A project called 1729, which offers users Bitcoin rewards for completing various tasks and tutorials, has announced a new contest for artists who are interested in portraying a bright, highly technological future of Africa.
“Create Afrofuturist art showing a better future. Ten best submissions earn $100 in BTC, and will be featured as NFTs [non-fungible tokens],” 1729 explained.
The New African Renaissance conference hosted by @mwiyas is seeking technological progressives to create Afrofuturist art. Earn BTC, create an NFT, advance technology.https://t.co/J7986N6nKd
— 1729 (@oneseventwonine) May 9, 2021
According to the announcement, the project is currently preparing to host the 21st “African Renaissance Conference,” a virtual event that aims to gather “technological progressives from all over the continent” to discuss Africa’s future. For the occasion, 1729 is rebuilding the event’s website—and this is where artists come in.
“Here’s where things get interesting: we want to feature amazing Afrofuturist illustrations and artwork on the new website, and we’d like to crowdsource the work. If you’re a digital artist and would like your work featured on our website—this task is for you!” the organization noted.
As the most obvious point of reference, 1729 named the fictional city of Wakanda from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, artists will be free to present their own unique visions of high-tech Afrofuturist aesthetics.
“We’re interested in seeing what artists today believe an optimistic African future looks like, a vision of a Bright Sun rather than the dystopianism of a Black Mirror,” the organizers explained.
Exposure to NFTs
While $100 in Bitcoin may not sound like much, the organization will also help winners to turn their prize artworks into NFTs and assist in promoting them.
“We can’t promise a huge windfall, but we can try to help great artists get a shot at helping their work gain exposure. You get the 1729 prize and you get to auction the art as an NFT,” 1729 said, adding that the contest will run till June 10.
NFTs are a special type of non-interchangeable tokens that are at the epicenter of the crypto craze that has been raging over the past couple of months. Unlike “common” tokens, each NFT is unique and scarce—qualities that are highly valued by collectors.
While NFTs usually represent various digital data such as artworks, music, photographs, or videos, their use cases as digital certificates of authenticity and ownership can extend far beyond that. Tech giant IBM, for example, has recently revealed a new platform that allows turning corporate patents into NFTs.
