Jeremy Cowart will create 10,000 NFT images in 20 minutes – in front of an audience
In an age of artificial intelligence and generative art, a seemingly endless abundance of artwork and images can now be conjured up almost instantly – by almost anyone, almost anywhere. Keeping up with this deluge of content is a concern for many artists, but award-winning photographer Jeremy Cowart seems to have just taken it as a challenge.
On May 2, in front of a live audience in Nashville, Cowart – in an event he calls “Auras”— will attempt to produce 10,000 original, unique photo-based NFTs in approximately 20 minutes without the aid of generative code or post-production effects. The event will also stream live online for remote audiences.
Instead of automatically generating thousands of NFTs with computer programming based on the distribution of rare properties, as many collections do, Cowart will use multi-colored lighting setups, robotics, three layers of projection and a 130-foot LED volume wall to physically create a series with thousands of unique images in minutes.
Each image will feature Cowart in the center, wearing a white mask designed to signify a blank canvas. Cowart has photographed subjects including Barack Obama, Taylor Swift and the Kardashians, and his work has been regularly featured in Rolling Stone, New York Times, and Time.
Promotional artwork from Jeremy Cowart’s “Auras” event. Image: Jeremy Cowart
Each image will feature Cowart in the center, wearing a white mask designed to signify a blank canvas. Cowart has photographed subjects including Barack Obama, Taylor Swift and the Kardashians, and his work has been regularly featured in Rolling Stone, New York Times, and Time.
Like many other large NFT collections, individual “Aura’s” NFTs will contain certain rarities that weave in and out of the series. Cowart will build these rare qualities into his creative process as the live NFT creation process unfolds.
“Auras is the most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried,” Cowart told me Decrypt. “I’ve been adding ideas to my setup for 10 years and it’s resulted in a creative process that I don’t think has been done before.”
“Combine that with the NFT space,” he continued, “and we have something very special here. Historic, even.”
Cowart works on his art. Image: Jeremy Cowart
Managing the event is Kaleidoscope, an image processing library created by Web3’s digital creation platform Transient Labs. Kaleidoscope extracts generative properties from images and uses this information to streamline the creation of metadata – the data that powers NFT collections.
In case of “Auras” the technology will focus on the colors shown in certain photographs taken by Cowart to give the NFT collection its rarity and structure.
In addition to Transient Labs, “Aura’s” is sponsored by NFT marketplace OpenSea. On May 9, a week after Cowart created “Aura’s” resides in Nashville, the resulting collection of NFTs will be sold via the marketplace. Current holders of Cowart’s previous NFT project, Block Queens, will have the opportunity to mint a “Aura’s” NFT free.
