In the framework of art weekthe blockchain and NFT technology company Artbag and the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, present the digital work “Machine Hallucinations: Coral“, by digital artist Refik Anadol. The event, with the support of Borderless Capital and Ripio, began on October 3 at the Teatro Colón, within the framework of the artbag Buenos Aires Experience. The artist will present a work composed of a succession of 1,742,772 digitally intervened and minted images of corals (minted) as NFTs.
In dialogue with Cointelegraph in Spanish, the artist commented that “it’s good” that the NFT market is in a bear market. “You don’t need a market, art is art”, he sentenced. “I am happy because it is a time to create and to do, it is a time for ideas and not just business”, explained the expert, who highlighted that sees that interest in NFTs continues to grow and that from the art side there is still an active market. Under the direction of Maestro Pablo Bocchimuzzi, there will be a selection of musical pieces that “they seek to open a timeless and interdisciplinary dialogue between great master composers of the 20th century. The choice of these pieces reflects the innovative and avant-garde spirit of the proposal, the interactive link between the different disciplines and the marking of a break for the different periods in which they were composed.”, according to the organizers.
The artist recognizes technology in its roots and how today it is a powerful engine for artistic creation, not just from NFTs. “Technology has always been a great inspiration for art, from the renaissance, photography, press technology. When I was eight years old I had my first PC and I got excited about the creativity of those machines, from that moment I am in love with computers both for games and creativity and in 2018 I created data painting”, Anadol explained, referring to the use of information as an artistic input for the creation of sculptures or paintings. In this same sense, the use of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence that the artist currently incorporated into the work he presented in Buenos Aires. The concept of Machine Hallucinations refers to machines having a kind of “ability to remember, know and even dream”, according to Anadol. On this he clarifies that “AI is like a brush, that’s why I think there is no conflict with creating art”.
The work is the result of ongoing research on the aesthetics of information, based on the collective visual memory of the urban and natural environment.. Refik Anadol and his team collected 300 million data points focused on nature themes, used 1,742,772 coral images from publicly available social media platforms, and processed them with machine learning classification models. The background of the work is to highlight the work of TheReefLine organization that tries to protect all the species of coral reefs around the world.
On the other hand, Anadol points out that, the place of NFTs, although important, may be transitory. “NFTs can come and go. I’ve been making art for 10 years. But today collectors are very happy with NFTs”, explained the artist. On the other hand, he recognized that the choice of the Algorand blockchain is no coincidence since the project is focused on caring for the environment and Algorand’s way of working is more environmentally friendly than other blockchains.
“We are very excited to be able to support artbag and the City Government in this immersive and unique experience that begins at the Teatro Colón. The City of Buenos Aires is the epicenter of digital innovation and the capital of art at the same time, that is why we cannot think of a better place to exhibit the masterpiece of an artist as prestigious as Refik.“, mentioned David García, CEO of the investment fund Borderless Capital, collector of Refik’s work and main sponsor of the event. The event is organized by Artbag and the Ministry of Culture of the City in collaboration with Borderless Capital and Ripiothe “Buenos Aires art bag experience” has its place in the Teatro Colón. In addition, this action is supported by Agrotoken, Algorand, Koibanx, Travel X, Artlab, Decentraland and Aorist.
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