This beautiful portrait of Tupac was created by Afrofuturist Nettrice Gaskins using Deep Dream's neural network -- and now, a rare copy of it can be purchased as an NFT on the blockchain. Given the recent hype over NFT for artists, you're probably not surprised by that, but Dr. Gaskins' NFTs are more noteworthy for at least a couple reasons -- first, they're being sold on hic et nunc, a new NFT platform that operates on the Tezos blockchain.
"Tez is what I use because it's eco-friendly and proof-of-stake," she tells me. This is in comparison to the Ethereum blockchain, which is more commonly used for NFTs, but because it still functions via proof-of-work, is an environmental disaster in the making. As Dr. Gaskins writes on her Medium blog, NFT opens up an opportunity to artists who can't typically sell auction their art at places like Christie's:
For BIPOC/LGBTQ/Womxn/Disabled artists who have been intersectionally shut out of the Official Art Market, NFTs have the potential to help them/us make a living or supplement our incomes. The blockchain market removes the middle person or gatekeeper and empowers artists to use emerging technologies and networks in new or culturally relevant ways.
On a related note, minority communities like those also tend to be the most impacted by the worst effects of climate change.
As for Nettrice's Deep Dream art, more on how she creates it:
“I used Deep Dream Generator's algorithm, which is inspired by the human brain," she tells me. "The generator uses the stylistic elements of one image to draw the content of another. The first picture defines the portrait I want to create and the second picture I upload gives the program a style to simulate. The process may include more than one pass in the generator, using different style images, until I get the image I want." This portrait of Sade, for instance, "[Is] a composite of multiple Deep Dream images."
"More specifically," she adds now, "I used the Gatys neural image style transfer". [PDF link here] She sold her first Deep Dream art NFTs in a matter of hours, so better move fast on Tupac.
More on Nettrice in New World Notes:
- Afrofuturist Artist Creates Stunning Portraits Of Black Artists With Deep Dream AI Algorithms
- Unable To Present Her Work In Los Angeles While In Quarantine, Renowned Afrofuturist Artist Nettrice Gaskins Sets Up Gallery In Second Life
- Afrofuturist Nettrice Gaskins On Black Algorithms & Her Neural Net Portrait Of Stacey Abrams
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