A week ago I bought a Hashmask, #13225. I named him “Hendrix”. He isn’t particularly “unique” or “scarce”- but it has given me something that is remarkably scarce — an inspiration to create, and an artifact to work with. I’d like to share the story with you.
Like Neo, Hendrix lives two lives.
During the day, he is an asset, finite and tangible. His value to society is easily measurable by looking at the price, engagement, and ownership history. He fits into “a category“. Like most crypto-assets, he can be bought, sold, “wrapped” and collateralized.
At night, however, Hendrix is a gift. Intangible and priceless, it is impossible to measure the inspiration and creativity that he can inspire in others, once he is free to roam in the ether.
The picture in my Wallet
One’s wallet can say a lot about a person. My grandfather’s leather wallet was much more than a “thing used to organise and carry money and cards”. He used it to carry his loved ones with him, wherever he went.
Now that wallets are digital, it’s about convenience, usability, numbers, and charts — which is a great improvement when it comes to managing money, but… where do I keep that little piece of paper that reminds me of who I am? The photo of my son? My home?
I’ve been thinking about this as I’m figuring out my personal connection to crypto media, art, and music I create or own. Is this Hashmask just another digital asset, or something more? If I had my grandfather’s wallet, which compartment would be the home of Hendrix? Surely, not with the cash and coins; definitely not with the credit cards.
I realized that my Hashmask could be one of those things that remind me of who I am.
Art inspires art
And so I felt inspired to create a piece of crypto music for my Hashmask friend. I often start with nothing but a click and my bass guitar. Pretty quickly I got a bassline down that I kinda liked. The tone of the bass guitar is familiar — the unmistakable Fender Precision bass with high presence and “clang” — and the bassline itself, when I recorded it, gave me a Joy Division sort of a vibe. I called the piece, “Joy Precision”.
Armed with this bassline, I got into a state of flow. This was at 10 PM, on a Friday night. At 4 AM, Saturday, I had the final mix and went to bed.
The next day, as I was listening to the track I thought that it would be awesome to give Hendrix some visual movement to go with the music.
Armed with his idea, I opened Photoshop and After Effects. This was at 9 PM, Saturday night. At 3 AM Sunday, I completed two works: “The Joy of Leon””, and the “Joy of Neon”.
On Sunday, I minted two NFTs.
The Joy of Leon
…and the Joy of Neon
The gift is what matters
Yes, I paid for my Hendrix, and I could probably sell him for double that, today. In fact, some Hashmasks sold for ten times the original price just days after they were revealed.
None of that matters.
What matters is that out of 16384 Hashmasks, it is #13225 — my Hendrix, that landed in my “wallet” and gave me the gift of inspiration — to sit down, do the work, and share it with the world. That is priceless.
Another gift I’ve recently received was an invitation from a friend to attend a crypto art meetup at the Milkbar in Melbourne. A bunch of cool people doing their thing with conviction — music, art, code, content, protocols, all in symbiosis. That night, in that room I experienced #cryptoreneissance and had a realisation that decentralisation is inevitable, it has started already, and art is how it happens.
But that’s a post for another day.
