A conversation with Ben Gillin, onchain AI models, and hotlinks.
INVENTORY is a monthly curated collection of links, chats with creatives, and the latest happenings from TITLES, delivered direct to your inbox. This week we interview NYC-based new media artist Ben Gillin, drop you a number of fresh hyperlinks, and sprinkle in some new works from Fingerprints DAO.
HOTLINKS
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Researchers have discovered a new shape?
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OpenSea launches “Pro” a revised aggregator built on Gem.
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You probably need to check out this Tax Prep Waifu 3000 by MSCHF.
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Future Primitive announces ERC-6551, or Token Bound Accounts.
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In the world of Full Generative AI, everything falls into the uncanny valley.
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Chris Stokel-Walker on why banning TikTok will bring on the splinternet.
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Chris Stussy dropped a new set with unlimited IDs via The Lab London.
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Cody Brown launched a DAO to buy the first ticket to Mars.
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Art Blocks Debuts NFT Marketplace with Enforced Creator Royalties.
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SOURCE makes it easy for anyone to mint NFTs from your phone.
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Dumb phones make yet another comeback, this time with Gen-Z.
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Fingerprints DAO + Generative launched a new project, Perceptrons.
SPOTLIGHT
In this issue we’re excited to feature Ben Gillin. Ben is a dear friend of the team at TITLES, an experimental creator pushing the boundaries with generative models, and a talented artist across a number of mediums. We’re stoked to share with you some insight behind his thinking and the projects he’s working on.
Kicking things off, can you share with us a little about yourself and your work?
I am an interdisciplinary artist, designer, educator, and technologist born in Texas and currently living in Brooklyn. I have been creating artwork both digitally and physically since I was a kid, starting with Mac Paint on the Macintosh 512k.
I hold a degree in graphic design, although nobody has ever asked to see it. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to work with large companies, non-profits, bands, individuals, and startups.
In my personal work, I often like to poke fun at the absurdity and mundanity of the world. Occasionally, I create something that stirs up some light-hearted controversy, and if I’m lucky, it becomes a new category of thing on the internet.
Can you describe your style, aesthetic, or common themes in your work?
Common themes that pop up are; observational humor, dystopian futures, nostalgia for the past that may or may not have existed, and pushing back against the status quo.
My aesthetic is a bit messy and unrefined. I try to embrace imperfection while leaning into limitations both in my tools and in myself that in turn, become strengths.
I like to laugh a lot, I also like to talk about the 1000lb gorilla in the room. This combo becomes a weapon when used to make art. Like the time I made fun of Kim Kardashian by making Kim Jong Un emojis that beat her in her own search results for a few weeks back in 2016 and later on became part of emoji history according to Wired.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Life experiences. Places I’ve lived (Texas, Colorado, and New York). Traveling to new places. Actively seeking out content that’s not recommended to me by an algorithm and talking to a lot of different people. I am constantly learning and evolving my skillsets. All of these things have helped train the Ai model that is my brain that I use to navigate life and make art that is true to me.
I recently had my work included in a World on Foundation curated by Anna Condo. I made a piece that ties in my very first digital tool, the Mac 512k with my most recent digital tool, Ai. “Apple in the Gairden of Eden” is a 1 min looping video seen here.
What new or old tools have you been digging lately?
I picked up film photography over the last year. My friend Dave Bias gifted me a Nikon 35mm because he was tired of seeing me shoot digital. Shooting film has been a nice counter balance to generating Ai images that feel to be photographs.
I have really enjoyed diving deep into collaborating with MidJourney, GPT4, Stable Diffusion. I use them in various ways with each other and with more traditional image creation techniques via the Adobe suite.
Last summer I took 1:1 oil painting classes with painter Rick Secan here in Brooklyn. I already knew acrylic and watercolor pretty well. I used my own photography combined with my love of Ninja Turtles to make a self portrait.
What appeals to you about Ethereum?
I am fairly new to the space, there is so much to learn and I’m intrigued from that aspect alone. Ethereum enforces ownership, transparency, and direct commerce that empowers artists to flourish. Community is built in by default and there is so much optimism and kindness in the space.
What does creativity mean to you?
Creativity at its core is being able to imagine some new idea in your mind that you want to see in the world and then make that idea real. The idea is the easy part part, the hard part comes when you translate it into something other people can experience. By creating something that didn’t exist before, you get to understand yourself better and in doing so other people can learn about themselves, you as an artist, and the idea you were compelled to create.
Anything fun you’d like to plug?
Come watch some of my Ai Videos on YouTube or say hey over on Twitter or Instagram.
DROPS
In collaboration with Generative, Fingerprints DAO dropped their latest project dubbed “Perceptrons”.
Living on Bitcoin, Perceptrons is an experimental collection of on-chain AI models, built of neural networks that take images as inputs and classify them. While many projects have stored outputs from AI models on-chain, Perceptrons attempts to store the actual AI models themselves, allowing users to query the artwork and run live image recognition tasks. The artworks are visual representations of each neural network’s unique architecture. Learn more about Perceptrons, here.
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If you hold “OS” or “SOURCE” by TITLES you’ll be allowlisted for the auction.
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Total supply: 580 (512 to be sold and 68 allocated to Generative and Fingerprints)
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Sale format: 72-hour public auction
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Time and date: Tuesday, April 4, 2PM EST — Friday, April 7, 2 PM EST
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The auction will take place on the Generative site where you can use your Metamask wallet and pay in ETH. Once the auction is finished, you will receive the asset in a BTC wallet that is associated with your Metamask wallet.
REMINDERS
- Mint “SOURCE by TITLES” to get access to our cryptomedia discovery + wallet tracking app. Check it out, here.
Much love,
— TITLES