Speaking of the hot topic of digital art, you must know Pak-the latest collection of works by this legendary digital artist, Terminus, has just been auctioned and reached a record price of 138.5 ETH. Chain Wen once reported that this auction was contested by digital art collectors Eric Young and WhaleShark after more than 5 hours of bidding, and finally reached 138.5 ETH, or about 53,000 US dollars. The collection includes 5 works in total, with distinctive forms, textures and bold monochrome.
Pak is one of the well-known digital artists in the field of crypto art. He is also the founder and chief designer of the internationally renowned Undream studio and AI curator Archillect. He has been engaged in digital art creation for more than 25 years and has worked with hundreds of major brands Work with the studio. Since the sale of his first work “Cloud Monument Dark” in February this year, Pak has earned $300,000 through digital works. Among them, the most valuable piece of art is called Alpha, which was sold to the Crypto Art Museum in July this year for 55.555 ETH. At the time, the price was approximately US$15,370, and now it has exceeded US$21,000.
Nick Tomaino, the founding partner of Crypto Venture 1confirmation, recently interviewed the great god of the digital art world and authorized the publication of his interview records.
Interview: Nick Tomaino, Founding Partner of Crypto Venture 1confirmation Compilation: Leo Young
2020 is an important year for the development of digital art. Decades ago, creative workers began to use computers to create unique pictures and videos, but before Ethereum, the only way for digital creative workers to make money was to hire companies to provide images or video works. Apple’s designers or Nintendo’s 3D animators can be well paid, but these opportunities are limited after all.
The emergence of Ethereum, and the subsequent creation of the ERC721 standard and tools such as SuperRare and Opensea, allowed creative workers around the world to tokenize PNG, GIF and MP4 works and then sell them directly to collectors who want to own scarce versions of works . This format has been a big success, and the creative works sold on SuperRare have now reached 2.375 million US dollars.
Pak’s “Reboot Ginerva” was sold for 25 ETH last month
When it comes to the success of art on Ethereum, Pak is unmatched. Pak’s first work ” Cloud Monument Dark ” ( Cloud Monument Dark ) was sold in February. In the following seven months, Pak directly sold PNG, GIF and MP4 worth more than US$350,000 ETH to collectors works.
Pak is most praised for the creation of Archillect (an AI curator), and his true identity has been strictly conservative-whether Pak is an AI constructed by an individual or a team of engineers is unknown.
Although everyone cares about his true identity, it doesn’t matter who Pak is, whether or not an online pseudonym created an admirable artwork. Just like whether Satoshi Nakamoto created an amazing digital gold system by an anonymous person, it is not important at all.
Like Satoshi Nakamoto to cryptocurrency, I am not surprised if Pak becomes a legend in the digital art world.
In case he/she/it disappears like Satoshi Nakamoto, I recently had a chat with him on Discord. The conversation is as follows:
Nick: How long have you been in art creation?
Pak: It’s been nearly 25 years. I was fortunate to be exposed to the public Internet very early, so I ignited my enthusiasm for the digital DIY culture very early. After that, design and digital creation became my second nature.
Nick: Before Ethereum, did you sell your works?
Pak: I have been a designer for more than ten years and have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of major brands and studios in the past few years. I currently have studios in different parts of the world, with different focuses. In other words, the answer is “yes”.
On the other hand, to me, the art of encryption is a new experiment and exploration.
Nick: What tools do you use to create?
Pak: I generally avoid the “tool” problem related to value creation. The creator is generally associated with the creative process, not the tool. Sometimes answering this question will take attention away from the creator.
On the other hand, tools are important because they give us other abilities, expand our creative power, and bring new perspectives, but only when they are used can they gain power.
Source: https://twitter.com/muratpak/status/1298572938501922817
The appropriate answer is: the tool depends on the work. I usually use industry standard design packages. When these tools cannot meet my needs, I create my own tools and software.
Nick: Will you create a lot of new works now?
Pak: Always!
Nick: What attracted you to Ethereum and allowed you to tokenize your work?
Pak: Because of my social circle, I had the opportunity to get in touch with Bitcoin very early, so cryptocurrency has always been my focus. But encryption art is an area that I have only recently focused on on social media. After reading some information, I think this may be a chance to leave a permanent mark in the future history. This concept is very attractive.
Nick: What is the experience of selling works as a creator?
Pak: It’s wonderful. I did not expect it, the current exploration is very wonderful.
Nick: What barriers do you think are currently preventing more talented creators like you from entering platforms like SuperRare and tokenizing their works?
Pak: This question is very good and very complicated. I try to grasp the main points to answer.
The main obstacle now is expansion. As a technical worker and creator who has been interested in cryptocurrency since the emergence of Bitcoin, I also learned about the art of encryption very late. This shows a problem: the new things have not touched “outside the circle.”
First look at the art of encryption. Encrypted art is a social circle composed of platforms, collectors, creators and audiences. Collectors pay attention to creators. Creators want to create potential value. Audiences (potential creators and collectors) pay attention to industry trends. The platform is to get a large share of the “cake” in the development, but expansion is a big problem.
Most collectors are people in the cryptocurrency field, not from creative work groups. These people have limited influence in the creative work community. On the other hand, most “crypto art creators” (the term “crypto art creators” should be avoided) are purely “crypto” creators. They have no experience outside of encryption art. Therefore, their social circle will not expand existing coverage. Their social interaction only exists within this ecology.
This allows us “outside the circle” creators to gain a lot of power and responsibility to expand the ecology. I think the creators in the existing social media circle are critical to ecological growth because they are the bridge to introduce this new field to the audience.
But it opens the door to new creators, introduces the best creators, and increases the number of “super cow creators”. Existing creators have little interest in these. Most people who play the role of a bridge prefer to be silent and low-key, confining this new field to their own circles. Unless there is a better organizational structure that can benefit all participants, it will mobilize their enthusiasm.
The current state is that the number of new excellent creators is increasing, which is a threat to existing creators. You need to know that as you succeed in gaining recognition and breaking records, there are more dramatic events here, so you can understand this.
My experience in the field of crypto art has been very smooth so far. Many collectors, creators and audiences welcome my achievements with a smile. But I think it is also very important that the platform can publicly promote works for creators. Thank you very much for these platforms. For us, this is writing history. Only those who deserve their name can enter the annals of history.
In other words, in order for creators to promote industry trends, they must have sufficient motivation. The platform cannot rely on hiding outstanding works to circumvent theatrical events and perfectly balance the community (it seems to be doing so now), but to recognize outstanding works, allow successful creators and collectors to gain attention, and strive to achieve a perfect balance by being fair to everyone community.
“Look, I’m on the news today!”
For those who are about to make history, this is a new journey with infinite possibilities. They want to leave a mark here. For those who want to get ETH, these are not important. They will create and get what they want, and one day they will leave for better opportunities.
In a nutshell, “outreach” is the main obstacle to be overcome. The community needs to be balanced to satisfy all participants in the industry.
Nick: Yes, thanks for the conversation, I hope to see you again.
