Art Decentralized - reflecting of my SteemFest talk
Inspiration on the blockchain
Last Saturday I gave a talk at the Art at Steemfest event at the LX Factory in Lisbon. The talk was titled 'Don't believe your eyes' and was about how I found inspiration on the blockchain, and with a focus on the role of collaborative practice.
I've had a lot of people ask me about my presentation, and as I've shared my practical workshop resources on Steemit this week I thought it would be a good opportunity to now share some of the ideas behind my talk too.
Opportunities to collaborate
I arrived on Steemit in July 2016 and have been blogging every since. From the start Steemit felt very different to other blogging and social media sites, there was a real sense of interaction within the community and before long this led to collaboration. The site for me became more than just an opportunity to showcase my work, this was the opportunity to work with others.
One of my first artistic collaborations on the site was with @everlove, I shared an image with her of one of my cyanotypes and in a game of 'art ping pong' we batted it back and forth to each other adding our own unique style to the piece each time to create Bird on a Wing. The liquid SBD for the posts went towards funding @everlove's trip to the first SteemFest in Amsterdam, with this in mind we embarked on our second collaboration 'Madam Kali'. Not long after that I got to meet @everlove in Amsterdam, and explore and draw our way through the first Steemfest.
Any location
Working as an artist one of the most powerful things for me about Steemit is the ease at which I can work and collaborate with artists in multiple locations. The whole world is our platform for collaboration and as an artist on Steemit my practice has become decentralized. The creative people that I communicate and work with on a daily basis are no longer tied to my immediate geographical location, but across multiple time zones.
Across disciplines and subject areas
Over the past year I have had the pleasure to work with and be inspired by other creative people from different artistic disciplines including writing, film and music. All of these collaborations and influences were possible because of Steemit.
Magic – a collaboration between Eric Vance Walton and Ophelia Fu
Work inspired by @hardfork-series
@buckydurddle Improv on a Painting by @opheliafu - "Black Tree" - Musical Improvisation
Fast pace
And then there is the pace at which the organisation of projects and collaborations on Steemit can happen. Outside of Steemit, if I want to be part of a collaborative project or exhibition I would have to advertise via one of the many art organisations, or respond to someone else's advert. After a couple of weeks there may be a response back and then the process of organising that project and the communication of doing so starts to take place. The whole process can take weeks before even approaching putting on an actual event.
On Steemit we are seeing creative interactions happening within hours, sometimes minutes, of being discussed on the blockchain. It is a 24 hour site in which people are communicating and creating. With this we are seeing more and more collaborations reaching out into real life projects and communities, the @sndbox team are an amazing example of this.
Exhibition space
The amazing thing about the space in which I was presenting at SteemFest, the LX Factory, was that the entire room was filled with artwork from Steemit. Yes, it had been printed out and physically hammered up on to the walls, but it was also on show at another place, Steemit. It was fantastic to see so much creativity up on those white walls of the Art at SteemFest space, and we see that same level of creativity exhibited daily on our screens across Steemit, and recorded on the blockchain.
Art is one of the most popular tags, the art community is a vibrant and active place and the role of the #art tag as a virtual exhibition space continues to grow as we reach more and more people from across the world. Our audience to which we exhibit is not confined by the physical location of our artwork. We are decentralized.
so many things welling up inside me reading your post!
Love @buckydurddle's improv to your painting and the reverence with which he approaches it.
I was blown away each time I saw you put up a piece of art on the hardfork channel - I love how your mind works and all of this just seemed to flow forth so naturally.
And overall, I'm just so impressed at how you've jumped in to collaborating here on steemit. It's truly inspiring to me! I'm by nature a collaborator and have done projects large and small with others in my career and here on steemit but I would like to do more. Maybe it's time and maybe it has something to do with my primary medium being ceramics, I don't know but there's another that I want to tap.
Also you've also inspired me to make a post about the collaborations I've been a part of here as well ;-).
Thanks for your prolific creativity, great presence on steemit and your support as a fellow artist - I appreciate you!
I'm glad you have taken so much from this, thank you @natureofbeing. I think there is something very powerful about collaborative projects and Steemit allows us to so easily make links with others regardless of geographical locations.
... And if you ever need a whimsical artist to work with you know where to find me!
I would certainly love to collaborate with you!
Wonderful! Thank you for including me in your post. I have drawn great inspiration from your art pieces.
I am with you on the idea that Steemit is a very effective collaboration medium. Within music, we have seen many great collaborations take place over the span of a few hours. In the 'real world' that would be weeks for sure.
I look forward to many new collaborations with the inspired minds of steem :)
I've had lots of fun seeing what you come up with, and our discussions on the sounds of moonlight!
i think it's going to really open up the conversation about audience development across borders and that means bonding transmedia approaches with the usual notions of physical spaces. it's exciting and lean and i love that. btw, me and @dayleeo had a lot of fun hanging with you guys when we had chance and your daughter is adorable!!
I have a few more pieces to write about the role of the blockchain and decentralization in the arts- but I thought i'd keep it light for now ;D
It was good to hang out with you guys and we will meet up very soon
^^^ yes yes yes to everything above! <3
yeah, i stuggle with light. i'm like all guns blazing as usual! see ya soon!
Ah @opheliafu, I was so sad that we had to leave Saturday afternoon. Missing your talk and workshop was a huge regret of this past week! But I'm very grateful to hear about your reflections here!
Your points about steem providing a flexible / agile network is so interesting. It's incredible that this platform gives artists such a breadth of access to other creatives around the globe.
It was fantastic meeting you in person, can't wait for the next meetup!
It was a shame we didn't get to sit down and have a long chat about projects, but I'm sure we will find time in the future for this. It was such a busy week, my time was split between the conference days and the Art at SteemFest, so I was pretty exhausted by the end of it. I'm planning to sit down and watch the talks I missed too, when I have a moment.
Wow .. That's a masterpiece of art, thanks for sharing @opheliafu
Glad you liked the collaborative works.
good
Great points.. thanks for bringing these important points in our view.
Thanks for sharing the video with us.
I've resteemed your post!
these pieces are really amazing dear friend @opheliafu, happy for your participation in the festival, I celebrate the harvested successes
I wish you a great day
Thank you!
https://steemit.com/art/@jeffjagoe/eye-on-crypto-by-opheliafu-now-in-my-steem-office-gallery
Thank you so much @Opheliafu it was nice meeting you!
:D it looks great