’s 2022 movie “Nope.”
“Remembrance of Things Future” is a partnership between LACMA and blockchain consultancy Cactoid Labs. Like the other artists who took part, Deafbeef was free to choose works from LACMA’s permanent collection that spoke to him and to which he could react artistically.
“All of the images really had an enigmatic quality to them that was familiar, but mysterious. They’re part of our consciousness, because those images are really well known,” Deafbeef said . “I just found a wealth of interesting things and connections to really dive into.”
The initiative focuses on 16 “Noumenon” Ethereum NFTs, each of which is a minute-long animation derived from C code compilation. Deafbeef characterized every monochromatic audiovisual work as “representing unknowable reality beyond our immediate senses.”
Noumenon NFT owners can delegate or take a still image sequence using the “releaseShutter” function. The smart contract generates a separate NFT, providing a potentially endless stream of unique editions. However, a time lock doubles after each snapshot, and subsequent images are larger and higher-resolution.
The project gave Deafbeef the chance to not only learn more about Muybridge’s work and see how it all fit together, but also to think about ideas like “contrasting scales of time” and what a source of truth is.
A total of 224 Chronophotograph NFTs were pre-minted, and beginning today, each will be sold for 0.2 ETH ($375). All future Chronophotographs may be captured by proprietors of the Noumenon or delegated wallets. The Noumenon NFTs were pre-sold privately, and the eventual proprietors can mint as many Chronophotographs as they desire.
Before today’s sale, well-known artists like Art Blocks founder Erick “snowfro” Calderon, the pseudonymous XCOPY, and Jen Stark were asked to take Chronophotographs. Their wallet addresses will always be linked on-chain to the newly created NFT.
Alongside the project, LACMA will exhibit previous works by Deafbeef, whose earliest NFT creations have sold for six-figure sums. Other artists, including Stark, Monica Rizzoli, Ix Shells, Emily Xie, and Sarah Zucker, were inspired by LACMA’s permanent collection for “Remembrance of Things Future.”
Content Source: decrypt.com
