The First Uncertain Step In a Completely New Direction
Autoglyphs | Living Through History | On the Shortness of Life
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“The First Uncertain Step In a Completely New Direction”
Look at the image below. Do you know what it is?
This is an Autoglyph. Autoglyph #7 to be precise. There are 512 total Autoglyphs.
From a purely visual standpoint, these 512 pieces may not look remarkable to you.
But they are historic.
Autoglyphs are the first example of on-chain generative art ever created on the Ethereum blockchain. They were created by Larva Labs in 2019.
So what? Who cares?
Let’s rewind.
Look at the image below. Do you know what it is?
It is a rendition of a wild pig.
If your kid drew a pig like this for you, you might tell them “that’s so great!” and then display it on the fridge for a few days before recycling it.
But this pig is 45,000 years old. And it happens to be is one of the oldest known surviving pieces of art in the world. Suddenly, it goes from the recycle bin to priceless treasure.
Context matters.
The earliest known cave drawings, oil paintings, and sculptures are all priceless artifacts of incredible historic importance. They are all in museums or in highly protected caves or tombs.
Let’s do another example.
Look at the image below. Do you know what it is?
If you found that metal plate in your yard, you’d probably toss it in the trash.
But that would be a tragedy. Because what you’re looking at is the oldest surviving photograph in the world, and likely one of the first ones ever taken.
Taken in 1826 or 1827 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras captures the view from one of the windows in his house. (If you look carefully, you can see the outline of buildings and roofs against the sky. Here is a digitally enhanced version to give you a better sense of what you’re looking at.)
To create this image, Niépce “treated a heated pewter plate with bitumen of Judea, or Syrian asphalt… [and] kept the camera open for at least eight hours, and possibly as long as two days.”
Writing about View from the Window at Le Gras after the fact, he mused that it was "the first uncertain step in a completely new direction."
History is made by those who are willing to take uncertain steps in new directions.
We Are Living Through History
The wild pig is one of the earliest cave paintings, but most likely not the first.
View from the Window at Le Gras is the oldest surviving photograph, but probably not the first.
And what about the first-ever painting? The first-ever sculpture?
We can be all but positive that these are lost to history. We will never see them.
Autoglyphs, on the other hand, will never be lost. They will live immortally and immutably on the Ethereum blockchain.
Quick 101:
What is the Ethereum blockchain?
The Ethereum blockchain is basically just a database. But unlike almost every single database we’re used to interacting with, it is controlled by no one. It is censored by no one. It is not reliant on the life or death or success or failure of any individual or business. It is totally decentralized and tamper-proof.What does it mean for art to live “on-chain”?
When you view the piece, you’re not seeing a saved PNG file hosted on some server maintained by some company. Instead, you’re running a live script that lives on the Ethereum blockchain (read: in a decentralized database). It is immutable, permissionless, and autonomous.
Here are some things I believe:
Generative art as a genre will become as highly regarded and studied as more “conventional” art forms.
On-chain generative art will be a very important sub category of #1
The Ethereum blockchain will be around for a very very very long time.
Hence, NFTs that live on-chain on Ethereum will be around for a very very very long time.
On-chain NFTs will become increasingly relevant and embedded in our lives. First, they will eat art, then brands, then culture more broadly, then other intangibles (like tickets to events, home titles, medical records, etc)
Imagine this all comes to pass.
Now put yourself in the shoes of an art collector or museum curator in the year 2217 (the same distance from now as Niépce’s photograph).
How much would you like to own an Autoglyph? The first-ever example of on-chain generative art on the Ethereum blockchain. Remember, by that point generative art is a massive art category, and Ethereum has become the “everything database.”
Across genres, the earliest works matter not because of how they look, but because of their provenance and for what they represent: An uncertain step in a brave new direction.
They paved the way for everything that came later.
A final point: We are so, so early.
Yes, “we are early” is clichéd by now, but that’s because it’s easy to forget (perspective is hard!) and thus it is worth repeating
We are ridiculously early. Hilariously early.
Autoglyphs are 3 years old.
Bored Ape Yatch Club is less than one year old
Fidenza by Tyler Hobbs is 10 month old
Punk 6529 sent his first tweet 9 months ago
The world is starting to catch on, but before they do, there is still time to participate in history.
While Autoglyphs are outside the price range of 99.9% of people, we are living in a rare window where a lot of people reading this can collect at least one historically significant piece of art if they put their mind to it.
Even though you may feel uncertain, now is the time to take a few steps in this completely new direction, and to take them with conviction!
🍣 Salmon Bites
A few quick morsels of fun before I sign off:
1. Tweet of the Week
2. Thread of the Week
Punk6529 wrote a beautiful and poignant thread on the shortness of life.
It echoes a universal truth that others have written about before, including Tim Urban in his post The Tail End, and even yours truly a few weeks back in my post on The Brevity of Life.
The universal truth is this: We will do things we love shockingly few more times.
6529 gives the example of hanging out with high school friends, who he loves. They are now all in different cities and they manage to meet up every 1 - 2 years. They will likely see each other again a few dozen more times at the most. This means that 99% of the time he will ever spend with them over his whole life is already in the books. He just has 1% left.
It really makes you think about those times when a friend is in town, and they try to meet up, but it doesn’t happen because of “work” or something like that.
Are your priorities straight?
3. Final Thought
When in doubt, take a walk.
What did you think about this issue of The Monty Report? Please head over to Twitter and let me know. Be sure to tag me - @MontyMedici - in your post so that I see it.
Until next Monday.
🐾 🍷
Monty
p.s. If you live in Austin, you can go see the View from the Window at Le Gras by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce at the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin.