Why are there so many Pixel Art NFTs?

Today, a large-scale PFP project is blinded, and it is also in the Pixel Art style. Let's take this topic to discuss why there are so many Pixel Art in NFTs?

Pixel Art Pixel art is a painting made from collages of low-resolution color blocks. Everyone must have seen a lot of Pixel Art products in the NFT world. Is the web3 world just suitable for pixel style? This is an STS (Technology and Society) question, but I don't have the expertise in this subject, so the following is just my speculation.

I think this proposition can be divided into three stages, namely Pixal Art as a "Technium", "Message", and "Ownership". These three processes are just similar to the process from web1 to web3, as if there are more fractals under the fractals, and the history of technology development coincides in the macroscopic and microscopic processes.

The following will cite four Pixel Art NFT cases as evidence.

1. 24 X 24

CryptoPunk

Pixels are technology.

The oldest and longest green pixel art NFT is none other than CryptoPunk. At that time, when the 10,000-pixel punk boy was launched, there was no ERC-721 standard (commonly known as the NFT standard), and the token was derived from the ERC-20 standard (commonly known as the token issuance scheme). There was also no decentralized storage technology in the form of web3, such as IPFS (Interplanetary File Storage System) or Areweave.

I originally thought that a 24 by 24 size CryptoPunk was purely on-chain storage. Unexpectedly, in the earliest era, they arranged 10,000 people on the same page, and then wrote the code to capture the pictures on the page. Pure on-chain storage was achieved in a later update.

CryptoPunk is the first PFP project (Profile Picture) in history, it has shaped cultural memes and market benefits, and opened up the precedent of NFT pixel art. But I still think that the early experimental NFT projects may really develop into pixel art due to technical limitations, and I will look for more examples for this part.

After that, many parroted punk imitation disks (all pixel projects with the Crypto- prefix), the pictures are meme dividends and market benefits, and there are too many projects to go into details here.

Then, due to the maturity of various web3 proxy storage technologies, an NFT can accommodate larger files, and the visual form of the PFP project evolves rapidly. From pixel to illustration, then from illustration to 3D modeling, and now even animation, real-time rendering, evolutionary deformation, etc., regardless of the innovation in the community or empowerment, the difficulty of making pictures favored by the market is increasing.

But the charm of pixel art is not diminished. In fact, there are still many pixel NFT projects emerging.

2. 78x69

TeleNFT

Pixel tells technology.

When it comes to pixel art, we have to talk about TeleNFT again. TeleNFT is a pixel image produced by a group of German artists using TeleText, a text communication technology in the 1970s. TeleText is used to display TVB program information, hidden in horizontal scan lines, so the size is limited to 78 times 69.

These fifteen artists do everything they can to create their own character and context within such a small canvas and color constraints. They put their works on the German satellite 1 program, and as long as they turn on the TV and call out the text information, they will see the artist's work covered on the program.

Of course, these works are all cast as NFTs, and I have 15 of them in my collection. What I love about this project so much is that the curators have created a beautiful mix of old and new technologies.

TeleNFT mixes the existing old technology into the pixel meme of the new era. The pixel wind is resurrected due to NFT, but it is displayed in an old era product that has to be accommodated, and every pixel is precious in the satellite TV era. Fifty years later, due to the speed of light evolution, you are destined to see the same artwork at the same moment, on the carrier of different eras.

To be honest, whether it is a TV, a computer, or a mobile phone, the resolution of the screen has long exceeded the limit of human eye recognition. But the brutal display of pixel art makes us rethink the content and carrier, return to minimalism, and use the constraints of poverty to convey information.

3. 8X8

Eight Fire Hall

Pixels are Content

When it comes to content, we must talk about the recently popular NFT platform 8bidou.

This is a troublesome Japanese NFT trading platform, issued on the Tezos chain (the Japanese translate Tezos into Tiansuzhou A_A). Eight Fire Hall has only been online for less than a week, and the website is rotten to the point of slag, but it has caused a high degree of discussion, and even a bunch of well-known NFT artists have been involved in the production.

The rules on this site are simple, you can only make 8 by 8 images, then mint and sell them. The 24 times 24 version, which can be minted, but cannot be sold because the contract has not been written, is ridiculous enough.

But just because it was so ridiculous, a new type of gameplay emerged. Small artists make captivating 64-pan sketches, and big artists keep their style with 64 panels. For example, Zancan, an artist well-known for Generative Art Botanical Garden (Garden, Monoliths), made a series of green 9arden, M0n0l1th, and the sales results were terrifying.

I would like to emphasize here that the content displayed by the pixel is easy to be disseminated and discussed, and a big reason is related to the community. The community uses only 64 grids to make the most understandable signal, maximizing the value of a single pixel. This is the concrete manifestation of the power of meme.

Under the line where NFT is gradually moving towards exquisite art, Bahuotang has indeed played a new trick.

4. 100X100

Matters The Space

Pixels own

Speaking of the relationship between pixel art and community, I just co-hosted a fun and meaningful event three weeks ago called Rooting for the peace of Ukraine.

This is an anti-war participatory art. We use blockchain games as canvases, NFTs as commodities, and community members as creators, collectors, and donors.

Three weeks ago, Russia invaded Ukraine for seven days. Matters and FAB DAO launched a small co-creation event. We recruited about 40 interested volunteers to create together on a 100 x 100 blank canvas for a two-hour time limit. . The theme is solidarity and peace. After completion, the work will be uploaded to the AkaSwap NFT platform, and all sales revenue will be donated to non-profit organizations supporting Ukraine through automatic profit sharing.

This is a solid 10,000 pixels. How to complete a NFT that will be sold next through cooperation in a short period of time is a knowledge. As we dabble, we discuss in text and voice.

What ended up with concise symbols like the Tezos dove of peace, the anti-war Ukrainian flag emblem, petrol bombs, the words FAB DAO, the new age flag? ! . Among them, I deliberately drew the words HicEtNunc (a platform on Tezos) in the upper right corner, and then someone changed it to AkaSwap, which must be changed by Aran himself.

This image was minted into NFT, and in the end, just 40 copies were sold, and about NT$4,500 was donated, which was in line with my expectations. My imagination is that during the two-hour co-creation process, the centripetal force of the participants has been strengthened. Of course, the participants are willing to consume the collection and contribute, and at the same time, they can donate to the organization that is originally the theme of the creation.

Pixels deliver content and create community consensus. These pixels were also cut into pixel symbols by Lin Yisheng , which were used as emojis on FAB DAO Discord.

In addition, the decentralized text platform Matters has quietly developed more new tools in the web3 world, and the space (pixel war) is their latest work. I am so fortunate to be able to meet the moment of its birth in October last year.

The Space is similar to the experimental product /r space of the American forum Reddit in the past. Users must own a pixel by spending tokens and create their own images between the pixels. The Space's ambition is to discuss common ownership property taxation and universal basic income by building blockchain games. The relevant details are too difficult to repeat here.

In fact, there are quite a few pixel games at home and abroad. BAYC Boring Ape has its own member drawing board. As far as I know, Phoebe Huang , a middle school girl, is also working on her own pixel art blockchain game OnChainCanvas (OCC) (256X256).

Looking back at pixel ownership, I think The Space's ambition is to deal with the attention economy of the virtual world, such as media ad placements, and to make a fair redistribution of virtual assets. Although I haven't seen a scarcity application scenario yet, I'm still looking forward to it.

When it comes to real scarcity, in a broad sense, I think The Sand Box's enclosure sale is the real advertising space. You can see how much land Adidas has bought, declaring the ambition of trendy brands to enter the web3 world. I haven't even entered the field today, but anyone who visits The Sand Box land every day, always glances at Adidas.

5. 23X23

MashBunk?

Pixels are stories?

Finally, whether pixels can be used to tell a story, of course. So I made a bean mash PFP project (so I am the project owner?!), called MashBunk (mud trash talk), each limited edition, each one has a story, I use the most minimal pixels to make Talk about the surfing journey of NFT.

But, of course, how could it be possible for you to buy it so easily. We have created a very complex mechanism, unless you are familiar with DeFi and meet certain conditions, it is possible to participate in the collection. There is no whitelist and no gas war. Obviously, it is not for making money, but for other things. But if you can collect it, you will probably understand what I want to convey.

The details will keep me secret. These are some insights into pixel art.

in conclusion

In addition to becoming a cultural meme in the NFT world, pixel art is also inherently suitable for becoming a native interactive medium for web3.