Following his subversive graffiti collaboration called “OFFKAT Fashion Art Project” with Off-White ™ and the late Virgil Abloh, the famous technological artist KATSU is now signaling his entry into the metaverse with a completely unique NFT project called THE DRONES. Known for his pioneering field of drone paintings, the artist goes on to address ideas about authorship and human-machine relationships in this interactive crypto project.
THE DRONES will essentially be the world’s first swarm of digital painting. Built in a web 3 meta-canvas room, owners of a drone NFT will be able to work together or solo to imagine and paint a large-scale work of art, which will later be sold as an NFT at an established auction house. 100% of the sales of the combined digital drone painting will be distributed equally to all holders. The NFT project will be launched on the Ethereum network with implementation available in early April.
A total of 5,432 drones will be available to embark. Each one is stylized in a nostalgic 8-bit video game aesthetic that combines graffiti aspects reminiscent of the artist’s productive street art background. In addition, generative poetry will be sprayed over global monuments by the drones in the animations.
“Metaverset is less of a place, but a time when people value their digital possessions more than their physical possessions,” KATSU told HypeArt. In relation to his project, he asks the questions: “How do you use and express these digital things that you own? How will people communicate and team up?
KATSU aims to establish a democratic system for holders of THE DRONES when they freely reproduce their works, and then launch a voting system where they can agree on the final composition of the finished work to be auctioned. All in all, the project draws inspiration from the artist’s background, which includes drone painting, sculpture and digital media in a conceptual view. Similar to the artist’s visual and digital projects, THE DRONES will serve as a public intervention in technology and commercialism that explores themes such as privacy and digital culture.
Visit the official website of THE DRONES here, where you can learn more about the artist, embossing, whitelist information and more.