Floor is Rising

Damien Hirst released a $20m drop called "The currency" on Heni.com. Sabretooth and Kizu review the drop and discuss;The $2000 per piece and $20m project price tag, is it worth it?How the art of "The currency" fits with the historical context of Hirst's worksThe possible motivations of Hirst to do an NFT drop at this stage in his careerThe possible emergence of NFT vs Crypto market cycle timingsThe gatekeeping mechanism in this drop vs traditional art sceneThe mechanics of the interaction between the NFT and Physical prints in this drop and how to think about the game theory involved.The problems associated with bridging NFTs across blockchainsPREDICTIONS: Which pieces are going to worth the mostPREDICTIONS: Which traits will drive price appreciation

Podcast summary service @Thereadingape did a good summary of this podcasthttps://thereadingape.substack.com/p/floor-is-rising-ep-4-price-manipulationWhy nobody wants to talk about it.It's not much discussion becausePromoters of NFTs don't want to talk about this because it will damage the NFT marketOthers just don't collect enough NFTs to know anything about thisBeeple's history making sale 5000 Days involved a multi-month plan to increase the hype and prices around Beeple.The rise of pricing for Cryptopunks with stories of specific celebrities who raised the floor with their purchases.Gatekeeping methods in the traditional art markets will come into play in cryptoart markets as well.

Murat Pak's Sotheby's Single Pixel sale. Is it similar to Cattelan's Banana on a wall?How Christie's and Sotheby's are positioning themselves into different camps already when it comes to types of NFT art and artists.Is Pak boxed in by the genre of Art he is doing?How was Pak's debut piece on Hic Et Nunc received?

We look at 4 Brazilian artists and discuss their art and NFT styles.Fiedler Estelle FloresGio MarianiThais SilvaTranscript below;[0:05] Sabretooth:Welcome to the floor is rising, I'm Sabretooth with me is Kizu. Today we're goingto talk about Brazilian art, Hic et Nunc, was founded by Raphael Lima, who isBrazilian. And some of the most interesting artists on the platform are alsoBrazilian. Definitely not a country that is usually associated with sort of emergingart or very interesting art. But in the NFT world, and especially Hic et Nunc, theyare a, I would say, a dominant presence on the platform. And none other thanprobably one of the most popular artists anywhere, not just on Hic et Nunc butbelting all of NFT is Fiedler, who is a Brazilian artist that from a sales perspective isbasically selling out the moment that he drops anything, his secondary sales isvery, very strong. And not just on Hic et Nunc, but also on ethereum and openseaas well. And I want to throw it to you Kizu. What do you think of Fiedler?[1:12] Kizu:Well, I would dispute what you said about Braziil not being a usual suspect interms of contemporary, I think maybe at the moment, early 2020s 2010s. Yeah,it's been a bit quieter, I think. But I would say that Brazil has always been a verystrong creative force, maybe not in the fine art world, I just want to give that kindof overview. I think that there's obviously a huge country in the pig population, alot of intersecting cultures, he's got a very patchy and checkered history ofcolonialism, very kind of tense divide between haves, have nots, black culture,white culture, kind of that mix. So you know, I think that's very fertile ground forcreatives and artists. But to come back to 2021 where we are, I think that the thefact that the founder being Brazilian has a little bit to do with that. So I think thathelps to know that there's a kind of community that's sprung out of that. But togo to the art specifically, I think that it's an aesthetic that I was trying to put myfinger on. It's reminiscent of many other both Fine Art idioms, as well as moreposter art, comic art kind of styles. The one thing that actually jumps into mymind right away actually was, I don't know if you're familiar with the Australiankind of surf brand Mambo, which started out in the 80s. I think it came out ofAustralian post punk scene. So there was obviously the music influence. And Ithink if you look at a lot of kind of more sub cultural art styles, historically, I thinkthey always encompass something else, like whether it was skate culture, or punk music and stuff like that. So obviously, I think the color scheme is a bit different.The style is obviously a little bit different. Well, it's the kind of thing that like if asa 14 year old with a skateboard and you came back home, with a T-shirt with oneof these motifs, your mom would not be very pleased, it's that kind of thing. Ithink Fiedler, obviously he has a very strong kind of technology or likesmartphone addiction, dopamine kind of thing going on. It's certainly not hypersexualized, I think. But there are some very, like crude facial expressions, the waythat the human figures appear and stuff like that. The colors are very appealing,kind of acid blue, pink, neon yellow. So I think that it's a very kind of...

Everyone has heard of Beeple, but not many people have heard of John Karel. The hottest NFT platform currently is not on Ethereum but on Tezos. HicEtNunc.xyz is the platform. We talk about Karel and his move from Ethereum to Tezos and how climate change plays a crucial role in the move.We also discuss the aesthetics of John Karel's artistic style. What influences we see in it.We talk about how John Karel has in such a short space of time become influential within the artists that make up the HEN collective.Transcript Below;----------------------------------Sabretooth: Welcome to the Floor is rising podcast. We talked about NFTs I'm sabretooth with me is Kizu. Kizu:So today's topic is really about another artist that has been very active in generating a lot of attention. For his art on a different platform. And that artist is John Karel.He has basically been the, hot new property on the block. I think his artistic style is one of the things obviously, but I think a lot of, attention has also been paid to the platform that he's active on, which is a Hic Et Nunc, which is Latin for here and now,hic Et Nunc which has been abbreviated to hen or hen. And specifically the blockchain and the token that it's being active on is, Tezos. Sabretooth: Tezos, is one of those OG layer, one blockchains. They did their ICO, you know, ancient like six years ago to 2015, I believe raised around $500 million. And basically since then, no, one's heard a peep about. basically anything happening there. Most people have kind of written them off. And lo and behold, in sort of Feb, March of this year, 2021, this sort of platform, Hic Et Nunc, just comes roaring on the scene.Basically out of nowhere. And as of today a lot of people say that it's sort of, up there with open sea as the largest NFT platform in the world, essentially. And a very unlikely story to come out of Tezos. No one knows exactly how and why it became so popular, but the topic for today's conversation, John Karel I think personally is somewhat responsible for that popularity. I mean, he was. Quite early on the platform.Kizu:I think that there's a bit of a deja VU element I think, in, in Karel's work. That's not to say that, you know, Beeple's work isn't derivative or doesn't have references to, you know, early two thousands, 2010s internet culture, which it does, obviously.I think that's very much foregrounded and I think it's a big part of. The way that it's resonated with particular than slightly younger gen YZ demographic. And I think there's something similar in John Karel except that I think that the kind of timeframe that's referenced is a little bit earlier.Specifically, if Beeple is more like a 2010s meme based kind of, aesthetic, I think Karel's is about 10 years prior to that, I think there's a, there's an early two thousands Y2K kind of like retro computer graphics. Very strong style to that. Obviously a lot of the works are animated, kind of GIF like things.There's obviously some similarities with Beeple but there's a little bit more of a hearkening back retro element specifically I would say. And I think that he's mentioned this in interviews. He's very cognizant of these references and specifically this timeframe at the same time, he does seem to be very aware of pop artists that have dealt with similar material specifically pop art from the sixties, like Warhol, Oldenburg.I think the color palette is pop, it translates well on the screen. The more vital elements, I think with any NFTs, it's obviously a visual medium, specifically it performs well on a screen as opposed to obviously like a canvas . There's a flatness to it. Perspective wise, it's quite flat and it's pixilated....