If that sentence only raises questions in your mind, you can be forgiven!
NFT stands for non fungible token, and its a term used to represent digital assets like videos and images that have been put onto the blockchain to record ownership. It should revolutionise the art world and allow artists to be properly credited for their work. The assets in this exhibition are owned by one owner, 33NFT, who has over 1000 NFT’s.
Here is an impression of what you can see at the exhibition:
Why go to the exhibition?
The art on display is beautiful and futuristic
What you’re looking at is stunning digital art on a large display screen
The topics of the art are thought provoking
Witness the dawn of a new age in artists royalties and rights
Learn something about NFT’s, blockchain technology and be a part of the dawn of a new age.
The complementary exhibitions of immersive digital and traditional art in the rest of the museum are breathtaking
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Short and sweet, the low-down on the Metaverse without the hype.
What is the metaverse?
It is an immersive and engaging digital experience.
The metaverse adds a 3-dimensional component to standard web experiences, so you can navigate in 3 dimensions, thereby making it a more natural experience.
You access the metaverse using the internet and Virtual Reality headsets or Augmented Reality on a phone or tablet and sometimes through a browser, an app.
Spaces in the metaverse are created by companies, like digital twins of their office buildings or of museums and towns.
Regular people can also create their own spaces on websites like Spatial.IO or Decentraland.
One is generally represented by a 3d avatar. You can create one avatar that you reuse in multiple Metaverse applications using ReadyPlayerMe. Your avatar can perform actions that are supported in whatever space you are in.
What is the potential of the metaverse?
Companies can host online meetings in a more immersive style using 3d virtual reality technologies
Artists can engage with people online by hosting events for more immersive online viewing.
Digital assets like NTF’s can be added to enhance and enrich the experience. This increases the e-commerce opportunity of the metaverse.
Online gaming in shared 3d worlds where users can generate their own content and participate in a sophisticated economy like Roblox
Problems with the Metaverse
You need a device like a headset, a smartphone or a PC to participate.
The metaverse is not one cohesive universe, one set of linked digital experiences, but a concept of spatial experiences creating a new kind of digital reality for participants.
The metaverse depends on attractive content created by companies and individual contributors, essentially sticky content to attract people
Interaction is still fairly clunky and doesn’t yet feel natural
There is no shared reality, practically speaking, except virtual shared experiences via a device
Web 3.0
Web 3.0 is the semantic web, a format of content with metadata to allow it to be machine interpretable. It might be used for the metaverse in the future.
Blockchain and the metaverse
Is the blockchain needed for the metaverse? Many definitions of the metaverse include a reference to blockchain technology as a basis for decentralisation and commerce. I would say it depends on your definition- from my perspective blockchain seems to not be needed.
NFTs
NFT stands for non fungible tokens, a fancy way of saying tokens on the blockchain that cannot be exchanged as money. NFT has come to be synonymous with digital assets like images, digital artworks and digital branded accessories for digital avatars.
The Roblox phenomenon
Roblox is a massive online gaming platform where users create experiences for each other and play each other’s games and participate in a blockchain economy together. Its an example of a Metaverse application, a shared virtual universe.
Roblox is used predominantly by people under the age of 16.
You will go through a tutorial on how to navigate in that space using keys like WASD and the mouse to change camera angle. Try to get accustomed to the interaction experience and navigate to different locations.
These robots are also super cute – they have cat ears and when the service screen is not displayed, it shows a cat face. We’re all crazy about cats so our minds were completely blown by these robots.
Robots in waiting modeRobot approachingRobot with input screen
Vikram interacting with the robot, under supervision from really friendly staff.
Two robots performing different functions
These robots have collision avoidance, they were able to avoid the waiting staff, and they are programmed with table numbers and the dishwasher location for example. One also played happy birthday in Dutch for one of the tables as you can see but not hear properly in the video below:
Well, you know, by now I’m really excited to know more about the technology and company behind these robots so here goes:
Well, its finally come and gone, my first two workshops for Halloween 2020! My two main goals were that everyone have fun and learn something, and we succeeded on both accounts.
Mixing it up
We had a variety of participants in both groups, in all age groups, and all abilities and knowledge levels. The first group was unknown to each other, with two people working together per kit, and the second was a family group – both were load of fun to share this experience with.
The learning curve
To speed things up, I will create some supplementary content about the basics of sewing. Working with wearables components (Lilypad and Adafruit) was a lot easier than I anticipated. I noticed that the learning curve of the workshop was steep until we got to the electronics part, thereafter it was just repetition of the same skills. In the future I would either do a design that requires less work after the initial learning phase or teach the basic skills separately upfront. I might also do different difficulty levels, so a basics course before you attempt a bigger project.
Fun is the name of the game
Look at how fun this was, I just loved it! 🥰
Overall I’m super happy with the result, I had the best soft launch I could have asked for with lovely people and had great fun. I could see everyone learning and feeling good about it.😍
The magic of creation
When you make something that does something, like an object that lights up, it feels like magic! And I affirmed for myself that the main goals of the sessions should be learning, fun and confidence building. Also I was amazed at how different everyone’s pumpkin turned out – wow, we humans are all so varied and amazing, and everyone has so much creativity in them!
Looking forward
I have a ton of ideas on future workshops and improvements but this has been an exciting start and I feel good about the future.
Well this is an exciting time for RoboRabbit-Labs! The first electro-craft workshops will be happening this week, with a Halloween theme!
Why Halloween?
Well 2020 has been a challenging and even dark year for many. With the full moon on Halloween this year, its probably a good time to sweep out the old and usher in the light and good vibes. Halloween of course provides a great opportunity to allow fun into our lives and offers some iconic characters to play with like Jack-o-Lanterns of course, but also black cats, mummies, zombies, werewolves, ghosts and witches. It’s a time when we get to play with these scary themes and restore some balance to our world.
Felted Jack-o-Lantern
The Jack o Lantern came together as a project pretty quickly. I used the idea behind the Octopus, and simplified it by removing the controller board, the LilyTiny. I decided to make it more widely appealing by hiding the electronic components behind the eyes and mouth, and making the conductive thread lines blend in with the embroidery pumpkin grooves.
The test session
My lovely assistant and boyfriend, robotics and electronics enthusiast Renze, donated two hours of his weekend to help me test the Video conferencing and assembly process. The most challenging part for him was learning to sew! Details like threading the needles, and the tendency of the conductive thread to get kinks delayed his efforts. However, he visibly enjoyed making something that worked and lit up in the end, and was impressed that he could actually make a successful product, despite how foreign the construction was. Also, he now has a cute ornament of his own making to keep him company in his office.
Posting the kits
Today I will send the last of the kits out for this week’s sessions. It’s incredibly exciting to fill the padded envelopes, stick the addresses on and perform the last checks for completeness. It feels like sending presents out, which I love doing. I hope I can include more little gifts in future kits. This time I was able to include a second battery so that participants can make their own project with the remaining 3 LEDs and conductive thread.
RoboRabbitLabs 