For years, Art Basel has been at the intersection of culture, fashion, and entertainment. It’s the winter festival for a community of fashion enthusiasts and high-end physical art collectors who meet at exclusive events and galleries before the end of the year. However, this year, with the emergence of Non-Fungible tokens and blockchain technology finally finding its use case, Art Basel turned into Tech Basel.
How The Nerds Took Over Basel
Art Basel Miami Beach was founded in 2002 by Swiss director Marc Spiegler. Miami from the Gateway of the Americas to Brickell Ave has been renovated, restored, smelled, and changed into a modern hub for a great life, innovative ideas, and technology. Congratulations Miami on making it to the 21st Birthday of Art Basel. Over 30 percent of New York and San Francisco's tech workforce has already moved to the Magic City. To add fire to the fuel, the year anniversary of Mayor Francis Saurez’s How Can I Help? Tweet, also occurred during Basel, which made worlds that were once siloed collide.
“During the last seven days, I found myself connecting with people I had been following for years across the internet, people that will likely 10x my network for years to come for future collaborations,” shares Chris Adamo, co-founder of Flamingo Capital and Miami Tech OG.
Aped-In
Meanwhile, the Miami Tech Life movement took the reins. NFT BZL organized by Michelle Abbs, Moishe Mana, and the Mana Tech organization, kicked off Miami Art Week at FTX Stadium (formerly American Airline Arena), hosting over one thousand NFT enthusiasts for a day-long conference waxing poetic on Web 3.0, emerging play-to-earn gaming strategies, and picking the brains of popular NFT artists. A few people told me that this event felt like “everyone was shilling their work.”
Perhaps the only fashion event worth noting was Louis Vuitton’s spring 2022 menswear presentation at Brutalist Miami Marine Stadium, creative directed by the late Virgil Abloh. Everyone from the music to tech worlds gathered to see the visionary’s last collection.
In terms of the traditional art activations, collectors and their sentiments towards the seemingly new energy, gelled. SCOPE Miami Beach partnered with YellowHeart for NFT tickets in celebration of their 20th Anniversary. It was the first art fair to offer a diverse curation of innovative NFT minted Platinum and General VIP tickets which completely sold out.
“The tech angle is a very natural on-ramp for a new collector base that has been historically not connected with analog art,” explains Marc Billings, founder of Black Dove, a platform that allows users to buy, sell and store fine art NFTs from an app and display them on any screen. They also specialize in high-quality 4K to 30K digital canvas display screens.
De-Fi The Arts
In years past, independent artists had to invest 5-6 figures to buy a booth in the Convention Center where the official Art Basel takes place. Now, with the newfound wealth of the creative and crypto class, those entry fees that once segregated the “successful” artists from the “struggling” artists, have been virtually eliminated. The crypto millionaires ape-in to support digital-first artists with a dream to create in the metaverse. Even @artbasel2021 Twitter handle was rugged by a degen with a Crypto Punk as their profile picture.
They came in like a wrecking ball and completely made it decentralized. Art with the network effect is an explanation of what happens when you take an industry that thrives on exclusivity and under-exposure and elevates it with tech. Zoratopia. World, led by music artist Call Me Latasha and supported by NFT Marketplace Zora, organized interactive panels and performances centered around diversity in the metaverse.
The crowd at The Cultivist x Nifty Gateway event was an entangled mix of entertainers, designers, NFT influencers, and tech executives. The Winklevoss Twins were walking around the massive waterfront mansion dressed completely identical as per usual, as DJ Khaled bellowed “Gem-in-i” and “Cryp-to” from the stage.
CC The World’s First Digital Pop Star
“You’re going to see CC, right?” some crypto dude said in earshot of me at the Nifty Gateway party. I was also going to check out CC is Dreaming as well but didn’t quite know what to expect. Nevertheless, this new crypto art community moves in unison. If people are talking about it, it’s a good sign. Arguably, one of the best events of Basel was a simulation experience debuting the world’s first digital pop star in the metaverse. Powered by Metaplex and Solana, this 3D NFT character can dance and sing like Ariana Grande.
“Instead of launching brands, I’m launching NFT projects,” Rembrandt Flores told me under the audio, visual, and live video installation CC is Dreaming. As a former Hollywood marketer, he recently found a bridge between entertainment and crypto and has made over $2M with his involvement in PFP projects, like the widely successful partydenergeates.com.
Rembrandt was a part of the founding team for CC, along with creative director Cynthia Cao leading the vision. “When I was presented with this opportunity, I didn't quite understand the concept, but my intuition said to go with it,” he recalls. After months of planning, CC came to life and the rest is history. Grimes even tweeted about it!
By the end of the week, I was overexposed to parties and panels. So, I switched gears to attend an intimate dinner hosted by QuickNode, Miami’s very own blockchain company. In true Miami fashion, the team huddled a group of fascinating people across the tech and art industry from just one tweet in less than a few hours' notice. To my left, there was a Coinbase developer, who was gushing about his first time Baseling and how the sudden dip in $BTC caused FTX bros to haul ass back to their hotel amid their party. To my right, a Substack developer offered me a beta product after a few minutes of chatting about my column. Auston Bunsen, a co-founder of Quicknode and Miami native, confirmed that “Art Basel turned into Crypto Basel this year with people from crypto behemoths like Optimism, Coinbase, and even Gemini making the trek to Miami.”
I digress. The art world has grown at an immense pace since its inception. Ask me the percentage of art sold last week, now that’s a different conversation, but I’m sure the value-added was priceless.
*A version of this article was curated and published for the The Information, a leading tech news source for executives and founders. Read more of my coverage here.
Last Call To View My VR Gallery on Crypto & Urban Sustainability
In April of 2021, I launched my first 3D/VR gallery. This is one step closer to creating my fashion video game and since then Violet Summer®️ Zine is finally living up to its trademark and business plan I drafted in April of 2016.
After several months, the installation on crypto and urban sustainability will be moving away, perhaps visiting at another metaverse gallery space.
Go inside : www.violetsummerzine.com and see what 15K+ readers have experienced!
Miami Tech Runs DAO Spotlight
I’m excited to highlight DAOs in my network that are encouraging and leading the way when it comes to innovative communities. Miami Tech Runs ($MTR) is a collective of people united by basketball. They purchased a space as a community and host games while chatting about their latest web3 projects. I got a chance to hang out with DAO members during Basel. It reminded me home, growing up chillin’ at the gym on the sideline. Thanks to Erikan and DT for organizing!
Insider Job Opportunities
Christina Chua, founder of So-Far online is looking for a CTO. I met Christina in Lisbon during the Solana Conference and since then our friendship has been evolving authentically. So-Far is sophisticated art publication with a bold perspective and bridge across the art and tech worlds. The content is deeply researched with an emphasis on modern media aesthetics with a futuristic outlook, as their platform already has established a partnership with Metaplex. Apply here.
Glossary
The Network Effect: The network effect is a key concept in assessing the potential of new products, services, and business models. In essence, it means that the more people using a particular good or service, the more valuable that good or service becomes—for either the producer. Read more from the Harvard Business Review.
Metaverse: It’s based on three pillars: privacy, ownership and security. Read Greyscale’s report here.
Degen: A person who is fully committed and obsessed with NFTs & crypto.
“Aped In / Just Aped”: Someone who goes all in on a NFT project or Bored Ape NFT.
Scenes from Art Basel:
KERWIN FROST @ HIGHSNOBIETY X BACCARAT DINNER CELEBRATING HIGHART WITH EIC THOM BETTRIDGE
ALEALI MAY / PRADA CELEBRATES YOUNGARTS 40TH ANNIVERSARY