➖ART
Last updated
Last updated
To better understand CryptoPhunks, start by reading about Conceptual Art, Marcel Duchamp, Dadaism, Andy Warhol and Memetics.
To many, the essence of Phunks comes from more than just the visual art itself. The simple but transformative flip on the y axis created a movement of digital art that blurs the lines between crypto art, conceptual art, performance art and traditional art. A complete recontextualization.
Here are few examples to better understand Concept behind Phunks:
| ORIGINAL IMAGE (Crypto Punks) | FLIPPED IMAGE (Crypto Phunks) |
|---|---|
Punk is facing Right | Phunk is facing Left |
Punk is moving away from you | Phunk is moving towards you |
Punk is owned by YugaLabs | Phunk is owned by You |
Punk is Centralized | Phunk is Decentralized |
Punk is Web2 | Phunk is Crypto 2.0 |
Some good examples of a simple transformation that completely changes the meaning would be 👍 vs 👎 emoji or a countries flag right side up vs upside down. Powerful instances of identical symbols with entirely different meanings based on their orientation.
It’s interesting how simple flipped image can become something so controversial. CryptoPunk holders deemed Phunks collection as low effort, trash art, absurd and a joke. Yet CryptoPunk founders at LarvaLabs felt enough threatened by phunks to force their hand and DMCA the collection. All this unfolded while CryptoPunks are trading for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This only further validates Phunks and conceptual art behind it, artistic expression that provokes reaction is ART in itself.
Phunks are conceptual art that actually have context, narrative, critique on the space. There is more artistic merit in phunks than just about any pfp project. @CsenOner
After being banned from NFT trading ecosystem, phunks community took a stand against censorship and made their own marketplace called notLarvaLabs with 0% trading fees. That was a beautiful performance act that sent a signal all the way to the top that you can't stop people that are passionate about something to build in this new paradigm called Crypto, no matter how anyone feels about it.
Art is in the story, movement, culture, philosophy, interpretation and belief. JPEG embodies all that into a simple pixel image. Phunks face left, because the other way just doesn't feel right.
by Monero founder @fluffypony
