For my CryptoPunk self-portrait I tried to follow the general shape of the punks while also adding new features to make it more my own. I copied the face shape from the original punks and took a glasses design from them with modified lenses to better reflect my actual glasses. I then made the hair myself to reflect my actual hair. Then with a completed face I decided to give it a glitch aesthetic. I wanted to do this as a sort of continuation of one of the images I created for the previous glitch assignment. Specifically the image of my face that was glitched and I would consider to be a glitch self-portrait. Thinking about that image, the idea of a netizen and this CryptoPunk portrait. It all ties together into this idea of being able to hide your identity online. The CryptoPunk portrait is still me but also it is obscured through the glitch.
Looking now at NFTs as a whole, I have learned a lot about them but I think I have ended up in a similar spot with how I feel about them. Coming into this, I was against NFT’s based on what I knew about the energy used on making them. But as I learned from the AMA with Chris Nunes, the energy usage is comparable to other things we do in a day an is supposedly going to get better. But also with this new knowledge comes new criticisms. As I looked into the crypto currencies needed to buy and sell NFTs it became obvious that one of the biggest barriers to enter is money. Ethereum is so expensive that even a seemingly cheap NFT is still costly. This also reminds me of a point from the Rhizome article. NFT’s have a ton of potential to create amazing new forms of art, but experimentation within the field isn’t happening because of the massive speculation around cryptocurrencies. However, I have seen a few pieces that I think show what NFTs can be beyond just a png that only one person owns. For example Mad Dog Jones’s REPLICATOR. A photocopier NFT that creates copies of itself on the block chain. Or another project from the creators of CryptoPunks called autoglyphs. Described as generative art made on the blockchain. These pieces to me speak to the potential of NFT’s. Its hard to say where NFT’s will go on one hand I am excited and curious about what they could mean for the art world, but also, I am concerned for what they could do to the internet at large. Is that sort of strict idea of ownership good for the internet and the flow of information? Personally, I don’t think that is a good thing. Ultimately it will be interesting to see where NFT’s go.