Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs (one-of-a-kind digital assets created using blockchain technology), have divided the art world: Some, like the artist Kenny Schachter (who speaks about the medium on 

), see them as pathways to a promising future, while others express concern around the sky-high price points and 

, a new cultural organization that commissions artists to make NFTs (and often, corresponding physical works) and sells them on its digital marketplace, seeks to redefine NFTs as part of an exciting creative revolution, and to make them more approachable in various ways. It prices its NFTs in USD, for example (NFTs are typically bought with cryptocurrency), and accepts forms of payment such as ACH wire and credit cards as well as crypto. In addition, Aorist’s NFT marketplace is powered by 

, a blockchain platform that uses a consensus algorithm called 

 that, in lieu of traditional mining (a process that occurs every time an NFT is created or traded, and involves computers solving complex puzzles and a tremendous amount of energy), randomly selects a small number of validators from the entire group of Algorand crypto holders, consuming less power per transaction. For every sale made on the platform, Aorist offsets twice the carbon emissions generated by its day-to-day operations and purchases carbon credits, via a company called 

, that benefit the reforestation of Colombia’s coastal Andes.

Then there’s Aorist’s practice of presenting exhibitions and events related to, and in conjunction with, the sale of its NFTs, allowing the company to act as a liaison between the physical and the digital. The latest such event, “

” (April 19–May 8), will take place in Venice during the first few weeks of  the 59th 

. The program’s artists—Drift, Rafaël Rozendaal, and Jonas Lund—will present original works that visualize normally invisible systems, such as algorithms and the rhythms of nature, inviting viewers to think about the ways in these forces shape how we relate to, and live within, the world. Each work will be accompanied by a series of NFTs, available on Aorist’s NFT marketplace.

The projects will take place in three locations. Drift, an Amsterdam-based studio founded by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta that has presented several outdoor flying sculptures made of drones, will unveil its first indoor drone performance, “

,” at the TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space. Inspired by the swarm dynamics exhibited by schools of fish, the work explores interactions that occur between collective action and individual freedom, and how external threats can shape both. (Performances will take place daily from April 20–May 1, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. CET.)

At the Navy Officer’s Club, Rozendaal’s installation “

” will bring the vast, seemingly limitless online environment into a physical space using mirrors, screens, and colored beams of light. In it, the Dutch-Brazilian artist, a pioneer of net art and post-internet art whose earliest works took the form of websites, immerses viewers in a labyrinth of psychedelic patterns, and invites them to focus on the act of sensing their ever-shifting surroundings.

 will be presented exclusively on Aorist’s website, and consists of a series of 512 digital paintings, each of which are tracked by an algorithm and constantly evolve based on audience engagement (“likes” and clicks) until they are sold. When a painting is bought and minted as an NFT, its visual properties inform those of the remaining works, which gradually optimize themselves by imitating the features of the seemingly more desirable pieces. The project isn’t the first time the Swedish artist has questioned how digital ecosystems influence the way art is produced and valued in the market: 

, a self-optimized digital painting that tracked viewers’ gazes.

Taken together, the works in “CodeX” consider some of the big issues and ideas concerning the intersection of art and technology. Ximena Caminos, a curator and entrepreneur who co-founded Aorist with NFT artist and entrepreneur Andrea Bonaceto and economist, mathematician, and investor Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, sees the program as a vital opportunity for introspection. “‘CodeX’ questions the nature and existence of control, the ubiquitous notion of free will, and the limits of our perception,” she said in a statement. “Demanding a deeper connection with the underlying mathematical codes driving natural law, the works reveal the primeval background from which all other more institutional forms of life are fashioned. Realizing how deeply intertwined they are, we might even end up reconciling our perceived personal uniquenesses and freedoms, with the collective and systemic dependence and responsibility on which they are rooted.”

In Venice, “CodeX” Offers an Optimistic Take on the Future of Art and Technology

 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization laid out the striking impacts industrial animal agriculture has on people and the planet. In addition to the financial cost of its water and land use, and the potential for pathogens to flourish in feedlots, the practice puts out around 14 percent of global civilization’s greenhouse gases every year—more than that of cars and trucks combined.

While our current food systems suggest a bleak future, the emerging “cultivated meat” industry aims to help change that trajectory with its radical work: It grows meat from the cells of living animals, eliminating the need to breed, raise, and slaughter them. The product, also referred to as “clean meat,” “cell-based meat,” or “lab-grown meat,” is the focus of 

 (out last week to rent or buy on Apple TV and Google Play), a documentary that follows the rise of Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats), a start-up at the forefront of the field. Directed by Liz Marshall, the eye behind 2013’s animal-rights deep dive 

, the film centers on Upside’s co-founder and CEO, Dr. Uma Valeti, a cardiologist who, while growing up in India, saw firsthand how animals were killed for food and dreamed of meat growing on trees as an alternative. In 2015, he moved to San Francisco to further develop his idea of cell-based meat production. At the start of the film, its narrator, Jane Goodall, calls the innovation “the next agricultural revolution.”

Viewers learn, through Marshall’s methodical, explicatory approach, how Upside gets off the ground and advances its technology. At one point in the film, we see chicken muscle cells through a microscope. “I’m still blown away by how complex the structure itself is,” says Upside scientist Eric Schulze, who compares the cells’ organization to Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” Much of the 90-minute film is spent unpacking the specifics of how the sausage is made, so to speak, in which the science focuses on cell division in lieu of the reproductive process. Scientists and journalists, shown eating the food, seem genuinely impressed with cultivated meat’s flavor and texture.

While it’s intriguing to imagine an America devoid of industrial agriculture, the film doesn’t exactly explore the hurdles of making that vision a reality. Some opposing views appear through footage from an FDA and USDA conference focused on branding “clean meat,” sparked by livestock farmers protesting that the “m-word” shouldn’t be associated with the new product, and via interviews with people from various American Cattlemen’s Associations. But we don’t hear other perspectives, such as those of chefs or restaurateurs, or learn how the industry might fit into a food culture that’s shifting toward plant-based cuisines. There’s also scant discussion of the affordability and accessibility of cultivated meat, or the technical challenges of producing it on a major scale.

Still, the documentary makes an important point about the potential for agricultural innovations to transform our food systems for the better—and makes a case for why companies like Upside are worth paying attention to. “From a consumer perspective, we’re facing a brave new world,” a scientist says in the film’s trailer. “Technology that was once the stuff of science fiction is now becoming a reality.”

This Documentary Follows a Start-Up Taking Animals Out of Meat Production

Charmaine is a Toronto-born writer based in Berlin. Her work appears in publications including 

, a research platform exploring how dreams intertwine with our waking lives and futures.

Charmaine Li

Charmaine Li’s Articles

In Venice, “CodeX” Offers an Optimistic Take on the Future of Art and Technology

This Documentary Follows a Start-Up Taking Animals Out of Meat Production