Crimson Echo: On-chain art to support those in Gaza
The Blockchain Socialist | 2024-12-31 | 53:01
To finish off the year I spoke again with Chainleft, a pioneer in the on-chain art world and my online dopple ganger. We spoke about his newly released piece Crimson Echo (codename: Blood Journey) which is "A generative film, built by Ethereum Virtual Machine, compressed and stored fully on Ethereum, exploring how stories emerge through permanent acts of individual and collective conscience." Be sure to be a part of the on-chain history being made to show that you did not support the ongoing...
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Transcript
Speaker 0
0:09 – 1:15
Hi, everyone. You're listening to the Blockchain Socials podcast, and I'm here today with my good friend. He is an artist. His name is Chain Left, which is his pseudonym that he goes by online, commonly, taken as my doppel my artist doppelganger on on Twitter. But today, I'm speaking to him because he's working on an experimental art collection that is is bringing attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza that's been happening at time of recording for the past five months. And so I wanted to give Chain Left this platform so that he could share what are the plans with this art collection and how he's using it as a way to bring attention to what's going on, but also to, help out, in the ways that we can, using the technology, by bringing the politics into it, overtly. And so, yeah, maybe as a as kind of a start, chain left, if you want to outline the the purpose of the projects in your own words and how you plan on doing this.
Speaker 1
1:17 – 2:32
Thanks, thanks for having me. Well, Chane, socialist, or can I call you just now? Yes. Yeah. Blab Journey or the project that's called named Blab Journey is an experimental collection. I'm almost struggling to categorize it because it's touching on many different artistic elements or media. It's it's different from anything that I have done. It's probably different what other people have done to actually a lot of a lot of innovation is happening in the collection, but but the main purpose is, of course, to bring attention and awareness among people to the ongoing genocide, in in Gaza. But, there are also some directly smart contract mechanics as well inside the collection. It's it's part of the art that helps hopefully people in Gaza in more tangible ways beyond that awareness. There are beyond that, there are also other interesting things happening in putting in the collection. Of course, this crypto charity thing is the part that I'm really proud of, but there are other unique elements that I hope can bring attention to the collection and and therefore to the cause. That's the gist of it, but, I'm happy to talk more on it more about it as well. Yeah.
Speaker 0
2:33 – 2:58
So, like, the way that that we've been talking about it, the way I understood it, is using, in one sense, the the technical affordances that blockchains provide as a kind of immutable record of kinda what is put on the blockchain and using that as a way to, yeah, to bring attention to the to the cause and as well to raise some funds. But yeah. Go ahead.
Speaker 1
2:59 – 4:07
Yeah. I'm just, like, the the ultimately, like, Blockchain, if if nothing else, Blockchain is a permanent record of it's a ledger. Right? But, a lot of artists have been using this medium for in in different ways as well beyond just the financial transactions. Yeah. And, it's an area that I think a lot of blockchain native artists are exploring these days, and and I think it's quite interesting in general as an artistic from a conceptual perspective, it's very interesting. But especially in the existing censorship in the mainstream media as well as the accessibility of these these information, I think blockchain can provide some big, as you said, affordances as well. And and in that in that context as well, it's quite interesting, I think, to you this medium for having a permanent record of both both how what people are both what art is saying, essentially, and also for what's in in political sense, what people are saying in this political sense, but also having a record of people who actually cared about this thing as well. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm happy to go into more details as well, of course, about this. Yeah. No. I just wanted to yeah. That's that's good context because I think for maybe
Speaker 0
4:07 – 5:34
I think for people who haven't been paying too close attention to it, part one of the, like, biggest things that has been incredibly astonishing even for me of course, we can criticize media for, all of its flaws and and and censorship, but it has been pretty, like, pretty insane to see the amount of censorship around the issue in Gaza in mainstream media where there's such a difference between what I see on, like, on the ground accounts of what's happening in Gaza versus kind of these filtered through institutional lenses, like, how it gets broadcasted to the wider public. Like, there are things that, like, really, I cannot unsee from people just posting videos of what's happening to them and around them in Gaza and the type of, like, yeah, the the the trauma and what that will happen, what will occur out of that, like, it's hard to say. Of course, Elon Musk talks about whatever freedom of speech, but he's also, like, pro Israel on this. So who knows if that record will stay or how long it will stay of, like, these people posting this type of stuff, but we can at least have a record of at least by using a blockchain, we can have a record of what people were willing to put on it at that time as a record to show that, like,
Speaker 1
5:35 – 7:23
there were people against this genocide. Yeah. It's it's very insane because in this history, there were quite a few number of, a high number of genocides. Anything is too much. But this is in this particular case, what was really astonishing, like you said, is that in on the ground, like, when you look at all these videos that are that people are sharing on the ground, literally live streaming, The things that you see change you forever. Right? Like, when you see something, you can't you can't really go back from it. It's especially certain certain things that I've seen, these probably happened in previous genocides as well. But having seen this directly, like, livestreamed in front of you has a really enormous impact on you. And then not having it resonates on mainstream level through this filter of certain groups, it becomes really, I guess, disenfranchising. That's that's the I'm looking for. So so, yes, that that element was really important for me was really important for me to at least we we don't we didn't have this in previous genocides. Like, we don't we have the diaries, obviously, of people that were shared in in previous genocides. We we we can now we really, highly, highly appreciate that these, information was recorded by the people who were actually experiencing this genocide. Yeah. Similar is now happening through these videos. And and, I mean, I even though it's gruesome and even though it's life changing and it's it's horrible for our mental health probably, but it's I I appreciate that that information is being shared. And this is just another way for, to show solidarity with those people essentially on the ground and to show that we we understand and we can never understand what you're experiencing. Of course, we're showing some solidarity through this permanent record of messages.
Speaker 0
7:24 – 8:46
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the the least we can do as the contradictions of capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, all these all these things, like, continue to, like, build upon their contradictions and build upon, like, the violence and the reverberating effects that that's going to have because this is not, yeah, there's there's it's not good for anyone, and the outcome of it is probably not going to be what the perpetrators think it's going to be. We can at least go back into the record and and show that this was, yeah, that that, like, people already knew this was going to happen. I think one of the things that was, like, very radicalizing to me is, like, reading history and reading the accounts of people, like, as as they were experiencing it to show that there were people, like, wanting something else besides this, like, horrible event that actually that this horrible event was not something that was, like, necessarily it's like, oh, we can't do anything about it. It happened. It it, like, it's going to happen. Like, people are the creators of at least in my view, people are like, need to take part in the creation of of history. That is, like, the ultimate secret is that we can we can create that history, and part of the creation of that history is also recording that history. And for all of its flaws about blockchains and crypto, the one thing that it is good at is recording.
Speaker 1
8:47 – 9:58
Yeah. Yeah. So I I because I think it's also important to point out that that's there there is and you and I experienced this a lot. Right? Like, we have a little bit of you could say, like, ideologically, we're in the minority in the larger crypto space, how how we view things. There are people who care about this, and and this is also a way to show that there are some of us who actually did care. Like, it it's not just even doing the art itself because the the art, I'm gonna talk about the details, but it requires for people to do something as well, like, to actually it it, first of all, it requires people to to own that piece that I that I'm launching here, but it also it also requires them to if if they want, there's an option also to to improve upon what you've done as as well more tangibly. So there are ways to, I think, even in twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years in the future, maybe more in the future as long as these proxies survive. And so far, the the security guarantees are strong. We will be able to show that these people cared about this looking at certain things. Yeah. Absolutely. I think what has been interesting is that,
Speaker 0
9:58 – 11:13
like, it the the the conflict has gotten big enough to where, really, at least in the West, it's not just people on the left that are caring about it or seeing it and seeing the hypocrisy, the in in insane, intense hypocrisy of, like, they're not even just, of course, the what the leaders in Israel are saying or doing, but also their own leaders within their own countries. It's like I feel like people are starting to see just, like, a more overt example of just, like, the different realities that are seeming to be perceived by regular people and those at the top who, like, have vastly different incentives in their lives. But there's just, like, in such an intense disconnect, I cannot yeah. I don't know. Joe Biden is going to get fucking obliterated in in the next American election. Like, I don't see I don't see any recovery. And then, yeah, to simply just use Trump as, like, a in his reelection as a threat, I don't think is nearly strong enough for people to, you know, vote in someone again who is essentially actively supporting this genocide. So yeah.
Speaker 1
11:14 – 11:35
Yep. Yeah. I don't know what's gonna happen, but, yeah, it's a it's definitely it's very interesting strategy to say the least Yeah. To try to to try to if if your goal is to win an election, this was, like, really terrible idea what he's done even even from a very pragmatic perspective, ignoring the whole all the humanitarian
Speaker 0
11:36 – 12:12
elements of it. Yeah. And the history books will, I think, reflect that over time. And those history books may be looking at the blockchain as part of its archival record. Yep. Yeah. Maybe then let's take a dive into the separate parts of this of this piece. Or, really, it's a it's a collection of pieces, because it is quite interesting how you are connecting the political to the technical and and vice versa. So, yeah, we can we can start with that.
Speaker 1
12:13 – 15:35
Yeah. So there's a lot happening, of course, inside the project, so I would start with the allow list mechanics. So Law Journey is it's a free mint. Like, it's a free collection. Everyone can mint it for free, but it's not a public mint. It requires you you requires you to be allow listed, essentially. Allow listed, for those who who are on the left but are not familiar with the blockchain in general, like, it's a mechanism that a lot of artists use. Usually, they use it for their previous collectors or they use it for maybe allow listing certain group of people that they consider are more worthwhile. Like but in this case, the way that I have decided to do it was that this freemance, completely freemance, will be only on the people who are allow listed based on two potential conditions, essentially. Either and this applies to anyone. Don't have to own anything as long as you have spoken up about the genocide in Gaza, essentially. As if you've done that, if you try to make some impact on it on elsewhere, it can be completely offline as well. If there is a proof of that, and if they have done some awareness about it, they are allow listed for this mint, essentially. That's it. Don't have to satisfy any other criteria. The other condition or not not other condition. Sorry. Like, the other possibility to to get a free mint is also to own my collections, which is a calistrot. It's a small collection, so it doesn't really prevent, the anyone being not in the allowed list due to the awareness campaign. So that's the main that's still the main part of the allowed list. Mhmm. So this I think there are there are really, like, two reasons I wanted to to this mechanics. Of course, one is obviously the awareness. Right? I when I've spoken to some people, especially in Gaza, what I've heard was that priority yes. Of course, donations are great, and and this is part of this project as well. Talk about it. But the larger part of what they had they needed was awareness, essentially. And and it's not that's just the awareness of, okay, there is an ongoing crisis happening there, but it's also the there's how, putting pressure. Right? Like, calling actually for a ceasefire. Right? This is the kind of also part of my condition that, you know, you have to call for a ceasefire. They can only actually survive, you know, they can actually have sorry. They can only use those donations if they actually survive. And for them to survive, this genocide needs to stop first. And this is why I think, like, the awareness part was large part of this campaign large part of this project. I I wanted to first focus on the awareness and then the donation element. And donation is still great. I'm not saying don't do donation or anything. It's very important, I think. Mhmm. But, I think top priority is really to stop the the genocide. I think that's the most important thing. And even if, crypto is nothing if it's not tokenized attention, because you can see that by all over the especially in crypto to its communities. And I was just thinking that if this attention can be used for something meaningful like, like, raising awareness for a human catastrophe, this is the time to do it. And I wanted to do it this essentially by incentivizing people to speak up about calling for a ceasefire. So that's that was the that was the idea, essentially.
Speaker 0
15:36 – 16:21
Yeah. No. I think it's interesting because this allow listing kind of mechanism is very often used by NFT artists as a way to get promotion for their art that usually they're they're selling, and it's I don't wanna say it's necessarily like a it's it's a bit of a commercial endeavor in some way. It's like a way to build hype, exclusivity, and such. And, usually, you get this exclusivity I mean, not all the time, but oftentimes, it's like, if you've bought something so one of my pieces before or if you've, like, engaged in other types of commercial activity with the artist. But other times, it can also be just, like, a certain action that someone has taken that is not necessarily commercial.
Speaker 1
16:22 – 17:32
Yeah. So, yes, I I Yeah. And it is it is it is commercialized, and it is used for a little bit of marketing and high, which I'm not it's not terrible thing to do. And and I also don't deny that I'm actually using to create hype as well in this case. Exactly. I am actually using but but, of course, it's nothing commercial from my because I don't have anything from this. But it is it is something that I wanna use the hype for something at least positive. That's that's the idea. And, also, I think maybe it's worth noting. I'm not saying this to brag or anything, but just really to to explain why I'm doing it. Obviously, this is not like, everyone, I think, in the right now knows about what's happening, but the idea is really if if you notice someone, you don't expect to talk about this, I think it brings people it makes people think a bit more. And in crypto space, people don't talk about these things that much, and they don't really go go into politics as much. If they do, they're it's mostly in the on the right wing side or on the libertarian side. And if you see someone who don't expect to talk about this, I think it makes a little bit more. It it engages more conversation, I think. Mhmm. And in my case, like, my now, like, I've I've I've done some collections in the past, and
Speaker 0
17:32 – 17:43
I'm moderately successful. I don't wanna, like, brag or anything. My But you have. You've been successful, yeah, on a lot of very, like, innovative forms of arts, specifically using blockchain as a medium.
Speaker 1
17:44 – 18:19
Yeah. And and what I was trying to do here is that if you think that my art is valuable, if you think that Chainleft has good collections and and they are valued highly, not just by the people, but even by your own metrics, which is the match market. Lots of people measure the success through market even though I don't think it should be the case. But even if that's the case, you will now get a free completely free piece from this artist that you think is successful if you just think about this and raise awareness. That's the kind of push, I guess, here in this, niche group of community.
Speaker 0
18:20 – 19:25
Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Full disclosure is that I def I own one of your pieces. I own, a chaos roads. And a lot of your work involves around, like, specifically on chain art if like, for people to maybe have some in case they don't know what that means is that oftentimes when you're when you're thinking about NFTs, they're often you have the the link to in the metadata of what the picture is meant to be. So, like, usually, it's, like, hosted on IPFS or it's hosted on some other URL. An on chain piece of art is a piece of art that doesn't have any sort of metadata attached to it that is, like, where the where the media is being held if I if I'm, you know, describing it correctly. The the art is on chain, so you don't have another dependency. You don't have a dependency on IPFS. You don't have a dependency on whatever other URL in which you're storing that that media on. So nothing nothing will be lost as long as the blockchain continues to exist.
Speaker 1
19:26 – 20:11
Is that a good way to understand it? Yeah. It's it's the right way to describe it. I would say, like, maybe method yeah. There is a metadata, but it's it is also on chain. So everything about the collection is on chain, including its data, but also its dynamism, its all the mechanics around the collection as well. Because the type of art that I'm exploring is a little bit more also it has a lot of conceptual elements as well, and those concepts can usually be explored through dynamism of continuous calculation or compute continuous computation. And that is happening within the chain as well through through the virtual machine that is powered by hundreds of computers, which is also an an an additional, I think, safety or security guarantee that comes with the blockchains, which is, I think, very interesting as well.
Speaker 0
20:11 – 20:52
Yeah. So I think, like, your pieces explore process a lot and, like, time Yeah. In many ways that Yeah. The there is this continuous, computation you can do with with something that is held on a blockchain, which makes it, it makes generative art a lot easier to do, I guess, is, like, the way that I think about it. And so you can because you're having constant input with new blocks being added, new transactions being created, therefore, you can choose to pick a few different types of inputs that influence how the art pieces change over time.
Speaker 1
20:53 – 22:12
Yeah. That's exactly how it is. Yeah. So in generative art, typically, you have a obviously, you have an algorithm, but that algorithm is that algorithm is influenced by parameters. Right? So, typically, that will be certain seeds or hashes and then that you use those number of parameters to update the art, like but it would usually be static output. At the time of the mince, people get a this is like people you you just heard a lot from blockchain, and this is just trustless way to randomize an output, essentially. Mhmm. What I do is that there is that element, of course, the trustless way to randomize the output, but then also, it continues to change or evolve over time as well based on more parameters that can be detected within the blockchain. That can be time or that can be, we'll talk about some of these, in this conversation. It can be actually, in this example, it can be also based on how much you donate to Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, for example. Because if you do that within Blood Journey, art will actually improve automatically within the chain. No no money, like, passing through me or anyone else, it will be automatically going into Palestinian children relief funds account without anyone interfering, and it can never be changed. And it's all very automatic and hopefully helpful to people.
Speaker 0
22:13 – 22:56
Yeah. No. I think if there's like a I think it's interesting. It's, yeah, this kind of the term is sometimes used like, where you're, like, almost taking advantage of maybe some of the impulses that art collectors have, especially in in the crypto world, to, you know, divert it towards, you know, supporting what's happening, you know, against the genocide in Gaza. Yes. Maybe we can talk a bit about more on, like, how people can how peep how do people get on the allow list, and how does the minting mechanism work?
Speaker 1
22:57 – 28:43
Yeah. So, yeah, thanks for this question. Actually, I I almost forgot to mention that. So so, yes, the the allow list is, like I said, the only you can only be on the allow list if you speak about the genocide in Gaza and call for a ceasefire, or you can own one of my pieces, but then that's a very small group compared to the other one. And also that group is a little like, there will be a waiting essentially in my list mechanism. Basically, the more impact you can bring or the more genuine your attempt to raise awareness is because when I raise of course, when I announce this, we've had a bunch of also what we call free mint farmers. Like, people create fake accounts and and on Twitter and stuff like that. So I'm, of course, filtering those out. But but the more for example, if someone who, who consistently talks about it with a with a good with a significant platform because one of the other things in crypto space is that when you have a larger account, people start to become a little bit more, let's call it vanilla. Yeah. Like, they they start being less political and everything. But if I see someone with a over 100 k thousand followers and who's followed by most of the people on Twitter, like, encrypted Twitter that are known people, and and this person is suddenly consistently tweeting about the genocide and consistently calling for a ceasefire, yeah, I will I will devote more these these people. Like, I I will give them maybe five free mints instead of one. So that's that's something that I'm doing as well in the allow list. But then for everyone, and that includes even for people who are just my previous collectors, it it has to be that everyone who's minting, when they are clicking that mint button, it won't mint unless they send the message to blockchain. And I will the the mint website will have this ability like, ways to do ways to do this, but they have to send one of the three messages to the blockchain if they want to mint this piece. One of the options is free Palestine or Palestine. Second option is ceasefire now, and third option is nothing justifies genocide. So one of those three options has to be sent by the people who are minting. If they don't send this message, they're not gonna be able to mint. It's just the contract doesn't allow it. Smart contract doesn't allow it. The idea behind this Mint MakerX is, I will say, threefold. I'll start from the less maybe simpler one. So these three messages are similar in essence, of course, but there is, I think, some maybe slight difference in one's thinking in each of those messages. Like, Palestine is more like a general speaking up against the larger injustice in in general happening in the region. Right? Like, the apartheid state and everything. While ceasefire and I was more urgent, like, calling for in an urgent ceasefire. And then the other one, which is nothing justifies genocide, that is specific to the situation, but also not even just larger in the region, but larger in the history of the like, we have seen a lot of cases of, like, I tweeted this in, like, maybe the first week of the genocide. I it's, like, so so obvious that almost every genocide has people in the beginning justifying it for something. Oh, that's because there was a terrorist. It's like, oh, because what else? What are the other options? Like, you you said it here as well. Right? What can we do? This is what happens. Like, it's not that. Like, there are ways to go there are solutions beyond doing a genocide to these conflicts. Definitely. And and and that was the reason behind that other third option, essentially. And and for me doing this, it's a consider it as an on chain poll. Like, it's a it's a poll that will stay on the chain, and we will be able to see this as long as this these blockchains survive and live. But the other reason is that the messages will see, we'll stay on the chain as well, and and this was what we talked about earlier. Right? So it will show that a group of people cared about this. A group of people sent these messages to the blockchain to stay there in this time when the genocide was happening. And that doesn't mean that it's it's anything as significant as someone say sharing this media on on the ground, of course. But it just shows that we're just trying to show the solidarity within this niche community that we are here. Yeah. And finally, the other reason, and this is something that I think is very underutilized in blockchain in general. A lot of people know this already, that blockchain is quite transparent, actually. Like, you have records of all these transactions and wallet addresses who who did those transactions. Right? For and and right now, we're able to some some collectors and some artists are already starting to do it, and some platforms are doing it as well. Based on your transaction history, people usually sometimes do something for you. Like, they can airdrop you something. They can send you some funds or they can send you some NFTs or they can allow list you actually just like what we said earlier. I think that this record of people who meant it's Lot Journey can be potentially used for proof of humanity or proof of humanitarian. Like, essentially, people who sent these messages, those wallet addresses. Yeah. Like, it it will be yeah. It will be the record of not just those messages, but the record of the addresses that actually did this action. So it's almost like a filter. Right? Mhmm. So I can actually these addresses will have a place in my heart, and I I think we'll have some place in some other people's heart as well, I'm I'm sure. And these addresses will stay on the chain for, and these addresses will be something. Like, I I personally will put these addresses on higher in high regard in my future, anything that I release in the future, and it will happen for other people as well, I think. Because now we will leave a permanent record of those addresses. So that's it's how we always say proof of proof of stake. This is proof of humanity. That's how I see it, at least, for for for this specific conflict.
Speaker 0
28:44 – 29:33
Yeah. Yeah. No. I think that's a super interesting like, the the whole mechanism, this whole allowlist thing is super interesting to me. I imagine for you, it's also, like, a bit of work you have to find manually who are the people who are taking part in this, and I imagine you're probably focusing a bit more on the crypto community of people that are speaking out. Yeah. Definitely, not because not even because of the crypto stuff. I encourage people to speak out just because, in general, I think I think we almost underestimate kind of the effect of how much money and effort Israel puts into, like, their image on social media. It's actually pretty insane. Like, it's expensive to run psyops. It's not a a cheap endeavor. Yeah. And so, like
Speaker 1
29:33 – 29:35
Especially when you're this strong.
Speaker 0
29:35 – 30:58
Right. We have to spend a lot of money. But I think it's not it's not even that, but it's also that I think part of their strategy has been essentially, like, not giving a shit what any critic kind of says as far as, like, how their actions take part are done Yeah. As a way to make you feel disenchanted, to make you feel like you can't do anything, and to make you feel that, like, you're going to just submit to them. So I think it it is important to, like, this is a this this is what like, politics is always a long term game. It's always, like, it's always going to be hard and it's always going to be tough. Of course, like, we still need to go to manifestations. We still need to go to protests. We still need to share it with people. I think we need to encourage our networks, our friends, people that we know to speak out and to, yeah, to stay to stay strong as well. Because if if, like, the people in Gaza, like, those who are still alive are, you know, I don't know, like, so much stronger than than I am, at the moment. And it would be a shame for me to to stop simply because I'm tired of posting about it or whatever when I'm comfortable in my home not being bombed. So I think we owe it we owe it to those types of people, and I think they would greatly appreciate it for us to continue to do that and for that. And that effort can be
Speaker 1
30:59 – 32:12
and should be recognized, and it will be put on the permanent record Yeah. In the way that we can. Definitely. And this is really what I'm offering to collectors or minters is really the least you could think. Like, it's really a minimum. It's I I would like it to be a lot more, of course, and there is an option to do a lot more in the collection. But just to mint, I think it's it's quite a like, it's not a lot of thing that I'm asking really. I think it's just really raising awareness. And and I actually totally get like, a lot of people have mental health problems as well, and and I myself struggle a lot with this when I'm doing this collection, like, constantly being into this. And the imagery inside the collection a a little bit also sends a lot of shot to what's happening, and it's quite it's a little hard to to focus too much on it. I I totally get that. And and, obviously, what's hap whenever I say this, I also feel guilty because of what's happening, like, the the people in Gaza are in a lot worse conditions. It's just that this collection really doesn't require people to do much. It's just about really calling for a ceasefire, shouting up, speaking up about the genocide. That's about it, really. Yeah. And and when you do that and when you send your message to blockchain saying that's that's it, essentially, one of those three messages, and you will get this. That's it, really.
Speaker 0
32:13 – 32:24
Sure. And I think having I mean, there is this also effect of getting the attention of a lot of crypto people who are going to see a lot of block space be taken up by the collection. Yeah.
Speaker 1
32:24 – 35:46
And Yeah. I have to mention that part a little bit. There's a little there is a this is I'm gonna have a big financial hit on this collection because it's so big. So what so let's talk about a bit about the format. Mhmm. Collection is a little bit. I'm hesitant to call it generative art, although it is a generative, collection with usual elements that uses the generative elements in it. But I'm hesitant to call it that way because it's not a typical what you would expect generative art. Usually, a typical generative art is that you have a seed even even the dynamic generative art is essentially when you use, parameters to display a final image. Right? This is a short film, actually. It's a it's a generative short film. What is happening inside Blood Journey is that you have a you have scenes that happen that are shared by all the pieces, but then there are some scenes that are generatively distributed across the collection. And then there is a final artwork that gets displaced the displayed based on more generative elements and based on more of those dynamic elements that I tend to do in my previous work as well. So but I also am hesitant to call it a short film as well, actually, because it also isn't typical short film because it's done on chain. And what on chain means is that you're really limited with the space and you're constrained by by by the codes, essentially. And the code that you use, especially for figurative type of art that that is needed for short films, takes a lot of space, essentially. So in that context also, it is a little bit more limited. However, it is still a visual medium. It is still it still has a score that is done by another of our shared friend, actually, Jonathan Mann, who does a song every day for the last sixteen years. Yeah. So so there are these sound effects. There are there is a music element. There is visual events that is happening in the in the collection. But, again, there are those generative elements both both in terms of the scenes, but also in terms of the final output. But all of this, even if I do all the optimizations and all the code related optimization and and all the shortening of the code and all the all the sometimes even trading off with the aesthetic, Even then, it's a it's a big piece, that I have to put it on chain. And with especially with the gas fees now being a little bit higher, it's, of course, cost me a little bit more. But, ultimately, yes, it will take some space on the on the chain, but I am also using a lot of elements to make it more optimized. So I think it probably won't piss off too many people in terms of what is happening in those transactions. It's a it's what we recently what some people recently started calling compressionism. Essentially, the idea of capturing as much as much as many emotions and as many concepts that you can capture within the tiniest amount of space. That's that's the idea behind it. And yeah. So this this will be probably the first of its kind in terms of what's, like, a a short film on chain, but also the idea is really pushing the boundaries of what you can do on chain. The idea is really to to make people think really about a lot of things.
Speaker 0
35:48 – 35:56
Yeah. Yeah. No. It's I I I like that term, compressionism. Yeah. It's like a a new a new art. Yeah. The movement.
Speaker 1
35:57 – 36:43
I I yeah. This is some other on chain artists came up with recently, and I really like the term as well. I I I had a slogan that I was tweeting out last year. Like, within the tiny, we capture the infinite. Like, that's that's, I think, the motto of this moment, essentially, that these artists are doing. And some some developers who are actually who you I think we we mentioned we probably talked about them before. Like, some some of our other developers and artists who are also more leaning towards, I guess, I would say, on the left leftist side, they have built some public tools to to also ease the process for artists to create on chain art as well to, again, minimize the the storage space required to capture as many as much aesthetic and emotion and concept as possible.
Speaker 0
36:44 – 38:09
Yeah. That's interesting. Like, in in my in my book, I talked a bit about the the net arts movement and which is when like, whenever the kind of more like the the start of the Internet and what kind of pieces were being created then. And and what you find is that a lot of technological breakthroughs or innovations begin a new kinda art movement in some way or they're it it becomes an opportunity for artists to explore what that technology the implications of that technology and what it can and what it can't do and begins this exploration phase, which is which has happened with blockchain and crypto. Of course, a lot of the exploration went into, like, the very speculative side, of course, and and almost repeating the same exact experiment over and over again. But I think there is still quite a lot there as far as, like, art and using it using blockchain as a medium for art to explore what it can and cannot do. Like, listening to you describe what you're doing for for this piece, for me, has, like, sparked some inspiration about what are some kind of, like, not non art based types of mechanisms that we can then use this medium for. So yeah. So I think it's it's it's really interesting, and I'm like, I'm honored to have you here
Speaker 1
38:09 – 42:29
and explore Thank you. Thank you. But and and it's a honor. I like, I'm honored to hear that, like, you're inspired by it because that's, I think, the role of art, in in my view, at least. Like, it's to make people think and get inspired and and do more with what's they experiment. From my perspective, there's a lot of, of course, like, art styles that are great, and then I have huge respect for a lot of artists. My personal niche focus is really on the ends of the experimental side and on the ends of innovation innovative side. That's why I also love like, you mentioned, like, the the the demo scene, the whole bulletin board systems, ASCII art, the early Internet, and the computer graphics. It's very super interesting for me as well. Again, similar patterns, by the way, similar themes, like, all these, like, again, minimization and optimization was a huge element there as well at the time. And a lot of things that we're doing on the art side, I'm starting to see, yes, protocols being are being developed now based on those. Like, people who have done that are NFT collections, who experimented with on chain messages, like, already two, three years ago. And now we're seeing on chain, like, social apps getting built built. And and no one can tell that they weren't inspired by those artists in the past. It it's we I think it's clear that minds that there there are lots of minds in this space, the developers and builders and artists, but the line between developer and artists, especially in these techno technological environments, is really blurry. Yeah. And people get creative with it, of course, and and especially, like, people people like me, we we we like really experimental stuff. And then when we do it and if people get inspired, that's, like, the ultimate praise, I think. Mhmm. That's that's how I see it. Like, I I'll give another example, like, again, from this collection. And, again, I don't think this was done. But you've heard about in 2021, this was a big hype, like metaverse metaverse. Right? Like, it was quite from my perspective, it was quite bullshit. Mhmm. But but my always my understanding of metaverse, whenever someone said metaverse to me was very different than what was the hype about. For me, it was about blockchain is almost like a universe in itself. Right? Because you have this data, Sid, I'm a data scientist, by trade. So blockchain has all this data inside itself, and you have smart contract that is overarching, like, an Ethereum virtual machine that can use this data, that can pick up that data and use it. It's a smart context, essentially, that can do that. So what I'm doing in this collection, for example, is also something, like, different. I have to give a bit of a shout to here, to my previous collection. You you are new you know it, but for those who don't know, and who's listening to this, has this mechanism where the art evolves over time because the chaos, like entropy, marches on always. But, the collectors who own the piece have an option to, move the piece back in time, essentially, lower its entropy by calling a function called observe inside the contract. So it's a kind of conscious observation and a shout to that, essentially. What happens in this collection in in blood journey is that if you own a cast road, your blood journey final output, there is a tree as an output in the in the end. It's like kind of a display symbolizing the hope. But, that tree, how it looks will be dependent on the entropy of your cow's roots as well. And, actually, if you change the entropy of your cow's roots, so if you actually reduce the cow's in your in your blood in your cow's roots piece, it will affect automatically also what happens in the lab journey piece that you own as well. So there is this I I called it it might I don't know if this is the right term to it's just really made up term that I just came out with, but, it's like I called it metaversal dynamics. So that's there is an actual universal collection inside that blockchain universe. Right? So there is this there is only one function call, like, only one thing happening in one someplace, but it's affecting something else elsewhere. And I if I implement this on my next collections over time, there will be whole chain left art universe that can be controlled by one single function. That's what I consider to be, for example, another case of like, this is the real metaverse. This is how I see it. This is what's what I consider it to be a proper real metaverse that is interconnected experiences.
Speaker 0
42:29 – 44:04
Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's like anything of, like, a butterfly effect. Like, in in the real universe, there is, of course, this butterfly effect theory that the butterfly flaps his wings. In in Texas, it'll start a tornado in Brazil. And in on this is the case for kind of all digital systems, but in I would say, like, the in the beginning, it was, like, in platforms, like, where you are collecting all this data. There is, like, big tech can design the butterfly effect, like, what causes what effect downstream based on actions that users take. Yeah. They can determine that. Just and even I think there's also a case to say that they cannot fully it takes them a while necessarily to know exactly what's going to happen because there are so many inputs and so many variables inside their system and at least outputs profit for them as their idea. But in the blockchain world, which is not a platform, but it is it is almost like an open platform, like a protocol That's that's what I wanted to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so you can then create your own butterfly effects, your own cause and effects, within the system that you have control over, of course, to or not or and even you can use inputs of the things that you don't control over to create different types of causes and effects. And this maybe I think when I say this out loud, I'm almost like, maybe if you're a developer, you're like, well, yeah, of course. But it is something that, like, not a lot of people necessarily, like, think about in in this way.
Speaker 1
44:05 – 45:30
Yeah. And and you're absolutely right also that, like, this is not like a, oh, like, the first time or anything. This is something that exists, like you said, in all digital systems that you can, of course, interlink those things. But I think difference with blockchain is that, like you said, it's an open environment where every everyone subscribes to already. So I think I think, like, a lot of the blockchain skeptics skeptics usually miss this part a lot, like the the social consensus that comes with blockchains. So, like, even I I there's so many artists who are now in the NFT space. And now now that's like, if you consider Ethereum as the the kind of place where most of us are now creating these days, it's a it's a place where everyone is subscribed to already. So it's not a it's not meta where or Facebook where it's controlled by this corporation where it can affect anything. This this thing that's that's that I'm building in inside the Lord Journey, it's it I after I published that, I won't have any control over it. I and the only person who can actually control it will be the collectors themselves or actually their inter interconnected relations, essentially. And and, of course, the thousands of the computers that are running Ethereum, but that's so much more reliable than than trusting Mark Zuckerberg, I think. So that's that's the idea behind, I think, having this sort of open metaverse dynamic.
Speaker 0
45:31 – 45:35
Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that we mention,
Speaker 1
45:36 – 48:45
in the So in terms of the the collection, I I think I briefly mentioned it earlier, but I just wanted to mention it again that after collecting it, a lot of collectors care about, the outputs. Of course, the visual output is important to collect, and the story behind it is important. But sometimes the collectors also care about the the rarity of the pieces or how unique it is essentially among the larger collection. And in this case, we're giving collectors to chant a chance to make the piece more by by donating to Celestia Children's Relief Fund. The more they donate, there's a counter in inside the collection called peace counter. It's it's it's a variable, like a parameter. And the more you donate, it automatically calculates that piece counter, and it goes up. And that also affects the outputs of final visual that you're gonna be seeing as well. Mhmm. So so that's that's another mechanic that we have, and I hope that people will use it also to maybe make the pieces better. And and finally, one one just one last mechanic. Also, the total amount of the donation will also have an impact on everyone's art as well. So there is also this element of you might want to encourage other collectors to also donate maybe because they will actually have an influence on the final app as well. I know I said that was the last mechanic, but there's one more. So it's called Art Factory. It's essentially a consensus based, a democratic way to upgrade the film. So so this is a film. Right? So so it's not a single art piece. It's a combination of multiple mark multiple art pieces. You have music. You have more than a dozen scenes. All of these come together. They they stitch together to form the final full story. This stitching, this bringing them together actually happened inside an operator contract that I called Art Factory. And the thing with this contract is that you can actually change the ownership from the person who deployed it, which is me, to a collective group. And and this is a blockchain feature or function where a multisignature wallet that a collective can own and control the decisions in a contract. So so when this is done, over time, another artist comes and maybe makes a proposal to change a scene or or one of the songs. And if the consensus comes out of the collective group that's that this is a great piece, and they change it. And then the story changes. So the the story can actually unfold differently over time based on this collective decision. To to me, this is super fascinating because if there's some interest in these democratic upgrades, things can change significantly entire and and who knows what's gonna happen in the future to Palestine as well, and and and maybe it will be something more hopeful in the future. And by the way, these these art pieces can be beautifully drawn one of ones, or it can even be a generative art because I'm actually passing all these parameters that we just talked about also to these contracts. So artists can actually reinterpret what this piece counter means or what what it does in their art.
Speaker 0
48:46 – 48:59
Wow. Now this is, like, super interesting mechanism to me. Like, yeah, this is, for me, usable in many different types of context, and I'm, like, very happy to see it being used in this one in particular.
Speaker 1
49:00 – 49:56
Yeah. Yeah. To be clear, the I actually have the contracts and and the the piece ready. The only thing that I'm planning to do now is, oh, there are a couple of things that are actually not the only thing that quite a bit of things still to do. So the filtering of the allow list, of course, it's a big work that I have to do. I'm actually gonna get some help from France, so you can help me out with that. The website itself, I want to make sure that the website is clear that you have to send those messages when you're doing the mint. And finally, there are still some, I guess, improvements that I plan to do on the contract, especially on the on the generative stitching. Like, anyway, I don't wanna go into it, but there are there are some minor things to figure out in the contract as well. But, otherwise, piece themselves is actually ready. It's just that these final, I guess, 5% sometimes takes the 40% of the time. So so that's, yeah, that's that's the part that I am now working on.
Speaker 0
49:56 – 51:03
No. Cool. Nice to hear. So, yeah, if if you are because I've had so many people reach out to me and ask me, like, what can we do, you know, in web three and crypto for Palestine? And I had been struggling a lot with kind of figuring out, what it is that we can do. Ultimately, I think the biggest thing you can do is go out and call for a ceasefire in person, join protests and manifestations, as you can. And, of course, like, continue continuing to to share what's going on through social media. But as well, now we have another tool in our toolbox for how we can express our solidarity with those suffering in Gaza thanks to the work that you're doing on on BloodJourney. So I definitely plan on trying to to share this with as much as with as much people as possible. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for for coming on. And, yeah, I think people can find you at chain left on on Twitter and on other social media. Chain leftist. Chain leftist. Okay. Chain leftist.
Speaker 1
51:04 – 51:11
So yeah. The the handle is chain leftist. The name is username is chain left. The handle is chain left. So both Fair. Fair.
Speaker 0
51:12 – 51:20
Fair. Yeah. And so is there anything that maybe if people want to get your attention to get added into the allow list that they should specifically do?
Speaker 1
51:22 – 52:34
Oh, they should well, first of all, it should be genuine. If I see that the Twitter account is essentially just farming stuff or newly created, it's filtered out usually. But, yeah, if they if I would love the most impact, the most chance, and the most number of allow list mints that that will be available to to anyone who does any work regarding this. But the conditions are that it has to be speaking up about it. It has to call for a ceasefire, and it has of course, it absolutely, this goes without saying, but no antisemitism or no Islamophobia, of course. Immediate disqualification, obviously, if those happen. And that, yeah, that's that's pretty much it. And after that after that, if they can reach out to me either DM or any of my tweets replies saying adding adding their tweets or threads. If they actually do something offline and go to, like, write something today today or something, that's that's that's a big plus for me than than tweeting about it. If they, I don't know, go join a protest, that's bigger than me, but bigger than tweeting about it for me. But, yeah, anything at this point, really.
Speaker 0
52:34 – 52:48
Yeah. Of course. Alright. Well, thanks so much for coming on. And, yeah, Free Palestine, Tsasar Now, Google Aaron Bushnell, and, yeah, let's do what we can to support those that are suffering in Gaza. Thanks.
Speaker 1
52:49 – 52:50
Thank you, Josh. Yeah.