DEATH PUNK : CryptoArt Beyond Punks
EXPERIMENTAL BEGINNINGS
DEATH PUNK is an experiment. What if a group of artists got together and started killing CryptoPunks? I mean not literally, but then maybe. We start making Punks, we kill Punks, we sell Punks as well as the theater of killing
off the genre. Things get complicated rather quickly.
We started out as DEATH PUNKS. I’m Bittty, the Founding Artist. I got caught up in Second Realm’s big idea that artists can make affordable Punks for the masses and it would be a grassroots movement, and sure as fuck it was.
From the beginning, DEATH PUNKS gravitated toward experimentation, challenging the PFP collectibles format of Punks, doing away with visual cohesion, opting for artistic freedom. We trust our audience to follow us away from the safety of similarity and confidently find what speaks to them from within varied styles of aesthetic statements.
We remix and reinvent the fundamental formal elements of CryptoPunks and introduce new creative processes, delving deep into the DEATH theme, with thoughtfully developed content and sass.
Our original roster was packed with CryptoArt OGs with firm roots in TRASH ART. We cranked up the Photomosh and went to work. The core group plugged away and developed a small but loyal following of key collectors. We introduced narratives and formally dismantled the Punk. We killed punks again & again, proffering the metadata as a sort of cosmic coroner’s report. Darkness loomed and we reveled in it. Then just as quickly as Alt-Punk mania started, it died. No more pixels! Can’t stand pixels!
People shouted.
Enter the apes, Then HEN.
HIC ET NUNC CHANGES THE GAME
As Punks are native to ETHEREUM, we’ve opted to stay the course, but
with fresh perspective since Hic Et Nunc took NFTs by storm last spring
with a Green footprint, low user cost, and an ever-growing roster of accomplished digital artists producing way before CryptoArt was born.
On HEN we experienced a revolution; artists flocked to the platform en
masse to build a deeply impassioned, diverse community of artists, who then also became obsessed collectors of each other’s cost-friendly art. A massive community of peers invested in each other’s work, big time.
As this experiment continues on the Tezos chain, DEATH PUNK strives
to foster a generous-spirited atmosphere in our own community here on ETHEREUM, looking for ways to incentivize collectors for placing their trust
in our project & supporting our endeavor. Watch out for some surprises.
We recruited 4 new DEATH PUNK artists making waves on the Hic Et Nunc platform, who add balance to the roster and help bring the spirit of HEN to the project. Here’s who we are now:
Allbi
Bittty
Cryptochild
Deathimself
Desultor
Haydiroket
iH0dL
Ina Vare
MaxCapacity
WhichWitchWasIt
As a collective making distinct, developed, handmade artworks, we have more in common with RarePepes than CryptoPunks, placing the Punk within a narrative and building a larger theatrical narrative around them. We look to David Gercsh’s CryptoLeos community for inspiration with community building and rewarding the “Diamond Hands” for their faith and loyalty.
We dropped the ‘s’ from DEATH PUNKS to become DEATH PUNK, a seemingly subtle but important shift, calling attention to the artists as performers, like a band. We are performing the DEATH of Punks as a genre, a tragicomedy that is doomed to fail in its execution. The cat’s already out of the bag.
In memory of CryptoPunk 2317.
June 23 2017 ~ July 21 2021
RIP
Sent into the etherworld by ROBNESS on #TRASHDAY and perished in the crypto incinerator. 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD
How Punk is that?
~ DEATH PUNK 86, (0x0000…dEaD), Metadata
A NEW GENERATION OF ART COLLECTORS
As DEATH PUNK, we contend that the lifeforce of NFTs is ART, and we wish
to serve as a bridge for collectors new to ART.
Avatars and collectibles are red hot for speculation, but they’re also proving
to be a ‘gateway drug’ for new art collectors. Seeking more than just the
latest flavor of tricked-out cartoon avatar, our collectors find DEATH PUNK loaded with intelligent iconography, a playful lore grounded in the specific CryptoArt/CryptoTwitter vernacular, and radical formal explorations of the visual and conceptual properties of Punks.
Memes can command some of the highest prices in NFTs in their quest to include everyone, but good collectors also understand that the intimate experience of owning the particular makes their collections stand apart. Particularity is a characteristic necessary in developing taste.
The new generation of art collectors is scrolling their way to an education in aesthetics, having heated critiques in chats & threads about the particularities of their acquisitions. Their selections are uploaded as their PFPs, signaling style, status and street savvy. Wallets are carefully curated, PFPs are rotated to reflex moods and metadata infiltrates their profiles.
Collectors new to art find in DEATH PUNK a playground to test their wits. DEATH PUNK is a shapeshifting beast that in one moment appears memetic, then morphs into something completely novel. Memes can be found embedded in the complex layering of abstraction; mysteries buried in the metadata. DEATH PUNK renders the Rarity of Attributes rubric useless and irrelevant by dismantling the architecture of the generative collectible format to build a bonfire in the house with it. DEATH PUNK is a band of artists squatting in your PFP, stripping its copper and selling it as scrap to buy beer.
Our overall approach to the Punk is transformative. Often,
a face is present; the headshot
in profile. Sometimes not.
But the common thread is an individualized narrative that
can be extended to the edges
of the grand narrative of the Punkverse, its machinations, and art’s place in it.
A TRASH ART ethic is evidenced by the work of most members. GLITCH processes disrupt the imagery and agitate components with lo-fi animation. DARK PIXEL ART duels to the death with NEOEXPRESSIONISM. (NEO/ RETROCOMPUTING techniques deliver limited palettes and primitive graphic constructions. Use of ANALOG COMPONENTS (CRTs, VCRs, camcorders, mixers & gaming consoles) lend rich textures and other-worldly glow to psychic spaces.
DEATH PUNK offers a unique experience; a subversion of the Punks format; a cross-platform theater acted out in real-time, and a collectible art object built to HODL. Playful narratives, inventive processes, & earnest expression drives DEATH PUNK toward an evolution of what an avatar can be. 200 mints in with a good 6 months under our belts, we’ve built a fascinating catalog of DEATH themed ART, studied NFT collectibles & the social currency of PFPs, and developed a deep respect for our audience, collectors, and peers.
NEWS FLASH 8/9/21: DEATH PUNK IS TOP 20 ART ASSET (Opensea) w/49 ETH Combined Volume w/1 ETH Floor
Too fast? Perhaps. Don’t worry, we’ve slowed things down to a more healthy pace. We want our collectors to buy thoughtfully, not in a FOMO fever. For situations like this we’ve instituted the DEATH PUNK TRUST. Its allows us to re-invest in the project as needed and buy back punks to protect them from dumps resulting from panic buys or toilet paper hands. We buy back at market value, sometimes paying a premium for the hot stuff, only after giving collectors first dibs.
Punks purchased by DEATH PUNKS TRUST are held by the artists or the DEATH VAULT, and may be eligible for sharding at a future date.
MEET THE BAND
DEATH PUNK will issue a total of 666 original artworks. Our three new members are heavyweights on the beloved Hic et Nunc platform. They will help expand the exploratory reach of DEATH PUNK into further experimental territory within CryptoArt, with processes relevant to New Media Studies.
Desultor, Haydiroket, Ina Vare, and MaxCapacity all bring mad tech skillz to the table, tempered by lo-fi aesthetics. Their collective presence feels like a very natural extension of the core group’s rough hewn digital sensibilities, expanding our reach further yet into Generative Art & Retrocomputing, with a double dose of VHS Art to boot.
The artists had their online art beginnings on Tumblr, a great primer for CryptoArt where, in fact, many OG Cryptoartists began. Its where Max became friends with X-Copy, who introduced him to NFTs!
I had recruited IH0dL as a Guest Artist on my first, smaller Punks project, GlitchPunks; three punks in, and he was hooked on making Alt-Punks & launched his own project, the award-winning TRASHPUNKS, that introduced Machine Learning to Punks. A.K.A. The Duckman. QUACK.
IH0dL recommended the eccentric artist Allbi, adding that he is “TRASH ART through and through.” His quirky humor is most hysterical when he lets his freak flag fly. He brings a sense of childlike wonder to the project, and a contagious, anarchic enthusiasm.
A dark horse, at the gates, when I met Cryptochild he was producing some of the best TRASH ART made to date, often with a political edge, and not getting the recognition merited by the work. He is hardcore DEATH PUNK, and keeps us all striving to be better spellers and better artists.
They always said ‘you’ll meet your maker’
The Mother: a giver and a taker.
A human parasite offers trash and shit
Now your time has come, you’ve done your bit
But behold the wonders; and still they’re coming
The highways, bridges and the plumbing
Or a Bennor Anti-Syphon Globe Trap
To stop the regurgitating stench of crap
It all started with an aqueduct
Advanced little since and now you’re fucked.
~DEATH PUNK 80 (GOD), Metadata
“An ape got sent to space, its rocket got sucked up by a supermassive black hole.
The ape found itself in another realm. In this place everything seemed to be
one, a giant organic mass of eyeballs, organs, and other indescribable matter.The ape quickly found itself being consumed by the mass, turning its skin to
a hideous slimy, fleshy mass. Suddenly a portal opened up below, separating the Ape from the mass and hurling it back into space. It’s been floating around since heading towards its home world, consuming anything that comes into contact with it, and growing each time”
~ DEATH PUNK 111 (Interdimensional Ape), Metadata
Hot off the success of his zany Oddblobz collectibles series on Rarible
rode Deathimself on a horse. His psychically charged paintings are full
of strange creatures that spring to life in animated videos and Augmented Reality. His dexterity in developing distinct, unusual, memorable characters
is unmatched.
WhichWitchWasIt was having mixed success on Rarible and struck me as a diamond-in-the-rough; a young artist with raw talent who could bust out as
a strong creative force in close proximity to a good peer group.
Witch reminds us to be brave in our work and gentle with others.
After the Punks backlash, Cryptochild kept things running on low while I delved into HEN. Then, when the anti-Punk mood cooled down, I sat down with the project to regroup. Second Realm and Moxarra were well-occupied with other projects and I knew we needed to retool if we were going to make
it to 666 Punks, so I seized the opportunity to retire the two to Emeritus status (not active, but welcome to mint a Punk or two) and recruit GEN HEN. Rarible meets HEN to make a play on Opensea? YES. It became so.
NOW. Together, we are a powerhouse of restless workhorses, each of us endlessly fascinated by the rapid and constant evolution of the CryptoArt sphere; its market and its machinations. GEN HEN, as I’m fond of calling them, clicked instantly with the Rarible crew. We work together every day, checking ideas with one another, for the Punks and for the project at large; shooting the shit in between.
TO MAKE MANIFEST: THE ROAD(KILL) AHEAD
We assert that in DEATH there is LIFE. We know that we must KILL
that which leaches life from ART. In this assertion, we KILL our previous incarnation as a Punks derivative. We declare our freedom as ARTISTS
as DEATH PUNK to make whatever we wish to evolve the concept of what
a PFP can be.
DEATH PUNK offers LIFE in the form of our assets, sophisticated digital art objects that perform on a theater stage in the leading role. We perform the project every day in our studios, on CryptoTwitter, and soon on Discord, until we reach a conclusion. Can DEATH PUNK deal a DEATH blow to the economy of cash-grabbing factory-farmed avatar projects? Will ART be liberated from its subservient role in enabling the proliferation of PFPs and take its rightful place as the leading form of digital investment asset?
We strive to create fascinating objects that will engage and challenge our collectors for the life of their holding period. DEATH PUNK will reward strong hands and open minds. We align ourselves with historical NFT Collectibles projects that find price stability with a close-knit, participatory community (see RarePepes, Bastard GAN Punks, CryptoLeos) adding value and dimension to the projects.
We align ourselves with artists, projects, platforms & movements that prioritize CREATIVITY. We seek collectors that appreciate ART and respect the need to protect the price floor for artworks as a general rule. Our mints are priced flexibly, with the market. While we strive to advance the value of our assets by pricing new works at or above the primary market price floor,
at times we divert from this rule, to incentivize new buyers and to provide buy-in opportunities for smaller budget collectors.
Our planned exhibitions can offer a place for other artists to witness their collected artworks lending context to the project and gain exposure to a new generation of collectors graduating from avatars and collectibles to the more cerebral terrain of ART. Shows will be themed in a cohesive manner that highlights our ethos, reinforces our values, and educates new art collectors.
beware the malice of prosperity, anon.
gold in hand is here and gone.
these things mean nothing at
new dawn,but in this plane it sings a song.
a siren beckoning, the thirst:
a cry;until it’s gone, the bone goes dry.
~ DEATH PUNK 99 (misfortune), Metadata
DEATH PUNK offers community. As a DEATH PUNK holder, or as a spectator, you will find many opportunities to join in with the project in the form of exhibitions, contests, giveaways, Twitter Space AMAs, and other various online activities performed by the artists.
Join our DISCORD, get to know the artists and ENGAGE w/us on TWITTER!
https://discord.gg/Vkv7dkdRuE
https://twitter.com/_DEATH_PUNK
Some FRIENDS of DEATH PUNK:
Unofficial Punks, GlitchPunks, TRASHPUNKS, Trash Art/Artists
of Opensea $TRSH Collection, Passing Bags, CryptoLeos, Bastard
GAN Punks, THE GLITCH PUNK, Glitch Alpha Force, Trans &
Non-Binary Crypto Artists & Hic et Nunc.
TIMELINE FOR IMPLEMENTATION
August, 2021 — Final Mint (Est. November/December, 2021)
- WEEKLY DROPS EVERY MONDAY AT 7PM UTC. Monday drops offer
at least 3 punks. We will continue to mint DPs at random throughout the week as well. - COLLABORATIONS. DEATH PUNK artists have begun working together
in pairs to produce a series of 66.6 punks. - PUNKS BY GUEST ARTISTS. We are working to build a diverse collection of quality artworks by artists firmly committed to and active within the CryptoArt community.
- CONTESTS/GIVEAWAYS. We have started a series of fun giveaways that encourage an active participatory role in the DEATH PUNK COMMUNITY.
- We launched a Discord which we are presently building out
- We hope to soon begin holding occasional Twitter Spaces to be led and attended by DEATH PUNK ARTISTS who wish to share news, discuss topical issues, hold AMAs or just hang with the community.
- DEATH PUNK VAULT. We are exploring DEFI tools to help collectors find liquidity when they need it and hope to offer a place to buy and trade for DEATHPUNK at floor prices.
A possibility is setting up a vault on NFTX where investors can offer liquidity to collectors in exchange for fees. Collectors could use the DP VAULT to mint their DEATH PUNK at the FLOOR PRICE in exchange for DEATH$. This would create a pool of Punks available for purchase/trade at the FLOOR PRICE. DEATH$ could then be held/staked or traded on Uniswap for ETH, etc.
September
- DEATH PUNK will install a series of self-curated oncyber.io 3D exhibitions of new work, at times alongside FRIENDS of DEATH PUNK to help collectors become aware of the rich context in which we find relevance.
- Catalogs or zines may be produced to accompany exhibitions to add yet more dimension, offering a tangible educational and promotional tool.
- Official Website Launch
- Possible Postcard series
- Continue all August activities.
October/November/December
- Continue Exhibitions.
- NFT/PHYSICAL EDITION. We’re exploring the possibility of creating
some projects to be hosted on seen.haus, and other sites, pairing NFTs with a physical edition. - DEATH PUNKS Merch! We’ll do some research & put it up to our community to help us decide what to make.
- FINAL MINT EVENT
BIOGRAPHIES
Allbi
Allbi is a Dutch artist living in the countryside in the Netherlands. He contends that he is the most boring person on the planet, though his art suggests otherwise. His eclectic body of work showcases an ability to shift styles at will, to suit the given work appropriately. His work can be found on Rarible, Opensea, and Hic Et Nunc.
Bittty
Bittty processes signals w/ analog and digital devices to reveal potential cosmic data.
She hopes.
BitttyLabs is her online art research setting that documents misguided experiments & hosts nice group projects. She has collected NFTs since entering the scene in 2020. She’s been
a guest on CryptoArt podcasts The Outer Realm; NFP w/ D.Klein & 21ism; and was a featured artist on NFTRadar.
In June she presented Bitfandango, a series of Bitcoin-themed drawings
at Bitcoin2021, Miami. Her NFTs are on Rarible, Opensea, Foundation, Screensaver and Hic et Nunc.
She has he exhibited art internationally at galleries & museums such as
The Luggage Store, San Francisco; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam; Hayward Gallery, London and San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. She was Visiting Lecturer in Visual Arts at UC San Diego for 5 years, teaching Sculpture which she enjoyed very much aside from the terrible pay.
Cryptochild
Cryptochild creates art that he wants you to feel. He was borne into CryptoArt through the TRASH ART movement in early 2020. He is passionate about crypto and its adoption, & received his first NFT in 2018. His first series ‘Justice for Some’ was minted in June 2020, after the death of George Floyd, and was featured in SuperRare Editorial. His TrasHarts series was CryptoArt’s first 50% Royalty Edition.
He wants to create & express — no limits. He subscribes to the principles of TRASH ART to create Digital Art, music and words. He is inspired by life, Social Justice issues, memes, nature & love. Often he creates for fun and its
ok if only he gets the joke— it’s all for the 555. He follows no formula; knows no rules but freedom to explore without limits.
“Art is an incredible way to express how you see the world. It can
be more effective than words, more accessible from an individual’s perspective. Our stories become entwined: your interpretation becomes a key part of the art. Together we share a feeling & create a story; the suggestion & interpretation.”“NFTs are the prettiest shitcoins.” No letdowns, no scams — the collectibles market changed that — but you still have a pretty shitcoin.”
“Life is a meme, this is the remix.”
~ Cryptochild
Deathimself
Deathimself creates fantastical, psychic spaces filled with weird, mystical creatures in the forms of Painting, Animation and Augmented Reality. He is also the Creator of Oddblobz, a wildly creative collectibles edition on his own contract on Rarible, championed by artists and collectors alike. His work is also found on SuperRare, Known Origin, and Hic Et Nunc.
Desultor
Desultor is a Dark Pixel CryptoArtist creating works inspired by Science Fiction, Horror, and the present. His work can be found on Rarible, Opensea, Foundation & Hic Et Nunc.
Haydiroket
Working under the pseudonym Haydiroket, Mert Keskin is an Istanbul-based artist/curator. His main mediums are GIF, video and collage. He was a part
of the DemoScene in the 1990's before having his talents tapped by the likes of Ferragamo, MTV, Converse & Tumblr.
His work has been exhibited at many venues, such as The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Museum of the Moving Image (New York) and in many exhibitions internationally. His work has been written about in Complex, The Creator’s Project, Desin Faves, JUXTAPOZ, The Daily Dot, Digital Trends, and Dazed Digital. His NFTs can be found at Hic et Nunc.
iH0dL
iH0dL is a weird mf walking around, poking life with a stick, just looking for answers. Also the founder of leftover pizza.
Ina Vare
Ina Vare is an AudioVisual Artist and VJ, based in Latvia. She works predominantly with analog media to create conceptual works rooted in processes that push the limits of vintage and circuitbent hardware.
MaxCapacity
MaxCapacity, The Video Artist.
WWWI
WhichWitchWasIt is a 28 year old self-taught artist from South Texas. In high school you could catch him in the computer lab w/ Photoshop open, learning the ropes. He attended The Art Institute of Austin for a year in 2012, and studied Audio Production. Struggling to pay tuition, he was forced to drop out. He continued his studies in the arts on his own through the power of the internet.
Since 2011, he’s kept a public journal using his Twitter account to record his inner dialogue. This is the best way to learn about who he is, and who he has been for the past ten years. He is reclusive & often mysterious. He’s worked many different jobs in different fields, always doing so with the lingering hunger to create art. He crept onto the NFT scene in the fall of 2020, bringing his strange personality with him. His art references music, Pop Culture, Underground & Counterculture, Occultism/Spiritualism. His visual media includes Drawing, Photo Manipulation, GIF, and 3D.
HONORARY DEATH PUNK /EMERITUS
Robness, Honorary DEATH PUNK
Robness is a Conceptual CryptoArtist who infamously bought and burned CryptoPunk #2317 on July 21, 2021.
The performative work was documented with this BURN FOOTAGE video, and a series of Tweets counting down to the burn. It is further documented by the links below; the market listing at Larva Labs and the tx for the transaction as faithfully documented by Etherscan.
He dedicated this performance to 艾未未 Ai Weiwei:
“I’D LIKE TO DEDICATE THIS PERFORMANCE TO A LEGEND,
A MAVERICK WHO CHALLENGED PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS OF VALUE…
AND DESTROYED OBJECTS TO DO IT. THANK YOU SIR.”
https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks/details/2317
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x0875a0ec2613c98275dd7c9195b949bf5
Moxarra Gonzalez, Emeritus
Moxarra Gonzalez is a ContETHporary artist from México. Her CryptoArt works can be found on SuperRare, Known Origin, Maker’s Place, Rarible, and Hic Et Nunc.
Second Realm, Emeritus
TRASH ART Pioneer Second Realm is Eric Paul Rhodes, a designer-turned- digital artist from New Jersey. He won the 2020 People’s Choice NFT Award & Short-listed for Most Innovative NFT. He is Creator of Unofficial Punks, Creator of The People’s Potato, and Founder of TATR tech / $TATR. Additionally, he is the Inventor of Social Liquidity Mining Protocol (patent pending) and a Male NFT thirst trap provocateur.
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DEATH PUNK is a Copyleft project of BitttyLabs, 2021
CONTACT: DM @bitttylabs or @xCryptochild on Twitter
VIEW THE COLLECTION: https://opensea.io/collection/death-punks
WEB SQUAT: https://mmm.page/bittty_labs.deathpunk
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