Weekly Recap

79Au | 6.22-28 Art is a Portal to the Immersive

10 months ago Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

In the world of NFTs, almost everything is cross-genre. Some pieces invoke the tension between the physical and the digital. Others combine multiple styles and mediums. Increasingly, more and more artists are using art as a portal, to bring together the visual, musical, literary, performance-based, technological, and beyond.

Artists have used NFTs to break down all kinds of philosophical and financial barriers. The artists in “Portal Realms” show multiple ways of straddling different worlds and disciplines. A coder can indeed take her seat at the artists’ table. And a DJ can build entire realities with the combined power of visual art and music.

The Transformative Nature of Immersive Experience

Iamnubio has felt the electricity of a crowd dancing and vibing in unison. He has created that electricity, using all the tools necessary to drop a participant in the middle of a memorable moment. As a DJ, he has always aimed to connect with the audience on a deeper level.

Working under the pseudonym of Iamnubio has helped him to explore different facets of sound. It has also allowed him to follow the spark of inspiration regardless of the medium. Furthermore, many of his artworks utilize original soundtracks, adding to the sensory experience of the work. “I’m exploring unique aesthetics, textures, and visual narratives,” he told 79Au. “These experiences have informed my music production, allowing me to experiment with different sounds, layering techniques, and musical elements to create a rich and immersive sonic experience.”

Any elongated musical experience aims to tell a story. Whether it be an album or a live set, the artist curates a journey to share with their listeners. But there’s also something to be said about the visual experience of it all: the way the artist performs, the backdrop to the stage, the lights. This is the spatial, multi-sensory approach that Iamnubio brings to his works.

“These experiences have informed my music production, allowing me to experiment with different sounds, layering techniques, and musical elements to create a rich and immersive sonic experience.”

“I believe that music has the power to evoke emotions and enhance the impact of visual art,” he said. “When I add music to artwork, I approach the visual elements with the intention of synchronizing them with the emotional essence of the music. The visuals are crafted to resonate with the mood, rhythm, and energy of the accompanying music, creating a powerful and immersive experience for the viewer.”

Immersion is a prominent theme in Iamnubio’s works. In the piece “Inner Conquering,” we see someone viewing the world through the lens of a headset. The layers of color scheme, facial expressions, and body language hint at the subject’s perception of an alternate reality, one in which they are fully immersed. Though this piece does not feature music, it includes Iamnubio’s iconic dancing skeletons and invokes the energy of music.

For Iamnubio, as both an artist and as a DJ, immersion is the crux of the experience. “The concept of immersion allows individuals to transcend their physical surroundings and delve into alternative realities,” he said. “It opens up a realm of infinite possibilities, where boundaries between the real and the virtual blur, enabling new forms of expression and storytelling.” “Inner Conquering” highlights the power of technology to transport us to new dimensions, to provoke introspection, and to challenge our perceptions.

“Dreamscape” by Trish Gianakis

The (R)evolving World of Computer-Based Art

Trish Gianakis has been exploring the intersection of art and technology since the 1980s. A veteran of merging IRL art installations and emerging technologies, her work interrogates the very nature of our increasingly phygital experience.

Having studied computers and how they work, Gianakis brings thoughtful and creative logic to her works. “While earning my masters degree at SVA in 1999, I had to learn JavaScript, C++, and Unix,” she told 79Au. “I have a deep appreciation and understanding of what computers are capable of today, since I understand programming.” Perhaps it is the understanding of digital infrastructure that makes the presentation of her art so engaging.

Gianakis has created a large scope of works, from 3D sculpture to AR filters to glitch to something like digital watercolor. You can view them in the gallery she has built and curated herself. “I am enjoying using AI, creating worlds in Spatial,” she said. “I enjoy creating in VR with Gravity Sketch and then exporting it to other 3D programs such as Blender or Nomad. Mostly I enjoy exporting my art to AR to share with the world.”

“The abstract and freedom in creating in VR is reflected in this dreamlike space, no walls, or windows, but rather a free floating and playful environment.”

Having worked with AR for so many years, she has witnessed the changes in perception around the technology. However, a lot of people still don’t seem to understand the difference between AR and VR. This is part of why she continues to explore the medium, and to invite people to experience it.

With “Dreamscape,” she created a digital structure that could be experienced on its own or inside of a virtual world. “I wanted to create a space for people to be free and interact with my art,” she said. Using the mirror setting in TiltBrush, she created bug-like creatures that double as the architecture of the space. Depending on the angle you can see the insects, the structure, or both.

“The abstract and freedom in creating in VR is reflected in this dreamlike space, no walls, or windows, but rather a free floating and playful environment,” she said. In AR, the world can be enlarged and you can walk through it, or you can move it around. You can also view “Dreamscape” in Spatial where you can jump around as an avatar.

Gianakis has looked at her practice from many different angles. On one hand, she finds ways to incorporate technology into her physical sculptures. On the other hand, she finds ways to illuminate the physicality of her digital sculptures and AR objects. “AR is still a mystery to most people,” she said. It is a mystery that she does not intend to solve, but to explore.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 5.18-24 At Home with the Supernatural

11 months ago Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

Art lovers have often revered their favorite works as a portal into the artist’s soul. Artists transform a subject in the act of recreating it. But the viewer also changes as they absorb the artist’s vision. Yet another theme racing through the artworks in “Portal Realms” is the supernatural forces of change.

Anything can be a portal: a memory, a daydream, a movie, a threshold. It can be physical or intangible, real or imaginary. Almost more important than the portal itself is the version of ourselves that meets us on the other side.

“The Occurrence: The Child #1” by Joyce Korotkin

Joyce Korotkin Looks Into the Light

Many of Joyce Korotkin’s artworks take root in the in-between places that populate our world. Some of her works live in a moment between the past and the future, a disquieted present. Others look at the world almost through a supernatural lens. “I’ve been fascinated by the lore of crystal balls since I first saw The Wizard of Oz as a young child,” Korotkin told 79 Au. “[Specifically] the scene where Dorothy gazed into the Witch’s ball at a world within the world.”

Many of Korotkin’s earliest memories involve her getting lost in a world of color. As a young girl, she drew a line with chalk along the bricks of her childhood home. “I stared at it as closely as my eyes could get, transfixed, for what seemed like hours,” she added. Then in Kindergarten, she dipped a brush into a pot of deep pink paint. “I couldn’t get enough of staring at it; I wanted to devour it,” she added.

Ever since, she has been fascinated by the power of the gaze. Or rather, how one can be transported into an alternate universe by the act of gazing.

In her work “The Occurrence: The Child #1,” she shows a child looking over a scene of destruction. Here, she taps into another recurring theme of her work, “that out of the blue of an otherwise perfectly ordinary day, something happens that transforms the world forever.”

“Digital art and the emergence of NFTs felt like the same quantum leap from the past into something completely new and disconnected. Here was an intangible art comprised of nothing but light.”

Even the evolution of Korotkin’s project shows the ways in which technology can change the world in an instant. The child featured in the artwork in the “Portal Realms” exhibition is the protagonist of “The Occurrence” series on Mint Gold Dust. The artwork was created using AI, procreate and animation. However, Korotkin created the other works in the series before she ever heard of AI art tools. “Suddenly, it’s here, and everything has changed.”

The overnight success of AI feels similar to the recent NFT bull market, though on a smaller scale. Each technology helped us recognize the hurrying pace of the future. “Digital art and the emergence of NFTs felt like the same quantum leap from the past into something completely new and disconnected,” Korotkin said. “Here was an intangible art comprised of nothing but light.”

“Light has always been the province of painters,” she pointed out. It is one of the main things everyone writes about when discussing a specific work. “Vermeer’s Light, Rembrandt’s light, Caravaggio’s light, Impressionist light. And here was a new art, distilled to art’s essence: Light itself.”

“Beyond the Threshold” The Portal” by Matt Menendez

Matt Menendez Explores Interstitial Space

Menendez’s piece “Beyond the Threshold: The Portal” features a figure edging closer to a gateway. The terrain flashes with seas of blue and white light. This work, like many others by Menendez, leans into themes of fantasy and science fiction. The ambiguity around the setting as well as the subject allow for the viewer to fill in the details.

“What excites me the most is that [fantasy and sci-fi] allow for unlimited possibilities of imagination and invention,” Menendez told 79 Au. “It’s their sense of wonder and escapism that always draws me in.”

Indeed, the portal taps into both the escapist nature of fiction and the shift from one reality to the next. Like in life, the future that will greet the subject in the artwork is still unknown. And it is that very quality of uncertainty that makes gazing into the flashing blue so exciting.

Menendez has a long career in architecture and design, which one can see readily in his work in “Portal Realms.” With an acute awareness of space, Menendez aimed to explore the idea of the in between. “Interstitial space is a common conversation in the architectural world,” he said. “But in the context of the metaverse it holds a different meaning.”

When we think of portals in metaverse spaces, we typically think of doorways to different worlds or spaces within a world. “You don’t really get to experience them,” he said. “They are more just a ‘quick’ teleportation to a different space.” It was this area of intrigue that inspired “Beyond the Threshold: The Portal.” What might the inner workings of a portal in virtual space look like if we took the time to look?

“Interstitial space is a common conversation in the architectural world. But in the context of the metaverse it holds a different meaning.”

“I wanted to explore this interstitial space as an atmospheric experience that spans x amount of time rather than a quick transition,” he said. “The notion that one can experience the space from one side of the portal to the other is fascinating to me, and I would hope for others too,” he added.

A Virtual Butterfly Effect

Both artists we spoke to this week were fascinated by the unlimited possibilities that exist in making even a single piece of art. When using AI art tools, word choice alters the output. When choosing colors, even a slight shift of shade could change the mood.

“What I use as a prompt for portals in Midjourney isn’t the same as, say, Kaiber, which is what I used to create ‘Beyond the Threshold,’” Menendez said. “I like to think of these different prompt syntaxes of language and how we look at different architectural styles.”

And for Korotkin, her love of color spills over into a perfectionist’s dilemma. “Just about every digital piece I make has several iterations, mostly based on different colors,” she said. “And sometimes I just mint them all and let collectors decide for themselves. ‘The Secret Life of Flowers’ is one such series.”

No matter the medium or style, each choice the artist makes affects the next. And it is in these strange and unsettling moments between start and finish where art truly thrives.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 5.11-5.17 The Power of Community and Art

11 months ago Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

There are many reasons to feel like the world is different coming out of the COVID 19 pandemic. We understand the virility of trends in a new context. Globalization has taken on new meaning. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is how important connection and community are to us. Even when we were apart, art brings us together. In a time of social distance, it helped us bridge the physical gap between us.

One aspect of the NFT art revolution that is both a blessing and a curse is its global nature. On one hand, it brings people together who may not have ever met. On the other hand, it means that we experience our community through the lens of a screen. Pulling back the curtain (or the screensaver), we might find that connecting is the most tangible thing in the world, no matter the medium.

The artworks included in the Mint Gold Dust exhibition “Portal Realms” explore the theme of transformation in many ways. Today we can think about the power of community and how it transforms us into the best version of ourselves.

“A Creator’s Soul” by Lianna Adams

Lianna Adams on Community, Education, and Inclusion

The work of Lianna Adams is full of vibrant colors and natural imagery. Instead of shading and blending, she uses detailed imagery to create depth in each piece. Having spent the early days of her career in broadcasting, she has a unique ability to tell stories and to blend mediums.

“I spent my childhood and youth learning embroidery from my grandmother,” she told 79 Au. “That played a huge part in developing my love of art movements like art nouveau, aestheticism. Also my interest in symbolism and the arts and crafts movement.” Like embroidery, her work revels in the beauty of the natural world placed atop a simple surface. Using her unique aesthetic, Adams has worked with digital mediums and physical ones. She has paired her art with design to create unique items like bags, clothing, and pottery.

But one of the things that makes Adams a powerful force in the Web3 ecosystem is her ability to bring people together through art and to use art to spark conversations. “I am always looking for ways to step in and speak up for what is right,” she said. Then she added, “I use art as a way to create dialogue and to cultivate a humanity-first culture within different communities to hopefully build bridges that fosters understanding and compassion.”

“I use art as a way to create dialogue and to cultivate a humanity-first culture within different communities to hopefully build bridges that fosters understanding and compassion.”

Considering the technical nature of Web3, one of the biggest challenges to artists–to anyone–trying to get into the space is a lack of understanding of how it all works. Adams has made a concerted effort to lead people into Web3 and to create a space where people can feel comfortable to ask questions. In the same vein, she has created space for people to voice their struggles with mental health.

Chazz Gold on Connecting Time and Space

Chazz Gold joined me on a video call from a spaceship circling an orange planet. He had just finished working on a new piece of art. It was sort of a request for a piece with a new color palette from one of his collectors. He was so inspired by the idea that he woke up early to make it before hopping on our 8AM call.

“I went to bed and then I had a dream about, like, blending and making darker ones,” he told 79 Au. “I woke up and I went straight to the computer before I even had coffee.”

Chazz approaches everything this way: with unbridled excitement. Since launching his career as an NFT artist in 2021, he has sold over 1,000 pieces. If you look at his Twitter timeline, he is talking about art and AI all day long.

“Neural in Augmentation” by Chazz Gold

Many of his artworks are modern takes on portraiture, which makes sense because he began his career in photography. In one folder that he showed me, he had over 60,000 photographs. “So I can take those and put those through AI and then build on top of them,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, and it doesn’t always come out right. And in the early days using stable diffusion to get something dream-like, it was hard.” He began training his own models, running and re-running them. It took hours, even days or months, to get one good image.

But as AI art tools have evolved, so too has Chazz’s style. Inspired by the duality of cyborgs as both machine and human, he explored the cybernetic. In recent years, he has gotten into the aesthetics of psychedelia. Throughout, his basic technique has remained the same. Beginning with live subjects, he has a photo shoot, and then transforms the human into something metahuman.

How Connections Change Lives

The life of an artist is difficult, especially when you add the stress of minting NFTs. The pressure of being an artist in such a fast-paced environment is apparent. However, until recently, most artists have not felt comfortable talking about burnout, anxiety, or any of the other challenges that they face trying to make it in this space. “When I started the Weekly Mental Health Check-Ins [on Clubhouse] in 2021, there weren’t that many rooms for people to just share how they are doing, really,” she said. A pioneer in helping NFT artists take care of their mental health, she continues to host weekly check-ins and to help others find their strength in community.

“If it wasn’t for the NFT community, I would not have been sober in the pandemic. Honestly, I wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t have made it. Because nobody would’ve known that I went out and used again.”

Right: “The Dark Starchild” by Chazz Gold

“If it wasn’t for the NFT community, I would not have been sober in the pandemic,” Chazz told me. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t have made it. Because nobody would’ve known that I went out and used again.” These stories, and so many others like them, show us the life-changing power of online communities. And the connections we have made virtually will only continue to prosper as we begin to meet out in the physical world.

We have created a global community the likes of which have never been seen. And if we can tap into that community, to share our successes as well as our failures, then we will thrive, together.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 5.04-05.10 Transformation in Art

12 months ago Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

Spring is a season of transformation. After the slumber of winter, nature comes back to life. And after a period

Art Weekly Recap

79Au | 4.06 – 4.12

1 year ago Art Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

By utilizing blockchain, AR, VR AI, the exhibition showcases how these technologies can enable new forms of collaboration and decentralization in the art world, empowering artists and audiences alike.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 3.15-21

1 year ago Weekly Recap by : Virginia Valenzuela

Hello from ETHDenver Pt 3!

This post was written by one of our long standing staff members who volunteered with ETHDenver, and offers an insider’s view of the recent event. Enjoy!

In February, I was one of the more than 15,000 participants and contributors of ETHDenver 2023, a Community and Innovation Festival that spans over a week at one of the largest gathering spaces in Denver, Colorado.

Compared with other crypto-centric events like NFT.NYC, ETHDenver has a larger technical focus, with #BUIDLers coming from around the world to build their projects on the Ethereum blockchain.

Unlike most attendees, however, I had the unique experience of contributing to the event as a Volunteer Steward and experienced the festival from a slightly different angle.

Working diligently with other Stewards, and with the help of 200+ volunteer Crew members, The Year of the Spork quickly became one for the record books.

The 6th annual event was host to fireside chats, solo presentations, a marathon #BUIDLathon, workshops and panels, and of course a slew of side events hosted by ETHDenver sponsors.

While we (sometimes not so) quietly moved around the event to assist attendees, Spork Whales, and speakers, it became apparent how dedicated this unique community is, making the festival outshine its previous iteration year over year. Having volunteered for last year’s Year of the Buffigwei, I was lucky enough to see many friendly faces I’d previously met in the space.

These same volunteers who stood outside in the surprise blizzard while greeting each and every registrant, and the same staff who’d flit from venue to venue up the block ensuring that each stage and event space could seamlessly pull off their panels and presentations, came back ready to bring it for 2023.

To better fit the growing community, the venue was moved to the sprawling National Western Complex and split into five main tracks: DAOs + Community, Decentralized Finance, Public Goods, Infrastructure, NFTs + Metaverse + Gaming.

The frenetic energy surrounding the wide breadth of topics kept the community buzzing for the 10-day span of the festival, but two of them caught my attention, NEAR Day and the Privacy and Security Takeover.

NEAR Protocol, a bit player at ETHDenver 2022, was front and center this year with an entire day dedicated to talks, keynotes, and workshops encompassing the ecosystem.

A handful of the biggest names in NEAR could be caught on the smaller stages hosting chats, like Illia Polosukhin, Marieke Flament, Matt Lockyer, and Alex Chiocchi.

Having learned about NEAR last year and interacting with most of these individuals on social media, it was an incredible feeling to be able to step back and listen to them speak about the protocol and the forward-thinking BOS positioning.

Participants in NEAR Day heard about the importance of creating a seamless user experience to drive mass adoption and sustainability in blockchain by focusing on real engagement, strategic long-term planning, and overall impact of development. We were enlightened by a breakdown (and a breakup) with the way newcomers are onboarded into Web3, and of course, the value in a fully decentralized identity.

The concepts delivered by NEAR span the entirety of the Web3 Space and reiterate what it is we’re moving toward.

Notably, we can’t move closer to mass adoption without a strong sense of security and privacy in the space, and the takeover of the Genesis Stage gave speakers an opportunity to impress this importance to the community at large. On March 4th, a series of Privacy Highlights held the stage to cover a wide span of topics from plausible deniability, attempts to encroach on privacy by outside entities, and the role Cypherpunks played in preventing users from being backdoored.

Closing with a keynote from security badass Sherri Davidoff, the founder and CEO of LMG Security, attendees (myself included) were left with a stark visual reminder that privacy is deeply interconnected with unity and security via her interpretation of the Fugio cent.

The beauty of ETHDenver is the ability of like-minded individuals to gather and learn about new technologies while pushing the boundaries of what we think we know and most of the panels and conversations delivered on that. The dynamic pace created by different types of Ethereum developers and community #BUIDLers gathering in one location sparked a sense of renewed optimism and excitement for the future of Ethereum, despite current market dynamics. It reinforced its reputation for being an Innovation Festival for the Community.

Giraffe Cupcakes is the Community Manager at Mint Gold Dust and has been working with ETH Denver community and events in 2022 and 2023.

Denver, Colorado.

Take a look at our 79Au zine’s ETH Denver pt 1 and ETH Denver pt 2!

Learn about the Illust <> Mint Gold Dust ETH Denver culture walk showcasing amazing NFT curations at venues around Denver! Check out the Illust ETHDenver event maps here: Click to view maps

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 3.1-6

1 year ago Weekly Recap by : Mint Gold Dust

Hello from ETHDenver Pt 2!

There was a record-breaking 30,000+ registrations for the sixth year of ETH Denver! It was incredible to see all the new ideas and organizations entering the Web3 space alongside the stalwarts who have been here since the beginning! Welcome to the Bufficorn noobies!!

The crowds became overwhelming while waiting (forever) in line for food, or coffee and pastries in the mornings. Before we jump into the details, a final shout out to Reunion Bread that fed us (and many more people!) every morning. Their Golfeado, see below, is to die for.

Back to the event itself…. We went wandering dreamily through the ETH Denver ZenZone then visiting the IRL Gallery, meeting inspiring artists. Once such artist was the creative, inspiring, punk rocker Naji, who displayed his wares through his beautiful, one-of-a-kind Art NFts. Their clothing line can be found at youmustsurvive.store.

The program started with the opening ceremony with hundreds of Bufficorns singing on stage. To some it might sound cringy (think a mixture of glitter and Bufficorns), but founder Kelly LeValley Hunt claimed “this is just another day in Ethereum paradise!”

On Friday Kelly spoke on a panel on the Genesis Stage called “Investing in Web3’s Future”, discussing what she looks for when investing in new businesses. Hint: She puts an emphasis on the development team, the founders, product, and the business model.

Other amazing speakers we listened to on the same stage included Joe Lubin, Caitlin Long, and a call-in from Vitalik Buterin.

There were moving and enlightening presentations, including @ameensol talking about @UncahinIran, a DAO which provides legally compliant aid to Iran. He shone a light on a corner of the world that many of us do not think about; emphasizing the importance of paying attention to, and recognizing, human injustices and reminding us that so many people around the world are still fighting for basic freedoms. Something that we at Mint Gold Dust are very grateful for.

The second part of ETHDenver was filled with new connections, amazing speakers, and energizing after parties.

Our love for electric scooters deepened as we sped around the Mile High city; venue jumping during the day, and rolling up to dinners and parties in the evenings. We want public scooters in NYC!

As ETH Denver 2023 closed out, two highlights stand out. We headed over to the Galactic Garden Party at the Beacon in RiNo on Friday evening. The venue was magical, with sacred geometrical groove rooms and amazing dance vibes throughout.

And on Saturday night we got down with our partners at Illust, viewing art and dancing the night away to DJs while sipping on ice cold keg beer! So refreshing – an amazing end to an amazing experience!!

Take a look at last week’s 79Au zine, ETH Denver Pt 1!
We experienced the geo-located art from our platform IRL in Denver!
You can check out the Illust ETHDenver event maps here: Click to view maps.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 2.22-28

1 year ago Weekly Recap by : Mint Gold Dust

Hello from ETHDenver!

This year, there’s a lot of pressure on the ETHDenver crew to make this community gathering the biggest and best event in ETHDenver history.

The Mint Gold Dust team checked into the VĪB Hotel. A short walk from the hackers at the #BUIDLHub building on Brighton Blvd in the RiNo Arts district.

Many of the local hotels in @RiNo are new and efficient. The Source Hotel is a 4 star hotel with a delicious restaurant and a hot tub on the top floor! At the base of the hotel you can find a marketplace and food hall, be sure to check out the amazing Reunion Bread! Small batch beautiful baked goods. Mmmmm.

The VĪB is a Best Western and does what it says in the name (~vibe~). There is a gym on the ground floor and a cute cafe with friendly staff. Brent and Preston at the VĪB have been exceptionally accommodating and helpful!

We quickly dropped our suitcases and went out for a ride on electric scooters to explore the venues and to discover new cafes and restaurants in the area.

Our first impressions were that there are plenty of construction sites and new buildings, a large number of cranes in the sky, and lots of art murals in the area where we are staying. Any city I’ve visited with this many cranes was going through a major growth phase. The economy here in Denver is growing quickly, it’s very obvious.

We screwed around on our electric scooters and rode over to check out the National Western Complex, the giant structure that has housed some of the largest event gatherings in Denver. This venue is a strong symbol of community here in Colorado, and it’s now the new site of the ETH Denver community.

We then scooted over to the Hacker Hall.

Greek food and taco trucks were waiting outside, prepared for the hungry developers inside the building. We entered, went through a secure checkpoint, and made our way to registration. We easily picked up our badges and visited all the tables that were displaying swag and information about the different teams BUIDLING.

There was certainly a buzz about the venue! People hugging each other, greeting one another from all over the world, excited to get started and happy to see familiar faces! Opening speeches were made, and the excitement began.

The space is similar to the Sports Castle from last year, but the devs are all on one main floor. It’s larger, with two stages set up specifically for project owners to present their work and their bounties.

We visited teams with bounties on offer. One that drew our attention was the Liquality team.

Liquality’s multi-chain NFT minting feature, and STK made it an even more interesting bounty to try to capture.

We spent time at the River House where Liquality has taken over a club / living room / bar space where hackers meet for breakfast and to begin coding for the bounties.

Some of the early arriving teams here are @ConsenSys, @Discoxyz, @Opolis, @metawebvc, @satori_nft @Valts and so many more, and we’re just getting started!

As we rode around to explore further, we noticed all of the murals, collecting names of artists and taking pictures of their creations. Many of the muralists in this industrial area have something special. Wide open spaces and new walls to tag!

The team visited the Blue Sparrow coffee shops and ate delicious salad and pizza at Cart Driver. We also enjoyed an amazing dinner at Uchi with friends.

In our downtime, we shopped at SteadBrook, as well as an outdoor vintage clothing marketplace in the side yard at The Denver Central Market. We found an amazing foosball table, friendly people, and strong, elegant jewelry at OXB. While eating french fries in the sun, we also shopped online at locally-owned Idiot Cult, for a refreshingly cheeky sample of the fashion flavor in Denver.

We enjoyed a magical evening at Nocturne Jazz Club, listening to live jazz while sipping champagne.

Our team is looking forward to a scheduled guided meditation and relaxation session at Pravana Massage.

One of the things that Mint Gold Dust is doing while we’re here is meeting with developers and artists from the Denver community to see how we can support them as well as collectors in Colorado.

In partnership with Illust, we’ve geo-dropped several NFTs around Denver.
We have a handful of pieces near Improper City, which is a great watering hole with an outdoor area for those who can brave the cold.

We went out on a scavenger hunt for these beautiful NFT assets, and they look fantastic placed in the real world. The amazing talent of the artists is showcased while the surrounding environment brings each work to life. Installations of this type make our reality even more layered and exciting, creating compelling images for us to interact with.

We still have 6 days of ETHDenver and multiple side events to attend with over 25,000 people! The State of Colorado / Denver has been put on the map by the Decentralized and Web3 Community!

Take a look at last week’s 79Au zine featuring the Illust <> Mint Gold Dust culture walk which showcases amazing NFT curations at venues around Denver!
Check out the Illust ETHDenver event maps here: Click to view maps.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

Weekly Recap

79Au | 2.15-21

1 year ago Weekly Recap by : Mint Gold Dust

Featured Artworks of the Week

Mint Gold Dust Culture Walk at ETH Denver

This year at ETH Denver, we will be working with our longtime partner, Illust, to bring you an Augmented Reality culture walk around Denver.

Illust is building the definitive platform for engaging online communities in the physical world through maps, blockchain, and augmented reality. Partnering with major music and web3 properties such as MF DOOM, Mesh Records, Parallel, and ETH Denver, projects use Illust’s tools to launch location-specific and token-gated games, maps, entertainment, merchandise, and points of interest for their communities.

“Mint Gold Dust’s Culture Walk map is an embodiment of the ETH Denver experience, pairing innovation with diversity across a broad spectrum of digital media. We can’t wait to share these experiences with first-time visitors and Denver residents alike, using the power of AR and blockchain tech.” – Rob McCarty | CEO, Illust.

For the drop, we have curated 3 collections at key locations around the city that can be viewable via your mobile device and the Illust Space web browser.

CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH:

Focusing on the current social inequities in the greater Web3 space, Mint Gold Dust aims to empower Black artists during Black History Month using our site as a platform to host and bring forth productive dialogue inspired by the works minted on our marketplace. Artists included in the drop are ChrisRogersArt, GoldiGold, and QueenEarth.

These works will be dropped outside of Jazz and Supper Club Nocturne in the RiNo Arts District of Denver.

MACHINE DIALOGUES

Machine Dialogues is taking a look at how artists in web3 are utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform their creative process. So many tools have become available to creatives, and we’re seeing a massive period of curiosity and experimentation across the artist community.

The selections for the culture walk are a part of a larger curation originally curated by JenJoy Roybal in October on Mint Gold Dust. Artists include Quantum Spirit, Rakkaus Art, Chazz Gold, 4everKurious.

Machine Dialogues curation will be located outside of the main ETH Denver venue at The National Western Complex at 4655 Humboldt St.

STREET ART

Street Art has a long history of community and self expression. It’s a way for artists to make their mark on their city and document grassroots history. Too often, these works are painted over and forgotten about, but by minting them on-chian, artists are able to track their work’s provenance and history in a very permanent way. For the third curation of our Culture Walk, we are excited to highlight some of the artists on our platform tracking and preserving their own history through NFTs. Artists include Everydayreasearch, Helena Martin, and BoogieREZ.

This street art curation can be found at RiNo’s Improper City, a local favorite for coffee, beer, and of course, street art.

Beginning February 24th you will be able to see all these works come alive in AR for yourself. To access the meta layer, you will need to navigate to the location, open up the MGD page link on Illust, and navigate to the pin points on the map. Once you find the work, your phone will become a gateway to another layer of reality, filled with artwork from the Mint Gold Dust platform.

Be on the lookout for the Illust Passport, which is dropping 5PM PT on Weds, Feb 22nd. https://twitter.com/illustspace

Can’t make it to Denver? We will be talking with Illust Space and some of the participating artists on Twitter Spaces on February 28th. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about some of the amazing artworks being dropped and Illust Space’s geo-spatial technology.

Check out these interviews with some of our featured culture walk artists: Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.

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1 year ago Weekly Recap by : Mint Gold Dust

Love Letter from Mint Gold Dust | Valentine’s Day Curation

Love takes many forms, so this Valentine’s Day, we wanted to explore the different ways in which love is depicted and represented through the eyes of various artists on Mint Gold Dust.

From the romantic to the platonic, the familial to the self-love, this collection showcases the diversity and complexity of love in all its forms. We hope that these artworks will evoke emotions and provoke thoughtful introspection, inviting you to reflect on your own experiences and perceptions of love in your own life.

Romantic

“TWOGLO” and “The Butterfly Lovers” show two different sides of romantic love. One focuses on passion while the other focuses on hardship.

For Hynomancer’s “TWOGLO,” we see two lovers expressing their love through physical affection. This piece is a part of a larger series that explores how AI expresses love and sexuality.

In “The Butterfly Lovers” by Lily Honglei, the artist duo showcases the side of love that isn’t typically portrayed in a Valentines Day card. These two lovers have just moved to America in search of the idealized American Dream and have found that the dream they’ve imagined isn’t the reality. So now, they as a team must help pull each other back up and find a new dream together.

Self

“I Carnival” and “Inner Space of Touch” depict the magic and creativity that happens when you become at peace with yourself and ignore all other distractions.

Kilsypix’s “I Carnival” is a celebration of the artist undergoing an artistic evolution in the web3 space. The piece is a result of experimentation, exploration, and joy.

“Inner Space of Touch” by Giselxflorex seeks to understand the language of creation by looking inward. The work highlights the human ideals and symbolism that occurs with the touch of the creator.

Family

Arguably the most selfless kind of love is familial. Both of these next works were created to honor members of their family and the legacies that they may leave behind.

Dr. Lemny’s work “Mama” is a portrait of her grandmother who struggled with mental illness her whole life. With this work, Dr. Lemny hopes to shed light on those dealing with silent mental battles every day while honoring the legacy she left behind.

Dia al-Azzawi’s Freddie collection was created to honor his grandson. Dia has been creating art for over 50 years, and with the dawn of web3, he created this collection as a token his grandson can play with in the metaverse for years to come.

Nature

In both HyperAesthetics’s “Spring” and “Mother Earth” by TrishgaArt, the artists are celebrating the reverence and responsibility of the union between humans and the natural world.

Hyper Aesthetics’ Four Seasons collection highlights the beauty found in each season with his own unique style. The artist writes about his piece, Spring,

“I breathe in the Spring from my window.

See Mother Nature winking.

Flowers yawn at dawn.

And I smell them.”

“Mother Earth” by TrishgiaArt’s is a tribute to the beauty and biodiversity of our planet and is a call for us to take better care of the place we call home. “She has always taken care of us. Now it’s time we take care of her” – TrishgiaArt

Friendship

These final works by Lucia Diaz and Arabella are a celebration of friendship and community. They remind us to lift each other up and not to forget to have fun along the way.

Lucia Diaz’s “Wildy” is a portrait of fellow artist and creator Wildy Martinez. The portrait shows the muse’s joy, power, and creativity bursting at the seams. This work supports a friend’s dreams, power, and success.

Arabella’s “Smoking Section” makes the viewer feel as if they have interrupted two friends having a conversation and sharing stories. The power of community is not one to be underestimated.

Miss our latest artist interview series? Catch up on our conversations with Chazz Gold, Rakkaus Art, Arabella, Goldi Gold, and VanDi exclusively on 79Au.

Ready to get started as an artist or collector on Mint Gold Dust? Check out our Metamask start up guide to get started. Ready to start minting? Apply to talk with our curatorial team today.