This year’s NFC Lisbon was nothing short of revelatory. Between the AI Art Hackathon, Leo Crane’s immersive exhibit of selections from The Masterpiece of Tamagata, MP’s very own Hernán Ortiz speaking onstage with Trevor Jones about the annual Bitcoin Angel Castle Party, MP’s Georgia Andre on Rug Radio, MP’s in-house legal counsel Kayvan Ghaffari’s onstage speaking engagement, and BLOOM Collective’s and Trevor Jones’s curated exhibits, it’s one for the ages.
And while all of the above were amazing in their own right, the Hackathon by far made the biggest splash, even landing on Artnet’s homepage (among a lot of other great coverage).
Twenty-four hours before the Hackathon kickoff, the four participating artists (BLΛC, DVK the artist, TheDigitalCoy, and Illustrata) received the full text of Sasha Stiles’s poem, “Ars Autopoetica.” Once the Hackathon started, the artists had 48 hours to create a fully realized piece, with the process being documented as an effort to demystify the process of creating with AI.
Collect “Ars Autopoetica” by Sasha Stiles »
But MakersPlace designed complications into the process.
More than halfway through Day 1, the artists were hit with an element they had to incorporate into their pieces: Trevor Jones’s famous painting, Bitcoin Angels.
Meanwhile, cutting-edge robotic painting company ARTMATR received the end-of-day-one work snapshots and had their robotic painting arm paint each piece right away. Those paintings were personally flown to Lisbon and hand-delivered by ARTMATR to the conference floor, where none other than Coldie received them and set to work collaging the elements. (See this video from ARTMATR documenting the end-to-end process)
On Day 2, once the artists regained their bearings while incorporating elements from Jones’s prompt injection, they were interrupted a second time by art duo Hackatao, who sent them three elements, of which the artists had to choose at least two to incorporate into their work.
No live event would be complete without live troubleshooting, and the first major troubleshooting opportunity was discovered as the paintings were revealed to be perfectly transported but still wet oil paintings. Not to mention that BLΛC dropped his room keycard onto TheDigitalCoy’s painting.
Collect the Limited Edition Snapshots from Day 1 & Day 2 »
With experienced fine art painters Trevor and Violetta Jones on hand, the MP team hit the mall to buy whatever they could to speed the drying process while Coldie set to work anyway. Crowds started to form, both for the AI artists as well as for Coldie, who was, by this point, also himself quite the painting.
As skeptics peered at the screens streaming the creative process, reservations about this technology melted away to be replaced with enthusiasm. Even stalwart analog painters Trevor and Violetta Jones admitted by the event’s end that they’d developed a new respect for AI art.
The collaboration was not simply between an individual artist, their AIs, and the creative obstacle course MP had lain. The conversation between artists started early on Day 1 and continued throughout as they compared processes, asked questions, exchanged ideas, and became something of a little pop-up creative studio unto themselves. Most importantly, everyone had an amazing, unforgettable time creating art and personal connections.
Collect the Final 1/1 Hackathon Artworks »
By becoming a holder of any of the completed 1/1 artworks or the limited edition snapshots from the event, you unlock a treasure trove of exclusive benefits.
To learn more about the creative process each artist undertook to get to their finished pieces, check out their detailed Twitter threads here ⤵️
