Scratching the Surface with Creative Disruption
First, the big news - The team at Blockparty, a blockchain event ticketing application, is officially launching its “AT THE BLOCKPARTY” video series on The Creative Crypto! The mission is to capture discussions with key influencers and practitioners in the crypto space and open up points of interest for the “crypto curious.” Blockchain news is still dominated by financial and legal talking points, often obscuring the rich personal stories and communal strides that occur in the rapidly growing industry.
For the first recording, Vlad Ginzburg (Blockparty VP of Business Development) chats with Cryptograffiti, one of the most well known and active artists in the space. Watch it here -
And as a bonus to the video special, we had a chance to chat with the organizers behind the event, Vlad and Mara Yamnicky at Blockparty, to get a better sense of the initiative’s inspiration and what we can anticipate to come.
Welcome Vlad and Mara! Tell us about the initiative.
Mara: We’re pursuing interviews with people that are operating in the two bases we’re trying to reach - musical talent coming to our events as well as crypto influencers. The YouTube series is trying to create an environment for them all to live together. We’ve been meeting a great number of artists through our Blockparty events and using video helps grab the interest of both people already in the space and people curious about entering.
Cryptograffiti is very experienced and well known in the space now and we wanted to capture how artists are using blockchain to create and sell their work. Vlad comes from an art market background as well and there is a great deal to get into concerning the potential uses of crypto. The point is to speak about the bigger ideas while getting technical enough to interest the crypto community.
We’re hoping to become a voice that bridges the two publics and creates a stronger community.
Why did you gravitate to Cryptograffiti and his work? What is interesting about his presence in the space?
Mara: I think his message aligns really well with what we’re trying to do at Blockparty and the blockchain space’s ambition in general. He has those works that try to 'reimagine banking' and now his art is transitioning further. You see this in the video where he began with ideas of mass adoption and that transitions to being more relatable work for the crypto community.
He also has a very relatable story of being unsure in the beginning about being in the space at all. Like most of us starting out, he was hesitant since he was new to all this and wasn’t sure if his relative lack of understanding and creative talent would apply. It’s all very identifiable.
Vlad: We consume a lot of podcasts and videos in and around the blockchain space. Many of them start the same way by asking how we all entered the industry. We want to continue that type of conversation since it’s so early still and it remains a pertinent question. And when you zoom out from that question, there are some incredible stories of what people do once they enter blockchain. You don’t have to be Roger Ver or Andreas Antonopoulos to leave your mark and affect the development of the technology or community surrounding it. That was one of my favorite aspects about chatting with Cryptograffiti since he has that defined at a high level.
What are your favorite pieces by Cryptograffiti?
Mara: Personally, I’m always a fan of lowbrow art that has an ode to something in the past. I really enjoy his 'Reimagine’ works with HODL, MineBitcoin, etc. Those are ones that I would wear on my shirt or as a sticker on my laptop. That kind of messaging resonates with me.
Vlad: There’s a “Vires in Numeris” piece that he does that has a Christopher Wool-type feel to it as text on canvas. He reused credit cards to create it, and latin for “Trust in Numbers” is a super powerful reason to be interested in cryptocurrency. It opens up the conversation of why we have “In God We Trust” on the back of the dollar bill. Even the typography of the letters looks like the font you would find on a US currency. There are many layers to the piece that get you exploring the purpose and foundation of money.
Cryptograffiti personally goes into why he really likes “Terrible Store of Value” so be sure to watch that bit in the video.
Blockparty, more so than many other blockchain companies, is getting a lot of on-the-ground exposure and activity done. With all the new artists, musicians, etc. that you’re meeting at your events, what’s the general sentiment now on the perception and appreciation of blockchain?
Mara: Artists and musicians have been really receptive about change in the financial systems and want to know more about it, if they aren’t already involved. Everywhere we go, we’re excited to be able to open these conversations up.
Cryptograffiti is probably the closest to being a ‘blue chip artist’ in the blockchain industry. From speaking to him and other artists, what would be your words of encouragement for other creatives looking to get involved?
Mara: I would say that creating art itself is making a jump into spreading a message. Crypto and blockchain give you an outlet. It’s a great time to get involved since it is so early and much easier to gain recognition and help make an impact during the beginning stages. There are so many voids and roles to fill as a creative professional that artists should be excited about the possibilities to get involved.
Vlad: Think about what you do really well and take what you’re interested in within the space - music, art, etc. Before long, you’ll probably find yourself in a niche very quickly. There’s a lot of area still left to explore and we need people to apply their deep interests into blockchain.
Before we sign off, what’s next for AT THE BLOCKPARTY? Who can we expect in the next interview?
Mara: The next interview will be with Digital Lawrence who is starting FOMOHUNT, a new application where all blockchain events will be listed and they will be ticketed through Blockparty. Keep an eye out for it within a week or two!
Big thanks to Vlad and Mara for the conversation and Cryptograffiti for contributing to this excellent launch. We’ll be hosting the video and future episodes of AT THE BLOCKPARTY on our front page in the Video section. Be sure to follow the links below so as not to miss any future releases!
Blockparty's Website: https://www.goblockparty.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/goblockparty
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoBlockparty
Cryptograffiti's Website: https://cryptograffiti.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptograffiti
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://thecreativecrypto.com/at-the-blockparty-premiere-conversation-with-cryptograffiti/