SOULS, the interactive NFT collectibles by SiA and david oreilly

10,000 unique interactive BEINGS living on ethereum

The international pop star SiA and the renowned visual artist David OReilly have collaborated on SOULS, an NFT collection of 10,000 unique interactive beings living on Ethereum. The colorful life forms exist as virtual objects who can bounce, wiggle, dance, sleep and even speak in a musical language sung by SiA. Exploring the creative potential of Web3 (a new iteration of the World Wide Web that includes decentralized apps and blockchain technologies), SOULS began as a series of simple colorful paintings that grew over time into an expansive collection of never-before-seen digital beings. Each SOUL is born with its own personality, name, voice, color pattern, quirks and ambient sound, while some like interaction and others prefer none. Users can click, drag, and rearrange them as much as they want, and each creature will tell them if they’re feeling happy, sad, bored, or overstimulated. Each creature’s unique characteristics are listed in the project’s Open sea NFT Marketplace, while in a total of 10,000 creatures, 7,910 are considered common, 1,814 uncommon, 214 rare, 51 epic, and only 11 legendary.

design boom reached out to David OReilly to find out more about SOULS, where the idea for the project came from, and the ways users can interact with the virtual beings. Read our full conversation below.

all images courtesy of SOULS

SOUL: AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID OREILLY

designboom (DB): What was the original idea behind SOULS? Animation, interactive design and music were all involved from the very beginning?

David OReilly (DOR): SiA created a series of “lump paintings” a long time ago, which I loved. She painted them with nail polish. They have a kind of bold clarity that runs through all her work. I realized an interesting way to process them in 3D, using a technique called inverted normals. The interactivity and music came later as the project developed.

DB: How did your collaboration with SiA start?

DOOR: Sia and I became friends in London almost two decades ago. We kept in touch over the years, so last year she called me to talk about collaborating on a collection. She had entered the NFT collection in a way I hadn’t expected. We then started meeting regularly and sending ideas back and forth as they took shape.

the ‘blob paintings’ that marked the start of the project

DB: What is the main purpose of the project?

DOOR: We wanted to bring something gentle, tactile and musical to the world of digital art. I loved the challenge of breathing life into her soft, colorful blobs, introducing a feminine touch to the culture of NFTs.

DB: On which platforms can SOULS be used and in what ways?

DOOR: SOULS works exclusively in the browser on mobile and desktop – the website allows you to browse your collection or curated collections. You can use touch, mouse or keyboard to “play” Souls like an instrument or choir. In addition to singing, each SOUL has its own ambient sound, which are beautiful textures to explore. On Apple devices, you can drag Souls into AR.

colorful, interactive SOULS bounce, wiggle, dance, sleep and sing

DB: Each of the interactive life forms comes with special characteristics, including a unique personality, name, sound and color pattern. How did you decide on these traits, and what are some of the most special traits that rare, epic, and legendary SOULs have?

DOOR: SiA picked the colors, and came up with the idea of ​​overlapping colors being rare, which turned out to be a very elegant way of doing rarity. Each SOUL consists of up to four different color elements, and it is mathematically rare that these all have the same color.

DB: How can one’s different SOULS interact with each other?

DOOR: SOULS uses a fairly complex emotional system, for what is currently possible in the browser. They react to each other and display different behaviors based on their mood. Each tends to become happy or sad at different times, for different reasons, at different frequencies – depending on their characteristics. Large groups of SOULs also exhibit collective behavior.

Yes #1849

DB: Will the project continue to evolve? Any future plans?

DOOR: As a whole, we have no idea what NFTs are yet. What this technology and community was last year compared to what it is today is night and day. The potential of the technology it was built on is barely even understood. We have created a project that is designed to evolve, but also stands alone as a unique work of art. The next stages depend on how and where the community wants to take it.