Show notes
Sydney Xiong works for the APENFT Foundation, and Ben Nolan is the founder of Cryptovoxels, an art-focused online universe.
Whether you're new to the metaverse or already have an enviable NFT collection, the question of what the IRL art world's role in the metaverse will look like in the coming years is on many art lovers' minds. Though the wild world of NFTs can make it difficult to know where to look, some significant players are already shaping that future.
Among them are Sydney Xiong, the director of the APENFT Foundation, which brings art and finance together in the metaverse, and Ben Nolan, the founder of Cryptovoxels, a virtual world powered by the Ethereum blockchain that hosts a variety of art, music, and cultural events. Earlier this year, APENFT hosted the open-call NFT exhibition "Second Lives" on Cryptovoxels, which featured big-name NFT artists like Beeple, Fewocious, and Pak alongside rising talents. The works were auctioned off on LiveArt, and APENFT's Art Dream Fund distributed $100,000 to 13 of the emerging artists chosen for the call.
We recently spoke with both Xiong and Nolan about the mainstreaming of NFTs and what they find most exciting about art in the metaverse.
Earlier this year, the APENFT Foundation launched "Second Life," an open call exhibition of NFTs at the APENFT ART MUSEUM in Cryptovoxels. Can you tell me more about this exhibition, particularly the theme?
Sydney: All of the artists in the exhibition are linked by their use of digital media to explore regions of alternative realities in the metaverse. The theme of the open call, "Second Life," was inspired by a game that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and live a second life in an online virtual world. The artists we chose for the exhibition displayed a variety of creative visions inspired by the concept of a second life. Some are visions of a space-age future, others are biological, and still others are more playful. I was struck by the innovative and energising ideas that artists have for the future.
Tell us about some of the winners of the open call. Who are the NFT artists we should be keeping an eye on?
Sydney: The open call went extremely well. We received over 500 submissions. Some came from professional artists. Others were art students, and some came from creators who work in other fields such as design, music, and marketing. These artists work in a variety of mediums, from traditional mediums like copper plate photography to GIFs and digital animation. It was a lot of fun talking to them one on one and learning about their processes and the ideas behind each piece.
WMD Studios, a Berlin-based art collective founded in 2021, is one of the winning artists. The team has worked in a variety of mediums, including VR, video, and installation, and is interested in the future of many other new art forms.
I'd also recommend the artist Lil E, who presented the work Revelation 2077, as well as the artist Jansword Zhu, an artist and art historian interested in exploring new material, and whose work is very organic and illuminating.
Why did you decide to host the exhibition on Cryptovoxels?
Sydney: We had planned a physical exhibition in Shanghai, but it had to be cancelled the day before the opening due to the Covid. The postponement of this physical exhibition compelled us to consider an alternative option, as in-person exhibitions were becoming increasingly difficult at the time.
Our APENFT Art Museum in Cryptovoxels was the best option we could think of because it's all online and easier to coordinate in this uncertain period of time while creating a very unique and really fun virtual experience. It's the ideal place to see digital art, in my opinion, because all of the pieces in the show were JPEGs, GIFS, moving graphics, and so on.
While exploring Cryptovoxels, I was struck by the number of art galleries, museum spaces, and musical events that were taking place. How did that happen? Was it a conscious decision to cater to a cultural sphere, or did it happen naturally?
Ben: I have no idea how we did it! We started out as a very technical blockchain and ended up with this small group of artists doing NFTs very early in 2018. Someone asked me one morning if they could add support for displaying their NFTs in a gallery-like setting.
I really like gallery aesthetics, with tall white walls and nice lighting and shadows. That was a simple thing to target graphically early on. And then, when people came with these massive amounts of NFTs—we were already in the Ethereum ecosystem—it was quite simple to display those NFTs in the world.
Then we were able to do gallery openings through Covid so that you could get together with 10 or 20 people to show a new collection back when the NFT scene was completely unknown and no one knew who we were. It worked extremely well. So I thought—galleries are awesome. We also have a diverse group of creators. We have a diverse group of women and men, as well as people of various ages and backgrounds. We really lean into it because it's something we seem to be good at.
I believe in a network of metaverses—not just one metaverse, but multiple metaverses for different purposes. There may be one that is excellent for playing shooter games, one that is excellent for visiting art galleries, and one that is excellent for listening to music, for example. Cryptovoxels has ended up in the space of galleries and musical events, and I love being in that space. It's fantastic.
For someone who is new to the metaverse, I liked that I didn't have to register for anything with Cryptovoxles and could just start exploring. "Barriers to entry" is a concept that is frequently discussed in the art world. I'm curious if this is something you both consider in terms of the metaverse.
Sydney: In the future, everyone will have a cryptocurrency wallet. There won't be a huge barrier or problem for people to log in and explore Cryptovoxels or use OpenSea to buy NFTs. People will grow accustomed to the digital parallel universe.
There are so many more things you can do in the virtual world than there are in the real world—there are no limitations in terms of shape, building forms, or what you might consider putting in museums or galleries. I'm really enjoying how people can work together collaboratively. I've heard of numerous projects in which multiple artists and designers collaborate to build and design. It facilitates the interdisciplinary dialogue that interests me.
Ben: I agree with Syndey that the barrier will diminish in the future. However, we designed Cryptovoxels so that when you arrive, you are immediately immersed in the world. There is no way to log in. There is no way to choose your character. There are no instructions. You begin to explore a physical space and realise, "I can look around, I can walk, oh, there's art." I can look around at the other people. "I can talk to them." We didn't want anyone to be restricted from using it. We designed it to work on any device, which means it looks like a 15-year-old game because we try to use the most basic technology.
For example, there are now a number of events where you must have a specific NFT to enter—this is unavoidable, but I wanted to create a world for people to explore that was full of things. In many of these virtual worlds, you are assigned a character who immediately asks, "Are you a man or a woman?" We didn't want to do that. Everyone gets a default avatar with a neutral walking stance, so I don't know if these events are attended by men or women unless someone actively declares their gender. Everyone merely exists.
The metaverse is still taking shape. What are the guiding principles underlying each of your projects?
Ben: User sovereignty and people owning their art, what they create, and what they collect. Also, everyone is welcome, and no one is excluded. We sincerely want to protect people's privacy and data. Right now, we have ways of funding the ongoing growth and development of Cryptovoxels without having to track people and monetise every aspect of it. That's very important to me. I want to offer our services at a low cost so that we can offer them to many people for free, and everyone who cannot afford to invest in cryptocurrency can still participate, build, create, and do all of these things. Then, those with more resources can contribute to global funding while also creating value for themselves that they can capture and hold.
Sydney: I wholeheartedly concur. It's about maintaining your privacy and being able to own and profit from your own content. We have recently invested in many NFT projects as a foundation, more than 30 in the last six months. Apart from simply incubating and supporting crypto native artists, we have invested in a number of NFT projects aimed at expanding the ecosystem, with the goal of attracting traditional or Web 2 users to our website.
What do you think the future of the traditional art world and the metaverse will be?
Sydney: Our foundation is attempting to bridge the gap between the traditional art world and the so-called metaverse, or future online world. I firmly believe that these two worlds are colliding. Digitalisation and the digital presence of exhibitions will become more common in the future because it allows artists to reach a much larger audience and there are no limitations on what they can create.
Actually, we're curating an offline exhibition again in April, and we're hoping to finish it this time! The exhibition is divided structurally into two parts: one with artists' works and the other with an enclosed LED wall space where we'll have a Cryptovoxels exhibition running concurrently with the offline exhibition. I really believe it will be fantastic—and I'll be able to share more details in the coming weeks.
What are the main benefits of NFTs, in your opinion?
Sydney: The distinction between artists and non-artists is stark. In a traditional gallery, the revenue is split 50/50. It's just your own profits here, and you get the royalty revenue every time a transaction is made on the work.
Ben: It's also more fluid. If I buy some art off Sydney's wall, she has to take it down, crate it, and ship it to New Zealand. Then it will take two weeks to reach me. Or I can buy that artwork right away and have it in my wallet in a matter of seconds. As long as your keys are secure, I'll have somewhere to store it safely and easily. There are drawbacks, such as the carbon footprint, but those issues can and are being addressed.
What do you say to NFT sceptics?
Ben: I don't mind that so many people despise NFTs because I believe it gives us more time to build an amazing ecosystem in this space before everyone realises this is actually a fantastic way to go forwards. We do not want to use terrawatts of power on the Ethereum main nett. We don't want to concentrate all of the capital in the hands of a few early adopters who control the entire market. However, these are two anomalies in the system. There are so many benefits to people indelibly owning their art on a distributed ledger, having it freely transmissible to collect, and getting a return on it. This technology has some truly amazing features.
I'm surprised that NFTs took off because I thought they were far too nerdy. We've been in them since 2018, and I never imagined NFTs would become so popular. I'm overjoyed.
Support us!
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
