When it all started, I wasn't so much fascinated by the numbers, let alone the images, as by the discourse that was taking place. People re
ally seemed to care, for better or for worse. Heated discussions ensued. People were threatened (which wasn't so great). There was pro
mo until nobody could take it anymore, and then more promo followed. Then at some point my friend A got rich from this series of wonderfu
lly weird videos that A produced. It wasn't really clear who bought them, but that didn't matter. Shortly thereafter, A's friend B began to wo
rk on a series of digital images that were really difficult to describe – but not one of the images was sold. There was some te
nsion between the two, but less than I expected. B seemed to be on to something. B said to me: Look, I get it, this is where winners make winner
s. The moment someone buys something, it becomes a work of art. Not earlier and not later. It's art by winners for winners. But you have to t
ake a few steps back and then look carefully. I wasn't sure if I really understood. When I got home that evening, I opened the platform a
nd looked at it again. Image by image it was flooded by B. Was it desperation? Then I squinted my eyes and zoomed out as B had suggested.
B's swarm of images began to mingle with the countless other images and coalesce into a brutally jagged landscape. I realized that his ima
ges formed the textures of deserts, lonely forests, and endlessly deep lakes with endlessly dark water. Upon closer inspection, I reali
zed what it was all made of: hope, sweat, sadness, despair, and also joy - all side by side. B had managed to draw out the platform's sto
ry and shape, and to give the discourse a new expression. I immediately started buying B's textures one by one. I was trying to get them
all so I could own the entire landscape, the entire narrative, the entire artwork. But the more I did that, the more the landscape began t
o move, change shape and become more and more abstract until it completely disappeared before my eyes. It was as if someon
e had stretched the canvas and flattened everything in the process. And then when I bought the last piece, the whole damn landscape was gone.Minting Your NFT