Olafur Eliasson Launches Virtual Reality and NFT Work Commissioned by MetaKovan

Artist Olafur Eliasson has been working in virtual and augmented reality for six years, but his latest work, Your point of view matters. More technically and technically more ambitious than any virtual reality business it has ever offered. It also exists as an NFT, commissioned by one of the pioneers of the art of cryptography, MetaKovan (also known as Vignesh Sundaresan), who caused a global stir in April 2021 when he paid $69.3 million (with fees) at Christie’s auction for Beeple’s NFT Every day: the first 5,000 days (2021).

NFT Your point of view is important It is a one-time, non-issuance token created for MetaKovan – whose ownership and source are registered in a permanent ledger on the blockchain – and minted on Polkadot, a platform considered to have the lowest total electricity consumption and total carbon emissions – annually of all crypto platforms.

Recognizing the environmental cost of NFTs is of great importance, Eliasson says, and is something he discussed with MetaKovan. “It is a relatively new field, [and] There was a very strong increase in this awareness… The truth is that the entire blockchain world is quite progressive. It is remarkably similar to the rest of the world. Lots of talk and not much action. But a group of actors, too.”

The AR and VR versions of the piece will be available for free to view on the Acute Art app and via a link to view on a PC or in a VR headset.

The commission came to Eliasson through Acute Art, one of the outstanding players in presenting art in all forms of extended reality. Both AR and VR versions are “really designed to work with as many audiences as possible,” Eliasson said. “Acute is very aware of that. That was also a goal for both the client and myself.”

For Eliasson, the NFT committee worked as much as it would in a more traditional format: “It was very much centered. [on] Create a wonderful work of art. And in the contract implied in the NFT format, he says, ‘Usually when you buy artwork from me, you get a piece of paper saying that the artwork is authentic artwork by me. There is a picture of the artwork and a bit of technical information. Now this is NFT. “

For the sharp arts, the piece is part of the transition into the NFT space. Their artists have “maybe been a little hesitant” so far, according to Acute’s artistic director, Daniel Birnbaum. But work on Your point of view is important With Eliasson it represents an opportunity to take NFT into a richer and more technically ambitious space. The company’s technical director, Rodrigo Marquez, has created some new VR functionality specifically for the piece, according to Jacob De Geer, CEO of Acute Art.

Your point of view is important It will be shown to the public for the first time at the exhibition Olafur Eliasson: In your time (in your time)at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, which opens September 22, and at other locations, including in India.

Eliasson appeared on Acute Art early in the Covid-19 pandemic, with Wunderkammeran enchanting collection of AR pieces, including puffins, rain cloud, and sun halo, well calibrated to delight the spirits of users drenched in lockdown. Your point of view is important There is on a higher, more primitive level, one in keeping with Eliasson’s experimental work, much of it done in his studio in Berlin, about movement and human connectedness.

in Your point of view is important, the user moves between related geometric spaces based on Platonic solids, tetrahedrons, octahedra, icosahedron, icosahedron, and cube, before concluding into a sphere. Eliasson says that the Platonic solids—each made up of identical regular shapes, connected in the same way at each vertex—”little mathematical miracles. They are pre-Renaissance. They are [do not subscribe] To a sense of perspective like modern architecture. They suggest “let’s see what the dimensions are”.

Eliasson says he was inspired to move into virtual reality, “from my interest in dance and movement,” and in cognition and motor skills. He is so impatient with VR that he suffers from what he calls the “dolphin effect”, represented by a user in VR who passively flutters at watching a dolphin swim around in a “blue lagoon”. Formatting comes alive for Eliasson only when it is triggered by user movement and visual association with the artwork. in Your point of view is important, this “turbulence”, a distortion of a moire effect, is animated when the user moves their head and eyes, superimposing converging patterns on their surfaces – some brilliantly coloured, some black and white – over the pixels of a computer or phone screen, creating a shimmering, mysterious and random effect. The user is “you” who “important” in the widget.

Eliasson, working on Your point of view is important He reinforced the “motives” behind his work in virtual reality. “I always start with what the human potential is… We should grow people’s awareness in virtual reality that says I already exist, I’m here, I matter, and I’m good enough.” It wasn’t inspired by commercial virtual reality but rather what is being done in the lab. One of his mentors in this format was anthropologist Joe Dummett, Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Davis, and a preeminent figure in the world of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Domit was a frequent visitor to Eliasson’s studio. “He’s also the kind of person who tested alpha electronics from a body perspective…the first person I’ve met and incredibly knowledgeable about virtual reality.”

Another inspiration for Eliasson is Natasha Myers, associate professor of anthropology at York University, and a radical thinker of the interaction between humans and plants. For Eliasson, she is “one of the most intriguing interdisciplinary minds in STS”.

For Eliasson, radical thinkers like Domit and Myers, interested in how humans move and feel in space, are among the “people out there who make me face the future.” [of the planet]. We won’t be okay. But if there are more people like this generation, we might as well do it Just I make it.”