Bright Moments

https://www.artblocks.io/collections/presents/projects/0xa7d8d9ef8d8ce8992df33d8b8cf4aebabd5bd270/95/tokens/95000026

been thinking a lot about what makes the cryptocitizens different from other pfp projects.  yes they are minted irl, but that is too easy of a catch-all phrase.  above is my cryptovenetian #26, which i minted at 10p on monday june 21 at 62 windward ave in venice beach.

this particular nft has lore to me, it is memorable because of when and where i minted it.  almost three years ago now, i was living in venice beach, playing paddle tennis every morning, and eager to do something creative with people after being stuck inside during covid.

speaking of covid, this cycle of nfts emerged out of meme stocks, nba topshot moments, and other kinds of collectibles that catalyzed our collective memories for extended periods of time while we were isolated in quarantine.

gamestop, ja morant dunks and ken griffey rookie cards have now given way to pepe the frog, a dog wearing a knit hat, and pixelated monkeys inscribed on bitcoin.  these somehow represent our new collective consciousness, and the money flows have followed.

some people are really good at recognizing memes before they become obvious, others are really good at spreading memes and making money off of them when they hit that cultural tipping point.  maybe thats the distinction between investors and traders these days.

its very hard to be both.  and even harder when you pull back and try to navigate the cultural landscape over longer periods of time, in terms of years rather than months.  and in the case of art, in terms of decades rather than years.

which brings us back to these citizens that we have been minting in different places around the world over the course of three years.  each mint tells a story, about somebody doing something somewhere at a certain time.  like a journal of different lives intersecting.

collectively, these citizens are a new kind of hieroglyphics that tells a story of a tribe of people who used the blockchain to enable and document their journey out of the pandemic (where they were unable to congregate) to some new era that we are coming into now.

it is too soon to say whether this will be seen as art, or anthropology, or technology.  just as it's too soon to gauge whether these citizens will be remembered as a significant cultural development or a minor footnote.

but the memories are real and local and specific.  they are rooted in lived experiences in some of the world's most vibrant cultural capitals (as voted for, on-chain, by holders of past city citizens themselves).  and so the entire project was designed to be memorable.

not as in some broad sweeping zeitgeist meme like bored apes, or pudgy penguins, or some other cultural identity that we can all relate to.  no, these citizens are about each of us not all of us.  and so the feeling state is different, because it is tied to the differences between local cultures.

the fact that it is such a slow mint is also curious.  the cryptopunks took about a week to get claimed in 2017, while it took about 12 hours for the bored apes to sell out in 2021.  by comparison, it will have taken almost three years (june 21, 2021 - april 22, 2024) for the same 10,000 cryptocitizens to mint out.

it is too soon to say how this extended duration will impact the memorability of the project, but it does introduce interesting facets that quick-mint projects lack. for starters, the pixel artist of the citizens, qian qian, has evolved his craft over the years while working within the same 45x45 pixel framework.

For example, here is CryptoVenetian #0, next to a sample output for the upcoming CryptoVenezians.  Note how two-dimensional the pixel art looks from 2021, when Qian was just starting, versus the depth of field, and how the water reflects the Murano colors today.

Beyond the aesthetic development, there is also a language of traits that has evolved and expanded from a common set: for example, starting with Venice, almost every city has had a rainbow helmet attribute.

But each city has also introduced new unique traits. such as the bear in Berlin bear and the fox in London:

And the eagle head in Mexico City and the Sumo in Tokyo:

Months before we mint in each city, Qian wanders around its streets to draw inspiration for local attributes.  I remember driving with Qian in the taxi from Gatwick in April 2022 around 2am when a fox crossed our path at a traffic light.  These are the real-life experiences that have accumulated into the collection.

A few days ago, Qian said that the Venezians will have more than 100 attributes, the most ever for a city.  Part of that will be unique traits from the world of gondolas and carnival masks:

But part of that will also be a return of some of the older city-specific traits that are coming to Venice for the grand finale:

These images are forever, their traits established on-chain as part of Ethereum's universal computer.  I hope, and believe, that the story they tell of these three years spent generating them into existence will transcend the need for words to establish their significance.

Or as Calvino put it in Invisible Cities: "Memory's images, once they are fixed in words, are erased," Polo said. "Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it, or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little."

the memories are starting to connect, and ricochet off of eachother in strange, wonderful ways.  in some cases, the memory of the mint stays with its owner (aka diamond hands), but in other cases the ownership get transferred away from the original memory holder.