The XTZ Life

The XTZ life creates NFT artwork that blends art and science in a way that we personally haven’t seen elsewhere in the NFT landscape. Based on an ethos that ‘science is art’, XTZLife’s work provides a glimpse of highly technical scientific processes and an inate sense of play via the Tezos blockchain. The artist provides some technical background into this particular collection on his website:

2P725K is a collection of 272 unique views of 4 different structures, “Logo-N”, “TEZOS”, “Logo-P”, & “TEZ”  micro-machined into silicon.  These tributes were scanned with a confocal microscope and rendered 68 times each into the 272 unique NFTs.   The unique traits include source structure (4) and rendering properties (13). 

https://thextz.life/2-725k

His next collection, entitled ‘Cosmic Bolometers’, is inspired by sensors that detect cosmic background radiation. The golden hues of these images coupled with the tight lines and definition of the photographs are quite stunning.

These photographs show case polarization sensitive lenslet-coupled sinuous antenna transition edge sensor bolometers.   These detector are currently at the “high site” in Chile being integrated into the Simons Array to take precision polarization measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

https://thextz.life/cosmic-bolometers

The final collection, wonderfully entitled ‘Antartic Spiderwebs’, are again marvels of modern science, as explained by the artist below:

These detectors  in this series were fabricated at UC Berkeley by me for The E and B experiment.  They were shipped to McMurdo, Antarctica where they were installed into a 6,000 lb balloon borne telescope and receiver system.  We launched on Dec 12 in 2012 and these detectors took a ~28 day circumpolar flight at around 110,000 feet about sea level around Antarctica, before we recovered the payload and data.

https://thextz.life/antarctic-spiderwebs

The XTZ Life creates work that is both visually stimulating, but also can be regarded as a scientific/artistic document that peers into the universe around us. CAN are hopeful that XTZLife continues to share his work and provide a testimony of leading edge science and a love for cryptoart in general.

Name or alias
Ben / jamin_b

Social media links and website profiles
Website – thextz.life
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jaminb12
Objkt.com – https://objkt.com/profile/thextzlife/created?search=2p7&id=2p7
kalamint.io – https://kalamint.io/user/jamin_b

What is your background as an artist in general?
Cosmologist turned artist, inspired by the beauty of what I create for my research!

What is your overall process in generating art?
I specialize in the design and fabrication of micro-sized sensors that detect the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

Design: There is a LOT of method to the madness when it comes to designing a device that will be ultra-sensitive to the polarization of the CMB. As a general principal in physics, the shape and size of a detector will always be well matched to whatever is being studied. The unique physical structures in the devices that I fabricate are the direct result of our quest to measure millimeter and sub-millimeter radio waves. The unexpected colors, patterns, and designs that emerge are quite stunning and are the NFTs I am posting for sale!

Fabrication: I fabricate by sequentially depositing and patterning thin metal and ceramic films into the shapes determined in the design process. There is an entire art that goes into making these devices as the layers form a complicated geometrical stacked puzzle. Once complete, the final step is the optical inspection of these devices using sophisticated tools such as a confocal microscope featured in the 2.725k collection.

How would you describe your art in your own words?
Science. Is. Art.

Favourite artists / influences?
GATS (street art), Dali (famous), Carl Sagan (Science/Cosmology), GRiZ (music)

How did you discover the new blockchain world of Crypto Art and NFTs in general?
I started to DCA buy crypto in 2017. I was particularly bullish because of my understanding on how a block-chain based distributed ledger built with public verification could change the world. The thing I understood most clearly was how it would unlock the potential of a truly peer-to-peer economy.

It wasn’t until last year when a friend introduced me to Tezos that I finally realized its power. I have taken to it like a fish to water and #CleanNFTs are now a part of my daily life. The fact that I have been able to sell my own work, with very limited visibility, is a testament to how important Crypto Art is to independent artists.

What are the biggest challenges for artists in the NFT space?
Attention. The pace is lightning fast and it’s nearly impossible to get more than 20 seconds of attention at a time. Some projects, like mine, take time to digest so they will be slower to catch on, but in the long run they will be an important part of the ecosystem as they offer depth and variety to the NFTS being published.

What are the some of the biggest opportunites for artists in the NFT space?
A true, genuinely interested audience. It’s one thing to get to X-number of twitter or instagram followers, but it’s another thing to engage with your fans and have them actually purchase your art work with a smile and say “I’d do it again.”

Being able to share art and creativity with a wide audience is simply amazing.

What are your plans for the future?

I plan to expand #ScienceIsArt to make a platform for more scientists and engineers to share their work in a creative and profitable way.

Don’t forget to check out https://thextz.life/2p725k on objkt.com https://objkt.com/profile/thextzlife/created?search=2p7&id=2p7 ultra cool #PFPs for just 2.725 $XTZ!