Ready for this week’s fantastic round-up?
We’ve got amazing news from one of our own in this edition of Inside Indie .. keep reading to find out more!
- ‘The Journey of Humanity’ painting created in Dubai sells for record-breaking $62 million
- Humanoid robot Sophia launches music career after selling an NFT for $688,888 last month
- Artists and galleries in the gulf have entered the NFT art market
- Dubai-based DJ and music producer Beatz By HYPE releases new single KRSTOFR on Spotify and other streaming platforms
Dubai-based artist Sacha Jafri has entered the Guinness World Records with the world’s largest painting.
Measuring a staggering 1,800 square metres, the artwork took seven months, 1,065 paintbrushes, and 6,300 litres of paint. It also featured children’s drawings from around the world with the theme of isolation and connection. When it was completed, The Journey of Humanity contained over 300 layers of paint.
The painting was originally split into 70 pieces to be sold at auction for charity before Andre Abdoune, the Chief Executive of Altius Gestion International Holding, bought the entire piece for $62M during a recent auction in Dubai.
The funds will be split between Dubai Cares, UNICEF’s Giga project, UNESCO, and the Global Gift Foundation.
Sophia, the humanoid robot made by Hanson Robotics, is the latest ‘person’ to enter the world of NFTs – and the creative world by extension.
It all started last month when she collaborated with Italian artist Andrea Bonaceto, who drew portraits of Sophia. She then processed his work via neural networks and proceeded to create her own painting. The NFT that resulted is a 12-second video file that shows Bonaceto’s portrait evolving into Sophia’s painting. It’s called “Sophia Instantiation” and was sold for $688,888. The owner also received the physical artwork painted by Sophia.
Now, the robot has set her sights on the music world with another project: “Sophia Pop”, where she will “collaborate” with musicians, helping create both music and lyrics.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out and what that means for creative people everywhere, whether human or robot.
Several artists and galleries from around the region have now jumped into the NFT art market, following its growing success around the world.
Among those pioneering this new wave in the Gulf art world are Gallery Bawa, a digital art gallery in Kuwait, which launched its the first NFT art exhibiton in the region with “Suadi Old Man Calling The Camels In The Desert and they run to him like baby run to his mother, then they start Kissing and huging him [sic]”, a solo show with Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi.
According to The National, one of NFTs’ greatest advantages over traditional art deals is that artists can also make money on the secondary market. Traditionally, when an artwork is bought from a gallery by a collector, the piece can then be resold privately or at auction for a higher price, without the artist sharing in the profit. With NFTs, however, artists continue to earn a percentage of profit for every resale, and because the NFT is tied to the blockchain, every transaction is logged.
It’s still early to see whether NFTs are here to stay or if they will disappear when the bubble bursts. If it is a new, permanent way for artists and people to engage with creative works, then it’ll definitely be interesting to see where that will take us a few years down the road.
We’re so excited to share this with you!
Here’s what he told Creativity Undefined about the song:
“KRSTOFR; its short for Christopher. I named the song after a guy who randomly was attending one of my live beat making sessions on IG [Instagram]. In the middle of making a beat he requested by commenting to make something that has the same vibes of the late rapper XXXtentacion. I researched the famous late X’s music and within an hour I did a live performance on IG live of the beat for Christopher. His overwhelmed enthusiastic response and his connection to the song made me name the melancholy nostalgic lofi beat after him. And now it has over 3131 streams on Spotify in less than 20 days. To be frank its not about the streams for me, I’m just glad it went from connecting with a spectator to winning a fan.”
Beatz By HYPE is also releasing another single on May 21, called BURKAN. We can’t wait to hear it! If you’re like us then pre-save it here.
Have an event or want to share some news for the indie community? Contact us at creativity.undefined@outlook.com
CREATIVITY UNDEFINED 