Supersigil (@supersigil) • Hey
Digital shadow, releasing my debut album Spectres soon
Publications
- Thanks for the airdrop, @lens/p00ls, and belated happy birthday!
Who's got something I can collect with $ 00?
- The music ecosystem is in crisis globally, but things are particularly bad in Britain.
How can web3 help improve the sustainability of touring for the 99% of musicians currently struggling to break even?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/25/shocking-truth-money-bands-make-on-tour-taylor-swift
- Does art have intrinsic (i.e. objective) value?
Or does it (to varying degrees) require some context, either of itself or in your own prior experience?
- ✅️ Collectible
❌️ Collectable
Mint if you agree.
- A few hours left to collect this, my genesis video on @lens/lens ...
- What's your favourite @lens/orb club?
- Happy Earth Day Orb frens 🌎
5 editions, available for 48 hours only.
- Happy Earth Day 🌎
5 editions, available for 48 hours only.
- Happy Earth Day 🌎
5 editions, available for 48 hours only.
- **Palingenesis (for Earth Day)**
On Earth Day 6 years ago, I asked fellow Earthlings to send me photos of the sky wherever they happened to be. I received pictures from all over the world: snapshots of our corner of the universe on a single day in 2018 from a boat on the Thames, a beach in Sydney, northern Poland, six different American states, Bali, Mexico City, all over England, Amsterdam, Cairo, southern Spain, Dublin, Sweden, Brazil, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Paris, Warsaw, Hamburg, Italy, Wales, the Faroe Islands, Russia and other far-flung places.
Collectively, the images in this video are an expression of the cosmos's infinite diversity—and its underlying unity. We all share the same ever-changing sky, yet each person's view of it is different.
The title of my (pre-Supersigil) track "Palingenesis" can be considered to mean a "recurrence of birth", as in the following passage from Joseph Campbell's book *The Hero With a Thousand Faces*:
"Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul there must be a continuous 'recurrence of birth' to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death."
[Edition of 5, available for 48 hours only.]
- Co)))ltrane
https://youtu.be/-6zSbtcQ5ZA?si=AZ37-553-uq8-6BH
- More and more artists are using their Spotify profiles to tell it like it is 🗣️
- “The work of art in prehistoric times was, first and foremost, an instrument of magic.”
– Walter Benjamin
- I'm starting to question the logic and value of having many different clients based on the same social media protocol.
For example, I like that on @lens/kaira I can add a title to posts. But this doesn't always display correctly on other apps like @lens/hey.
Similarly, I really like the tip function on Hey but this doesn't seem to be supported on other @lens/lens apps, so if I enable tipping on a post and you view it on @lens/orb, you won't see that option.
Also, notifications seem to work differently on each app. Some notifs are duplicated across clients but while others only show up on certain ones. Even when they do, they might be prioritised differently, and then when I view a notif on one app it remains unread on others. The result is that I find it hard to keep tabs on which notifs are new.
I understand the value of having different interoperable apps where they all have a substantially different focus, e.g. one for text-based posts, one for images, one for video, one for music etc. In that scenario, it's like if Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Spotify were all networked thanks to an underlying protocol. That's something I'm looking forward to.
But when it comes to similar social apps Hey/Kaira/Orb (all basically modelled on the same text + image timeline UX), I would much prefer to have a single app that rolls all the best features into one.
Am I missing something here?
(FAO @lens/yoginth: Speaking of tipping, that option seems to have disappeared from the actions menu. I wanted to enable tipping on this post so that if the developers of the aforementioned apps find my feedback useful, they can show their appreciation. Had to make it collectible instead.)
- **Free Ghostface Killah x Rare Scrilla x Nakapepes drop**
I've often used the example of Wu-Tang Clan's 1/1 CD *Once Upon a Time in Shaolin* to explain how scarcity can drive value in music.
So when I saw Ghostface Killah had dropped an ordinal, I had to bag one.
There are still some left, and they're FREE + inscription. Mint yours here (and feel free to tip me for the PSA 😉):
https://ordinalsbot.com/mint/ghost-face-killah-x-rare-scrilla
- I've now tested both Suno and Udio and, as a composer of experimental music, I prefer Udio on every level:
- better sound quality
- accurately renders specific instruments (bcl, cello, harpsichord, sax etc)
- greater sense of musical coherence
etc.
However... neither tool makes music I would actually listen to (let alone release) as is.
At best, I can imagine using Udio to generate specific textures that I might then pull into a project I'm working on.
I see this as comparable to but quicker than scrolling through synth presets to find a certain sound I'm hearing in my inner ear (though it'd likely still need refining).
Ultimately, this kind of use still requires me as composer/prompter to have a mental image of what I'm after. It's just a different workflow to help me achieve it.
- **Artists, beware: malicious "collab" scam going round**
Someone just tried to scam me by pretending to be interested in collaborating. I'm sharing what happened below as a warning to other artists to be extra vigilant of such malicious attempts.
Months ago I received this Twitter DM from a verified account with over 6k followers, including several artists I know.
It went into my message requests folder since I'm not following the sender. I assume 99% of what ends up in this folder is spam so I check it very infrequently, and it wasn't until Feb that I saw it. Still somewhat dubious, I nevertheless replied because, well, you never know.
We messaged back and forth for a few days and they went into specifics of the project. They wanted me to compose a soundtrack for a browser-based art/NFT museum. This is very much the kind of thing I'm into and they specifically referenced previous work of mine that they liked, so I was warming to the idea this might be legit.
They suggested we could set up a call to discuss further, and I asked to know the ball-park budget first. It was decent: good but not too good to be true.
We scheduled a chat and they mentioned that they're based in Taiwan and don't speak English, so they use an AI translation platform for calls. This explained the slightly formal language in some of the messages I'd received, but was also a bit of a red flag (literally) because their profile had a Swiss flag in the name and I've never met a Swiss person who wasn't fluent in English.
However, I didn't want to discriminate against someone just because they don't speak English (I live in a country whose language I don't speak very well so I'm particularly sensitive to this). I agreed to the call.
When the time came (just now), they messaged to say they were running late because they were "at a meeting with investors", attaching a screenshot of a conference call titled "Museum Invest". At this point I'm getting suspicious again because the screenshot seemed overkill, like they're trying to convince me it's not a scam.
Anyway, finally they send a link to a platform called vdeck\[dot]app, along with another screenshot of the scheduled call. I'm unfamiliar with this platform, so I look it up on Trustpilot. Most of the reviews (including some by verified accounts) are positive, but there's one cautioning that Bitdefender found a Trojan virus on this site that can steal your personal data and access your crypto wallet. That was the final straw for me. I wrote back saying I wasn't comfortable clicking a link to an unfamiliar site sent by someone I didn't know, especially one with any such reviews. The reply was "If this is a problem for you, then we'll have to give up."
I can't be 100% sure this was a scam because, fortunately, I exercised enough caution to avoid getting hit. But I've seen other reports of such ploys going round recently, so I advise everyone to be extra careful. Stay safe!
- AI music tool Udio went into open beta yesterday, and I just spent a bit of time trying to get it to make the kind of experimental music I might actually listen to, as opposed to (admittedly quite accurate) generic rip-offs, which most AI-generated music sounds like to me (unsurprisingly, given the nature of training models).
Anyway, I think I got somewhere with this one. At the very least, I'd be really interested to know what the AI model ingested in order to be able to output these kinds of sounds!
The cover image is a spectrogram I made of the audio and edited, not AI-generated.
Anyone else tried Udio yet?
- What does a web3-native album release look like in 2024?
- 🦅
- Major announcement coming this week.
You might want to drop your email here:
http://eepurl.com/h5fiCz
[Free to collect for followers.]
-
- Can anyone recommend an AI tool that will generate a composite of images I upload to it?
E.g. I have a set of original images and I want the AI to roll them all into one.
Bonus points if I can also use text prompts to affect the output, either before or after image generation.
- Beautiful collection of pieces, and very cool that they've open-sourced the "metamedia" template so anyone can create multi-layer NFTs 👀
- Just collected my first @lens/lens post!
What a beaut from @lens/aaronrferguson 🌻
- The plot thickens.
If this does all turn out to have been engagement-farming for a corporate manoeuvre by UMG, I for one will lose a lot of the respect I have for James Blake.
P.S. Thanks for the mention, @lens/maceagon 🙏
https://decentialbeat.beehiiv.com/p/beat-1d4d
- Was anyone here involved in the Tezos art scene circa 2021?
I'm feeling similar vibes here on @lens/lens:
🪙 affordable mints
🫂 focus on community
🤝 artists supporting artists
The major advantage here is that the community-gathering is happening in the same place as the minting/collecting. That's a giant leap in UX compared to linking back and forth between NFT platforms (where there was no conversation) and social media (where there was no minting/collecting).
That aside, it's worth remembering that one of the things that made Hic et Nunc special was that it was a haven for disempowered artists, especially those from the global South. Check out this interview with two of the platform's founders for an insight into its origins:
https://www.rightclicksave.com/article/on-the-early-days-of-hic-et-nunc
- Since there were some questions about the Airdrop eligibility:
Season 1 Airdrop (10%)
Went out to ~4500 profiles in the @lens/lens ecosystem. To the top profiles ranked by engagement from @lens/karma3labs , who where part of a @lens/orb v1 community or had @lens/madfinance points.
Season 2 Airdrop (15%)
Will be distributed based on usage of $BONSAI in Lens collects, tips, open actions, staking, and providing liquidity. More details on each will be announced as they are rolled out.
You're still early.
https://www.bonsai.meme/#tokenomics
( 100% of this posts $BONSAI collects goes to mirrors. #RainBonsai #PowerOfLens )
- What should I collect on here for 1,000 $BONSAI or less?
No self-promo; only sh!t-hot recommendations please⚡️
- #feedback
- Tipping to collect a social media post makes a lot of sense when you compare it to the way people tip buskers.
You're walking down the street and you come across someone putting something into the world that makes your day that bit better. You tip them.
⬇️
You're scrolling through your feed and you come across someone putting something into the world that makes your day that bit better. You tip them.
A couple of things I think @lens/lens apps like @lens/hey and @lens/orb could learn from this analogy:
1. Collectors should be able to tip any amount. The creator/poster should have the option of selecting a minimum/suggested amount (or not), but the tipper should be able to pay more if they want.
2. The collector should be able to tip in any currency. If I see a post I want to collect but don't have any of the memecoin it's priced in, I just scroll on. The app could enable in-post swaps so the tipper pays in their currency of choice, and the creator receives it in theirs.
- Trying an experiment with this post:
Since I'm quoting @lens/matdryhurst, I decided to split revenue 50/50 with him.
I think it's a cool way to encode attribution, especially given the specific quote I've highlighted and the thesis of the article in general.
- "Web 2 values less the people who created an idea, and more those who can bring the most attention to it."
from
*AI Art and the Problem of Consent*
by @lens/matdryhurst
https://artreview.com/ai-art-and-the-problem-of-consent/
- lsVcCyNS7XXBW7yfMe-5A3A63W_OnYjtpbER18IhPXA=
- **6 cases for selling tickets as NFTs**
I originally shared the following thoughts around the time of the Taylor Swift / Ticketmaster debacle in 2022. Over the last few days, the conversation seems to have resurfaced, with @lens/onopen dropping their Onchain Tickets Manifesto (pictured, with nearly 15k mints at time of writing):
https://zora.co/collect/base:0xeba4551052568406f8c490320b94b6478b81930e/1
At the same time, the wider crypto bull market has been attracting renewed criticism/cynicism from the anti-NFT crowd. Some of this has focused on ticketing, so I thought I'd revisit this subject.
When I discussed this topic back in 2022, I predicted that selling tickets as NFTs would be normalised within 5 years. The fact is, most "tickets" nowadays are already digital. (When was the last time you bought a paper ticket to a show?) Putting them onchain has numerous advantages.
**Here are 6 reasons why NFTickets make sense:**
1) Provably limited supply.
2) Provable authenticity.
3) Allow-lists reduce risk of bots buying up supply during pre-sale (as happened with Swift).
4) Removing middlemen like Ticketmaster (who've been known to add on 75% to prices in platform fees) could mean more affordable tickets without artist losing revenue.
5) You can keep NFTs in your wallet forever as mementos (I wish I still had tickets from life-changing shows I went to as a teen).
6) Ticket NFTs can retrospectively be given extra utilities (e.g. discount on next show, free merch, access to token-gated experiences etc), becoming part of a potentially life-long connection between artist and fan.
The combination of 1) and 2) effectively eliminates ticket fraud: if it's not from the official collection, it's a scam.
Of course, NFTs can still be sold on the secondary market way above their original price, but:
a) if you've done enough to get on the allow-list, you probably want to go to the show; and
b) the artist can actually benefit from these sales by collecting secondary royalties (where enforced).
I've focused here on tickets to in-person events, but of course online events (like livestreamed shows or performances in the metaverse) represent a burgeoning sector where NFTs make even more sense as entry passes. More on that side of things soon.
P.S. If you liked this post, you can collect it for 99 $BONSAI (~$ 1.69) and mirror it for a 10% referral reward 🙏
- 4W-sVNZgMB92d18BEm9qxYdxdDIg_I1X72vywxGQQhzsfATrdNAThiHEXGJ2Y_51O-vKgZOMXLqkz-HL5DCv_IavGRV_LPx27MP1ssYdoilvNa8VpG4TtTdo8bufp2fBBVgwck6Q4OJqLyYqQKGs5Q==
- People finding out that Vault is founded by the team behind Sound seems to have triggered a slew of anti-blockchain sentiment e.g.
https://twitter.com/bennjordan/status/1771188634504274342
(Takes me right back to 2021 😂)
Some thoughts:
First and foremost, I support artists using whichever platforms/tools offer them the greatest creative freedom and financial sustainability. I don't think it's for other people to police those decisions.
I offered my take on Vault from the perspective of someone who occasionally lectures on web3 for musicians.
https://twitter.com/SPRSGL/status/1770635638146036082
To summarise, I think it's a missed opportunity for a big-name artist to explore decentralised tech. But I was careful to frame this critique in a way that still respects James Blake's right to use whichever tools serve his purpose.
I totally agree with Cherie Hu that the subscription model doesn't work for most artists.
https://www.waterandmusic.com/james-blake-vault-artist-subscriptions-save-music
I also totally agree with Tom Vek that blockchain tech allows for better solutions to the problems James Blake identifies.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/25/james-blakes-music-subscription-model-is-a-fantasy-that-disadvantages-fans-and-musicians
The people slinging mud at Vault because of its affiliation with Sound (and, by extension, crypto) seem to misunderstand why musicians like myself have gravitated towards blockchain.
That's sad to see when some of those same people seem to have a solid grasp of both
a) what's not currently working for artists in web2, and
b) the underlying tech of web3
It seems like many ppl just can't get past the narrative of "crypto = overpriced jpgs + ponzi scams".
Sure, hype and rug-pulls exist, but there's also a bunch of ideological and technological innovation happening that's only tangentially related to that stuff.
Trashing blockchain because of crypto scams is like saying "the internet is bad because I got phished by someone pretending to be a Nigerian prince."
The internet is an almost infinitely flexible piece of infrastructure. So is blockchain. Both can be used for beneficial and/or nefarious purposes.
That said, I do think it's interesting that Vault was founded by the same team as Sound. But for the opposite reason as most commentators. They seem put off by the crypto connection, even though James Blake has stated that Vault has nothing to do with NFTs.
My question is: if the team behind Sound really believes web3 is the future of the music industry, as they've repeatedly asserted in interviews, why would they start another platform modelled on web2 functionality and values?
I'd be interested to hear from Sound on that. In the meantime, I hope the conversation James Blake has (re)started leads more artists towards truly innovative (decentralised) solutions to the problems we all face.
The final word here goes to Austin Robey, as a reminder that technology is "just" the tools we use; what we do with them depends on our vision for the world we want to live in.
https://twitter.com/austinrobey_/status/1771182850122850582
- Damien Hirst appears to have backdated numerous artworks created in 2017 but displayed in galleries around the world as from the 90s (his Turner Prize-winning period).
He justified this by saying that the dates he assigns to conceptual artworks is the date of "the intention and the idea behind the artwork, not the physical making of the object or the renewal of its parts."
What's more important when it comes to dating art: the work itself as it exists in the world, or the idea behind it?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/19/damien-hirst-formaldehyde-animal-works-dated-to-1990s-were-made-in-2017?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
- One of blockchain's superpowers that musicians have yet to fully explore is the ability to tap into each others' communities. Here's a playbook to demonstrate what I mean:
Say you have an upcoming drop on Sound or Manifold (or any other platform for that matter).
Find 3 other artists you vibe with who've dropped on that platform.
Add their collectors to the allowlist for your pre-sale. This can be through pre-arranged partnerships, but it doesn’t even have to be; that's the beauty of permissionless infrastructure!
If it were me though, I'd give the other artists a heads up and ask them to spread the word.
▶️ They get to offer their fans a discounted mint
▶️ You get access to their communities
▶️ Their fans get to discover some music they might not have heard otherwise
🔽
Everyone wins!
We saw this play a lot with PFP projects last cycle, and we're seeing it again now with airdrops (e.g. Runestones), but I think it works better for music given its inherent focus on community & discovery (rather than flipping).
I tried a simple version of this when I created my Bonfire site nearly 2 yrs ago, giving backstage access to holders of some frens' collections.
I'm excited to push further in this direction with my upcoming drop. Anyone else done something similar?
- 📢 Minting for our final Scene 1 drop will close during the upcoming Spring Equinox.
This is your last chance to be part of our inaugural season of releases. All Scene 1 collectors will receive special benefits during Scene 2.
Mint via our @lens/bonfire site here before 21 March:
https://www.bonfire.xyz/zyla/scene-1
ZYLA7 "still how everything stops" [music video]
Music by Alex Roth & Alice Purton
Poem by Miriam Gamble
Animated video by Jacqueline Nicholls
[This is a collectible post.]
- Just sent my album Spectres off to be mastered.
Always a big moment for me, and a little nerve-wracking as it's finally hitting another pair of ears.
This has been an insanely long journey, and I'm so psyched to share it.
- Been here over a year and haven't posted anything yet. This article on the "enshittification" of platforms feels like a good place to start:
https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/