Etter Edition 01 - a physical NFT project celebrating the amalgamation of digital and physical arts

Internationally acclaimed Swiss designer and artist Christian Etter together with author and entrepreneur Alexander E. Brunner join forces to present a unique hybrid NFT artwork, supported by the Cardano Foundation. The official launch of ‘Etter Edition 01’ will take place on October 6th in Zurich, Switzerland, where the artwork will be presented for the first time.

‘Etter Edition 01’ brings together blockchain-technology and digital interactive art with the physical world, intimately joining generative art with decentralized tokens and expanding the NFT universe into the physical realms. Thanks to his years of experience as a digital art expert and co-founder of the Digital Art Museum in Zurich, Christian Etter was particularly interested in exploring how to make digital art more accessible to experience and to acquire, similar to how we approach physical artworks and canvases. The co-creator, Alexander Brunner, as a digital asset and blockchain specialist with a vast knowledge on the subject, put together the framework needed for this project to happen, in an effort to also give collectors the joy of acquiring an ever-changing physical object and the confidence of a digital token that validates ownership. In terms of its structure, the work comprises a custom-made physical display consisting of ten industrial-grade high-res LED matrixes covered by multiple layers of structural glass and framed by a custom-made maple-wood frame. The frame is designed and manufactured by the artist in his studio in the City of Zurich and the display comes with ten decentralized microprocessor slots for loading the algorithm that was also developed and programmed by the artist. When the work is activated, the lights create unique colorful forms and shapes escaping through the glass, creating a special lighting effect of higher quality when compared to standard screens used most commonly in digital art. The colorful forms reflected through the glass enhance the physicality of the work in all its dimensions, creating a warm emotional response. The algorithm generates serendipitous, endless and ever-changing compositions and requires a seed input that is generated by the transaction ID of the token on the Cardano blockchain. The token initializes the algorithm, making each artwork created truly unique, while acting as a sign of authenticity and ownership. Hence, the digital NFT created gives the buyer the certainty of owning the authentic and unaltered algorithm, making the code an integral part of the art work. The ten displays with their microprocessors communicate in a decentralized fashion in order to align. This process can be seen when the flickering of individual LED pixels disappears after a successful synchronization process. Thanks to this unique structure and approach, collectors will have the opportunity to purchase newly created NFTs, actualizing their artwork alongside the progress of Generative Art. “I am very pleased to launch this project today together with Alexander Brunner after many months of studying, prototyping, developing new algorithms and hardware for the purpose of art. The resulting piece is physical, it can be hung on walls and admired like a painting. However, inside the art piece a decentralized algorithm changes the painting infinitely over time, uniting the distinct qualities of the physical and the digital realms” , says Christian Etter “Christian and I have been collaborating on blockchain-inspired books and reports for several years now. About a year ago, we wanted to create an object of art that intersects art and the blockchain-technology. From the very beginning it was enormously important to us to create first and foremost a mesmerizing object of art. It had to create a strong emotional response, almost hiding the technology. We drew on the rich history of Switzerland as an art center as well as the birthplace of the Crypto Valley. With the ‘Etter Edition 01’we aspire to join both worlds and put Switzerland at the forefront of this new generation of Generative Art”, says Alexander E. Brunner

For more information: https://www.etteredition.ch/