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NFT Project – Research

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Definition

NFT – A non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files.

What is an NFT

The idea of NFTs emerged from what is called a “colored coin”, initially issued on the Bitcoin blockchain in 2012-2013. Colored coins are tokens that represent real-world assets on the blockchain and can be used to prove ownership of any asset, from precious metals to cars to real estate, even equities, and bonds. Although not as sophisticated, this original idea was to use the Bitcoin blockchain for assets like digital collectibles, coupons, property, company shares, and more.  They were described as new technology and gave raw possibilities for the future prospects of utilization. – https://blog.portion.io/the-history-of-nfts-how-they-got-started/

NFT Artist – Mike Winkelmann (Beeple)

Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, is currently the most successful NFT artist with his total artwork value adding up to $113,100,017.88. His most valuable artwork sold for $69,346,250.00, the artwork was called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” and was largely responsible for the mainstream media’s coverage on NFT sales. This was also the first time an auction house sold an NFT and accepted cryptocurrency as payment.

Beeple has sold a total of 845 pieces with an average sell price of $133,849.86 each. He also continues his ‘Everyday’ series on his Instagram by posting daily digital creations. mHe creates extremely realistic digital images and animations from digital shapes and scenery to political illustrations.

Independent, Reading

Community NFT Project

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What is an NFT?

NFT stands for non-fungible token. “Fungible” is an economic term which refers to a good or asset that can be exchanged for another good or asset of equal value. If something is “non-fungible,” it means it can’t be swapped for something of completely equal value. An area of land would be non-fungible, since land is unique, and finding another area with the exact same value would be difficult to impossible. Art is another example of a non-fungible asset, since its value is highly subjective. A quote from NFT book, by Two Lives ‘2 LIVES is the first exhibition ever that aims to educate and connect traditional art to digital art and the finance world to the art world, by showcasing NFTs through their multi-businesses opportunities to artists, students, curators, collectionists, stakeholders, creators and whoever involved in the NFT space. 2 LIVES is an homage to the island of Jersey through its best-renowned artists and their stories, in order to create a forever lasting exhibition in the virtual world (The Metaverse) and accessible from everywhere to become a blueprint for the future of exhibitions, jobs and community building in NFTs.’

A community of the future will celebrate diversity, equality and inclusion and propose a new digital world; a metaverse where everyone is equal regardless of class, race, gender and age. A digital ecosystem that transcends all virtual identities into a utopia for peace, prosperity and progress.

CONCEPT: What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

Our group for this project brainstormed many ideas surrounding community, and how communities may change or evolve in the future. We produced a mind map with themes such as religion, class, family etc – however a common area of interest was the evolution of feminism and how equality may look in the Metaverse. I then produced a mood board demonstrating different communities of women, may it be protesters, family members, diversity activists – the list goes on – all with roots linking to feminism and equality.

Describe in;

3 Words – Equal, Diverse, Free

A Sentence – A community full of equality between men and woman, a future with women’s rights and freedom.

A Paragraph – The evolution of women’s rights into the future Metaverse, a time when diversity and equality are the norms, where a woman can choose what she does with her body without the input from the government and society around her. The aim for this project is to represent a future community, both digitalised and physical, where women are empowered and are seen as equals to men. Challenging dominant ideologies surrounding feminism and the female gender, this project will show how the representation of women has changed over time, and how it will continue to change as our world evolves into a more digital and automated society.

Independent, Reading

Identity and Community – Complete Zine

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Final Evaluation of Zine:

Here is a presentation of my final completed Zine, I have titled it ‘Street Stories’ drawing in connotations of street photography and community. I wanted to display the lives that are unknown, the people we see and know nothing about, their lives are a mystery but we can make guesses and make up stories we think would fit. Juxtaposing these candid images are reflections of environmental portraits, market workers and record salesmen giving us a glimpse into their working environment and engaging with the camera naturally. When I took these portraits I didn’t as for a pose or smile, I left it up to the subject to decide how they wanted to be seen. I believe this truthful display can never be entirely real, not as real as a street photography portrait, but it gives the observer a better chance to see who these people are, or how they present themselves when the camera comes out. As I spoke about in my previous post, the narrative and sequencing of my Zine shows the similarities and differences of St Helier streets, of people and of architecture – I wanted to use a mix black & white and colour images spread out across the Zine, linking back to ideas of old and new throughout time. I really enjoyed created this Zine, the presentation style is not one I had come across before and I believe it’s small size and orientation strongly helps with relaying the idea of a close community of people who ‘are not all so different’.

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Independent, Reading

Identity and Community – Narrative and Sequencing, Design and Layout

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Narrative;

In terms of narrative, my Zine will focus on the various stories that pass through Jersey’s parish of St Helier everyday, the light and shade of a community that may get overlooked in modern society. I will use my images from my Character of Community and Sense of Place photoshoots to create a Zine inspired by the work of James Jay, his layout of images, style of photography and overall Zine design is something that has influenced me greatly in this task. I aim to show juxtapositions within each page of my Zine, for example an old building placed next to a modern building, representing the changes in these communities over time, or the differences between the old and young that may live there, or even suggesting the neglect some of these communities have had to face while others grow and flourish – it is up for the observer to decide. Nevertheless, in this Zine I also aim to promote the narrative of the popular theme ‘we’re not all so different’, showing the similarities between certain street scenes/buildings/architecture – the list goes on. I want to convey a story of memory and nostalgia, capturing the areas where communities feel safe, at home, comfortable and where people can fully be themselves.

Sequencing;

The overall layout of my Zine will be simplistic and easy to follow – however I wish to create some double page spreads where one image is bigger than the other, or have a different orientation. My plan with this layout idea is to break up what would be a Zine of symmetry and order, something I do not wish to convey – I want to demonstrate the freedom of being part of a community that is accepting of you, where you can feel truly yourself. My aim is for the contrasting orientations and layout to create a dynamic sequence for the observer to follow, the symmetry within certain pages will get disrupted and the storyline will hold hints towards freedom and relief. Additionally, providing juxtapositions and similarities within each double page is something I really want to develop. I plan on using my images from both photoshoots to find either a contrast or a subtle link, for example I wish to use some of the environmental portraits I captured placed on one side, with an image of something linking to their profession on the other. I want to experiment with how colour also effects how these two images link, by placing a black and white image next to a vibrant colour one I will demonstrate possible stereotypes, may that be of people or places.

Above is a screenshot of a part of my editing process on Adobe InDesign, where I experimented by placing two images with a similar colour palette next to each other. Both images show older architecture as their primary subject, however the image of St Helier’s General Hospital on the right has a wider depth of field as we can see the side of the more modernised part of the hospital in the background. This creates a more 3-dimentional image, and in comparison to the left image, forms a jolted view for the observer. I think by placing these two images next to each other (although they hold several similarities) it does not provide the full effect of what could be portrayed, for example young Vs old if I were to place it next to an image of fully modern architecture. Additionally, while editing I had the idea to use similar geometric shapes within each image to represent the, sometimes, uniformity of a community with strict rules and regulations – juxtaposing the freedom conveyed in other pages throughout my Zine. I believe that breaking up the flow of my Zine with jarring shapes, colour changes and contrasting orientations creates an inventive and freeing piece of natural life portrayed through ‘the photograph’.

Design and Layout

Experimenting with ‘full bleed’;

During my editing process of the Zine, I experimented with how the size of my images impacted the overall mood created by the page. For example, the screenshots above show two images I decided worked well together due to colour, composition and lighting – however I could not decide whether they should be full bleed or not. A full bleed image extends or ‘bleeds’ to the edges of a page so that the image completely covers the entire page and does not show borders or white space around the edges. As these two images are landscape orientation, using full bleed while keeping the image in full frame was difficult to make work due to the large amount of white space above the image, with none at either side. Nevertheless, I enjoyed how the full bleed created a sort of togetherness between the photographs, as if they were linked in more ways than just the formal elements. I experimented with whether joining the images in the middle created the impression of the landscapes bleeding into each other as if they were the same building, however due to the composition this was a challenge. After moving the images around and changing their sizes, I decided it was better to not use full bleed on this page as the negative space surrounding the images created a clean, symmetrical layout that I believe works best when presenting images of two man-made structures.

Layout of pages;

The order in which I placed my Zine pages was based on how their formats, colour schemes and layouts. I started with my front cover image, a black and white long shot of a woman’s silhouette doing some shopping, natural and normal with a sense of mystery. I wanted each double spread in my Zine to tell a story or link to each other in some way, therefore I wanted the back cover to relate to my front one; using another black and white image taken in the same shop. I then wanted to show some colour in my Zine, so my first double page shows two different buildings with minimal editing in colour, one older and one more modern. I aimed to show juxtaposition between two very similar structures. I moved on to focus on demonstrating vibrancy and portraiture and throughout the rest of my Zine I aimed to compare monochrome images to colour, relating them to each other through similar themes, shapes or ideas.

Independent, Reading, Task

NFT Community – Ideas

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What is Community

A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

A few discussed ideas regarding the continuation of the concept of community into the future of humans every day lives:

I emphasise the word lives and draw attention to the fact that in these modern times, and continuing with a great deal into the future, we are living two lives. This refers to our physical, tangible life where we interact with people face to face and engage in careers, passions, hobbies and all aspects life offers in a physical way and then also our online lives. Both are thriving with different communities of people. These two lives merge in many ways but they also can juxtapose massively where we see people escaping one life to interact with contrasting communities in the other. A few of these communities are brainstormed below:

Below is a mood-board which is going to act as the foundations for the visual aesthetic of the project. The idea behind the images is how humans will react in a community in the future. We want to base our aesthetic off of an exaggerated sense of the future, e.g., flying cars, heightened technological advances. We also focussed on the word metaverse when brainstorming these ideas.

What is the metaverse

The word “Metaverse” is made up of the prefix “meta” and the stem “verse”; the term is typically used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.

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Identity + Community: NFT Statement of Intent

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Statement Of Intent

Project Question: What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

As a group we have decided to interpret the theme community by focusing on Generations. We plan to show the difference between old, current and future specifically in fashion and lifestyle. We will predict what we believe the future of the jersey landscapes and fashion would look like. Fashion as a topic influences a community through interpretation of people, different clothes say different things about someone’s personality. Lifestyle is also a major part of a community as different people we meet in our everyday lives, people we know or strangers, influences us as a person and the environment we live in, buildings influence our views on Jersey.

For our 30 second animated film we plan to use a projector and a plain background with different people walking through different eras (1970s, 2000s, present and future). As they walk through the different eras (different backgrounds) they will change clothes to fit with that time period.

Using Projection as a Theatrical or Digital Backdrop
How to Use a Projector for Creative Photos | Projector Photography

The digital image will be a prediction of what a recognisable jersey landscape in town will look like in the future. The style of the digital image will be a combination of artists Beeple, Grimes and Maddog Jones taking different aspects from each artist’s work, such as colour, shapes and concepts/themes.

Mad Dog Jones Is the Most Expensive Living Canadian Artist After Phillips's $4.1 Million Sale of His Self-Replicating NFT
Maddog Jones
Grimes is crypto art's latest NFT millionaire | Protos
Grimes
Who Is Beeple? The Digital Artist Who Brought Crypto to Christie's. - The New York Times
Beeple
Independent, Resource, Task

NFT Community Project

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This project will be based off of a central question, (below) and we will have to create a 30 second video and a still image in a group of 4. After, one of our creations will be minted as an NFT (non-fungible token) on the public Ethereum blockchain as part of the 2lives NFT exhibition based in Jersey.

What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

The word “Metaverse” is made up of the prefix “meta” (meaning beyond) and the stem “verse” (a back-formation from “universe”); the term is typically used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.

Mind Map

First, we got into groups of 4, to create a mind map about the different communities we related to/know of in Jersey.

The communities we thought of were mainly the hobbies we did out of school and subjects in school, such as, Online Community, sports communities, friend groups and the photography community.
Where as, other communities such as race, religion and gender we still wrote down as they are some of the biggest and most known communities in the world.

Mood Board

After we we made a mind map, we discussed what communities we thought we wanted to move forwards with for our project. So we chose the communities we were most involved with, they were the online world and the how its a different identity compared to in real life.

This ties in nicely with the 2lives exhibition and how we have an online presence which is different to our real life.

Since, the metaverse is virtual there is no limits. So we all thought it would look highly advanced and futuristic. There is a film called Ready Player One, which is what we think it will look like.

It is a dystopian world and people use a utopian metaverse to escape poverty and corruption. The concept of living two life’s; online and offline, is an idea which we liked, and relates to the exhibition name, 2lives.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

Together we are interpreting the theme of community as online and offline. And how we have bonded with people in person, but online they can be a totally different person. Also, online you can basically do whatever you want in a virtual world with anyone you want, where as in person you are limited to what’s around you. We plan to make a short film which visualises friends in real life and what changes when they go into the virtual world online.

CONCEPT: What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

Describe in:

3 words – futuristic, modern, advanced

A sentence – St Helier will be a futuristic, modern, advanced world where people are living the perfect utopia life.

A paragraph – The community of St Helier would be idealised as a perfect utopian life in the metaverse. It would have futuristic, modern, and advanced qualities, as there is no limit to a virtual world. It would most likely to be sunny all the time, with flying cars and trains, with holograms everywhere. To people living in St Helier, and their community would mostly communicate online using screens, rather than in person as quality of life would be increased and the way of living would have changed.

CONTENT: How will you make your film?

Our 30-second film will be very visual, so we will be using mostly photo and video responses, video recordings, animation, analogue/ digital montages to create a story about the online and offline community of St Helier. The use of audio and sound effects would be impactful to exaggerate actions in the video, and possibly some loyalty free music. We plan to animate some parts of the video to represent the online world, where as the other half we plan to meet up and record some scenes based off the storyboard.

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introduction to nft

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An NFT (Non-fungible tokens) is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos. NFTs are also generally one of a kind, or at least one of a very limited run, and have unique identifying codes. This stands in stark contrast to most digital creations, which are almost always infinite in supply. Hypothetically, cutting off the supply should raise the value of a given asset, assuming it’s in demand. Anyone can view the individual images—or even the entire collage of images online for free. So why are people willing to spend millions on something they could easily screenshot or download? Because an NFT allows the buyer to own the original item. Not only that, it contains built-in authentication, which serves as proof of ownership. Collectors value those “digital bragging rights” almost more than the item itself.

How are NFT’S different to Cryptocurrency?

NFT stands for non-fungible token. It’s generally built using the same kind of programming as cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that’s where the similarity ends. Physical money and cryptocurrencies are “fungible,” meaning they can be traded or exchanged for one another. They’re also equal in value—one dollar is always worth another dollar; one Bitcoin is always equal to another Bitcoin. NFTs are different. Each has a digital signature that makes it impossible for NFTs to be exchanged for or equal to one another (hence, non-fungible). 

How do NFT’s work?

NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions. You’re probably most familiar with blockchain as the underlying process that makes cryptocurrencies possible. An NFT is created, or “minted” from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items, including: art, videos and sports highlights, collectibles, designer shoes and music. Even tweets count. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sold his first ever tweet as an NFT for more than $2.9 million. Essentially, NFTs are like physical collector’s items, only digital. So instead of getting an actual oil painting to hang on the wall, the buyer gets a digital file instead. They also get exclusive ownership rights. That’s right: NFTs can have only one owner at a time. NFTs’ unique data makes it easy to verify their ownership and transfer tokens between owners. The owner or creator can also store specific information inside them. For instance, artists can sign their artwork by including their signature in an NFT’s metadata.

Examples of NFT’s

NFTs are the latest get-rich-quick scheme for the 'cryptosphere' | Financial Times
CryptoPunks NFTs sell at Christie's for $16.9 million - The Verge

2 Lives

2Lives has been created with the aim of educating people in Jersey of the opportunities that NFTs can offer to creative minds, students and anyone that is interested in the trading and collecting of creative works. This goal has been translated into a exhibition within the metaverse, by Francesco Vincenti and Claudia Runcio, allowing the people of Jersey an opportunity to grow with this new wave of creative technology. 2Lives also is a way of connecting two very prominent aspects of the island, finance and art, through business opportunities as well as creative ones.

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What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

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Mind map

Mood board

LGBTQ+ (Love):

Religion:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?

– Inclusion

– Equality

– Harmony

A community that is inclusive and fights for equality and lives in harmony.

I believe the community in Jersey are going to be one that fights for the inclusion of everyone; loves thy neighbour regardless. A community that’s social and makes certain nobody gets left behind, one that lives harmonised with one another and is Just.