{"id":7080,"date":"2023-05-12T05:00:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/12\/artist-cai-guo-qiangs-transcendent-new-nft-project-invites-you-to-connect-with-an-oracle-that-lives-on-the-blockchain-artnet-news\/"},"modified":"2023-05-12T05:00:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T05:00:01","slug":"artist-cai-guo-qiangs-transcendent-new-nft-project-invites-you-to-connect-with-an-oracle-that-lives-on-the-blockchain-artnet-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/05\/12\/artist-cai-guo-qiangs-transcendent-new-nft-project-invites-you-to-connect-with-an-oracle-that-lives-on-the-blockchain-artnet-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s Transcendent New NFT Project Invites You to Connect With an ‘Oracle That Lives on the Blockchain’ | Artnet News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cThe art world today,\u201d in Cai Guo-Qiang\u2019s estimation, \u201cseems rather conservative.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In between the intercultural conflict on the world stage, and the\u00a0advancement of technology on the creative front, the art and cultural fields, in the artist\u2019s view, have not properly reflected the chaos of the contemporary condition. And particularly not \u201cat a time when the world is strongly questioning the authenticity of time, actively pioneering in the virtual space, and infinitely expanding our vision in the <\/span>cosmos<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Cai, confronting these issues requires calling on powers and realms beyond our grasp\u2014what he terms \u201cthe unseen world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe more confusion we face, the more we need to leverage guidance from the unseen world,\u201d he told Artnet News. \u201cSuch power transcends individuals, localities, and different cultures. At this moment, it is particularly important to continue the dialogue with the unseen world with a humble and inquiring mindset.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Later this month, Cai will unveil one such bridge to the unknown with his fifth NFT project, <\/span>EET<\/span><\/i>, or <\/span>Exchange with Extraterrestrials<\/span><\/i>, realized in partnership with Web3 collective Kanon. The artist bills it as \u201can oracle that lives on the blockchain,\u201d the chat platform welcomes all manner of questions from users the same way a real-life fortune-teller might, and spits out answers in two distinct forms of tokens.<\/span><\/p>\n

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An EET Fortune. Photo courtesy of Kanon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One of them, called Gua, is a diagram randomly generated by <\/span>EET <\/span><\/i>based on physical inputs by users who are asked to tap a button on a screen as they wait for the oracle\u2019s answers. The other is dubbed the EET Fortune, which serves as a \u201creading\u201d containing a title and six verses. There are 64 base formats of EET Fortunes, which can be elaborated into 4,096 combinations, with random generation ensuring that no two readings are alike. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Cai, an EET Fortune is primarily intended to provide \u201ca symbolic cue or guidance.\u201d But if it proves particularly opaque, an A.I. assistant that\u2019s been trained on the textual content of EET\u00a0Fortunes is at hand to help users interpret its meaning. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Gua and EET Fortunes will also be minted and encoded as animated GIFs, making <\/span>EET<\/span><\/i> the first NFT project to generate and on-chain the image format. The mint price is 0.065ETH (about $119), though collectors who already own the artist\u2019s NFTs will have access to free mints.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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An EET Fortune. Photo courtesy of Kanon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The entire process involved in <\/span>EET<\/span><\/i> takes cues and mirrors the divination culture that Cai grew up with in his native Quanzhou, in southeastern China. He referred to the Chinese fortune-telling practice of <\/span>kau chim<\/span><\/i>, wherein a seeker at a temple shakes a tube of bamboo sticks, each inscribed with a numeral, until one randomly falls out. The number on that stick will then be matched with a written fortune, which can be further clarified by a monk or a priest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

EET<\/span><\/i>, as Cai put it, \u201crestores the behavioral and psychological process of <\/span>kau chim<\/span><\/i> in temples, only this time, it all happens on the blockchain and the virtual world.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is hardly Cai\u2019s first attempt to reach the unseen world. However impenetrable, the unknown is threaded throughout his practice\u2014from his series \u201cProjects for Extraterrestrials\u201d (1989\u2013), comprising some 30 works, including his famed <\/span>gunpowder drawings<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0that illustrate his fixation with the cosmos; to <\/span>Sky Ladder<\/span><\/i> (2015), <\/span>his long-gestated explosion event<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to \u201cconnect the Earth to the universe.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cai Guo-Qiang, Crop Circles<\/em> (2012). Photo: Wyatt Conlon, courtesy The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Of late, the new technological frontier represents as much an unseen world for Cai. Whether he\u2019s rendering his <\/span>firework spectacles in V.R.<\/span><\/a> or most recently, <\/span>training an A.I. program<\/span><\/a> on his body of work, the artist has sought to put his art in dialogue with technology. \u201cThe future,\u201d he said, \u201cis heading toward the integration of the virtual and the physical.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all just starting, and I am not in a rush to jump to a conclusion or pose a value judgment, because everyone is exploring,\u201d he said about the new technologies. \u201cBut, at least, as the old Chinese saying goes, \u2018<\/span>lose at sunrise but gain at sunset<\/span><\/a>.\u2019 Experience and exploration online will bring about changes to my art in the physical world.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cai Guo-Qiang, Sky Ladder<\/em> (2015). Photo: Wen-You Cai, courtesy Cai Studio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

NFTs and the blockchain have been especially fascinating for Cai. As the Kanon team reflected in a statement: \u201cAs we developed <\/span>EET<\/span><\/i>, the questions Cai would pose to us and the direction he provided made us realize that he understood the potential depth of the medium much better than even we did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2021, Cai has embarked on a steady run of blockchain projects\u2014beginning with <\/span>Transient Eternity<\/span><\/i><\/a>, commissioned by Shanghai\u2019s Rockbund Art Museum\u2014that have grown in ambition, leaning increasingly into the unique qualities and utility of NFTs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take <\/span>Your Daytime Fireworks<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2022), created in collaboration with NFT platform TRLab. The project offered 7,000 firework packet tokens that collectors could \u201cset off\u201d at a day and time of their choosing to reveal one of 90 artworks, which varied according to real-world environmental conditions. While doing so, collectors got to experience Cai\u2019s process, from the planning involved to the anxiety and anticipation that he feels before setting off his own firework displays. It made for what the artist called a \u201clive experience.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Daytime Firework reveal: Day 51
Firework style: Mini Fan<\/p>\n

Remember to turn on the audio for each reveal \ud83d\udd0a On rainy days, the humidity will dampen the sound of the explosion \ud83e\udd2b pic.twitter.com\/5l0fWBEvWl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 TRLab (@trlab_) May 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

This interactive and participatory aspect also powers <\/span>EET<\/span><\/i>, right down to the creative process that birthed it. The project, Cai recalled, was hashed out in Zoom meetings between his studio and the Kanon team, working across time zones and geographic divides. It presented to the artist an entirely new way of working, he said, \u201crealizing projects through online communication with a group of friends I have never met.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is that we are creating an interactive work that bridges the virtual and the physical worlds while our communication channel and creative methods, which defy the physical boundaries and geographic distance between us, are in themselves part of the work,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis is a new artistic methodology brought about by new social forms.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But even as Cai has embraced the shifts wrought by technology on art, he continues to weigh these expanded possibilities. Will NFTs ever come into their own as art forms? Might his faith in new technologies be \u201ctoo ambitious\u201d\u2014or \u201ctoo minuscule\u201d? <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked how he sees his blockchain works enlarging his practice, he wondered if such digital advancements, \u201cincluding the so-called \u2018metaverse,’\u201d could ever \u201csolve the problem of art? Same with the problem of creativity.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, as if pulling back, he added: \u201cCreativity is not replacing oil paint with NFTs.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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