Spud

Why generative art? Short... Generative art is the most feasible shot for mass adoption of digital collectibles. Long... Generative art is an often maligned facet of NFT culture. Can we rethink that? We can and we should. Generative art offers the most clear path forward to disseminating unique art to the masses. Let’s highlight some elements of that last sentence – “unique” means every person who collects from that collection is in fact getting a 1/1 piece, “art” can be for everyone, not just the stuck-up traditional art world or the small 1/1 art community on blockchain, and “masses” offers us the most promising path to funding/paying creators on blockchain the MOST for their works (see what we’ve been able to do with the small experiment that is FiveDollarNFT). There are three main means by which artists here disseminate their works – editions, 1/1s, and generative works. Each play a role in funding artists and shipping art to collectors. Generative works offer a balance, compromise even, between editions and 1/1s. Editions are a great option to get MORE of an artist’s works out there, increase opportunity for new collectors, and fund artists. Editions fall short (in the grand scheme, though for their intended purpose) in driving a truly personal connection with each collector. 1/1s exist on the other end of this spectrum. 1/1s offer deeply personal ‘ownership’ of art in this ecosystem – each piece truly your own, truly unique. There are incredible 1/1 artists and art pieces that can and should always only be 1/1s. But the sad truth is that our favorite artists cannot make enough 1/1s to satisfy collectors, feed themselves, or offer accessible opportunities to new collectors. Generative works offer collectors personal relationships with each piece and artists more reach and funding. Combining dozens of layers in unique ways can offer millions of possible combinations, each truly unique. Take @zen0m's Glyphscapes or @basketNFT's OneOfOnes as examples. Each piece offers a personal connection to the holder and broadly expands each artist’s collector base – bringing more eyes to one’s entire body of work. PFPs offer us a glimpse into the minds of would-be collectors – each PFP in a collection becomes one’s social identity. If all the PFPs were the same (editions), would we feel that connection to our PFPs? On the other hand, 1/1 communities offer that deeply personal collection but are limited in scale for collectors and opportunity for artists. All of this to say, generative art lets us get the MOST cool stuff out to the MOST collectors while paying artists the MOST. A role for each, of course, but our mission to get cool shit out to everyone!