MOCA LIVE

Our guest this week is Andrés Zighelboim, the renowned surrealist painter, and our conversation defies any attempt to capture it in a single sentence. Listen for a discussion on macro and micro cultures, on mysticism and magic, on tales from the early days of crypto art, and much much more. 

This week, Max and Shivani talk with Japanese photographer, musician, and crypto artist Emi Kusano about her wild 80's-centric aesthetic, her radical approach to AI artistry, her fashion sense, and what it's like to be a crypto artist in Japan. We have a lot of fun in this podcast, and hopefully you have a lot of fun listening to it. 

That's it, folks, it's a wrap: PFPs are dead in the water, and today, Max and Colborn talk about why. Why PFP projects are flawed at their core, how they have no choice but to alienate their holders, and other musings from the autopsy of the world's most notorious NFT asset class. Some shots get fired in this one. Did YOUR favorite project catch a bullet? Listen and find out!

It's our 20th episode! Max and Colborn are together in the same place, talking shop about the spiritual and mental challenges of living through one insane crypto cycle after another. But, I swear, this is a celebratory podcast. Please enjoy. 

Max is joined by MOCA's director/curator, Shivani Mitra, and the artist/curator/designer, Linda Dounia, to talk about how bias in AI is everywhere, how it touches everything, and how degrading it will be to so many arena —artistic, political, cultural—if left unanalyzed and unchallenged. Let this podcast be an analysis and challenge both. 

Inspired by the announcement of Apple's new VisionPro AR/VR headset, Colborn and Max discuss crypto art's future in a world where we more-or-less have computers taped to our heads 24/7. The potential goods of that world, sure, but also the many, many, *many* potential bads. We might be listening back to this one in a few years saying "We told you so." 

It's been a big few weeks for generative art, and to talk about the what's, why's, how's, and should's of it all, Colborn and Max are talking with Dejha Ti and Ania Catherine, who together make-up the experiential art duo Operator. We discuss Operator's recent work (Human Unreadable), how algorithmic artistry can continue expanding across mediums, and why exactly generative looms as large as it do...

A loaded title for a loaded podcast. This one start Max and Colborn with a simple question —Is Crypto Art a Joke?— and spins out into a much wider conversation about internet culture at large. Get ready to bounce around from traditional art to memetics, from sincerity in television and videogames to Susan Sontag. Enjoy. 

Max and Colborn are back together and talking about the moral responsibilities artists face when achieving monumental success in crypto art. Should high-selling crypto artists have an ethical mandate to help keep this space alive? Why is it worth keeping alive in the first place? Ultimately, who is in charge of preserving crypto art going forward, and where, and in what form? Big topics, lengthy p...

Max is joined by MOCA Director Shivani Mitra, and by crypto artist Earthsample, to dig under the nails of AI: AI culturally, AI as it relates to crypto art, AI as a paradigm shift that might, yes, push society forward into something security-seeking, but might instead encourage it away from technology altogether. Near the end of this pod, the conversation turns to Milady NFTs and, naturally, devol...

Max, and special guest Anubis3100, go deep into the why's and what-now's of crypto art's latest foray into memecoin speculation. We talk our person memecoin histories, how this hyper-investment might affect crypto art downstream, and why the memetics never seem to stop. 

Colborn and Max are joined by MOCA's resident metaverse architect, untitled,xyz, to talk blockchains: Tezos, Solana, Polygon, Steemit, Ethereum, and how crypto art has adapted to each ecosystem. This pod's got stories, it's got insights, it's a whole lot of fun. 

Max and Colborn are back talking about post-NFTNYC feelings and insights and events. A bunch of folks gathered at MOCA's Church (we have a church) for a weekend getaway, our hosts rediscovered the meaning of friendship, and an Async. Art love-fest quickly devolves into $Pepe/Franklin/Celtics-fueled chaos.

Max and Colborn talk about NFTNYC 2023 week *during* NFTNYC 2023 week. They discuss some trends —good and bad— regarding display (Times Square billboards, anyone?), curation, and togetherness (aww). 

Colborn and Max are joined by artist/curator/superhuman/MOCA-programming-director Julian Brangold to discuss MOCA's latest exhibition, crypto art in Argentina, the effects of decentralization on crypto art's aesthetics, and the role collectors play in encouraging local, personal artistry. A good conversation by smart cookies. 

Colborn and Max discuss the recent incursion by Sotheby's Auction House into crypto art, and what its seeming success says about the space as a whole. Why are so many artists attracted to Sotheby's auctions? What niche is Sotheby's filling? What is mainstream acceptance doing to us!?!? All of that and more on this week's episode. 

Freshly returned from attending the NFTParis conference, Colborn talks with Max about his reinvigorating experience at this most recent crypto art convention, about IRL events in general, about the importance of sharing physical space, and about much more. 

Max and Colborn are joined by Gisel Florez, one of crypto art's most enduring photographers and collectors, to discuss curation, her collecting sensibilities, and the ethos behind her new project, MoonLanguage. 

For Valentine's Day Week (???) 2023, Colborn and Max talk about the things they love most about crypto art: The artists, the movements, the spirit of community, the Metaverse, and much more. Get ready to fall in love all over again. 

Max and Colborn are joined by performance artists OONA and Lori Baldwin to discuss Milking the Artist (their controversial Art Basel performance), Twitter algorithms, why Dalí gets way more credit than he deserves, the history of feminist performance art, and much more. 

What's really up with all these Open Editions hitting the crypto art market? Colborn and Max break down what Open Editions mean for crypto art, the conditions that have led to their proliferation, and others ways artists are keeping the lights on during an extended crypto winter.

In episode 2, Colborn and Max discuss the effects of social media (i.e. Twitter), influencer culture, and content expectation on crypto art. Content vs. Art? Influencers vs. Collectors? How to navigate such strangeness? We posit some ideas. 

In the inaugural MOCA LIVE, hosts Colborn Bell and Max Cohen flit around the crypto art universe, discussing the state of the market today, originality vs. mimicry, interesting stuff happening on Solana (it's true, I swear!), and some of what's changed since crypto art's humble beginnings.