First Exquisite Corpse living on Blockchain
Or how Exquisite Workers builds a paradox-free time travel rocket
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Almost a year before Beeple would thrust digital art into the spotlight with his historical auction in Christie’s, a group of artists-friends created their own life-changing digital art-piece, inspired by the immortal tradition of Exquisite Corpse.
At the time, similar to other artists living in Spain, we were struggling to cope with the lockdown. We had to give up a project to draw the community wall in the city of Barcelona as we were forced to stay at home for 100 days. To engage ourselves in a nice alternative to painting the physical mural, we began the creation of the Digital Exquisite Corpse. This was produced in the shape of a snake and was posted daily on an Instagram feed according to the colour palette agreed among illustrators. Each of us created a singular piece of a snake without knowing what other teammates would design.
Two months before glorious Beeple’s 69 million Christie’s deal and The Defiant’s release of first 1 hour & 22 min long NFT Film, we were lucky enough to speak to Morgan Deane, a Bank CEO and International Lawyer who also, thankfully for us, is a thought leader and visionary in the field of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. He was the one who raised our awareness of the exciting intersection of Blockchain technology, crypto finance and art.
He drew our attention to the fact that Exquisite Corpse, because of the dependency of each shape with the previous and subsequent shapes, was an artistic representation of Blockchain itself. His excitement around the idea to turn our living artwork, Digital Exquisite Corpse, into an NFT, or non-fungible token — a unique, verifiable digital object that can be sold like a physical artwork, caught our attention. Back then we did not think that Exquisite Corpse, being a digital art, could be monetized one day.
Suddenly we were looking out in a new world of mind-blowing possibilities.
On the 1st of May 2021 we used a process called “minting” to immortalize something that was invented by the Surrealists a century ago and brought to life by our art community on Blockchain — a decentralized network that keeps a permanent record of all transactions.
With 1455 illustrations by 572 artists already created, we were then ready to create 12 more editions of 504 unique artworks in a parallel reality that we call ‘the New Cosmos Net’. We wanted to make a big splash with Exquisite Workers and the fact that we celebrated our 1 year anniversary on Blockchain seemed a fitting way to represent what was a very digital first 12 months.
When you hear “crypto art”, or artwork exchanged for cryptocurrency, people probably think of the breathtaking sales from Beeple, AKA Mike Winkelmann, and other NFTs from Pak, Mad Dog Jones, Larva Labs and Jack Dorsey among others. But beneath the colossal numbers that turbocharged the art market, the mesmerizing headlines, the resentment and the prestigious auction houses, there is a “global ecosystem of NFT artists” driven by enthusiasm and wonder, tempted by the freedom to forget about economical preoccupations and focus on art.
It was not always like this.
Back in 2017 CryptoKitties brought light to digital art collectibles. Even though, in the same year, critic Jason Bailey made a statement that “the blockchain art market is here”, for the most part the NFT world remained undiscovered.
It is still early days for NFTs as it still accounts for a small percentage of all Ethereum transactions. Nevertheless this brave new intangible world already shows signs of stabilising.
Formerly, art collectors and investors used to buy art from auctions to maintain and increase capital, and they owned them physically, which created a significant costs of maintenance. Now they understand that it is possible to buy digital paintings as well and with no additional costs to sustain them. They also realize that, by buying and selling NFTs, they can quickly multiply their funds.
The Crypto Exquisite Corpse created by some of the greatest emerging and well established illustrators, designers, graffiti painters and holo-artists vigorously selected for the project globally, helps to bring the market of collectible NFT paintings to a new level.
Inspired by the immortal art tradition hinged on free play, unpredictability, and collaboration, the Crypto Exquisite Corpse fosters new understandings and innovative collaborations within the global community of international artists committed to building creative relationships beyond the lifespan of individual projects.
In 504 Crypto Exquisite Corpse tokens which will be released gradually at a rate of 3 per day, one can find 2D, 3D and Holo-art pieces and a captivating game dedicated to Surrealism and space discovery.
Due to the structural composition of the Exquisite Corpse, it represents the very phenomena of crypto holding. Each piece fits in a particular order and without any piece the entire thing falls apart. It is truly exhilarating to observe how this tokenized masterpiece grows in your eyes!
Currently the first 90 drops are being made on Opensea. All the other editions will be created, tokenized and posted the upcoming months in different marketplaces such as on SuperRare and DoinGud.
By tokenizing the Exquisite Corpse, we connect the past and the future, cities, countries, continents, online and in a physical realm. Exquisite Corpse unites an incredible number of people, enthusiasts and pioneers thanks to whom the value of each piece of Crypto Exquisite Corpse can grow immensely and transcend all possible boundaries.
The project is managed by us, Exquisite Workers. We are young and wholeheartedly believe in artists and cutting edge digital technologies that help increase planetary resilience and pull the carbon from the sky.
We love the idea of crypto-powered art world to ensure the ongoing artist compensation, the democratization of collecting, protection of artists and collectors interests.
Crypto Corpse NFTs can be owned and traded and have a transparent record of ownership. They can also be combined in all possible ways and the collectors can eventually create their own Crypto Exquisite Corpse bringing together different art pieces of 10 editions according to their own taste.
The combination of advantages that the Crypto Exquisite Corpse provides is not easy to find in any existing project, so it is safe enough to say that Exquisite Workers is setting new standards not only in collecting crypto art, but also in investing in culturally rich items, and most importantly, in creating a new paradigm in the way we share, collect goods and see the world.
We launched this project fully cognizant of the risks. We worried that, if not done properly, it could close the door to talented people and lead to the demise of these new areas of art. We did not want to lament a fact that we failed to consider the opportunity at the very beginning of the market, a mistake we would regret as we grow older. We wanted to create something meaningful and rare and give credits to each of the artists. We wanted the artists to keep doing what they do best — which is art, and allow them to forget their money worries. We wanted everyone to be able to become the co-author and have fun. We wanted to talk about what we are passionate about which is cosmos, culture and history. We wanted to talk about people like you, the ones who, like the Surrealists, sees into the future, experiments and embraces the breadth, depth, and transformative potential of Crypto digitalization and, concesquently, this new ever growing Universe we dive into.
It is a truly historical event.
