Flume has become the latest artist to enter the nascent world of NFTs, teaming up with Jonathan Zawada to offer eight of the tokens for trade.
NFTs have become something of a popular topic in recent months, with the likes of Grimes, Mike Shinoda, and Aphex Twin all employing the burgeoning technology to connect with fans and offer something unique to the world of digital commerce.
“The technology is called an NFT, short for a non-fungible token, a cryptocurrency that’s basically a certificate of authenticity,” Rolling Stone’s Kevin T. Dugan noted recently as part of an in-depth explainer.
“What makes them so interesting — or ‘nifty,’ as its backers like to say — is that the tokens can be attached to just about anything, like digital artwork, videos, or other exclusives for an artist’s fanbase. Kings of Leon, for instance, are bundling their album with an exclusive NFT that gives the buyer four front-row seats and a heap of merch and other perks.
Now Flume and collaborator Jonathan Zawada have gotten in on the action, offering eight NFTs for trade. Featuring visuals by Zawada and scores from Flume, the works were originally exhibited in 2016 gallery shows in Sydney and Los Angeles and are available to acquire for the first time.
What makes these different to regular NFTs though, is that these eight 1-of-1 pieces are exclusively available for trade, with interested parties able to offer NFTs “of their own creation and/or from their collections in exchange for the originals”. Flume and Zawada will announce the final swaps on Monday, March 22nd.
“Jonathan and I put these together in 2016 for an art exhibition we did around the Skin album,” Flume explained. “They only got shown in Sydney and LA so we wanted them to see the light of day online.
“We wanted to swap these for other NFT’s instead of putting them up for sale. Part of our excitement on this medium was being able to put out works in new ways. It’s just an experiment and we’re keen to see what comes back.”
“Originally the weapons came about from Harley and I talking about the idea of a ‘skin’ in games like Counter Strike,” adds Zawada. “I’d long been fascinated with the idea of kind of inverse camouflage in video games and it was fun to explore this visually.
“I set about playing with their appearance and after he saw them Harley selected a few to make music for, to which I responded by animating the abstract destruction of each weapon to the music.”
Further information regarding the NFTs and their trade is available via Flume’s website.
