The BlockChain Revolution Part 1
Artist Jennifer Pyron talks to us about NFTS, blockchain, and her personal journey.
Jennifer Pyron is an artist that creates atmospheres. She has worked primarily with her voice and sounds as energy through experience and finds her greatest creative moments happen when she creates in this way.
Jennifer loves to channel and allow her imagination to expand and navigate as part of the creative process for her. When she connects to her imagination she is able to tune into her signature frequency. This means she is able to connect to the core of her being, her essence, and allow herself to come forward in her own unique way. Jennifer believes in the power of creativity and connection to others through creativity which fuels her own process.
Q: How do you see blockchain technology helping artists?
A: This is a way for artists to decentralize and be creatively sovereign in more ways than I even know possible to mention at the moment. All that blockchain technology is and has to offer is being created right NOW. We are building it together in the metaverse through the NFT market, metaverse galleries, festivals, chats. And having these conversations that generate potential at new levels everytime we even share our ideas also builds the co-created community support that is available here. I see this as a life-changer for artists in a way that allows them to express their unique essence in an unlimited space, which is the metaverse.
Q: How do you explain what blockchain technology is to artists that have no idea what this is?
A: Blockchain technology is essentially a chain of information blocks in the metaverse that are individually encrypted with digital timestamps. This means that they are both transparent and permanently unique as the information that they are and always will be as an encrypted block of information, similar to a fingerprint. Whether it is a cryptocurrency blockchain or cypto-art blockchain, it stores details about the transactions of that block as the coin or piece of art as it exists throughout the metaverse.
Q: What kind of resources can artists use to familiarize themselves with the potential that blockchain technology can offer them?
A: For me, I had conversations with friends first and other artists that were already actively selling their NFT’S. An NFT is a non-fungible token, non-fungible means it cannot be exchanged for another item because it is unique. Again, just like a fingerprint. NFT’’s live on a blockchain and represent the ownership of the said item. As the artist that created the NFT, you are the owner. The blockchain makes sure that this information cannot be tampered with, and this is a game-changer for the artist because it puts the power of their creation as an encryption on their piece of art by making it into a block. You can also set up a percentage for sales so that when your NFT continues to move through sales of other collectors, you will always receive a percentage of any sale made.
Q: What do you say to artists that don’t want to take the time to learn about blockchain technology?
A: I understand how artists may be hesitant about learning more about applying their work in this way and I feel for their concerns. This is why it is important to have conversations with friends or other artists that you trust so that you can hash out that which makes you feel uncomfortable or complacent. This shift is happening. The metaverse is a limitless space of infinite potential and as an artist, it is an extraordinary time to be the first to create something in this way. Let’s say you were interested in trying out the process of creating just one NFT today. I bet you that in three years from now you would not regret having that experience and that NFT created. What I’ve learned thus far through my experience is taking risks creatively makes me feel alive and empowered. I have the ability to use my creations in anyways I want in this space and create pathways for other sound artists to feel inspired to do the same when they are ready of course.
Q: What was the inspiration behind your release on Open Sea, “Voice_Glitch_Freestyle Collection”
A: Throughout the extent of last year I took as much time as I wanted to create. Whether I was singing, playing the piano, the synthesizer, writing, whatever, I used every moment of last year’s worldwide pause to create. I learned at an early age that the act of creating can really help when life feels too dark or challenging. Creating makes you focus on the present moment and requires your full attention. Your attention is your presence. Your presence is your value. So I knew that while I could not control the external world, I could control my internal world through my creations.
It was around May of last year when I began posting one minute or fewer videos on Instagram that I called i: memos. These were iPhone memo recordings that I would either sing, speak or play into my phone and then use to pair with an iPhone video, like a sunrise, cloudscape, some special moment that made me pause and appreciate the creation happening in the moment. I loved my i:memos because they were like a proof of action for me to reference back to - oh yeah, on this day I felt this way and I can hear it in this and see it in that - more of like an experience as a memory through both sound and video. Fast forward to May 2021, two things happened at once for me that opened up my metaverse world curiosity. First, I was on a day trip to Governor’s Island with Theo Woodward and his girlfriend June to check out some local art. While we were relaxing on the lawn, Theo pulled out his phone and started recording some sounds he was making as percussion. I knew what he was doing and asked him what he was planning on doing with those sounds. This is when he shared Spacecraft, an audio app created by Mark Watt that specializes in granular synth algorithms.
Theo knows about my fascination with iPhone apps, etc so we talked more about the ways in which he liked to use SpaceCraft, etc. When I got home that night I WAS HOOKED. I loved how I could sing and speak into the app and play around with it. Very similar to Samplr, another app created for audio, I was empowered to really glitch and experiment with my voice. That same week, I had a rooftop performance in Bushwick where I met a graffiti artist named Loro Masnah. He was creating new work at the same time I was performing on that roof, so after my set, we ended up meeting and I learned about how he was filming his painting of the piece for an NFT collection. We talked for hours about everything and his excitement was contagious because it was geared solely towards creating. He asked me to be the voice for his Talking Heads #005 The Poetess featured in Makers Place and that was the birth of my first contribution to the blockchain community. Over the next four months, I continued conversations with others about NFTS, etc, but most importantly I continued conversation with myself. Why would I want to create in this way? What makes me special? What do I have to offer? These tough questions took me a while to feel confident enough to answer, but I managed to answer them again through my creative process. I just kept at it with the voice i: memos and decided to create my collection around the idea of soundcard collectibles. Loro also helped me to come up with the idea of this collectible because as he explained the NFT world to me it is the collectible market that sells most consistently. So, soundcard collectibles were my way “in” as my inspiration.
IG: @__pyron__
PART 2 - COMING SOON