Luna Dolph

Lochlan, social media marketing and community manager, talks about the Arts of Asia project and how it is linked to the NFT world.

Welcome everyone to a new episode of “I’m Luna Dolph – Art & Reality”. I’m Luna and I thank you for being here with me. We stopped for a while, in this period I am traveling a lot and I am discovering the wonders of your world! But don’t worry, I’m back to discover new topics with you! In the last episode we talked to Naomi, a young girl who is overcoming all obstacles to pursue her dreams.

Today I’d likes to talk about a new topic! I didn’t know anything about it, but it’s so interesting! I’m talking about the NFT world. We’ll speak with Lochlan, who will talk about the project he’s in, the Arts of Asia project, and how it is linked to NFT.

Arts of Asia project

Me: Hi Lochlan, I’m luna and it’s a pleasure to have you in my podcast. Maybe, it’s too difficult for me to explain who you are. So, i’d like you to introduce yourself and to explain what do you do in your project.

L: Sure, Luna. So, I’m Lochlan, the social media marketing and community manager. The project that I’m currently in is “Arts of Asia”. It is an artist incubation hub and a cultural taste maker in the digital age.

We bring some of the most unique avant-garde and soulful artworks onto the global stage, as well as nurturing emerging artists from eastern Asia. Lots of our stuff that we do is revolving around the current NFT space and digital artwork.

Arts of Asia as an incubation hub

Me: Wow, I think it’s interesting! I saw your Instagram page and something about this project. I think this is one of your most important projects! So, can you explain something more about it?

L: Yes! We are an incubation hub and we have three artists. We promote the NFT art. Yeah, we’re bringing this unique art to the global stage. All of our artists, we’re currently representing, are from eastern Asia. And, we’re trying to expand and get more and more artists.

Artist selected for the Arts of Asia project

Me: This Is so interesting! So, at the moment, you have three artists. Can I ask you how do you select your artists and why?

L: Sure, Luna! Each artist we chose, represents a different genre or specific type of aesthetic. So, we select different artists that represent different parts of Asia, by the asian art scene.

Bian

L: Our first artist is Bian. He is a royal academy of arts alumn. And, he is very decorated in the fact that he’s worked for the likes of Burberry. He’s a creative designer technologist. With his work, primarily focused on the current geopolitical atmosphere.

Franc Kaiser

L: Our second artist is Franc Kaiser. He’s a very abstract acrylic artist. With a large volume of his work: grand surrealistic sci-fi work, realistic creatures such as cats and dinosaurs.

Cao Xiang

L: And our last artist is Cao Xiang. He’s a more leaning towards a subtle illustrative contemporary style. Using acrylics, he portrays his perspectives of common sights of eastern asian countries.

As Arts of Asia, we wish to be as diverse as we can, while trying to bring all kinds of different asian perspectives to our audience. So, this is why we selected these three artists for the current time.

Me: I find really interesting what you are doing. But, most of all, I like the way you represent the different perspectives.

What is NFT?

Me: Earlier, you mentioned something I don’t know, NFT. Could you explain to me what is it?

L: NFT is a very new and emerging type of asset really heating up these days. It could be defined as a digital certificate, or a digital asset. And is non-fungible. The digital asset is representing a real-world item.

Non-fungible means that they are integrable and the asset is owned by a specific person. Sorry, not integrable. NFT is a non-fungible token made with blockchain. The same used to make cryptocurrency blockchain, also known as a digital ledger of transactions. It’s a growing list of blocks essentially, a decentralized distributed ledger that records the prominence of a digital asset. So that’s an NFT.

NFT and cryptovalutes

Me: This Is so interesting! I didn’t know anything about this topic. But, I heard something about the cryptovalutes. There are some differences between NFT and the cryptovalutes?

L: So, Luna, NFT and cryptovalutes are similar in the aspect that they rely on each other. But, they have differences. The main difference between NFT and crypto are that NFT cannot be traded or replaced. Hence non-fungible unlike cryptovalutes, which is fungible.

Cryptovalutes is the encrypted form of digital currency, that doesn’t depend on financial institutions. And is stored in a digital wallet. NFT are stored in a digital ledger and brought and sold online. NFT are only certificates and on the ledgers that can be bought and sold. Crypto, like Bitcoin, can be traded with another different cryptocurrency, such as dogecoin. This is not the case with NFT. That’s the main difference.

NFT linked to the world of art

Me: Thank you for your explanation! I’m a curious person and I like to understand. Can you explain how NFT Is linked to the world of art and to your Arts of Asia project?

L: NFT, essentially, can be anything like: music, a meme, art, etc. NFT is just a new space for digital artists to monetize their work, like sell their work. And a new space for art sellers to buy.

Basically, digital artworks it’s more accessible and a very in-trend thing to do to buy and sell art, using this cryptovalutes. This Is how NFT are linked to the world of art.

Arts of Asia and NFT

Me: So, NFT are linked to the world of art. But, it’s linked to your Arts of Asia project too. So, why did you choose it in your project?

L: We chose NFT in pur Arts of Asia project, to promote these eastern asian artists. In this new digital platform that seems to be growing by the minute. Was been around since 2017 but, last month, it had over a billion dollars worth of sales just in a marketplace alone. So, we wanted to start this project. Because NFT is very intriguing thing to us. And, the art also is very interesting. With our marketing, being very creative indie boutique, marketing agency.

So, we really liked the artwork and like the paradigm shift with the digital age like nowadays felt like the right thing to do. And, we tried to make the move early. So, that’s why we chose to do this project.

The future of NFT

Me: Very incredible! And now, do you have any ideas about the NFT future, any prediction? This can be a way to help artists and buyers in their communication?

L: Sure! I believe the NFT future is large and promising. I think for several reasons that NFT has large potential, all stemming from this paradigm shift to a digital world. But, in terms of ideas, I just see that it has created a value for profits, more freedom, and this intrinsic value for the creator. The buyer value comes from the transparent and accessible transactions.

The future though although very much relies on the cryptovalutes marketplace. So, like the development of fluctuations as when the crypto market dips, so does the NFT. I, somehow, want to change this, so that it doesn’t so much rely on cryptovalutes. Two months ago, the cryptovalutes had a large decrease in a market percentage. And this subsequently had a huge dip in sales for NFT. We want to somehow change this.

Celebrity influence in NFT world

L: I don’t currently have any ideas but we are working on something. I can see NFT future very promising. Also with celebrity influence. A lot of celebrities are either promoting, creating their own NFT, or fundraising with NFT. For example, Kobe Bryant, a famous basketball player, had photographs auctioned off as NFT. Paris Hilton has made some artwork.

This gives the market reputation and, somewhat, quite credibility. My last reason to see the future, and maybe i do have some ideas in this, is the concern with anyone being out able to become an NFT artist, and the market being flooded.

I believe that this does not affect the future so much as the marketplace can regulate, and not allow anyone in. And, I’d like to see more regulations in terms of ranging from copyright, and sources of NFT, so just not being able to be anyone to become an NFT. It’s more have a reputation to sell your digital art as a collectible or NFT art or anything. I see that it needs more credibility and more regulations. That’s what I want to see for the NFT market to grow.

The topic of copyright

Me: This topic is so incredible! Another question, what can you say about the relationship between nft and the copyright? Because you mentioned the copyright in your explanations.

L: The copyright and intellectual property is currently quite a hazy topic at the moment. There’s nothing set in stone in countries laws. The u.s market is keeping in with the IP and copyright of NFT. The future does seem promising towards a more structured system. But it’s very complex and still evolving situation with NFT. Technically, the creator of the work owns the IP or copyright of the work. Whereas the buyer of the NFT may have ownership of the digital asset so, legally, the creator of the work would have to sign his or her or theirs IP over to the buyer of this NFT.

Essentially, an NFT purchaser owns nothing more than the unique hash on the blockchain, with a transactional record and hyperlink to the file of the artwork. So, it’s quite hard to pass a law in the copyright or intellectual property for an NFT, but i’m sure that there will be that more structured system in the future.

The approach to social media

Me: Lochlan, now I’d like to ask you something more personal. Can I ask you to explain me something about your approach to social media? Do you think they could help people and artists to emerge? Or, maybe, they could be a wall between people?

L: Currently, I’m running the social media channels. Before, I mentioned the social media marketing and community manager. Our social media approach is across our omni channel, so we use Telegram, Twitter, Instagram, and many others. We try to keep an integrated marketing approach with similar content across all channels. We are currently just promoting our artists, giveaways releases, and just anything to do with general NFT news.

So, with this influence, I think it’s very much important for NFT artists, or promoters, or incubation hubs like ourselves, to really utilize social media to our advantage. I believe with an integrated marketing approach, you can get across to buyers collectors. Or just put potential buyers. Even just anyone scrolling through their feed and not knowing about NFT like yourself, and maybe being intrigued.

I feel as if that’s has quite a large influence. It also has a large influence on current digital artists, that don’t have many spaces to sell their artworks. So, NFT is a large platform for them to now sell their artwork. Or, even regular artists, giving them a platform as well to succeed and sell their items. So, I feel as if social media is very important for the success of selling.

The future of the Arts of Asia project

Me: Lochlan, I just want to know what do you see in the future of your project. What should we expect from your Art of Asia project?

L: Currently, we are planning on promoting more artists. But, we also see more of a future in obviously long-term. Our long-term goal is to start promoting more than an incubating information hub, for more than just art. Also for music artists. Become like a record label for NFT, have tv shows which are now in the NFT space. Where you have to purchase an NFT to be able to watch a tv show.

So, we just want to expand in terms of that. But, our short term goal, is see just small social media changes. We’re trying to create a Youtube channel, which is educating people on how to use NFT marketplaces. How to mint and sell NFT. How to buy it. Setting up accounts making NFT. Basically, just general information, but that’s our current short-term goal. Is just focusing on our Youtube channel at the moment.

Me: So interesting! I think this could help many many people to understand better this world.

Approach the Arts of Asia project

Me: So, if people want to approach your project, they can contact you on social media, right?

L: Yes, we are mainly approachable on social media. Our main forms of social media are Instagram and Twitter. This follows the Arts of Asia.

Our Instagram also is “Arts of Asia”, that’s how people can find out about us. Learn a bit more about us. Then, if you want to check out maybe NFT art in general. We currently have NFT for sale on the marketplaces. So, that’s where we are minting our art at the moment.

Me: It’s important to give your contact. I think many people are interested in this world.

How to approach NFT

Me: But Lochlan, I think there are many people that doen’t know how to approach this topic. Do you have some advice for this people?

L: Sure, Luna. I have lots of ideas. There’s lots of information out there but, the best way to better understand the world of NFT, I advise people to just look at platforms like OpenSea, Rarible, Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, and create an account. Play around with minting, and looking, and buying art.

And, speaking from experience, I’ve learnt a lot from forums on reddit Telegram and Discord. Just general NFT chats that have everything about NFTs. Then, just research for Youtube videos to have an in-depth detail to what you want to learn. Or, I suppose, listen to a podcast like this. And be sure to keep up with the Art of Asia social media channels, to find out more on the NFT space.

Me: Lochlan, I have to thank you for your explanations and your time. I’m so interested in this topic and I’ll go to do some researches to understand it better. And, obviously, I’ll visit your site! I hope your project will grow! Bye Lochlan!

L: Thank you very much for the opportunity to explain something about NFT. Bye Luna.

Rate and comment my podcast

Thanks also to those who listened to this new episode of “I’m Luna Dolph – Art & Reality”. I learned a lot about the NFT world, thanks to Lochlan. And, obviously, I recommend you to visit his page, and to learn more about the Arts of Asia project. Did you know something about NFT? Write me to let me know!

Leave me a good review on my web channels, to encourage me to continue this journey. Subscribe to my podcast and on Instagram. Contact me on lunadolph.com for advice, criticism or simply to get to know me. See you next Friday for a new episode! And don’t forget – live and enjoy the real world!