The new Voxel Bridge project, which is located on the south side of the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver, is a blockchain-based digital art exhibition that can be watched with iOS or Android devices.
The Vancouver Biennale, a public art exhibition in Canada, is preparing to unveil an art installation that incorporates physical and digital worlds as well as blockchain technology.
The installation is set to open to the public on Tuesday and will continue until spring 2023, according to local aficionados.
Jessica Angel, a New York-based artist, created a 1,800-square-meter work that examines how public space may be made and exploited in both digital and physical realms.
The piece is shaped in the real world as a giant two-dimensional vinyl mural, but it also lives in augmented reality via the app and is stored on a blockchain network.
“Art is a mobilizing force that has the ability to connect seemingly disparate realms, and Voxel Bridge exemplifies this ability,” Angel remarked.
“This project transcends the appreciation of art into a unifying and experimenting effort that enables blockchain technology, augmented reality, and public art to study new methods of connection” the artist stated.
Vancouver Biennale opens a bridge into the digital world. Voxel Bridge, by the Colombian artist Jessica Angel, turns a venerable piece of city infrastructure into a hybrid immersive art work. #VanBiennale https://t.co/JYMiCsli1f pic.twitter.com/10jVcnQWh5
— BLAH CITY (@BLAH_CITY) July 16, 2021
The installation is a digital and visual representation of the Kusama network, a decentralized blockchain network that serves as a “canary” chain for the larger Polkadot blockchain network.
Twenty different interactive animations, each of which is represented in the form of a unique nonfungible token (NFT) living on the blockchain, allow viewers to see, touch, and hear the history of the Kusama Network.
The NFTs will be auctioned on Kusama’s RMRK art marketplace, with proceeds going toward the project’s production costs, which are said to have exceeded $300,000.
The concept was first proposed in October by the Kusama Council, who described it as a multidisciplinary piece and a “high impact art installation.”
“Rather than a technical perspective of the Kusama Network, Voxel Bridge will provide an experiential perspective,” a council member noted.
