The MakersPlace AI Art Hackathon at NFC

This year’s NFC in Lisbon, Portugal saw the first ever AI Art Hackathon! On this page you can see the limited edition prints created during the Hackathon, which can be purchased from MakersPlace, and a full list of holder benefits can be found here.

Prompted by ARS AUTOPOETICA, a poem written by Sasha Stiles, artists BLΛC, Illustrata, DVK the artist, and DigitalCoy used AI-based programmes such as Stable Diffusion and Stability AI to create unique artworks live at the event, where attendees could watch the artists’ process as they worked.

Built into the 48-hours time of the Hackathon were breaks where Trevor Jones and Hackatao revealed their own artworks for the artists to incorporate into their work. Trevor’s contribution was The Ecstasy, the painting that introduced the Bitcoin Angel. During these breaks, snapshots of each artwork were taken to document the stages of their creation, and these were minted as the limited editions you can see on this page.

After the first day of activity, the artists’ sketches were transformed into physical paintings in by New York based digital art studio Artmatr, using their unique painting robot MATRing. The paintings were then transported in an overnight flight from New York to Lisbon where they were received by artist Coldie. Using a knife, scissors and a lighter, Coldie cut and burned the four artworks then combined and assembled them into a single 1/1 artwork. This was signed by Coldie, Trevor, and the four Hackathon participants and raffled.

The Hackathon produced some fascinating and exciting creations and indicates the endless possibilities of where AI and art may go in the future.