December Update, a question and a video
A year has gone by since I shared this Roadmap explaining the Smartists evolution:
December Update
Since my first steps for shaping the idea of Smartists, my personal experience as a senior writer-illustrator has been a driving force, and has fuelled our progress despite limited resources and funds. Today, I am convinced that our resilience and determination are based in our response to the actual need of independent artists to be able to self-manage on the web.
I started with an idea, built a prototype and with our first team we developed our first MVP. Some good friends and acquaintances helped us with their feedback in our first steps, and we started building a community. Now, we are closing out this year with some fundamental business decisions.
Regrettably, we have not yet reached our milestones to provide the app as a beta on Mainnet for artists and art-users to start using by the end of this year. We were required to address some issues which were disruptive to our progress and our team. Some challenges beyond our business development became priorities and we had to divert our attention to manage them and get back on track. Temporary delays provide time for reflection and improvement to our goals, even though at times they are not so clear in the grand scheme of things.
Nevertheless, this year we can be proud for many reasons. First, the Smartists licenses are ready, and very much improved, in order to be attached to our Genuine NFTs; our team’s business model is being developed with the help of our very experienced CFO, as well as the advice of the Web3 StartUp Labs on Stacks; our community is growing with very interesting professional artists coming from the real world. So, despite all the difficulties of the past months, we are planning ahead in order to fulfill mission.
On my side, as an author, I am planning to interview some creators in our community starting in January in my personal newsletter. This way, creators from our community will be able to share their first steps on the web3, like some of our first pioneers, Curator Collective, Grace Hye and Flor Peña, already did in 2022.
As an author I am looking forward to using the Smartists services next year, and I wish to thank Daniel, Isabel, our advisors and pioneers for helping this project move forward.
And here is a question… do you have one of our NFTs?
In 2022, I designed and minted a collection of NFTs called “Mirlos for Artists - 2022”. It was created with the support of Mirlo Music, my editor and publisher.
If you already have one because you are pioneering in Smartists: testing our mvp opening a studio, providing feedback, answering our surveys… our special gratitude for your contribution!
Having a Mirlo makes you a member of The Smartists community, meaning you align with our mission, and you want to look for solutions for independent self-managed artists on the web3 with us.
If you still don’t have a Mirlo, please fill this form and we will be happy to send you one.
Finally, the video:
An NFTs creator meets a pianist and they consider collaborating… Could the NFT creator provide some images for the pianist to project during his performances? Could the pianist create some specific music for an NFT collection from some original visuals? This was the starting point for a very special collection of NFTs. Both parties were joined by other creators…
Here I bring the very first explanation about the composition:
Curator Collective took the lead to present the collection at NYC.NFT in June, and the composer premiered the original piano version in a private concert where one of the NFTs was also exhibited for the attendants who were discovering their new world of possibilities. Because with the new collaborations, the piano version was orchestrated and also evolved with the introduction of algorithms… Today you can find the collection on the Bitcoin NFTs marketplace Gamma. And while some pieces were auctioned, also a special “Miami Edition” was created. Here I leave a sample:
Find our more about NFTs for Peace at Genmusic.art.
I am really happy to have witnessed this collaboration take place, because this is part of what I envisioned for Smartists. I just hope we find the way to build for artists the tools they need to achieve this kind of projects with the agility and security the web3 on Bitcoin aims to deliver.
Have a nice December!
Georgina Mauriño, co-founder of Smartists and author at Mirlo Music.