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Quote from CohentheWriter on 4. August 2022, 6:10Museum Link: https://app.museumofcryptoart.com/collection/the-permanent-collection?collection=0xe55c8732de80cb474c756440082270e3b2ac7af7&token=33&page=4
Source Link: https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xe55c8732de80cb474c756440082270e3b2ac7af7/33
Date Minted: July 21, 2020 (Happy birthday to me!!!! I was 25.)
Artist Description:
TL;DR 1) The first owner of this NFT will receive $COIN prior to token launch 2) NFT will be updated with a new promotional image alongside the $COIN token launch 3) The promotional image update will include a cryptopuzzle 4) The solver of the cryptopuzzle must own the NFT in order to claim the prize.
I have minted a series of NFTs as another social experiment. Currently the artwork features a concept character from Neon District, an upcoming cyberpunk video game. I wanted to try to do at least one cosplay & cryptopuzzle experiment, but it turns out cosplay is an expensive hobby! So, I will be using funds from this presale to construct a cyberpunk outfit to cosplay, as I begin to play around with ideas of my in-game boss character associated with my Neon District Syndicate, Coin’s E-Den. I will be releasing this image to coincide with the $COIN token launch on Niftex in about two weeks. I will also be putting these funds towards the $COIN liquidity pool. Once I have the images from the photoshoot, I will be updating these NFTs with the cosplay photo. The first NFT owner will receive 347 $COIN*. The updated image will include a cryptopuzzle with a prize of 3470 $COIN. The solver will need to be a token owner in order to claim the prize via token controlled access. *Due to the current token lock-up in effect, the $COIN will be distributed in about 2 weeks, and prior to the token launch on the exchange. More information about $COIN and Coin's E-Den here: https://medium.com/@coin_artist_17801/why-i-turned-myself-into-an-nft-6fe08cb7aca8. What is a Crypto Puzzle? https://theeconreview.com/2019/04/15/the-ins-and-outs-of-crypto-art-puzzles/
CohentheWriter’s Commentary:
Coin_artist is giving me agita. That’s not her fault, of course, she’s just an outlier amongst the more self-proclaimed “artists” whose work lies in MOCA’s Genesis Collection. Coin_artist, otherwise known as Marguerite DeCourcelle, is an artist by extension, but a game developer by trade, and as CEO of Blockade Games, she helms one of the most well-known and well-respected blockchain gaming companies in the world. That said, DeCourcelle does not seem to have a SuperRare. There is no online repository for her NFTs. Even in her Opensea “oeuvre” is mostly the editions of this piece, Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle, plus a few very nice pictures taken of herself, some alone and others with friends. So that leaves us without a larger collection to look into, nor an artistic style to analyze, nor anything to really compare Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle to. *Cracks knuckles*. So we have to look at Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle as what it is: Hardly a true-blue “art-piece” at all (crypto artist Daimalyed recently mentioned to me that his definition of crypto art includes things that are “presenting AS art”), this piece is a self-proclaimed fundraiser which Coin_artist minted “as another social experiment. Currently the artwork features a concept character from Neon District, an upcoming cyberpunk video game. I wanted to try to do at least one cosplay & cryptopuzzle experiment, but it turns out cosplay is an expensive hobby! So, I will be using funds from this presale to construct a cyberpunk outfit to cosplay, as I begin to play around with ideas of my in-game boss character associated with my Neon District Syndicate, Coin’s E-Den.”
I find this interesting not only because it’s unique, but because it’s rare in the crypto art space to see NFTs, especially NFTs that are as aesthetically pleasing as Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle, work as telegrams or delivery devices more than fully internal works. But Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle is a puzzle game as much as it is a piece of crypto art. Hell, it’s a small round of seed funding as much as the former monikers as well. And thus, the agita. Because if it’s inaccurate to decode Coin_artist’s piece as an artwork, and if it’s inaccurate to use it to reveal some artistic sensibility from the artist’s entire collected works, then what do we do with it? A puzzle long-since solved, a company long-since funded, an artist long-since recognized as one of the industry’s most admired voices (Fortune named her to its inaugural NFTy50 list).
Well let’s start here and see where it leads us: Coin_artist is extremely beautiful. That’s the underlying selling point of many of her minted NFTs, be they these kinds of cosplaying, half-painted self-portraits or actual pictures of herself. The artist’s face is treated as an asset, which automatically places Coin_artist into a singular category when compared to the multitudinous crypto artists who prefer their identity be kept a secret or to whom anonymity is a boon. Perhaps that owes to Coin_artist’s business acumen, but the artist’s identity is the artwork. Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle displays the artist herself staring with steely blue eyes at the camera, her left arm covered in tattoos, and paneled like a cyborg’s skin, in her hand a machete that she’s slung over her shoulder. Amidst a dingy, cyberpunk setting she stands, illuminated by the ambient glow of neon lights and the illuminated sky emerging out of a crevice far above her.
Yes, the character’s robotic augmentation might have some allegorical significance, i.e. this person works so hard/is so good at what they do/is so unceasing that they must be a robot. Yes, we can probably mine meaning from the setting too, that this beautiful character without a bit of dust on her exposed skin can somehow maintain cleanliness while standing in a dark and drab Blade-Runner-esque void, well what does that say about being a female running a gaming company at the intersection of two very male-dominated spaces?
But this is barking up the wrong tree, if you ask me. It’s much more interesting to me that the artist has tokenized her image, imbued it with a puzzle, and spread it out amongst a series of high bidders. Separating oneself from one’s visage in a way that implies ownership, well there’s real interesting thematic resonance there. To post a picture on social media, say, is an entirely different exercise: Essentially that’s like someone looking into your home and admiring the furniture. But to impart one’s self onto the blockchain and then allow others to purchase those images indelibly, of which there are only 20 (MOCA owns #15), that’s a legitimate fractionalization of identity. It means it’s not just Coin_artist’s work that fills up wallets but Coin_artist herself, her physical form turned digital and transmuted via blockchain into an electrical entity. And all of this a choice that she herself made. A photographer selling pictures of a model this is not. The situation itself sounds like the plot of a videogame or something; it tracks with the sort of cyberpunky-stuff Coin_artist seems interested in. And now electrified onto the blockchain like this, now turned into code, now capable of surfing across the digital world atop unpredictable blocks, the artist has, in a way, fused with the blockchain, placing upon it an immutable record of where she’s been, what she wanted, and what she looks like. It’s a snapshot from a moment in time, and it’s dressed up all digitally, but it’s there on-chain forever, as I presume the moving/speaking/living Coin_artist might quietly might want to be as well.
If Coin_artist ever stumbles upon this essay, let me just say this: Mazel tov! You did it! Enjoy your immortality! You’ve certainly made good on your cyborgian cosplay, I reckon.
Source Link: https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xe55c8732de80cb474c756440082270e3b2ac7af7/33
Date Minted: July 21, 2020 (Happy birthday to me!!!! I was 25.)
Artist Description:
TL;DR 1) The first owner of this NFT will receive $COIN prior to token launch 2) NFT will be updated with a new promotional image alongside the $COIN token launch 3) The promotional image update will include a cryptopuzzle 4) The solver of the cryptopuzzle must own the NFT in order to claim the prize.
I have minted a series of NFTs as another social experiment. Currently the artwork features a concept character from Neon District, an upcoming cyberpunk video game. I wanted to try to do at least one cosplay & cryptopuzzle experiment, but it turns out cosplay is an expensive hobby! So, I will be using funds from this presale to construct a cyberpunk outfit to cosplay, as I begin to play around with ideas of my in-game boss character associated with my Neon District Syndicate, Coin’s E-Den. I will be releasing this image to coincide with the $COIN token launch on Niftex in about two weeks. I will also be putting these funds towards the $COIN liquidity pool. Once I have the images from the photoshoot, I will be updating these NFTs with the cosplay photo. The first NFT owner will receive 347 $COIN*. The updated image will include a cryptopuzzle with a prize of 3470 $COIN. The solver will need to be a token owner in order to claim the prize via token controlled access. *Due to the current token lock-up in effect, the $COIN will be distributed in about 2 weeks, and prior to the token launch on the exchange. More information about $COIN and Coin's E-Den here: https://medium.com/@coin_artist_17801/why-i-turned-myself-into-an-nft-6fe08cb7aca8. What is a Crypto Puzzle? https://theeconreview.com/2019/04/15/the-ins-and-outs-of-crypto-art-puzzles/
CohentheWriter’s Commentary:
Coin_artist is giving me agita. That’s not her fault, of course, she’s just an outlier amongst the more self-proclaimed “artists” whose work lies in MOCA’s Genesis Collection. Coin_artist, otherwise known as Marguerite DeCourcelle, is an artist by extension, but a game developer by trade, and as CEO of Blockade Games, she helms one of the most well-known and well-respected blockchain gaming companies in the world. That said, DeCourcelle does not seem to have a SuperRare. There is no online repository for her NFTs. Even in her Opensea “oeuvre” is mostly the editions of this piece, Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle, plus a few very nice pictures taken of herself, some alone and others with friends. So that leaves us without a larger collection to look into, nor an artistic style to analyze, nor anything to really compare Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle to. *Cracks knuckles*. So we have to look at Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle as what it is: Hardly a true-blue “art-piece” at all (crypto artist Daimalyed recently mentioned to me that his definition of crypto art includes things that are “presenting AS art”), this piece is a self-proclaimed fundraiser which Coin_artist minted “as another social experiment. Currently the artwork features a concept character from Neon District, an upcoming cyberpunk video game. I wanted to try to do at least one cosplay & cryptopuzzle experiment, but it turns out cosplay is an expensive hobby! So, I will be using funds from this presale to construct a cyberpunk outfit to cosplay, as I begin to play around with ideas of my in-game boss character associated with my Neon District Syndicate, Coin’s E-Den.”
I find this interesting not only because it’s unique, but because it’s rare in the crypto art space to see NFTs, especially NFTs that are as aesthetically pleasing as Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle, work as telegrams or delivery devices more than fully internal works. But Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle is a puzzle game as much as it is a piece of crypto art. Hell, it’s a small round of seed funding as much as the former monikers as well. And thus, the agita. Because if it’s inaccurate to decode Coin_artist’s piece as an artwork, and if it’s inaccurate to use it to reveal some artistic sensibility from the artist’s entire collected works, then what do we do with it? A puzzle long-since solved, a company long-since funded, an artist long-since recognized as one of the industry’s most admired voices (Fortune named her to its inaugural NFTy50 list).
Well let’s start here and see where it leads us: Coin_artist is extremely beautiful. That’s the underlying selling point of many of her minted NFTs, be they these kinds of cosplaying, half-painted self-portraits or actual pictures of herself. The artist’s face is treated as an asset, which automatically places Coin_artist into a singular category when compared to the multitudinous crypto artists who prefer their identity be kept a secret or to whom anonymity is a boon. Perhaps that owes to Coin_artist’s business acumen, but the artist’s identity is the artwork. Coin’s E-Den Cosplay Crypto Puzzle displays the artist herself staring with steely blue eyes at the camera, her left arm covered in tattoos, and paneled like a cyborg’s skin, in her hand a machete that she’s slung over her shoulder. Amidst a dingy, cyberpunk setting she stands, illuminated by the ambient glow of neon lights and the illuminated sky emerging out of a crevice far above her.
Yes, the character’s robotic augmentation might have some allegorical significance, i.e. this person works so hard/is so good at what they do/is so unceasing that they must be a robot. Yes, we can probably mine meaning from the setting too, that this beautiful character without a bit of dust on her exposed skin can somehow maintain cleanliness while standing in a dark and drab Blade-Runner-esque void, well what does that say about being a female running a gaming company at the intersection of two very male-dominated spaces?
But this is barking up the wrong tree, if you ask me. It’s much more interesting to me that the artist has tokenized her image, imbued it with a puzzle, and spread it out amongst a series of high bidders. Separating oneself from one’s visage in a way that implies ownership, well there’s real interesting thematic resonance there. To post a picture on social media, say, is an entirely different exercise: Essentially that’s like someone looking into your home and admiring the furniture. But to impart one’s self onto the blockchain and then allow others to purchase those images indelibly, of which there are only 20 (MOCA owns #15), that’s a legitimate fractionalization of identity. It means it’s not just Coin_artist’s work that fills up wallets but Coin_artist herself, her physical form turned digital and transmuted via blockchain into an electrical entity. And all of this a choice that she herself made. A photographer selling pictures of a model this is not. The situation itself sounds like the plot of a videogame or something; it tracks with the sort of cyberpunky-stuff Coin_artist seems interested in. And now electrified onto the blockchain like this, now turned into code, now capable of surfing across the digital world atop unpredictable blocks, the artist has, in a way, fused with the blockchain, placing upon it an immutable record of where she’s been, what she wanted, and what she looks like. It’s a snapshot from a moment in time, and it’s dressed up all digitally, but it’s there on-chain forever, as I presume the moving/speaking/living Coin_artist might quietly might want to be as well.
If Coin_artist ever stumbles upon this essay, let me just say this: Mazel tov! You did it! Enjoy your immortality! You’ve certainly made good on your cyborgian cosplay, I reckon.