If the prominent rise of AI art tools<\/a> in the last year can be described as an uncharted ocean of creative possibility, then the Web3 photography platform Fellowship is one of the boldest and most capable ships navigating its waves. In April, the platform launched Post-Photographic Perspectives<\/a>, its inaugural AI-focused art show featuring the mind-expanding and socially introspective works of artists like Roope Rainisto, Katie Morris, Jess Mac, Charlie Engman, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n The follow-up to that show, entitled Acceptable Realities<\/a>, arrives on July 10 and is divided into two parts, one dedicated to the growing genre of AI video experimentation and the other to photographic AI stills. The new project explores the ways AI continues to enable an expansion of the possibilities of the art of the lens. It features a roster of 14 artists, including Felipe Posada, Alkan Avc\u0131o\u011flu, Beth Frey, Irina Angles, Frank Manzano, and more, whose work is being curated by crypto art heavy hitters like Grant Riven Yun<\/a> Ivona Tau, Roope Rainisto, and Pindar Van Arman. <\/p>\n We sat down with Fellowship\u2019s co-founder, Alejandro Cartagena, to talk about the platform\u2019s second show, how and why the AI video scene is exploding, and what it takes to create real value for a Web3 community of holders.<\/p>\n nft now: Let\u2019s dive into Acceptable Realities, the second installation of Fellowship\u2019s Post Photographic Perspectives series. How does it feel to have had such a successful launch back in April, and what feelings do you have on the cusp of this second show? <\/strong><\/p>\n Alejandro Cartagena:<\/strong> Fellowship has been going since 2021. We\u2019d been putting off the idea of a mint pass for a long time because we thought, \u2018What can we actually really deliver?\u2019 Then we saw this opportunity of building a series of exhibitions because there\u2019s so much talent out there, and we were scouting all over the world for new artists. We said, \u2018Okay, this is something we can commit to, and we can over-deliver on this.\u2019 <\/p>\n The idea was that you buy the pass, and it\u2019s a yearly subscription. This is what we\u2019re going to promise for this year. This is what we\u2019re fully committed to, and boom, we\u2019re on it. The commitment is to do three amazing collections. With this second one, we\u2019re introducing video. It\u2019s a series. It\u2019s a commitment to the collectors who said, \u2018Hey, we believe in the curation that you\u2019re doing; go out and find great talent,\u2019 and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing for them.<\/p>\n Things are evolving so quickly, and exhibitions are kind of dated in that sense. [These shows] speak about the technological moments when those images were created. In this second iteration, you see [AI] video, which, when we launched the first show video was really shitty. Now artists are doing things with video and just going berserk. They\u2019re mixing tools. They\u2019re mixing CGI with 3D modeling, with building their own Stable Diffusion models. That wasn\u2019t there three months ago. <\/p>\n nft now: You\u2019ve got artists like Grant Yun and Ivona Tau and collectors like Studio137 and ayybee as part of the curatorial committee for the show. Apart from wanting to include well-known and respected artists and figures in the community, how did the Fellowship team decide who they wanted to be a part of that group? <\/strong><\/p>\n AC:<\/strong> After the first launch, it was amazing. Everybody sold out their collections. The pressure was on. It\u2019s up from there, right? Or staying at the same level, you can\u2019t go down. One of the things that we were encountering over and over were these collectors and artists saying, hey, if you need any help, I\u2019d love to take a look at you\u2019re what you\u2019re going to do next. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve been part of a lot of selection committees before. It\u2019s a consensus of artists that are doing things that are really cool and collectors that are actually buying work. So, it was a very difficult process because there were artists we favored that didn\u2019t make the cut because there wasn\u2019t a consensus amongst the collectors and artists. <\/p>\n But in the end, we think that is the best way. I mean, it\u2019s not a DAO thing. It\u2019s not about governance. It\u2019s about what work resonates the most in this particular moment. Let\u2019s bring in thought leaders to help us pinpoint who those people are. The people who were selected were selected because they resonated the best with the people we invited. <\/p>\n nft now: Some might feel that including Grant Yun, a minimal Precisionist artist who doesn\u2019t operate in the AI space, is a curious choice for the show\u2019s selection committee. How do you respond to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about finding like-minded people in the aesthetics, but like-minded people in the commitment to their art and their practice.\u201d<\/p>\n Alejandro Cartagena<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n AC:<\/strong> I\u2019ve been following Grant for a while, and we\u2019ve had short dialogues in the past about photography. He\u2019s a committed artist, and even though he doesn\u2019t talk too much about AI, we\u2019ve seen that he\u2019s collected AI work and that he\u2019s interested in looking at that world. Mainly, he just knows what he\u2019s doing. We want him to spot people that he feels that also at the level of what he\u2019s doing, too. It\u2019s all about that. It\u2019s not about finding like-minded people in the aesthetics, but like-minded people in the commitment to their art and their practice. <\/p>\n nft now: Let\u2019s talk about the thematic guidelines at work behind Acceptable Realities. AI art advocates are still in the midst of heated conversations about the movement\u2019s legitimacy and what is and is not \u2018acceptable\u2019 as art. How do these concepts play into what kinds of works the artists created for the show? <\/strong><\/p>\n AC:<\/strong> For me, it was this conundrum space. I\u2019ve never heard of this idea, an \u2018acceptable reality.\u2019 What does that even mean? For me, that was perfect to [capture] the moment that we\u2019re living in with AI art. What is this? And with \u2018reality,\u2019 we wanted to play with the photographic-ness of these images. Because they\u2019re not real. It\u2019s evident that they\u2019re not real, but they\u2019re acceptable enough that you can maybe consider<\/em> them real. It\u2019s a play on words, a play on the photographic medium, a play on the AI medium, and where those things collide. <\/p>\n nft now: Acceptable Realities leads off with its AI video artist submissions and gives collectors a three-day window to engage with that art before the still images portion of the show begins. Why carve out more of a space for AI video in this show? <\/strong><\/p>\n AC:<\/strong> More than a new trend, it\u2019s the way that video works compared to still images. Video needs time. Video needs a little bit more space for people to understand what they\u2019re looking at. So starting June 10, every day for four days, there\u2019s a single artist solo show, and they\u2019re all auctions. <\/p>\n The minimum bid is 0.01 ETH, so it\u2019s really affordable. Not all of the artists are producing the same number of works, so we wanted to have a sales mechanic that is respectful to the artwork itself. One of the things that we\u2019re super focused on at Fellowship is creating a really unique acquisition experience for collectors. You\u2019re going to see the works one week in advance so that you can come in and see what you like. You can also keep a watchlist on pieces you\u2019re thinking of. Once the bids start, you can filter through highest to lowest bids. <\/p>\n We\u2019re creating an experience where it\u2019s focused on collecting efficiently. To me, that is the ethos of Web3, making an efficient acquisition market for art. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an unease to the images because you feel that it\u2019s wrong. But you cannot stop trying to understand what you\u2019re looking at. And that sensation is what\u2019s exciting about AI video.\u201d<\/p>\n Alejandro Cartagena<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n nft now: The technological jumps that AI art tools are making these days are not insignificant by any metric. What has it been like for you, as someone steeped in the art and history of photography and image, to see this evolution take place? <\/strong><\/p>\n AC<\/strong>: It\u2019s, it\u2019s a fascinating thing to watch. The feeling of uncertainty is a fascinating thing for me in arts. For commercial use, I\u2019m sure that people think it sucks; they say it\u2019s not even rendering correctly, and so on. But that\u2019s actually really cool. That it\u2019s not factual, yet you understand it. And that is the power of art. It\u2019s about suggestion. <\/p>\n AI video is doing exactly that. It\u2019s tapping into our collective consciousness of what we\u2019ve seen as a beer commercial, as a car commercial. So AI is using, as it does with stills, known ideas but pulling and pushing them out half-baked. There\u2019s an unease to the images because you feel that it\u2019s wrong. But you cannot stop trying to understand what you\u2019re looking at. That sensation is what\u2019s exciting about AI video. Stills have been doing this for a while, but seeing it in video, seeing that extra layer of unknown narrative \u2014 that\u2019s the novelty of video for me right now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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