Snark.art launches New Art and Blockchain Laboratory

Snark.art, a digital laboratory bridging art and blockchain, was launched recently with a preview of its first artistic collaboration with the artist Eve Sussman. The project by Sussman, 89 seconds Atomized, will be available for purchase on www.snark.art starting November 30, 2018.

Founded by Andrey Alekhin and Misha Libman, Snark.art collaborates with international artists, curators, and artistic partners to explore the creative possibilities of the blockchain and its growing community. “We started Snark.art to engage both the art and blockchain communities,” said co-founder and CEO Andrey Alekhin.

“Artists are by nature experimenters, and digital artists in particular are often at the forefront of new media practices. The community behind blockchain is similarly experimental and conceptual. Instead of working in parallel, Snark.art will engage both communities to identify new use projects for blockchain as an artistic medium.”

89 seconds Atomized takes Sussman’s seminal 2004 video work 89 seconds at Alcazár and transforms it for the blockchain. Created with Rufus Corporation, the original video premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennial. All editions are now in museum and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; and the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul. For Snark.art, Sussman has digitally shattered the last Artist Proof of 89 seconds at Alcazár into 2,304 digital blocks, or “atoms”. “The exciting part of this experiment really begins once all the atoms are dispersed to the new community of owners and they need to collaborate to bring the video to life as a whole”, said Eve Sussman.

89 seconds Atomized will be available for $100 per “atom” using credit card payment or cryptocurrency on Snark.art’s website starting November 30. Each “atom” is 400 pixels of the entire visual frame with an approximately 10-minute duration, the total running time of the video with the complete multilayered soundtrack. The mechanics of blockchain ensure that each “atom” is uniquely assigned to the owner. The provenance and singularity cannot be pirated or faked.

Following the sell-through of 89 seconds Atomized in late 2018, the piece will live on through the community of owners who have been granted permission by Sussman to collaborate amongst themselves. While the owner of an individual atom can screen the contents of that piece at any time, the complete set of 2,304 atoms can be pieced back together through communal screenings at the request of the owners.

Snark.art will continue its artistic exploration of blockchain technology by developing projects in performance, music, literature, and gaming. Future collaborations include the not-for-profits for Freedoms and Pioneer Works, projects by the curator Sara Raza (most recently the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East and North Africa), the artists Tommy Hartung, James Clar, Simon Lee, among others. The first work slated for 2019 is Fortune Cookie, an experimental poetry project initiated by a writer known only by the moniker Mr. Fox.