Somnium Space, NFT’s and the Dawn of a New Creative Explosion

Humans have always been creating objects for visual aesthetics. From the moment shells were used to make jewelry human creativity has been limitless, involving a range of media and often driven by discoveries and technological advances.

Before continuing, here’s a tiny slice of art history.

The oldest secure human art that has been found dates to the Late Stone Age during the Upper Paleolithic, possibly from around 70,000 BC, but with certainty from around 40,000 BC, when the first creative works were made from shell, stone, and paint by Homo sapiens, using symbolic thought. During the Upper Paleolithic (50,000–10,000 BC), humans practiced hunting and gathering and lived in caves, where cave painting was developed. During the Neolithic period (10,000–3,000 BC) the production of handicrafts commenced.

The appearance of creative capacity within these early societies exemplifies an evolutionarily selective advantage for artistic individuals. Since survival is not contingent on the production of art, art-producing individuals demonstrated agency over their environments in that they had spare time to create once their essential duties, like hunting and gathering were completed. These preliminary artists were rare and “highly gifted” within their communities. They indicated advancements in cognition and understanding of symbolism.

The artistic manifestations of the Upper-Paleolithic reached their peak in the Magdalenian period (±15,000–8,000 BC). This surge in creative outpourings is known as the “Upper Paleolithic Revolution” or the “Creative Explosion“.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_art

Interesting read, isn’t it?

It appears that with the advent of blockchain technology, crypto art/NFT’s and spatial computing we have all the ingredients for a new creative outburst. Not that it comes out of the blue. Ever since computers became generally available, back in the 80’s of the 20th century, it has been used as a tool to produce art. After initial skepticism, digital art has been widely adopted and accepted, not only as extension of more traditional artforms, but also as facilitators and catalysts for new artforms.

An interesting hybrid in this context is virtual photography (VP) – the art of taking photos in video games (or ‘virtual/digital worlds’) – which has taken a flight in recent years. It originally started with gamers taking screenshots of games and uploading those to various Internet forums. Over time people have perfected the craft and use artistic skills and techniques to get the best possible shots, much like in real world photography.

We all know that (digital) technology has had a profound impact on our lives and also transformed the way we create and experience art. Painting, sculpting, music, photography, we can hardly imagine it without some involvement of digital technology, either to create it or experience it (or both).

Technology drives new artforms and ways to experience them. Somnium Space, in and of itself an artistic undertaking, is providing an immersive environment that cannot only be used to display and experience more or less traditional (digital) forms of art, but also as an entirely new form of ‘canvas’.

Psychedelic/Visionary 2D/3D 360° AR/VR CryptoArtist Natural Warp, expressed his excitement in the summer of 2020.

When summing up the following: digital art, crypto art, virtual reality…for me the next thing that comes to mind is “and beyond” and beyond is exactly where I feel at home. For me this looks like the beginning of something truly great, not only in the making of the metaverse as a community but as a collaboration in discovery of who we are and what we are capable of as human beings. I have been quite active in creating 360° art for quite some years now. While on first sight 360° photography/art seems to relate to “VR” like 2.5D does to 3D, it has a whole other dimension to me. Very soon 360° art and 360° video will come to life in Somnium Space and on the blockchain so for me this all feels like the perfect moment of arrival.
Natural Warp in the Somnium Times

In recent months we have seen a real outburst in creativity in Somnium Space, driven and made possible by the relentless stream of new features and the creative power of the community. Numerous new art galleries with formidable crypto art, avatars as walking art pieces, 360 degree art bubbles to immerse yourself in (while being immersed), Somnium has become a true wonderworld for artists and art lovers alike. The big common denominators? Blockchain. NFT’s. Technologies that infuse trust, in uniqueness and existence of immutable proof of ownership. An important part of the story is also the release of the Somnium WEB client, which allows anyone to enjoy the art in Somnium from any device (even if you do not own a VR headset).

Somnium Space: Where Art and Avatars Meet

Now that we are talking about it, on March 6, 22:00 CET, Somnium Space and KnownOrigin will have a joint product launch: The first ever 360° NFT ecosystem. Featuring? Somnium Space member Natural Warp, 360° NFT art pioneer.

It is yet another branch on the tree of creativeness that is flourishing in Somnium right now.

What | 360° NFT Launch in cooperation with Somnium Space + KnownOrigin
When | March 6th – 22:00 CET
Where | Somnium Space VR parcel 752 (check location here) / Somnium WEB parcel 752
Who | Natural Warp
Website | https://www.naturalwarp.com/360-gallery.html