Asynchronous Collaboration
Asynchronous, collaborative art is not a new phenomenon--nor is it a new medium. From Warhol and Basquiat’s neo-expressionist collaboration on 'Olympic Rings' to Picasso and Gjon Mili’s 'Drawing with Pure Light', we’ve seen the power of additive collaboration manifest in fantastic, revered creations.
Historically, collaborations have been born from already famous artists and have also catapulted relatively unknown artist collaborations into fame. Collaborations also serve to create new forms of expression and create completely new genres. Collaboration in the traditional medium has often relied on synchrony with coordination. In this digital realm of trustless pseudo-anonymity afforded by the blockchain, we can begin to explore far more.
Collaboration between strangers brought together by the medium, by art, or by pure speculation of experimentation. And we’ve seen it before. The masterful works created through the Async Art platform have generated tremendous artwork and opened our eyes into bright, new paradigms.
Collaboration can be additive or subtractive.
Exploration of this new medium from a single dot can snowball into something no one can decide except for a final holder who may decide to pass it on or not.
Each canvas enables any artist around the world to make their own unique contribution to a piece of artwork. Whether it be one simple dot, the stroke of a digital brush, an audio recording, or complete restructuring of the piece, each individual artist leaves an indelible mark.
Each and every contribution implicitly alters an artwork’s value. Every iteration, whether marked or not, is unique. Each round of contribution can be something or nothing. Value is determined both from the perspective of a buyer who can either be an artist looking to make a mark or someone who values the current state on its own merits. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in this case, you have the power to increase it or decrease it.
Royalty-based Incentive Mechanisms
Every sale generates a royalty that pays literal homage to each and every contributor before you. In a constant story of collaboration, each contribution has generated something of value.
Perhaps the value comes from someone’s single, purposeful digital brush stroke. Perhaps it comes from someone special having literally just having owned it themself (a la the Koons Picassos)--a celebrity owned piece could be valuable in itself (what does that look like in the blockchain world? An infamous ethereum address? Vitalik’s own? Perhaps devops199’s?). Perhaps value comes from additive collaboration. Perhaps there are stories to why additions or subtractions were made.
Just as a final work of art does not culminate in value only to the last holder, those that have come before us and left their mark, must be honored and rewarded.
The Red Dot
Asynchronous collaboration must have a beginning. Of the past and historic collaborations, Gjon Mili visited Picasso at his home, Marcel Duchamp was friends with Man Ray, Jasper Johns had a romantically charged relationship with Rober Rauschenberg.
In this trustless medium, we must start the collaboration from an origin. Beyond the bare minimum of a blank canvas. We can start with a small, red dot.
Red may mean something to you. A dot may mean something to you. The position of the dot may mean something to you. The canvas edition may mean something to you.
The combination of the dot’s placement, its color, its edition number, or even its hash on the blockchain man mean something to you. You can choose to keep the canvas as it is. Perhaps you find value in its untouched purity. You can add more. You can subtract from it. Tell your story. But each journey starts with the smallest of steps--a first brush stroke, a first layer, a first splash of paint. In the digital world, the smallest, first step is a single, lone dot. This first dot can become part of an avalanche of colors and expression or rest alone in its minimalism. But to begin:
It all starts from a single dot.