Category: Intervention

Intervention: Sun’s seminar

After reviewing the lecture held by Art Basel (Conversations, 2021), with the aiming of expanding influence, I invited big names into the events. Finally, Sun Bohan accepted my proposal, who is the founder of BCA and MetaOpus.

I really appreciate what Holly Herndon mentioned about the community towards artists in the NFT world.

For now, I’ve had several meetings with Sun’s colleague and made sure about the question I’m going to ask in the seminar.

The seminar will happen at the festival, which is a stage commensurate with his reputation. I also invited Matilda as co-host, the student who also study Crypto Art from MA Culture, Criticism and Curation. The preparation includes negotiation and promotion.

The promotion methodology refers to the last live streaming, furthermore a collaboration with media. This intervention is still ongoing, though the process opens a door to the professional NFT team for me. They also invited me to join the physical BCA Gallery in Shanghai after graduation.

Questions to Sun

Intro of Sun (BCA and MetaOpus)

  • Would you please introduce yourself, your work at BCA and MetaOpus, and your personal collecting experiences on Crypto art?

NFT & Crypto Art in general

  • For some audience here who just wandered in to this space, NFTs or Crypto Art, could you explain the history and how it works a bit?

NFT & Crypto Art in China mainland

  • To what extent do you think the Chinese public has known and accepted Crypto art? And the Chinese artists?
  • As we all know, the Chinese government already banned the trading crypto into fiat money, and even BCA changed the name Crypto Art to Technical Art on Chinese social platforms to avoid censorship, in this context with all regulations and inconvenience, what have been the implications for you as the leader of BCA, also for the Chinese artists and the collectors?
  • What’s the scale of artists now in MetaOpus, and who are they? What’s the feeling when reaching artists from different places and cultures?

In-person experiences in NFT world

  • Virtual Niche is the first major gallery that stage an offline exhibition about Crypto art, and BCA announced the opening of an in-person Gallery in Shanghai this October. What do you think the in-person experience could bring to BCA and Crypto art?

Intervention: Stakeholders’ debate

As suggested by Kevin, who is my classmate and also hold opposite opinions to the Crypto art, I’m going to hold a conversation that happens between two stakeholders who have opposite attitudes toward each other.

I understand that stakeholders would only swap their attitudes if they were supposed to. People think from different positions, some were born to embrace the novelty, some of them are not, sometimes it may take some time for them. I frequently feel I did not do much, might be a compass, who lead people, but never be the one who makes people move, they move by themselves.

In this case, by accumulating people who hold opposite attitudes through the project, I planned in-person debates between stakeholders to provoke widespread criticism. There is an artist in each contest who is involved in the NFT, and the oppositions are not.

Preparation

Format

Inspired by the Variety show Actors on Actors, conversations could happen well and be more chilled without hosts. Let them fight each other.

They happen in the meeting room, dining space and street, which proved the re-examination could happen everywhere. Instead of talking with me as an expert in this field, generate more sparks the same position.

Question for the speakers
  • attitudes towards crypto art
  • The relationship between metaverse and crypto art 
  • What are the implications among Chinese policy that banned NFT in China
Reflective writing:

I think these conversations had better implications than educating them. They might assume that I totally agreed and like the idea of NFT, which in fact I’m not. The monetary arguments for Crypto art are true for me, however, it still provides a space for the new generation. I used to admire the people who live in the 2000s, there’s more chance than today, everything left today were succussed before. We got no chance. However, NFT is a new era for us.

People think with their own methodologies, it was hard to change them, but it is vital to provide a chance to make them think more.

Intervention: My 10-People-Group and Live Streaming on Yizhibo

10-People-Community

As a result of the observation that most of my stakeholders wouldn’t read the manual or the easy version that I posted on Instagram, I decided to build a WeChat group, so that people would feel more comfortable to ask questions and express themselves when they are in a small community.

Several things we share and discuss in this group:

  • understanding and opinions about Crypto Art
  • troubles we met when we bind the NFTs
  • the news in the Crypto Art world

Live Streaming

Background

So far I’m pretty satisfied with the 10-member group and what we discussed in this community.

But I still think there’s a limit when I tried to express a complete view, due to the text itself. Besides, I found out that it would be easier when I talk with people face to face because they will understand more easily and feel free to express their ideas. Meanwhile, I could collect more feedback from a larger group to guide my next step.

Preparation

Based on the above, I’d like to make live streaming, talking about my understanding and thought about Crypto Art.

As Cai suggested, I may package the streaming more relaxed, talking along with eating. So my topic ended up with: Live eating streaming: My UK life and NFTs. Referring to the opinions of my community members, the event is set for Friday 27 Aug, 2pm GMT/ 9pm CST, on a Chinese live platform Yizhibo.

I also invited my stakeholder Yuxin who is an expert in this field to join my conversation for 30 min. I prepared several questions for her in advance.

Sent the invitations to all my social platforms to promote.

On Air
Data
  • 367 visits during the live
  • 48 replies during the live
  • 23 effective questions and thoughts
  • 1267 visits until 29 Aug 2021
Reflection
  • Becausce I invited more than 300 people to join my live by the invitation card, I talked with over 20 people what I am gonna to do detailly and ask them to prepare some questions for me, ideally as a result there were no awkward scilence.
  • There are pretty good questions during the live, and I think I provided serveral good answers as well. This would only happens in a chill vibe, rather than texts on phone.
  • I believe the public would know more about NFTs, at least they’ve heard so many times from me. And my stakeholders would knows better what NFT is as well.
  • So far so good, but how can I appeal them to deeper cooperation?
Next Step
  • Cut the video to short videos, to make use of them again

Intervention 2: Crypto Art Explained by Youlin on Instagram

Background

I’ve been asked so many times what Crypto Art, NFT and blockchain is, by my Chinese friends, English friends, and even new friends I met when I go swimming… However, I didn’t explain exactly the same every time, there might be some points I neglected from time to time. After my friend Duan complained again to me that the information online is too hard and too long to understand, finally I decided to sort out my own version that could be accepted by most people.

In addition, I’d like to speak for the people who couldn’t understand the concept well, among them might be well-educated people who are experts in their own fields, or even bankers and artists who are following Art news regularly, and they still couldn’t get the idea well. Because there might be too much professional vocabulary interspersed in the articles, like NFT, blockchain and Hash, which is the barrier that would never be the core in the art world.

As following is Youlin’s explanation of Crypto Art:

People used to buy artwork in galleries, the work most likely to be physical instead of digital.1

The digital art world is booming today, therefore someone proposed that it is time for people to pay the digital artist’s contribution.

Benefiting from blockchain technology2, digital artwork could be given a series of number3, which is allowing the track of the artwork. Consequently, people began trading in this world. The artwork in this world is called Crypto Art.

  1. It is always hard to trade digital artworks for some reason, for instance, everyone could download and duplicate the picture, as a result, there is no necessity for users to pay for it.
  2. this is the most difficult section to understand, but also the least important thing in the art world
  3. this is like the URL of a website, or the serial number of your iPhone
Feedback

Yusi:

  1. Another aspect starts from the banker.
  2. Will the artists be interested in it? Will they want to join it?
Reflection

My original intention to set up this version is to help people understand Crypto Art easier, help them feel less worried about complicated definitions of new words and the new technology (Neophobia). It is a stepping stone for everyone who is willing to see the world inside. Thus, it defines the characteristics of the “explanation”-short and incomplete.

I am pretty satisfied with the current version, as many of my interviewees said that this is easy to understand, which had reached my goal. But as Yusi suggested, I have to think deeper than how could I invite more gamers. Also, this is just a brief to Crypto Art, there is much more that I could talk about.

Intervention 2: Instagram

I created an Instagram platform aiming to share my knowledge and promoting my artists.

But I am still not sure what would my page looks like. Is it going to be

  • academic information sharing focused? Like the definition of Crypto Art and critics and exhibits?
  • Artworks sharing focused? If so, only my stakeholders’s work or my favourites?
  • …

Early Intervention: hic et nunc

I decide my early intervention was uploading my stakeholder’s work to hicetnuc.xyz.

Then I searched the tutorials:

Unfortunately, after loads of research and registration, my tests failed due to my Chinese identity. I think it’s related to the newly promulgated law.

It was an exhausting and depressing journey, but I think it’s not only for me, it’s for all Chinese users.