I’ve been thinking about this last year and all the crazy things that have happened in the crypto and NFT space. I started reflecting on my experiences and what I have learned as a community leader and a collector. I’ve been in the NFT space for over a year and a half now and have been a community owner of The Culture Project for over six months. It is a beautiful generative art collection that was the first gen art project that I collected and fell in love with in late 2021. This predated my first fxhash mint by a few months.
The original owner of the project ended up spending all of the funds that were supposed to be for the community and further projects. He wasn’t able to deliver on any of the things he had promised. There was a lot more to it, but this is the short and sweet of it. He ended up disappearing. But before that, he left two of us with ownership of the ETH wallet with some leftover funds, the ENS, the twitter, and the discord server. That is what started this journey for me as a writer and community leader. I used to enjoy writing over 20 years ago and now I find myself kindling some new and old passions to develop and pursue. I completely took over the community and have been doing giveaways for the last few months. We raffle off Art Blocks & fxhash pieces to Brush Stroke holders in the discord. Trying to give back what I can to the people who have stuck around. Trying to build a small community of generative art lovers.
When I first got into the NFT space I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I had been in crypto for a while by then, but at that time all I did was DCA and HODL. These kinds of volatile markets were new to me. It took a while for me to figure out where I fit in this space. I’m not good at flipping or judging what next project will take off. I have collected some projects to hold long term. But I’ve focused on generative art heavily, especially long form gen art. I see it playing a major role in the future of art culture. I think there are four major gen art companies or platforms that people should be aware of. They are pushing this space in productive and meaningful ways. I’m sure there are more that deserve to be on this list, but for me these four are at the top. If you are unaware of any of them, you should give them a look.
Art Blocks - https://www.artblocks.io
fxhash - https://www.fxhash.xyz
Bright Moments - https://www.brightmoments.io
gmDAO - https://twitter.com/gmDAOeth
Now lets get to the Art. I’m going to share things I’ve collected over the last year for me personally and for The Culture Project community. This article will be split up into parts. The majority of it will be generative art, but I’m going to go over some other stuff I collected at the end of the year as well. There were a ton of Open Editions recently and I was able to collect from a few 1/1 artists that I love, but could never afford before. That has been a great experience at the end of this year for me.
A year ago this month I started collecting on fxhash. I took it slow at first, figuring out how the site worked minting a few random projects. Then I saw the first project that blew me away and started my addiction. Growth Vol 1 by Robert Hodgins.
This project isn’t one I held after mint. I was stuck in my ETH ways at those times, worrying about flipping to mint the next thing. Something I found I didn’t need to do with Tezos. I have a fond memory of discovering this work and watching the growth happen live and being awed by it. I finally recollected one this month. Crazy I minted one ago and a year later I finally have it back in my collection.
I ended up collecting his next project Subatomic Compositions about a month later, picking one up on the secondary. I missed the mint, due to a weird time for the mint window (a thing fxhash used to do). I was able to mint his third project as well a few months later, Growth v02.
Robert Hodgin became one of my favorite generative artists very quickly. He ended up being my first Art Blocks piece I collected about three months ago, Ancient Courses of Fictional Rivers. I wrote a substack article about him as well.
Ancient Courses of Fictional Rivers #696
About a week later I would be introduced to a duo artist group that went by the name, DistCollective. Another favorite of mine, I’ve collected over ten pieces from them now. Mina started another wonderful obsession.
I quickly followed them and started minting their work when I could. Collecting a few of their earlier works on the secondary markets.
I went back and collected their first project šamana #N. They really defined their style early into their work. So unique and beautiful.
arawa was a gift mint for holding some of their previous work.
I’ve steadily collected their work over the last year and hope to collect more in the future.
Organicon, variation I #128 by Frederik Vanhoutte - Winterbloed
Eight months ago I minted my first piece by Hevey, whom is another one of my favorite generative artists. Dencity is an amazing project, I hope to collect another one at some point in the future. Three months ago I minted a Trasiedoc and after that I finally collected a piece that was on my grail list. Sequence was one of my first big purchases when I decided to start collecting established projects.
About a month later I would find the artist _nekropunk, whom does some amazing interactive work. He has several projects that are incredibly unique like, Skalka.
I recommend following this link to see it live and interact with it. Very cool work and one I happily minted.
Mind docks sorting station #248
The first piece I collected by him was Mind docks sorting station and after that I went back and collected one of his earlier works, Viadukt.
All of his work is interactive, you should follow the links below the art to check them out fully.
For the next three months I collected pieces here and there from a bunch of different artists. Some highlights below showcasing my favorite pieces from that time.
Takashi's Death #154 by Christophe "Ulu" Choffel
If you love the manga or movie Akira, you probably dig this one.
Shattered Moons #213 by makio135
Qotonana is another great artist I came across five months ago. I’ve minted a few of their projects over that time. I instantly loved the Love & Wild project and it was my first exposure to them.
Voyage is the latest project by them and it’s amazing. I just minted one a week ago and it is 100% code. It’s beautiful and impressive, I’m incredibly surprised it hasn’t minted out yet.
GM.GEN.MATH #14 by Aleksandra
This one has two versions to every piece. It was a tribute to Herbert Franke, one of the pioneers of generative art. There was an event after he passed away with a lot of great artists making pieces that donated to the Foundation Herbert W. Franke.
After that about three months ago I started collecting on Art Blocks. The market was in horrible shape and people were selling at crazy low prices. I put some low bids in and got lucky with two pieces. The Ancient Courses of Fictional Rivers piece I talked about earlier and Avalon.
Ancient Courses of Fictional Rivers #696 by Robert Hodgin
Avalon is a dynamic collection. Each map is positioned on a virtual globe and will go through 12.5 hour tidal cycles based on a virtual moon orbit. Maps will update every two minutes and to reflect the changing tides.
I really enjoy interactive art, updating and changing over time.
These Art Block pieces I collected for myself spawned the idea for the giveaways in the Culture Project. I had already been writing articles for a while, but I needed to give more back to the community. I have been collecting generative art pieces from Art Blocks & fxhash to giveaway to the holders. I’m grateful for all of the people who have stuck around.
In part two of this series I will cover all of the pieces I have collected for the Culture Project.
Here are all the links for the 3 articles in this series.
Please join us at The Culture Project to discuss generative art and its impact in the NFT space. Our Twitter & Discord.