If the remarkable rise of AI art tools last year was an uncharted sea of creative possibilities, Web3 photography platform Fellowship is one of the most daring and capable ships to surf that wave. In April, the platform expanded the spirit of artists such as Lupe Reinist, Katie Morris, Jess Mack and Charlie Engman to feature socially reflective work, the first AI-focused Launched the art show Post Photographic Perspectives.
A sequel to the show, titled “Acceptable Realities,” will air on July 10 and will be split into two parts, one devoted to the growing genre of AI video experiments and the other to photographic AI stills. is specialized in A new project explores how AI continues to enable the expanding possibilities of lens art. It features a roster of 14 artists, including Felipe Posada, Alcan Avujool, Beth Fry, Irina Angles, Frank Manzano, and others, whose work includes Grant Riven Yun Ybona Tau, Lupe Reinist, Curated by crypto art heavyweights such as Pindar Van. Armand.
We interviewed Fellowship co-founder Alejandro Cartagena about the platform’s second show, discussing how and why the AI video scene is exploding and what it’s really worth to the community of Web3 holders. I talked about what it takes to create
Now take a look at ‘Acceptable Realities’, the second installation in nft: Fellowship’s Post Photographic Perspectives series. How do you feel after such a successful launch in April? And how are you feeling just before this second show?
Alejandro Cartagena: Fellowships are open from 2021. We put the Mintpas idea off for a long time because we were thinking, “What can we really really offer?” And since there is so much talent out there and we were looking for new artists all over the world, we saw an opportunity to launch a series of exhibitions. We said, “Okay, this is something we can commit to, and we can overdo it on this one.”
The idea was to buy a pass and subscribe for the year. This is what we promise this year. This is something we are committed to and we are happy to do. Our commitment is to do three great collections. This time, the second time, I will introduce the video. Series. This is a commitment to collectors who have said, “We believe in the curation you do.” Go out and find great talent,’ and that’s what we do for them.
Things are evolving rapidly, and exhibitions are kind of outdated in that sense. [These shows] We talk about the technical moments in which these images were created. In this second iteration of his, it looks like this: [AI] This really sucked when we put out the first show video. Now artists are doing something with video and it’s just going wild. They are mixing tools. They combine his CGI and 3D modeling to build their own stable diffusion model. It wasn’t like that three months ago.
nft now: Artists like Grant Yun and Ivona Tau and collectors like Studio137 and ayybee are part of the show’s curation committee. How did the Fellowship team decide who they wanted to add to the group, other than wanting to include well-known and respected artists and people in the community?
Alternating current: After the first launch it was great. Everyone sold out their collections. The pressure was on. Up from there, right? Or stay at the same level and you can’t go down. One of the things we’ve encountered time and time again has been collectors and artists saying: “If you need any help, I’d love to see what you’re trying to do next.”
I have participated in many selection committees. It’s an agreement between artists doing really cool things and collectors who actually buy their work. It was a very difficult process because the artists we liked weren’t chosen because there was no agreement between the collector and the artist.
But in the end we think it’s the best way. So this is not a DAO problem. It’s not a governance issue. It’s about which piece of art resonates most with this particular moment. Invite a thought leader to help you pinpoint who those people are. Those chosen were chosen because they resonated most with the people we invited.
nft now: Some may find the inclusion of Grant Yun, a minimalist precisionist artist who does not work in the AI space, an interesting choice for the show’s selection committee. how would you answer that?
“It’s not about finding like-minded people in aesthetics, it’s about finding like-minded people in their approach to art and practice.”
Alejandro Cartagena
Alternating current: I’ve been following Grant for a while and had a short conversation with him in the past about photography. He’s a devoted artist, and while he doesn’t talk much about AI, it turns out he collects his AI work and is interested in seeing its world. Mostly, he just knows what he’s doing. We want him to find people who feel that way at the level of what he does. That’s everything. It’s not about finding like-minded people in aesthetics, it’s about finding like-minded people in their approach to art and practice.
Let’s talk about the thematic guidelines behind nft now: Acceptable Realities. Advocates of AI art are still in the midst of a heated debate about the legitimacy of the movement and what is and isn’t “acceptable” as art. How do these concepts influence what works the artists create for the show?
Alternating current: For me, it was this conundrum space. I have never heard of the idea of ”acceptable reality.” What the heck does that mean?for me it was perfect [capture] This moment we live with AI art. What is this? And when it comes to ‘reality’, I wanted to play with the photographic quality of these images. because they are not real. They’re obviously not real, but they’re acceptable enough that they can probably be. examination they are real. It is a play on words, a play on the medium of photography, a play on the medium of AI, where they collide.
nft now: Acceptable Realities begins with an AI video artist’s submission, giving collectors three days to work on the art before the stills portion of the show begins. Why reserve more space for AI video on this show?
Alternating current: This isn’t so much a new trend as it is how video compares to stills. Video needs time. Videos need a little more space to understand what people are seeing. A solo exhibition by one artist will be held every day for four days from June 10th, all of which will be auctioned.
The minimum bid is 0.01 ETH, so it is very affordable. Not all artists produce the same number of pieces, so we needed a sales mechanic that respected the artwork itself. One of the things we focus on at Fellowship is creating a truly unique buying experience for our collectors. You can see the works you like from one week in advance. You can also keep a watchlist of the works you have in mind. Once bidding starts, you can filter from highest bid to lowest bid.
We create experiences focused on efficient collection. To me, that’s the Web3 ethos of creating an efficient acquisition market for art.
“I worry about images because they feel wrong. But I can’t stop trying to understand what I’m seeing. It’s the charm.”
Alejandro Cartagena
NFT Today: The technological advances AI art tools are making these days are insignificant by any metric. For those of you who are immersed in the art and history of photography and imagery, what was it like to see this evolution take place?
Alternating current: That’s very interesting to watch. A sense of uncertainty is something that fascinates me in art. I think some people think commercial use is the worst. It is said that it is not even rendered correctly. But it’s actually really nice. That’s not true, but you get it. And that is the power of art. About the proposal.
AI Video does just that. It taps into our collective consciousness for what we’ve seen as beer commercials and car commercials. So, just like with still images, the AI is using known ideas, but pulling them out and pushing them out half-heartedly. The image is uncomfortable because it feels wrong. But I can’t stop trying to understand what I’m seeing. That feeling is what makes AI videos interesting. I’ve been doing this for a while with stills, but seeing it in video, seeing that extra layer of untold storytelling, that’s the novelty of video for me now.
