Zima Red ep 72: Conlan Rios
Founder of Async Art
Primer: Async Art is an art platform where artists can deconstruct their artwork into multiple layers. The owners of these layers can toggle between different states, affecting the overall artwork. Join Conlan Rios, the founder of Async Art, as he shares about the platform, selected pieces of artwork, and his thoughts on various subjects.
Origins
Founder and CEO of Async Art
Met Andrew early on inside Cryptovoxels
Has intense passion for the space
2nd time on the Zima Red podcast
Async Art
Platform where artists can deconstruct their work into layers and tokenize individual layers of their digital paintings
Layers come with different states that can be toggled to affect the overall work
"It's art that changes and it's different potentially every time you look at it, that you might look away, and a few minutes later, look back and someone changed it, now the art's different." - Conlan Rios
Genesis piece for the project is called the First Supper, a remix of Da Vinci's Last Supper painting
13 different characters seated at the table
Each character is actually a layer that is separate from the overall work
Collaborated with the top-selling crypto artists in the space. Each artist contributed a layer that is possible to change state (e.g. different pose, costume, etc.)
Genesis Of The Idea
Was a collector in the space
Collecting art, talking to artists, and running art club meetups in the metaverse
Eventually, wanted to make some art of his own
Thought of allowing people to own aspects/parts of a single artwork
Made a platform for artists to do this
Type Of Artists Attracted To Async Art
Artists who really want to tell deep compelling stories within their art
Artists who want to build worlds within their art
Matt Kane's Bitcoin Volatility Art
Async art has an interface for controlling the layers and changing them
In Matt Kane's piece, there's a layer called the control layer that controls every aspect of the painting
Server is running and monitoring the price of Bitcoin and changing the work based on its volatility
If Bitcoin is more volatile, the colors appear more drastic and the layers expand outwards and appear to be crashing
Cosmic Chess
Created by George Boya
A completely playable chessboard
Two layers (white chess pieces and red chess pieces)
To promote it during the auction, he was given a layer to play against Mehak Jain, an amateur chess player
Async Art VS Other NFT Art Marketplaces/Platforms
Biggest aspect is their programmability
Forces artists to think differently about their work, how they are creating it and how it's going to be collected
Creating Art Through Async
Apply as an artist
The team vets the applicants to ensure that the artist is who they claim to be and that the artwork in their portfolio is their actual work
Long-term, they do not want to be a curator. Want to get the tool in as many people's hands as possible
Have a tool called Async Canvas. It walks users through on how to create the layers, upload the states, and set the abilities for each layer
After the user is done, they can test it out in the Canvas tool and toggle through the different states to see how the different combinations look like
When they are satisfied with the result, they can submit it. After it is approved, they can mint it
Entering The Audio/Music Sector
Envisioned this when they first launched, but decided to focus on art first
Near the end of last year, they decided to work on Async Music
Songs are naturally broken into layer stems
Stems could be like the background beat, synth, the piano, the lyrics, the vocals, etc.
Launched in April
"And if you own the lyrics, you can change between different versions that the artist provided you with. Maybe there's an a capella version, maybe there's like an electronic version, maybe there's a guest artists, like different states or like different guests, you know, people singing it, or maybe if it's a duet, maybe one state is the male version, one states is the female version, and one state is them singing together. So you can experience a song in multiple ways." - Conlan Rios
Musicians can decide what layers and states they want to offer
Type Of Musicians Attracted To Async Music
Musicians who want to tell a richer story through their song
HMLTD's song Leaving is about a love triangle between three different people
The song never ends because it is always changing (e.g. different versions of the lyrics, the person singing, etc.)
Introduce blank record tokens, which could be burnt anytime to record the current snapshot of a song
Which Has More Engagement? Art Or Music?
Async Music is closed and invite-only right now. Want to make sure that every wave of musicians that they release showcases the platform well
Eventually, will open Async Music to all musicians
On the Async Art side, people can apply and mint art pieces as and when they want
The engagement is higher on the music side. Recording tokens are made available at a lower price point for people to engage with the song and record the current state of a song that they find interesting
Fees For Changing A Layer
On average, it costs a few bucks to do a transaction to change a layer
On a bad day, it can cost upwards of $10 - $20
Gamification Of The Platform
Currently have 6 leaderboards (e.g. top collection, most active users, etc)
Want to encourage collectors to engage with their collections as well as artists to come up with cool ways for collectors to engage with their work
Is Social-ification Of NFT Platforms A Good Or A Bad Thing?
It is mixed
There are activities that people just want on a platform (e.g. notifications when an artist creates content)
If a NFT platform succeeds as a social platform, people start to no longer care or know why they are buying NFTs
Need to expose some of the Web3 stuff (e.g. Metamask) to end-users to get them to start thinking about the blockchain
Big game companies still have the old-school thinking of keeping their players in a walled garden and only allowing purchases of their game assets
They do not recognize that putting their game assets on a public blockchain makes their garden bigger, enabling others to build on top of their games and making their assets more valuable
Evolution Of Async Art
Want to be the definitive creator platform for making programmable art and telling deep stories through NFTs
Currently, Async Art can be embedded on websites. Wants to see more of this in the future
Want to create a platform where artists can even sell their work on other platforms (e.g. minting on Async Art and selling on MakersPlace)
Being A Founder
Hardest Thing About Being A Founder
Not having enough time to do the side projects that he wants to do
Don't have enough time to run the Gangnam Neon Zone Art Club
If he had time, he would build an OpenSea NFT viewer
"I could just sit down and write out like 20 ideas I'd love to build or to see someone else build. So as a founder, I'd say the biggest downside now is just not being able to build up the side projects that I want." - Conlan Rios
Want to build an AI character running around and interacting with people in Cryptovoxels
Biggest Benefit Of Being A Founder
Being able to meet a lot of people
AI In The Metaverse
Bots can be used to referee the art club meetups
AI receptionist to answer questions in the metaverse
Docent wandering around a museum and answering questions
AIs having a way to transact. People can tip them
Finding Good People To Hire
Get really good at talking to people
Only start the company if you already have at least a small network of people that you can hire from
"The hard part is the people, you know, finding people who want to work on this, convincing them to work on it, and then convincing them hey, like, don't give up, you know, give up that cushy job at you know, Facebook, and come work on this, this scrappy opportunity." - Conlan Rios
Was already in the space for a year before starting Async. Therefore, he already had a network
Important to meet people in the community and getting involved in events
Any News To Share
Announced a partnership with Meural, which are physical-digital art displays
Has industry leading screens. The screens do not look like screens, but like paper
Things That Have Caught His Attention
Last year, he remembered that the community was trying to rebrand NFTs. Thought that people would not use that term in real life
The climate angle was something that he didn't expect from creators (e.g. NFTs run on blockchain, which consumes energy). Surprised to see such a violent reaction to it
Ethereum is still the number 1 bet if people want durable art that lasts. Ethereum has survived an attack from every possible angle and is still running
Favourite NFT That He Owns
Phase Space #2 by TS Moreau
Programmable comic where one can change the characters' speech bubbles, costumes, accessories
Great way for comic artists to monetize their work
Rose Nexus, the Cryptovoxel parcel that Alotta Money built
It's the NFT that pushed him over the edge into being a complete metaverse fan
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
Interoperability between different platforms. Need to play more and work more together
When he first launched, he was trying to promote as many platforms as possible so that everyone benefits and the space will get pushed forward
When they started out, all of the platforms were playing nicely
When real money entered the space, artists, collectors, and platforms all tried to grab as much money as possible
"So every man for himself, every person for themselves, and I think it's too soon to be doing that thinking, I think that as much money as there is in the space, it's still a drop in the bucket from what's to come. And it's too early to try to capture all of it." - Conlan Rios
Incentive To Collaborate
People have to have the mindset to collaborate
Most of the builders in the space are here because Ethereum is open-source, accessible, and inclusive. They should always remind themselves of this important point
If You Could Improve One Thing In The Space
Onboarding needs to be fixed
World Of NFTs In 3 Years
Like to see another social network emerge, one where our NFT collections are integrated to
Physical displays like Meural will become more prominent
"You could go to Walgreens or Walmart and buy a digital display that shows your NFTs, like, that I would really like to see." - Conlan Rios
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