Art Market Report - October 22
A weekly report on the NFT Art Market, covering 1/1s, generative art, editions and other important news.
Market remains slow, yet platforms and developers are innovating and building at a breathtaking pace (Deca’s Mint on Demand + Posters, Transcient Labs’s Shatter Contract, 0xdiid’s Efficax). Artists are experimenting more with conceptual/interactive/experiential art (sgt_slaughtermelon’s Do You Want To Feel Something?), being more vocal in their critique of web3’s broken incentives (Matt Kane’s Souvenirs airdrop), bringing art fully on chain (XCOPY’s ALGO BRO) or having tons of fun with memes (batz & Darkfarms). Collectors are also spending more time experiencing art, generating and curating their own art (verse x William Mapan Sketchbook A), or digging out historic artworks (lost works of XCOPY). Overall, it feels like crypto art is fun again, despite (or because of?) the bear market, and more people are exploring the full potentials of digital art, powered by blockchain.
1/1s
𝘜𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 by Patrick Amadon was collected by sartoshi for 10 ETH.
Botto had 2 sales on SuperRare this week. Echoes of Straddled Epochs was collected for 5.16 ETH and Tethered Projections of Consumption collected for 4.059 ETH.
GAN generated portrait, Split Personality by quasimondo was collected by Cyborg DAO on SuperRare’s secondary market for 9.42 ETH.
Deca introduced Mint on Demand + Posters:
Mint on Demand: each uploaded work is only minted when the artist accepts the offer they like, until then the work remains off-chain and requires no gas.
Posters: digital works submitted by other creators to pay homage to the original 1/1, to be selected by the artist. After the 1/1 sells, the selected posters can be minted as open editions during a limited time. Poster sales are shared among the artist + 1/1 owner + creator + Deca, which incentivizes the remix and spread of the original 1/1, benefiting all parties involved.
One of the first featured works using the new functionality, memetrix by batzdu was minted-on-demand by Sert for 3.069 ETH.
THEYLIVELOVELAUGH by Darkfarms was minted-on-demand by Sunday Funday for 3.069 ETH.
Deca also introduced feed in the same week.
GENERATIVE ART & EDITIONS
sgt_slaughtermelon launched Do You Want To Feel Something?, “a true digital-native installation experience” with over 300 embedded claims to original works.
To experience it, you go on a nostalgic Windows 95 journey reminiscent of a text-based adventure game of the 90s, and through the therapeutic process, you get in touch with your emotions (or the lack of them). It requires you to be introspective and vulnerable, answering each existential question honestly and thereby deciding which path to take at each step. Based on the interactions you’ve taken on the interface, it leads you to pieces of art that truly resonates with you along your own journey.
The project was highly participated. People spent hours going through the rabbit hole, fully immersed in the emotional labyrinth. The experience left many with deep thoughts and feelings - they felt something again. Many claimed that it was the best art and minting experience they’d ever had in web3, which I agree. It’s a rare win for a full scale conceptual, interactive, experiential, experimental art in web3, as well as for its commercial success, as nearly 3,000 editions were minted, many works were minted out. DYWTFS shows us the full potential of web-based digital art being collected as NFTs. Hope there will be more projects like this in the future.
My favorite comment from pixelpete:
Through the use of an 8-bit like soundtrack and graphics from a nostalgic OS of our past, DYWTFS seems to look deep into our souls putting into question our relationship with the human psyche, technology and one another in way that is completely absorbing.
This week verse x William Mapan Sketchbook A had 1,160 collectors generated 1,255,662 total outputs and 220,257 total saved. On October 20, after a massive bidding war, Sketchbook A Mint Pass sold out at $10,777 each, making it a $646,620 overall sale for 60 passes. Sketchbook A is currently being minted.
Efficax built by 0xdiid: fully on-chain edition support through the Manifold ERC1155 Creator Contract. Nothing complex, just upload and go, making minting on-chain more accessible than ever.
With Efficax, XCOPY minted his latest ALGO BRO (edition of 42), fully on-chain on his new Manifold contract FRESH HELL. “New contract, new format. same vibes. FRESH HELL.” XCOPY wrote in the post.
Benji picked up a rare full set of XCOPY Digital Objects artwork, one of the “lost works of XCOPY” from 2018. Digital Objects was one of the earliest NFT platforms that later shut down, resulting works of XCOPY being deleted or lost. (Learn more: The Lost XCOPIES.)
Continuing his commentary on broken incentives, Matt Kane airdropped MATT KANE Action Figure Souvenirs to Contractual Obligations holders largely based on whether or not they have paid royalties, fully or partially (see breakdown by artie handz). By visualizing the provenance blockchain data, he criticized the failed promise to honor artist royalties by both platforms and collectors. (Learn more: The brilliance of @MattKaneArtist’s commentary on NFT royalties)
Meanwhile, Matt Kane Zombie ANON + Multitudes Auction realized ~29 ETH in total sales for 1 ANON + 8 Multitudes.
INDUSTRY NEWS
Transient Labs introduced Shatter Contract. With Shatter, artists can mint their digital creations as a unique 1/1 and define if they'd want it to be Shattered into editions or 1/1/x. Then, set the edition cap. Later, the collector can 'shatter' the piece into the pre-defined number of editions or 1/1/x, therefore having the flexibility to diversify a unique 1/1 into multiple editions or 1/1/x. Learn more here.
Really good!