5TezCollection: a re-collection
written by crcdng_alt
From to time to something like #5TezCollection pops up in the Tezos art, a reminiscence of the Hic et Nunc days, when Amelie Maia and Taís Koshino from DiverseNftArt brought artists, collectors and hackers together with the hashtag #OBJKT4OBJKT. Lets share our artworks, was their message, an OBJKT for an OBJKT, for free. Until the bots came and gobbled up artworks and reminded us what an adversarial environment a blockchain can be. But the community did what it always did, shrugged off the bots, introducing a 0.1 tez price, and partied on.
Therefore: a reminder but not a copy. Times have changed and the protagonists of this event, including our people from Objkt.com and fxhash were part of those other events and they are aware of them. Still, we have our common memories and there is always something to discover, be it a specific exciting artwork, an overlooked artist or an anecdote to share.
Rehan Mente, self-portrait, 0.27 tez, transaction
Fragmented memories, fragmented egos, ... this means starting out with a favourite of mine, Rehan Mente, a photographer from Instanbul, an incredible artist that I have featured in a pop-up exhibition in Berlin. It is an incredible piece.
I do not come with a plan, or with the idea to collect as many pieces as possible. Rather I am drifting along a bit the memory lane, want to see what comes, what goes. Then something catches my eye on Twitter.
Should I? Spend eyewatering 40% of my budget, 2 out of 5 tez, for just one piece? What am getting myself into collecting here - portraits? What about fxhash, where the portraits are probably rare? Should I go to fxhash first? Should I look for other pieces? Monochrome maybe? Lots of thoughts are going through my head. It also brings back FOMO (only 2 left!), and memories to the summer of 2021, where I would sit on my bed at 4am with my laptop, waiting for a specific artwork to drop. Finally, I do want to collect this piece by Paulisson Miura, a Brazilian photographer, and I tend to follow my instincts.
Paulisson Miura, my_slow_self_02, 2 tez, transaction
Now heading over to fxhash.xyz, the artist-driven project that has catapulted generative art, existing and new, into new dimensions and to new audiences. I go with the monochrome theme and look out for some affordable pieces. Both objkt.com and fxhash have filters and tools to narrow down the search, although I tend to be on the "let's browse and see the art" side. I come across this fabulous animated homage to Kraftwerk, the German electronic music band, made by fish.the, a Composer, DJ and creative coder from Taipei.
fish.the, trans europe express, 1 tez, transaction
After collecting I realise that I have minted the piece straight away. However, it has a "Params" tag, I could have played with the parameters. So I aim for another minimal, low-key, color reduced piece. I find it in a work by Kev Molya, an artist from Io, possibly. It is also animated.
Kev Molya, energrow, 1 tez, transaction
Honestly - I had no idea how much fun it is to play with the parameters. I want to play some more and decide the final piece for this collection should be on fxhash as well. By now I have settled on 5 pieces for 5 tez, which makes sense. I want to play with parameters though. Forget monochrome. I find this piece by ArtIsLife. I spend way too much time with the parameters. I build my little city, move my little sun, Bob Ross style. A little here, a little there. I mint.
Then... a SHOCK. Transaction rejected! (Another memory trip back to the Hic et Nunc days). What could it be? Turns out, I have 0.492774 tez left but the piece is 0.5 tez. Did I pay so much for gas?? I think of gas as a concept to understand and explain how the blockchain works, but creating or collecting artworks it was never an issue because... on Tezos it is not an issue. This reminds me of another Tweet that I have seen recently. A Tweet about a "lesser blockchain". A Tweet that was quickly turned into a meme by L'Inquisiteur somewhere in the French mountains.
L'inquisiteur, Lesser Way Of Life, 0.5 tez, transaction
Now I know what is missing from this collection - a meme, such as #AUBJKT4AUBJKT, the Hic et Nunc hacker-turned-meme back in 2021. In a sense, this would make the collection complete. But how? This piece, too, is 0.5 tez and I have .. just not enough. But there is the offer feature on objkt.com. Could it possibly work? Now, say, if you have an artwork on sale for 50 cents, and someone comes along and offers you 48 cents for it, how would you react? Unfriendly, maybe? Ignoring the request at least? Anyway, I give it try. I brace for some angry messages on Twitter. Or worse, sidetweets. I can explain later. So I offer 0.48 tez and set a 1 day timeframe.
To my surprise, L'inquisiteur accepts. I get the piece. The sum I spent is exactly 4.997222 tez. The collection gets a final twist. This act of friendliness reminds me of the friendly, quirky, diverse, truly transnational, sometimes emotional, sometimes hilarious community we have, the biggest asset of all. Someone I don't know allowed me to save two cents and thereby made it possible to round off my re-collection. Thank you. And here is the result.