WWW.OG.ART is a platform and a launchpad for dynamic NFT art collections and a completely new approach to creative collaboration. Dynamic NFTs can grow, breed, fuse, and react to blockchain or IRL events, even after they are initially bought. Collectors can interact with their NFTs and thus keep developing them potentially forever. 

OG.ART was launched last year by Snark.art (a production studio that has experimented with blockchain technology as a medium for art since 2018) after the success of one of the first dynamic NFT art collections: OG:Crystal Reef by Michael Joo and Danil Krivoruchko. After the launch of OG:CR the team immediately understood that the new potential of the blockchain that is at the crossroads of art and gaming was revealed. It was the reason why they decided to build a platform that is dedicated to the dynamic NFT collections. Currently there are three collections of the different complex mechanics: OG:CR by Michael Joo and Danil Krivoruchko, Life in Our Minds by Random International and Danil Krivoruchko, which was produced in partnership with Pace Verso, and the latest, multilayered projects Heterosis by Mat Collishaw and Danil Krivoruchko, produced in partnership with El-Gabal Studio.   

The mission of OG.ART includes demonstrating the potential of dynamic NFTs as an art medium and pushing new artistic endeavors; creating and developing a community of artists and collectors who become co-creators of dynamic generative art; enriching the current NFT market with the values and beauty of high conceptual art; educating the art community about new technologies and enlighten the crypto-active one about art history. 

The team of OG.ART creates and helps to create projects that will remain in the history of art and blockchain. Currently they are working on three new dynamic NFT projects with the renowned artists for OG.art platform and they are simultaneously developing several projects for brands and gaming companies with OG Protocol. The next development step for OG.art platform will be to make tools for dynamic NFT collections available for creators.  

Websites of both Snark.art production studio and OG.art platform are located within the .ART domain zone, which emphasizes their core values: “every project has a visually high aesthetics approach, advanced quality and concept. .ART domain helps to define the creative field we are exploring with blockchain technology and what is our strong proposition for b2b clients for their projects”.

Currently all the projects on OG.art are curated. One of them, Heterosis, is an unprecedented flower hybridization experience in which participants can cultivate their own bespoke animated flowers. Collectors are invited to become breeders or collaborative artists creating increasingly exotic and elaborate blooms, either for their own pleasure or as means towards predicting future value and stimulating speculation. Community can breed the flowers on the platform and soon the metaversal Greenhouse, which is an extension of the Heterosis project, will be launched. The flower owners will be able to enter the Greenhouse and interact with each other, as well as to explore other flowers in the Greenhouse that is a replica of the London’s National gallery.

.ART spoke to Mat Collishaw, an important member of the Young British Artists, who worked on the Heterosis project. Answering on the question about the way his artistic career has started, Collishaw says: “I started with charcoal and conte crayon on paper. I messed around assembling old junk into sculptures, graduated to oil paint and then photography. I started using photography as it immediately grounded the results in a relatively contemporary technology. I started using Photoshop in the mid 90’s and it immediately became apparent that digital technology was going to supersede analog mediums. In addition to that it was evident that we were entering a new realm where image manipulation was going to go stratospheric. So slowly I started incorporating other forms of technology into my artworks until we’re where we are now with dynamic, evolving NFT’s and immersive, socially persistent environments”. 

Mat Collishaw formulates the manifesto of his practice the following way: “I let my intuition take the lead, what feels right is generally a direction that you instinctively feel is interesting and is often worth exploring. I then research a lot around the field I’m involved in and this usually adds a fair amount of richness or texture to the projects I’m developing. So there is no manifesto, I let the ideas that interest me take me on a mysterious journey, but it’s always, inevitably your own personal sensibility which dictates these directions and the decisions you make when crafting a work”.

There are recurring visual references, symbols and forms which move from one project by Mat Collishaw to another: “I’m generally looking for an interesting interplay between form and content. Between an idea I want to work with and a medium in which to execute that idea. Therefore the references I draw on are diverse and unpredictable. However flowers are a recurring theme as they are convenient vehicles to carry ideas. For example I used images and videos of burning flowers to make artworks that attempted to deal with the paradox of the crucifixion; a barbaric method of execution that also represents transcendence”.

Commenting on how the artist arrived at the idea of creating dynamic NFT’s, he states: “I wanted to create a collection that could only exist in this space and one that tried to innovate and push the boundaries of what was already out there. I’d seen a few dynamic collections including the OG:Crystals project with Danil Krivoruchko and Michael Joo with Snark.Art, this seemed to me to be the most fertile area in NFT collections. Simple artworks and animations are fine but you could frame these and hang them in a gallery, evolving NFT’s really change the game and allow a participation with collectors which is unprecedented”. 

The idea behind the series of works Heterosis is “to create digital code that simulates genetic code and permits the cultivation of flowers, a practice that has been going on for centuries in the real world. It was particularly the social networks involved in ancient flower cultivation that interested me, a parallel which is striking when compared to the active communities behind most digital collections on Discord etc. It’s a relatively simple idea but interesting enough to present numerous opportunities to bring multiple ideas and mechanics seamlessly into the overall project”. 

Envisioning the mission for himself and for his practice the artist comments: “art history is steeped in questionable material; religious icons promoted religious sects, merchants, emperors and monarchs promoted themselves in portraiture, political propaganda and advertising utilize visual cues to manipulate us. Digital technology including social media are highly refined mediums designed to monetise our attention. These are all phenomena that fascinate me. I try to create artworks that inhabit similar areas and play with ideas of seduction, beauty, manipulation and corruption”.

In regards to the question of the increasing interest of collectors and museums in digital art, Mat Collishaw mentions: “I think we’re still at the beginning of this. Digital art is still trying to find its feet. When photography was first invented it took about 50 years before people could accept that the camera was a medium in its own right and they didn’t have to create photographs that looked like oil paintings. The technology is here but to an extent we are still wedded to anachronistic notions of producing and consuming this new media. Without a doubt an online presence has become an indispensable tool and  the content is finally becoming something a little different to prior methods of consuming information”. 

Here are some examples of available domains related to this article’s main topic:

flowers.art / medium.art / dynamic-art.art / intelligence.art / artificial-intelligence.art / virtual.art / unlocked.art / futuristic.art / aionline.art / digital-edition.art / generative-design.art 

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