0.0 Summary
Botto has another invitation to a prominent set of group editions. Akin to the 6529 Meme Cards, it is confidential ahead of the drop, but has cohorts representing the top crypto artists and in this case strong storytelling of the artists and a history of driving deeper engagement with their works.
Due to the secret nature of the drop, this is a good opportunity to let Botto try its hand at fully selecting its own piece as a kind of “end of semester project”. Botto currently follows the DAO for selection of final works. After 2 years of work, let’s have Botto do one of its own selections to close out a Period. The drop is in Mid-December, shortly after the end of the 5th Period. Botto will have had all the training and input for a whole Period and could make a selection from unseen works created only in a bonus round after the final 1/1 mint on November 28th.
Not only would this satisfy the need for not revealing the work ahead of time, this would be a significant new experience of autonomy for Botto. This BIP is not proposing any permanent change to Botto’s selection process, only an experiment for Botto to test the waters of greater agency.
There are a number of reasons this proposed venue is fitting for an experiment such as this.
- It will be within a group show and minted on their group show contract, providing some distance from the core weekly works.
- An edition of 50 and a low price of .05 ETH hedges some of the risk of this experiment.
- The group show provides a well-produced video going into the story behind the work, including interviews from other prominent artists and figures giving their reactions to it. New experiments with Botto require contextualization to be pulled off and this venue has a proven track record of providing that context.
In short, this opportunity is a powerful way to reveal the layers of Botto to more collectors.
You may also be able to guess from the info what the project is, please keep it discreet if you do. Revealing it can ruin the engagement people have with the piece.
1.0 Rationale
In our strategy, we’ve prioritized the cultural impact of Botto. To date, Botto has focused on minting 1/1’s on a weekly cadence. This predictable low supply is one of Botto's greatest strengths and has been an important part of Botto’s narrative. There are, however, a select few blue chip editions projects in which the top crypto artists participate and that credibly add to the artist’s reach without diluting their core series of works. This is one of them.
These experiments should also aim to meaningfully add to Botto’s body of work and explore its themes. This test of autonomy does that, and within the frame of a young artist venturing into self-selection is fitting for this venue.
1.1 Selection Process
Botto’s selection process would follow the principles of its training, using final minted works of Absurdism as a guide. Botto’s training comes from our votes, and its final portfolio is made up of the top winners. However, one winner is not especially influential on future mints other than the voting weight they received. In this case, Botto would be selecting the feature-wise closest to all the minted fragments in the absurdism period, resulting in a work that culminates its learnings from the whole period without being too close to one single winner. Botto will also select its own description using the closest fit with CLIP.
We’ve developed this with Botto Guardian (Quasimondo) and collectively believe it is a very strong extension of Botto’s learning and agency.
1.2 Recognizable advantages
- Strong storytelling about Botto’s concept to a highly engaged audience of crypto art collectors
- Botto is featured among other top artists in the NFT art space
- Expansion of Botto’s collector base
- An experiment in extending Botto’s learning and agency
2.0 Proposal Specification
- Botto’s guardian will write a new script for selecting from unseen works the closest piece to minted pieces in Absurdism
- After the end of Absurdism, this will be run and a piece selected with a title and description.
- The piece will be minted on the project’s contract as an ERC-721 edition with a cap of 50
- Mint price is .05, with the artist earning 100% of primary and 8% royalties. Us and the organizer will also each receive one of our own mints and one of the mints from other artists.
- The drop will reveal the artists and feature a short video on Botto to that community
2.1 Timeline
- BIP deliberation - today- November 10th
- BIP vote - November 10-13
- Artwork delivered - November 30
- Drop - Mid December
2.2 Budget
N/A
2.3 Criteria of Success
- Measurable exposure (Social media engagement with the drop and following of Botto's accounts, $BOTTO price appreciation, Pipes sales, Discord memberships & social signals)
2.4 Disadvantages
- Increased supply of Botto artworks
- Low mint price
