DADA.nyc — Artists and collectors and the Ethereum blockchain
I just had a good Skype conversation with Beatriz Helena Ramos and Yehudit Mam from DADA.nyc (@PowerDada on twitter) and I learned a lot about their platform and community today. With this short article, I want to share my insights with you in case you are interested in blockchain / art / blockchain art …
What you should know about DADA.nyc, and the possibility to buy art from them on the blockchain is:
Make a choice
When you go to https://dada.nyc/ you have two options to enter the website’s contents:
1: Follow the link to the “visual conversations app” and explore hundreds of thousands of visual conversations, which are a kind of image threads, composed by works of different artists (they would surely explain it much better).
2: Choose “decentralized marketplace” to buy an edition of a more or less rare art work with your Ether and by using MetaMask.
Learn about contents and taxonomy of the platform and community
Try option 1 “visual conversation app” first and scroll through the amazing art works. As I just learned, artists are drawing them directly on this platform. Each image is an incentive and/or answer to another drawing of a conversation. No pre-fabricated uploads. What a great idea! (You can create an account on DADA.nyc to actively take part in these beautiful conversations. Do it!)
Browsing through and buying art on dada.nyc with Ethereum
When you educated yourself what “visual conversations” are, go back to https://dada.nyc and choose option 2 “decentralized marketplace” (you might want to refresh your browser window, because there is currently no link directing from the “visual conversations app” to the “decentralized marketplace”) and access the overview page. There you will find DADA.nyc’s first set of blockchain-connected drawings covered under the title “The Creeps & Weirdos Collection”, made available to the public at the beginning of October 2017 and giving tribute to Halloween, I guess (or rather not?).
To buy some of these strange drawings, get your MetaMask and some Ether ready. People who never worked with MetaMask before: Take some time, go to the MetaMask website and learn how to configure and use this tool (once you set it up, it will allow you to interact with some really cool blockchain features). You will also need some Ethereum which you can buy either through MetaMask, or through another market place of your choice.
As soon as you are logged into your wallet with MetaMask, you can interact with the decentralized marketplace and buy your preferred piece of art. As soon as the transaction (give Ethereum, receive art) was successful and the respective art work was proofed as being yours (happens automagically), the drawing will be added to your “Gallery” which appears when you click on the “My Account” link. This link becomes available as soon as you are connected to your MetaMask wallet and directs you to an URL that contains your wallet address.
So, that’s it. You are now proud owner of a “unique collectible DADA digital drawing[…] with proof of ownership on the blockchain”. Congratulations!
The attraction of DADA.nyc’s ‘art on blockchain’ thing
What is so interesting with buying or owning one of these images? This is what Beatriz and Judy asked me. For me, initially it was interesting to be among the first who bought some of the Creeps & Weirdos. If you are a trader, or want to get rid of one of the drawings, you can offer it for sale. Might be a feature as well — especially in the future, once all editions of an artwork are out of stock. At the moment, you can enjoy seeing that you own 1 of just 200 or so copies, that you bought it for about 0,016 ETH (the cheap ones; there are more rare and thus more expensive artworks offered for sale as well), that you are maybe the first who bought it (because there are still 198 copies available; because of technical reasons, the edition number is no indicator for the time you bought it or which number you were in the row of buyers), that this is one of the first arts projects on the blockhain and you contributed to it … Many reasons to be excited about this project.
Naah, it is actually much more …
One of the coolest features — which I was made aware of by Beatriz and Judy just this afternoon — is that each drawing is part of a conversation (one of those that can be accessed though the “visual conversations app” when arriving on dada.nyc). The related conversation — i.e. the one your drawing belongs to, the “origin” of your piece of art — can easily be accessed through the URL provided on the artwork’s overview page (see “origin” top right). Isn’t that cool? But this is not the end. As each conversation can be continued at any time, it might well be that the context your image is embedded in right now could change in the future. Creepy …
So, if you are into art — artist or collector or just an average (blockchain addicted) girl like me — give dada.nyc a try. I believe it’s worth it.
Btw: This is my first medium post. I thought it would be about something like “how to get started with your blockchain experience” or so, but it turned out to be a big shoutout to dada.nyc. Cheers!
