Stephen Black: NFT Black Paper #3

Still from Bubiko: First Flight, the first example of spatial cinema. Bubiko: First Flight can be said to be the first film made in the AR metaverse, and has been called “as historically significant as the world’s first website.”

recent podcasts:

Complementing AR with NFTs - Stephen Black

By choice, I’ve always been an “outsider” artist. Although I have been exhibited, collected and interviewed, I have never been fully engaged with one gallery, or even one city. I can appreciate that idea of Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of ”outlier”. Books: I have self-published several, including one that has become a bestseller in Singapore. Bottom line: when it comes to NFTs, I am in no rush to engage with the established systems.

On the other hand, I have always been happy to initiate and support unorganized and temporary communities. In Tokyo, with the dancer Barae, I once a ran an exhibition space/community center called SPP. For a book about the agaricus blazei Murrill mushroom, I immersed myself in a network of growers, distributors and consumers/patients. In Hong Kong my small apartment became an “art center” called Noon. In Singapore, there was ‘I’m a Kueh, You’re a Kueh’ an on-again-off-again social art project in which kuehs* shaped like my thumbprint were sold, proceeds to help elderly residents of Tiong Bahru.

Now. 2022.

The Bubiko NFT.

Bubiko Foodtour was created in 2015 to be an unpredictable dynamism resulting from the intersection of food, art, and spatial computing(AR/VR).

The Bubiko NFT will be a work of art unto itself, a “digital canvas” of 10,000 pieces, each unique.

The Bubiko NFT will also be the center of a community, although an unstructured one.

The following questionnaire is meant to give an insight into the community aspect of the Bubiko NFT. Later, after I finalize it, I will throw it far and wide into the interwebs. Those who reply could get a Bubiko NFT, though I have yet to figure out how to solve the gas issue.

Bubiko NFT Questionnaire

1. Are you interested in Southeast Asian/Asian food and culture?
2. Have you purchased an NFT before?
3. Are you an art collector?
4. Do you own a business connected with food?
5. I would like to be a member of a community based around the adventures of Bubiko. Yes No
6. I would like to learn and communicate with food professionals, like chefs, growers, nutritionists. Yes No
7. My cooking experience: a. Beginner. b. Comfortable in my own kitchen c. Professional chef
8. Being on social media is important to me. Yes No
9. I like sharing recipes. Yes No
10. I would welcome a monthly newsletter. Yes No
11. I like surprises. Yes No
12. I first heard about Bubiko a. Less than a month ago b. More than a month ago, but less than a year ago c. One year ago or longer
13. I own a VR headset. Yes. No

….

Eugene Soh and myself. Eugene is one of the most forward thinking artists in Singapore. This 2014 project, called SPOKEN featured Eugene’s gallery/tech/art ideas and featured works that I curated. The curation was “simple”. Almost all works were by artists I have spoken with, from very famous to unknown. There were a number of writers involved as well. The piece in the background, used with the permission of Ikkan Gallery, is by Yasumasa Morimura.

…

Mel’s interview is highly recommended.

Bubiko Foodtour is on Instagram, Facebook and twitter.

www.blacksteps.tv

kuehs*: traditional Chinese pastries made with glutinous rice and assortted fillings