random international’s ‘life in our minds’ NFT develops with the participation of collectors

by James · September 22, 2022

“Life in Our Minds” by Random International and Danil Krivoruchko

Pace Verso and OG.Art are launching a new generative NFT project by experimental art collective Random International and digital artist Danil Krivoruchko. Called “Life in Our Minds,” their new project brings together contemporary art and crypto worlds, and includes cutting-edge technology that boosts buyers to actively participate in the formal development of the NFTs to make them rarer. designboom held an interview with Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass, the founders of Random International, to discuss the new NFT project and the new technologies that fascinate them, while also addressing previous projects (such as Rain room) related to today’s crypto kingdom.

The two-part project includes a animated NFT collection and a corresponding interactive video sculpture titled ‘Mother Flock’, comprising the individual NFTs, which will be unveiled later this year. ‘Life in our minds’ is a very basic form, an extension and a further iteration of our ‘swarm study’, where we experimented, investigated and created different ways of engaging in collective behaviour. The flocking behavior is not specific to any species, but has the fascination that many very simple individual movements, when they happen together in a certain way and according to a very basic set of specific rules, create an almost imaginary or sentient counterpart. . It is an organism that is more than the sum of its constituent parts behaviorally. Suddenly it seems like it’s an intentional being, even if it’s just a lot of little mindless parts. It is something we have explored in forms of light, kinetic and other incarnations. ONEAt some point we began to explore that we needed to algorithmically simulate such collective behavior. Then there was an opportunity to experiment with ways to digitally translate algorithmic behavior. We almost took away the real world from the installation work at different scales to return to the natural habitat of the algorithm, namely the digital space. We were and still are very interested in bringing some democratizing elements here. We realized that the idea of the NFT space is really engaging, and we thought we could create a large-scale sculpture in a kind of public space. shares Hannes Koch with design boom.

“Conceptually, we see an emerging public space that is virtual with the metaverse ahead. There is a third type of public space. We think that public art in that space can also be publicly owned and can be distributed. What we find really interesting is that everyone together contributes or has the ability and opportunity to contribute to a large-scale, publicly owned work of art that then transcends into something much larger, behaviorally, that begins to have a life of its own. And that means life exists in our minds, hence the title of the project. It’s a distributed form of ownership, of consumership, and also of creation, which we’re trying to experiment with all in its infancy. There is something very unique in this space that has not been possible in the physical world. It’s the kind of boundaries of the NFT space that are interesting for us to really do things that we wouldn’t be able to realize in the real world, and that’s something we think is really exciting.’

Random International and Danil Krivoruchko, Life in Our Minds, 2022 © Pace Verso and Snark.art

‘Life in Our Minds’, a nft in constant development

Pace Verso, Pace Gallery’s web3 hub, and Snark.art’s OG.Art NFT platform launch a new generative NFT project by Random International (see more here) and Danil Krivoruchko (more here), co-creator of the OG: Crystals NFT project. ‘Life in Our Minds’ NFT consists of a small group of Boids that take the form of 3D bird-like origami objects. The visual properties are first generated and then evolve depending on the contents of each owner’s digital wallet. Based on continuous development, the longer collectors keep NFTs, the rarer and more intricate their formal characteristics become. This includes an increase of Boids or a change in their formation and decorative patterns. The evolution mechanic engages owners with active participation to shape the artwork as it changes form. This promotes long-term ownership of the NFTs in an attempt to invert typical behavior in the crypto market, including speculation and flipping.

‘Life in Our Minds has collaborated with Flamingo DAO, Pleasr DAO, Fingerprints DAO, PROOFCollective, Tom Sachs Rocket Factory, Moonbirds, Outland, Pace Verso, OG:Crystals, Ksoids and 89 Seconds Atomized to offer custom evolutionary traits that are only available to people who have NFTs associated with these partners. Extra customized evolutionary patterns that holders of other NFT collections can achieve will be announced here.’

The project NFTs is part of a continuously evolving virtual sculpture ‘Mother Flock’ depicting the formal transformations of the individual NFTs. “Mother Flock’s visual features are informed by the behavior of its constituent Boids, bringing ideas about the power of both collective and individual action to the forefront of the project.” An online version of this will be freely available on the OG.Art platform. Dedicated to scientific research focusing on the psychology and behavior of humans and birds, ‘Life in Our Minds’ emerges as one of the most collaborative, technologically innovative NFT projects to date. “Life in our Minds continues our exploration of the human tendency to ascribe character, purpose and narrative to the complex behavior of simple moving forms, as well as the subconscious instincts and emotional triggers that prompt us to do so,” shares the duo.

Random International and Danil Krivoruchko, Life in Our Minds, 2022 © Pace Verso and Snark.art Random International and Danil Krivoruchko, Life in Our Minds, 2022 © Pace Verso and Snark.art Random International and Danil Krivoruchko, Life in Our Minds, 2022 © Pace Verso and Snark.art