VXLBDG NFTsCOMING SOON!
01.
A New Opportunity
Voxel Bridge is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is a milestone event in Contemporary Art. It is much more than a mural, or a piece of crypto art. Voxel Bridge exists simultaneously in three worlds: in the real world under the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge, in augmented reality (AR) as experienced through the Vancouver Biennale app, and in live blockchain. Voxel Bridge has entered the next phase, creating a new opportunity: VXLBDG NFTs.
The collaboration amongst Jessica Angel, the Vancouver Biennale, Spheroid Universe, and an international team of digital creators has resulted in a compelling opportunity to join the next wave of innovation in the NFT space.
A custom-made application to visualize the VXLBDG NFT collection in augmented reality kickstarts the launch of these ground-breaking NFTs that will be the first to integrate AR, public art, and museum-grade printing.
The innovative limited series of 20 VXLBDG NFTs showcases different perspectives of the Voxel Bridge art installation. Each NFT is a 1/1 ERC721 token minted on the Ethereum Blockchain and numbered between VXLBDG#1 and VXLBDG#20.
02.
AR Visualizer for NFTs
Spheroid Universe developed the Vancouver Biennale app, which is able to generate a series of QR codes to show the VXLBDG NFTs in AR from onsite at Voxel Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada or from anywhere else in the virtual world!
How does the visualizer work? Once a user points a mobile device camera to the QR code (circular signature), the device launches the Vancouver Biennale app and displays the linked VXLBDG NFTs in AR. If a user has not installed the Vancouver Biennale app before, scanning the QR code will lead the user to the app store to download the free app* for iOS and Android devices.
(*Data charges may apply)
03.
Look for the Authentication Signature
We have additional special features for each of the 20 unique and collectable VXLBDG NFTs. When viewing the VXLBDG NFTs, the QR code, or signature code, is located on the user’s app screen (below left side). Collectors who purchase a VXLBDG NFT will also have the code featured on the printed artwork as an authentication signature. Scanning this code will allow all users to experience the AR in either physical (printed) or digital format (i.e. phygital).
The AR experience will showcase the possibility to enter the three-dimensional space of the two-dimensional image, allowing viewers to explore the space. The AR opening camera view always matches the point of view of the NFT.
04.
Because the Physical Matters
We love NFTs, and we want to provide a bonus to VXLBDG NFT collectors. Through ownership of a VXLBDG NFT, collectors will own the digital asset plus have access to print authenticated museum-quality art in any size to display in its full magnitude.
05.
Exceptional Quality
The advanced technology used to transform digital art in a public space with AR continues beyond using the app. VXLBDG NFT collectors can unlock a vectorized (.svg) file with the highest possible resolution available for unlimited size printing (i.e phygitals).
06.
NFTs in Public Space experienced through AR
The Vancouver community will be able to learn about the VXLBDG NFT series and experience the AR integration virtually in the public art space under the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
Team
ARTIST JESSICA ANGEL
PRESENTING PARTNER VANCOUVER BIENNALE
APP DEVELOPMENT + AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) SPHEROID UNIVERSE
AUCTION HOUSE BONHAMS
ART SALES/MARKETPLACE TO BE CONFIRMED
What is Voxel Bridge?
Voxel Bridge was installed in 2021 as a special project of the 2018-2020 Vancouver Biennale, as the largest blockchain-based augmented reality (AR) experience of its kind. With the much-anticipated release of VXLBDG NFTs, experience the innovative series of 20 unique NFTs! Users have access to the custom-made AR visualizer in the Vancouver Biennale app, created by Spheroid Universe. Prepare to be transported as the 2D images open, matching the point of view of the NFT, while users experience the 3D world of Voxel Bridge under the south end of the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
For more information on Voxel Bridge, visit the Vancouver Biennale website at www.vancouverbiennale.com
Size
1,765 square meters
Material
Vinyl and Augmented Reality
Location
South Cambie Bridge underside Vancouver, Canada
Open 24/7, 365 days a year
(note: AR works best in the daylight hours)
TECHNOLOGY
Voxel Bridge is the largest blockchain-based, augmented-reality experience of its kind.
Voxel Bridge is the first art installation to visualize blockchain technology in real-time.
The Vancouver Biennale app can be downloaded by scanning the QR code onsite. (Look for the six markers on the ground throughout the artwork for the best views and photos.) The app can also be downloaded online at no cost for iOS and Android devices. *Data charges may apply.
INNOVATION
Integrated fusion of the real and digital worlds, delivered using the latest advancements in Augmented Reality (AR) technology by Spheroid Universe developed specifically for Voxel Bridge. The 20 AR unique experiences at Voxel Bridge led to the creation of 20 unique VXLBDG NFTs.
Onsite visitors to Voxel Bridge experience the AR while also visualizing the blockchain in real time using transformative, emerging technology.
Jessica Angel
Jessica Angel (b.1980, Bogotá, Colombia) is a pioneer of the adoption of blockchain technology through her latest art installations and has been a leader since the early days of the NFT movement. By facilitating collaborations between technologists and artists, the art and blockchain doyenne has carved an impressive artistic path that spans from the world of traditional art to an extensive network of blockchain infrastructure projects shaped to explore technology through art. Being well-grounded in the traditional arts, Angel saw the increasing interest in digital art brought about by NFTs as an opportunity to highlight the relevance of physical works and their possibility to integrate digital elements that bridge both worlds.
Angel moved into the NFT space once she had assembled a team capable of pushing the boundaries of this technology by creating a new, ingenious paradigm where public art, blockchain technology, AR, and installation works intercept into a holistic and cross-disciplinary experience. Since 2017, Angel has been a key player in the world of art and blockchain; and the only traditional artist featured as a speaker at the first NFT conference, Rare Arts Festival along with the CryptoPunks creators and A16Z contributors. In 2017, she created #ArtProject, a community that mobilized artists, programmers, and technology enthusiasts, to produce and fund ambitious art pieces using blockchain technology. Angel has been a notable speaker at the leading blockchain conferences in the world advocating for the exploration between art and technology.
Angel’s determination to bridge the gap between art and blockchain has culminated in collaborations on notable projects with Kusama Network, Status, Maker Foundation, Truebit Protocol, and the Foundation for Art and Blockchain, who awarded her the first grant they ever issued. Since 2018, Angel has been the leading artistic force at ETHDenver; the biggest annual blockchain event which became art focused due to her intervention and curatorial vision. Currently, Angel works with the NFT investment firm and creative studio Metaversal, leading their only in-house art project: MetaLetters, and curating and hosting their weekly podcast, Art of the Matter.
In the realm of the art industry, Angel has headed the development of several large-scale projects and teaching residences with internationally acclaimed organizations. She is an alumna of the Vancouver Biennale’s International Artist Residency Program (2018/2019), served a teaching-artist for a residency at The Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture in New York City, the BRIC Media Arts Fellowship in Brooklyn, and the Studios at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. During a teaching residency in 2017 organized in conjunction with UAB’s Department of Art and Art History, Angel created a site-specific installation at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts. This piece had a total surface coverage of 9,000-square-foot at the museum.
She is an alumna of the Vancouver Biennale’s International Artist Residency Program (2018/2019) During the 2-year development process of creating Voxel Bridge, Angel curated #ArtProject2020, a 5-day virtual conference hosted by the Vancouver Biennale, which gathered the leading minds in the NFT world.
In August 2021, Angel finalized plans for the installation of Voxel Bridge, an immersive 19,000 sq. foot interactive artwork underneath the south end of Vancouver’s Cambie Bridge. The mural was designed to ‘re-imagine’ how the physical and digital realms intersect in public spaces with the use of blockchain data and augmented reality (AR). Voxel Bridge was the impetus for the creation of Angel’s 20 VXLBDG NFTs.
Other works by Angel have been displayed at the Inter-American Development Bank galleries, the School of Visual Arts’ CP Projects Space in New York, El Banco de la República de Colombia, 516 Arts, where she was a recipient of the VAN Residency, and universities and galleries across the Americas.
Transition into Digital Art
Prior to working in the digital space, in the early 2000s Angel’s practice revolved around the creation of paintings, drawings, and prints. Her artwork has been showcased in the most prominent gallery in Colombia, Casa Riegner and included in the most prestigious collections and world embassies in the country. By approaching digital art with the perspective of “hand-crafted” designs, without the use of digital aids. Through these series of drawings and models that ideate her digitally-inspired installations, the artist closes the apparent gap between art in the virtual and real world.
As her pieces became more complex, the hand-created ethos moved to digitally generated models with the use of high-end architectural and engineering computer software that allowed her realize her vision in a faster and time efficient way.
Since the advent of blockchain technology, and her involvement in the art and blockchain movement, Angel always had the vision of an NFT project that tested the possibilities of decentralized technologies by blending real and virtual elements (public space, blockchain technology, installation works, and AR) into an all-inclusive ecosystem. Angel becomes the creative force behind Voxel Bridge and her long-awaited VXLBDG NFTs in collaboration with the Vancouver Biennale, Spheroid Universe, and the Kusama Network.
Vancouver Biennale
In celebrating art in public space, the Vancouver Biennale transforms the urban landscape into an Open Air Museum, creating globally inspired cultural experiences where people live, work, play, and transit. Each exhibition becomes a catalyst for community engagement, learning, and social action. The Vancouver Biennale features internationally renowned and emerging contemporary artists that represent a diversity of cultural perspectives and artistic disciplines including sculpture, digital media, performance works, music, and film. As the definition of public space increasingly shifts to virtual space, the Vancouver Biennale’s installations also include the most technically advanced examples of augmented and virtual reality.
Spheroid Universe
Spheroid Universe is a platform for developing and launching AR/MR/XR projects on the breakthrough technological foundation of the Spheroid XR Cloud and the Spheroid Script cross-platform programming language. Spheroid Universe is also an actively growing ecosystem with an almost 100,000-member community that constructs the Augmented Reality world, moving step by step from futuristic models to real manifestations in science and technology, art and culture, blockchain and DeFi. The social, humanistic basis of the Spheroid Universe ecosystem is the concept of Space NFT – the basic element of the ecosystem that connects AR and the user’s personal activity. It accumulates value similarly to a social media account, but unlike it, belongs to the user, not corporations that wholly own all personal accounts. For Spheroid Universe, Voxel Bridge is not just a high-tech challenge in implementing modern art in extended reality space, but also a pilot experience in visualizing NFT art objects that exist and circulate in the Kusama Network.
Kusama Network
The Kusama Network is a scalable, multichain network for radical innovation, enabling cost-effective interoperability and scalability for blockchain developers who want to push the limits of what’s possible. The network uses the most advanced technology in the Polkadot ecosystem and is a development environment for teams who want to move fast and innovate exclusively on the Kusama Network, or prepare for deployment on Polkadot. Some of these teams building on Kusama include Acala (building a custom blockchain for DeFi) and Chainlink (building a blockchain dedicated to its Oracle network). Kusama Network is the canary network of Polkadot, founded by Gavin Wood (co-founder and original CTO of Ethereum), Robert Habermeier, and Peter Czaban.
