EMILY NICOLL

Meet @ENICOLL — digital artist and founder of Aquaregia Records. We chatted with her during @artblocks_io Marfa Weekend to learn about turning sound into visual worlds, debuting on Art Blocks, and blending nature with technology. Full interview below! 👇

The blockchain is a recording format that captures an ephemeral moment in a permanent, publicly available, interactive and interoperative way aligned with a more democratized permissionless and transparent future. -- As an early adopter of @ethereum, I had felt that there was something really special in there somewhere. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Somewhere inside of this technology was something magical waiting to be chiseled out of a block of stone. Then @matthall2000 and @pents90 launched @cryptopunks and it all clicked for me. The ability to prove authenticity and ownership over something digital. Fuse was lit. Was inspired to build @artblocks_io. Boom. In the early days of the Punks discord I would often express a gut feeling that these little 24x24 pixel characters would end up in major museums. While I fully recognized at the time how foolish and delusional those statements were, deep down inside, deep in my bones, I truly felt it would happen. Over the years that conviction grew as I watched a community grow around them in ways that only this technology could facilitate. It was a mixture of technological curiosity, speculation, social signaling, art appreciation, self discovery, and a desire to break out of the confines of what we had always been told art *should* be, and what could be considered art in the first place. All built and expressed in public, among a group of what started as anonymous internet friends and acquaintances that eventually evolved into true human relationships. We have collectively gone through a lot over the last almost decade. Some massive ups and equally massive downs. Both in crypto/blockchain/web3 and in our everyday lives. We've "grown up", together, watching each other navigate all of this through real life things like people getting married, divorced, children being born, and friends passing. We've bought homes, we've lost homes. We've cheered on the successes of our peers and supported each other through the scams. We've all made mistakes, but we've learned from those mistakes as well. It's all very real. All of it. It seems insane to even need to type that. But sometimes it feels like we're living a weird ethereal fantasy because often times our world, our jargon, our dialogue and our knowledge is just so far removed from everyday society that it all feels surreal. What started as just a bunch of internet nerds is, in fact, a massive community of real humans, with real lives, with a shared passion that brings us all together. AND IT IS INTERESTING. Not just to us but to society as a whole. But with all of the conviction that I and many of us have in what we do, the true dopamine hits come not from "number go up" (although admittedly hard to deny the impact) but from validation. Validation that there is something intrinsically valuable and interesting in what we're doing beyond the greed, speculation, and drama. For me that validation comes in many ways. And most of that validation comes from within this community. Innovation, creativity, shared sense of purpose, builders artists and collectors having active and meaningful dialogue. The fact so many of us are still here after all that's gone down over the years is a true testament that we are doing something net positive and interesting. But as we evolve beyond this weird little fantasy and echo chamber and acknowledge the reality and humanity of it all, and the outside world starts to understand and appreciate what we're doing beyond this all being just "crypto", it is quite meaningful for me personally to also get validation from outside of our community. My focus has almost exclusively been on the artistic side of crypto. There are many tools in the Ethereum tool chest but the ones I focus on are the ones that support the durability, distribution, authenticity, and interoperability of artistic expression. And therefore the external validation that makes me and many of us think we may be just a *little* less crazy comes from the cultural institutions. It's the @ZkmKunst, @ToledoMuseum and the @museumartlight, the @theMoodyArts and @LACMA and @BuffaloAKG, @whitneymuseum and @MuseumModernArt plus countless others that have taken the time to see past the noise and the mania and understand that there's something interesting and special happening within our space. While we have our own institutions evolving and maturing alongside us expanding outwards, others are looking in. *note in a previous version of this post I attempted to tag a bunch of people but inevitably couldn’t tag everyone and I didn’t want anyone to feel left out so I scrapped it* And at the end of the day we will all meet somewhere in between. Some form of homeostasis will be reached. Hopefully leaning heavier on our ideals of transparency, democratization, permissionlessness, and access. Blockchain does not solve supply and demand. It doesn't solve power laws. In fact it exacerbates these things. But it does solve for many many things that will continue to make our world a better place. The good far outweighs the bad. Sometimes it's harder to appreciate that than others, but it does. Anyways, all in due time. But it is happening. It's undeniable. The blockchain is to the digital/generative medium what film was to the lens. And as such its impact on everyday life and society will be significant. It might be slower than our collective hopes and expectations, but it's happening. Zoom out. It's all there. And if you're still reading this, it's all there in large part because of you.

this is going to be impossible to finalize. keep finding cuter rocks and bigger boxes 🥺🪏🤍 @DaCaldera @artblocks_io