“CryptoPunks kinda symbolized like, for me at least, a paradigm shift.”
Meet Gordon Berger, also known as GordonBergerArt and one of the early web3 artists who has been using blockchain as an expression of art.
Gordon, who has been involved in crypto since 2011, always lived the best of both worlds. He was, “for 8 hours running a mining operation,” while for the other 8 hours he enjoyed “learning about the history of art and painting.”
He then realized the potential he could achieve by having these two worlds merge, and ever since then, “continued exploring that intersection of art and blockchain,” then along came CryptoPunks in 2017.
While Gordon credits the projects launched before Cryptopunks, he noticed how CryptoPunks “revolutionized the behavior of owning digital assets and digital art.” In some way, Gordon mentions, Punks is able to accomplish two things: tether fellow Punk holders back to the present but also allowing them to rebel or innovate new things in the space.
To him, “CryptoPunks really represented this turning point in the history of digital art, where after that, so many things blossomed and so many things happened; so we had the early stage of early experimentation and very early kind of projects.”
Gordon recalls, “After CryptoPunks we see actually slow but steady increase in adoption, until maybe like 2021 where we actually saw a huge spike, and for me, represents this new era of the digital age.”
As for what Gordon thinks of the Punks Community?
From his experience, the people in any CryptoPunks events that he’s been to have been “super welcoming, very knowledgeable and very genuinely interested in the space.”
Gordon has been most fascinated by the attendees “actually talking about concepts behind artworks, different interesting collections we see in the space” and how do we push and expand the boundaries of this space. Such types of conversations can be usually found in Punks-related events and Gordon really enjoys them.
“[These conversations] are really much based off fundamentals and experimentation and innovation, not just the financial aspect of it.” he highlights.
In fact, he was talking to a fellow Punk holder about the three main pillars of the digital world. “One being blockchain for ownership, one being 3d for 3d worlds, metaverses and augmented reality, and the third pillar being AI for the infinite content generation.”
For Gordon to brainstorm with this fellow Punk holder about “the intersection of these three pillars” are what leads Gordon to feel excited and inspired, whichever Punks events he attends, be it Lisbon, Paris, and now Seoul.
“I always look forward to speak with my fellow creative colleagues and artists, and people from the space.” he states.
Meanwhile, his advice to keep the Punks community consistently thriving?
“As long as we have that bond and open line of communication, we’re going to end up in a really beautiful place.”