Seize and Share Memes II
Part 2 of 3
This Seize and Share Memes article continues the deep dive on the Seize and Share collection Part 1 by MintFace revealing the narratives behind the seized and shared memes released over the last six months. Each meme was seized and shared permission-lessly thanks to CC0; the most permissive of all intellectual property copyrights.
Seize and Share collection is the most comprehensive set of memes by a single artist, minted often within hours of the original meme.
This Seize and Share Memes article is part 2 of 3 that document the Seize and Share memes, reveal the artist narrative behind each piece and encourages the reader to go deeper on what could be the most fascinating, tokenised communication medium of the 2020s.
Seize and Share memes featured in this article are:
Freedom To Tweet Card [4] 10 editions
Hardware Wallet & Memes Card [20] 6 editions
Gas Country Card [21] 29 editions
Eth is Finite Card [22] 51 editions
Stored Digital Value Card [24] 25 editions
Certificate of Mint [25] 88 editions
We Like The Line Card [27] 30 editions
!HUG Card [28] 5 editions
Dreaming Honey Card [29 ] 8 editions
Line of gm Card [30] 25 editions
Lucky Kevin Card [33] 18 editions
The Seize and Share collection was borne out of the objectives of The Memes by 6529.... and an idea MintFace had to remix, reinterpret and reimagine the memes by documenting moments of historical note during 2022. You can read more about The Memes by 6529 in Seize and Share collection Part 1.
The following article offers the reader a front row seat into some of the details of each of the meme derivatives in the Seize and Share Collection. You can read about the first 11 cards in Seize and Share collection Part 1. We continue the story here in Part 2.
Let's begin.
Freedom To Tweet
10 editions
Freedom to Tweet is a MintFace derivative of 'Freedom to Transact' by 6529er. The card was borne of necessity as I was locked out of the @MintFaced Twitter account.
There were likely two causes... 1) The rapid growth of The Line for artists had @mintfaced Twitter running red hot. 2) The increase in tweet velocity came at the same time of Elon's acquisition of Twitter wen staff were getting laid off left, right and center.
Fortunately, I had @mintfacess as an alt account to keep connected and the MintFace Discord too. Without those, the 10 day wait for reinstatement would have been more damaging.
As more of Twitter becomes verified, the use of the Freedom to Tweet Card may become less necessary for the real ones. Let's hope.
Hardware Wallet & Memes Card
10 editions
Hardware Wallet and Memes is a derivative artwork of "Hardware Wallet and Mug" by Helena Sarin. Helena is a super talent, mixing pottery with generative adversarial networks (GAN) to create works inspired by the ingredients of both.
I wanted to add the fourth dimension of time to the original meme piece illustrating the three steps of minting a meme.
- Enter Pin
- Open Ethereum app on hardware wallet
- Begin filling your cup with memes
Generally Helena's meme is underappreciated. Her 1/1 artworks are understood by art investors and whales but that hasn't translated to the meme series.
Gas Country
29 editions
Gas Country is a derivative of 'Open Roads Open Metaverse' by Matt Scobel. The meme diverts the original focus of an open metaverse to a more ominous theme of gas fees.
Web3.0 costs money to transact in the form of gas fees and comes as a surprise 'toll bridge' of sorts for newcomers. Welcome to Gas Country overlays the Metamask fox in line drawing as an ominous forebearer over the journeymen of Web3.0.
While we are always trying to escape gas fees, while on our journey, there is no escaping them. The fox will always try to darken our day with additional fees because they are the blueprint of how Web3.0 functions. The point is, eventually you will get used to living in gas country... eventually.
Eth is Finite Card
Eth is Finite is a derivative artwork by MintFace of JPEGs are Infinite by Seerlight. It is a more truthful lived experience for those who attempt to 'buy art they like' but eventually run into the financial constraints of 'not enough eth'.
Eth is Finite is the pragmatic brother to 'JPEGs are Infinite' amplifying the same message in a different way.
Here is where the riff on an old game gets interesting. I minted a placeholder meme before the official 6529 meme came out. I did not know what the meme was going to be, nor the theme or the artist. The goal was to have some fun with token provenance, by minting a token with a timestamp that predated the official meme.
The <Insert Meme Here> had a practical aspect to it. Part of the joy of creating the Seize and Share collection, is seeing the original meme revealed and coming up with a suitable concept for remixing. Part of the technical friction however is doing the minting, setting up traits and distribution. In my part of the world in New Zealand, all of this goes down at 4 - 5 am in the morning. <Insert Meme Here> enabled me to do the technical friction part the day before.
Some collectors have never refreshed the metadata on their token so it still displays as <Insert Meme Here> instead of Eth Is Finite. Some marketplaces like Deca do not refresh the art either.
This revelation illustrates that there are many subtle technical aspects with minting that can be integrated into an artists' practice.
Stored Digital Value Card
25 editions
Stored Digital Value is a Powerpoint derivative of the Powerpoint slide 'NFT Adoption Pathway 2030' by 6529. It was on this day, 8th October 2022 that I felt NFTs may have 'jumped the shark'. The phrase, originates from the popular TV show Happy Days, to an episode in the fifth series where The Fonz jumps a shark (watch here). It is both cringe and hard to believe. I felt the same about The Memes minting a powerpoint slide and expecting people to pay a couple of hundred dollars to mint an edition of a powerpoint slide. Creating a meme derivative of a powerpoint slide felt even more ridiculous... so it had to be done.
While the original meme lays out the timeline for mainstream adoption of NFTs, the MintFace derivative takes a historical look back in time at what has already taken place through the lens of fungibility and non-fungibility of tokens.
The slide is rebranded as MintFace, in MintFace brand and is animated to help the viewer with understanding. I could not in all faith sell a MintFace powerpoint slide that was a derivative of another slide on mint day. Instead, two were listed at silly prices and the rest have remained in a MintFace alt wallet. One day, I may change my mind on this and accept private offers.
Stored Digital Value is a necessary NFT for those handful of people attempting to complete the full set of Seize and Share memes.
Certificate of Mint
88 editions
Certificate of Mint is a derivative of 'Authentic Summer' by @6259er. It was a very popular meme on mint day with all selling out. The derivative deconstructs the traits of MintFace also known as Cryptophunk 457. The Cryptophunk project is a left facing replication of the Cryptopunks that was minted in mid 2021.
It suffers a degree of disdain from the original punkholders, and rightly so in my view. The holders of phunks and phunkism culture are an irreverant lot who are care about freedom of expression but who, in my view, take it too far at times.
The original meme integrity is maintained throughout, showing the silliness of pretend certificates and all of their 'security' devices like holograms, signatures, barcodes, stamps and promises. Why do we need any of those now that we have the blockchain and cryptographically secure provenance through math? The same could be said of Punks vs Phunks. It is clear that they are separate tokens, borne from separate eras, even if they look somewhat similar bar their directional outlook.
We Like The Line
30 editions
We Like The Line is a MintFace derivative of 'Vivienne Tam x 6529' by Vivienne Tam. Probably the most meaning laden meme derivative to date. There is alot going on in this simple adaption of the original. Let's start with the obvious.
There is a massive fat white line that appears out of nowhere up and down the center of the card. It is a reference to The Line project to display 1 million artworks in a single line.
The Line came out of nowhere and turned a lot of heads within Web3.0 wen it was launched, illustrated through the rapid head turning animation of 6529 punk and 457 phunk.
The 'OM' mahjong card is retained to illustrate that there are many ways to buidl an open metaverse and also that there are still plenty of empty plots in the open metaverse that are yet to be built. Pro tip: Please hurry and go buidl them.
Lastly, the white line is a reminder of how fashion, haute couture and the use of illicit substances were tightly interlinked, at least in my days in London in the early 2000s. That may have changed, but if not... the meme trait remains relevant.
!HUG Card
5 editions
!HUG is a derivative artwork of '!UGH' by JakNFT. The meme included the following all too common scam scenario we see in Web3.0:
Phatrick didn't use a hardware wallet. He got tricked out of a grail JPEG wen he asked the Discord mod for help.Everyone felt sad for Phatrick and replied !HUG.
...because in Web3.0 there is no reverse the transaction.
Eventually a phunk bought his grail JPEG back and sold it to him for cost.
The !HUG meme was the first to be actively adopted and meme'd by the community. It was a breakout surprise tbh. The original intent was to mint five editions, send one to JAKNFT and list the remaining ones for the same price of 0.06529 eth as the original mame. It was a performance 'trick' where the buyer may have thought !HUG was actually !UGH and acquired the wrong meme.... invoking a !UGH from the buyer... and then a !HUG from MintFace.
It didn't play out that way. People loved both the card and the limited edition size.
Dreaming Honey Card
8 editions
Dreaming Honey is a derivative by MintFace of 'Seize the bees of production' by 6529er. Eeyore not included. The poem is adapted from the original meme to highlight the kinds of conversations that go on in the Discord server of projects. 'We like the honey' is a nod to 'We like the stock' from Gamestock memes. 'Wen clover' is a nod to 'wen moon' asked by project hodlers who are there only to profit and walk away.
The community aspect is of 'talking and collecting honey' is mentioned in the context of 'no need to sell' where community members shame those who sell there NFTs. It is a kind of 'drinking the cool aid' reflected in the line 'drink it up its liquid nectar.' The intermittent use of caps lock throughout the last line of the poem is often used to highlight sarcasm. As Pooh floats high on expectation of his red balloon... he didn't see the bees on their way to deflate his hopes and send him back to zero.
Dreaming Honey is a double entrendre of those who dream about making it in NFTs, versus their loved one saying the phrase to them with the opposite intonation of 'you're dreaming honey'. Seize and Share explores the dynamics of sentiment and imho this card of one of the best and expressing the dualities present within the Web3.0 space.
Line of gm
25 editions
Line of gm is a derivative of 'Human-Intelligence Generated OM' by Hugo Faz. Be careful, gm is addictive.
The seized and shared derivative Line of gm illustrates the birds eye view of what artists were buidling on The Line. Over 200 artists had added 10,000+ artworks to The Line and it was beginning to take on a shape and life of its own.
A number of artists commented how the process is curating their entire collections was surprising, meaningful and in one case cathartic. Often, through the process of looking back, it enables the letting go and possibility to create more. There are gems in our creative past that can be revisited to spark energy into our creative future. As always, be careful... gm is addictive, especially for artists on The Line.
Lucky Kevin Card
18 editions
Lucky Kevin is a MintFace derivative of 'Feeling Lucky?' by 6529er. The message here is articulated clearly in the meme itself, so let's look at what is not being said.
Lucky Kevin is a commentary on the multitude of private groups that operate in Web3.0 to help our 'frens' do well by sharing the alpha🍒. Alpha is insight into a project, artist or upcoming mint that isn't widely known. By knowing the alpha, it allows you to play a game at a different level, avoiding rugs and participating in high return projects.
For those starting out in Web3.0, Twitter becomes a source of knowledge. However Twitter accounts with large followings tend to share the real alpha in private groups, not on Twitter. Twitter is the place to shill projects, create demand and exit liquidity for the private group. This meme isn't aimed at any individual group or Discord... it is a commentary on the multi layered information game that swirls around the art, the artist and the mint.
Lucky Kevin is a personal MintFace story too wen early on in 2021, a Twitter influencer known as DigitalArtChick, helped launch Fatales. I got excited, bought in because DigitalArtChick had put her name to one of the traits. The project died over time, but I'll never forget the DMs received to nudge MintFace into not selling wen the DigitalArtChick pink background trait was quietly removed soon after launch. A small detail that ultimately was a harbinger for the future of the project.
Everyone gets rugged at least once. Lucky Kevin interprets that one time for me. It could have been worse... many minted the project with the now infamous 'Kevin' character in it displayed in the background of Lucky Kevin.
Seize and Share Memes Part III
Part III will continue in about a week, sharing the narrative behind the memes seized and shared by MintFace during 2022. The next article will also deep dive on the Seize and Share collection.
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You can visit the Seize and Share collection here.
You can also visit The Memes by 6529 collection here.
Visit the Seize and Share collection in the open metaverse here.
Still to come in part 3 are...
FTX Card [34] 8 editions
Winter Shade [35] 88 editions
My Precious Card [32] 8 editions
Convoy Card [38] 19 editions
Surreal Dreamooor Card [41] 46 editions
Nights Dawn Card [40] 69 editions
...more memes as they are released by The Memes by 6529.