Episode 12: NFT 101 with Chris Fussner
How do artists and buyers get into NFTs? Tropical Futures Institute founder Chris Fussner talks about the building blocks of NFT.
Chris Fussner is the founder of Tropical Futures Institute, a multidisciplinary think tank located in Cebu, Philippines. Chris studied Design Strategy and Research at Parsons School of Design and is currently based in New York. Chris is interested in innovation cycles, and a class at Parsons known as ‘post planetary design’ inspired him into the space of cryptocurrency and NFT.
Art Fair Philippines
Art Fair Philippines 2021 invited Chris to co-curate the NFT section of the fair.
Curatorial statement:
‘Welcome to the Metaverse’ is about spreading awareness regarding digital art and design, mainly what is happening with art in relation to cryptocurrency and the NFT space at this moment in time. We believe that this is a watershed moment for digital creative work. We see a continued meshing of digital and non-digital value systems. Curated by Chris Fussner of Tropical Futures Institute, Gabby Dizon and Colin Goltra of Narra Gallery with support from Art Fair Philippines. The program includes a series of conversations and presentations exploring different aspects of the cryptoart space from anecdotal artist stories, early blockchain art history, and virtual tours of cryptoart galleries.
At this very moment, Axie digital gold farmers in the Philippines are feeding their families by selling SLP tokens on cryptocurrency exchanges for actual Philippine Pesos. Anonymous digital artists on remote islands of the archipelago promote their artworks on private Discord chat rooms and exhibit them in virtual worlds where collectors purchase them with Ethereum on decentralized and permissionless marketplaces. A bedroom cryptocurrency trader can deposit their digital currencies into a permissionless digital bank that is yielding him 30% per annum, and they're able to take a collateralized flash loan against this very deposit which they then use to buy a new car for their family. These three scenarios, among many others, read like they are out of a near-future science fiction novel, but they're happening today, and they will be more commonplace in the future as the internet continues to evolve.
When this NFT bubble has popped or somewhat deflated, we look towards a new paradigm in the digital economy. As smartphone proliferation continues and last-mile data becomes cheaper, we will continue to see more people come online. This NFT moment might extend beyond what we all see, read, purchase, trade, and sell; NFTs are projecting glimmers of the future to us of the next stage of the internet, Web3, the metaverse.
Advice to artists
NFTs are an opening to the next iteration of the internet. There has never been as much new media sold as in the last couple of years.
“If you're open to experimentation, you should go for it.”
Chris’ advice to artists is to approach it with decentralised finance education first. The two building blocks of getting into NFT are learning about DeFi, then getting a crypto account.
Chris recommends RabbitHole and Defi Dad.
Chris suggests looking at blockchains Ethereum and Tezos.
Platforms like SuperRare, Foundation and KnownOrigin are curated platforms.
“They have the strongest curatorial programming but do not facilitate all the functions that a gallery would for an artist, they just enable selling on the platform itself.”
For developers who want to build something with Web3 and NFTs, Zora is a resource.
What’s Selling?
“There's a growing sophistication in the market in terms of buyers looking beyond aesthetics and looking more into the media that actually builds these aesthetics.”
Chris cites TerraO featured by Sotheby’s, Solvency by Ezra Miller and Kudzu, the first NFT virus, an artwork in itself and a meme that mocks the hyper financialization of the NFT market.
The Buyers
Chris suggests they are crypto-rich individuals who come from the crypto industry. Digital frame companies and smart TVs provide a medium to showcase video art.
“To host people and have a beautiful video art piece showing is a nice idea.”
Looking Ahead
Looking at NFTs from a conceptual perspective. “More cross collaboration, working with a coder.”
“There is an intangible value where people will assign value to things that they want to assign value to.”
Chris is interested in the cross Between Art, Design, Blockchain and Gaming. There are user owned virtual worlds powered by blockchains where players can buy land and build their own galleries and stores. Some examples of these virtual worlds are Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Sandbox.
Gamers can also look out for Embersword, “the next generation of blockchain games.”
The NFT Community
Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAO) are spaces where you can get into the world of NFT. There are also private NFT Discord servers for those who want to be part of the NFT community. Here are some of Chris’ recommendations:
Other recommended resources
