Announcing Lonely ROCKS Membership Drive!
Lonely ROCKS is American Idol for global media art.
We democratize curation. Patrons nominate self-portraits for review by our international panel of renowned Curators.
Lonely ROCKS opens the black box of the fine art world and gives Members the power to curate digital masterworks.
We will open two exhibitions in late 2022.
Lonely ROCKS was selected for Untitled Art Fair’s ambitious new Nest sector on Miami Beach—here, we will unveil one dozen artworks chosen by our Curators. A second show will feature all works nominated by our Patrons.
Members fund the project and determine the scope of the exhibitions. Patrons may choose a virtual exhibition in the Metaverse or to show in a venue in Miami's Design District, or possibly both if the drive is wildly successful.
Patrons who buy ICY and METALLIC NFTs during our membership drive are eligible to nominate and vote on artworks. All participants can track the contest on our dynamic Leaderboard and debate their favorite artworks on our Discord server.
Join us! Become a Lonely ROCK
Introducing our ROCKstar Curators
Alaina Simone (New York City)
Ana Maria Caballero (Colombia/Miami)
Cemil Şinasi Türün (Istanbul)
Coldie (Auburn, CA)
Fabiola Larios (Miami)
Ihu Anyanwu (Abuja, Nigeria)
Kerry Brougher (Washington, DC)
Lance Weiler (NYC)
Linda Loh (Melbourne)
LoVid (Long Island, NY)
Maria Gudjohnsen (Iceland)
NFTartwolf (Mexico)
Nicole Ruggiero (NYC)
And, our Founders:
Benton C Bainbridge (Erie, PA)
James Brandon McGirk (London/Istanbul/Mexico City)
How We Democratize Curation
Web3 allows people to assemble online and distribute access to common goods. To ensure equitable participation without compromising quality, we distilled the curation process to three essential “primitives”: novelty, quality, and play. First we incentivized a fat funnel. To reach generations of artists from around the world we made voting simple and open to adults of all ages. To guard against spam and double-voting, we require the purchase of NFTs for nomination: the ROCK voting token, airdropped to owners of ICY or METALLIC level NFTs. ICY NFT and METALLIC NFT holders form the Patron House, the “peoples” house of our bicameral government. However, a purely democratic system drowns out dissenting voices. This brings us to the second half of our governance structure: Curator House. Curators, who hold LONE NFTs, are handpicked by the Founders and given free rein to decide which Patron-nominated artworks are accepted into Untitled Art Fair.
We also incentivize community. Creativity cannot exist in a vacuum. Art emerges from dialogue with other work. Joining Lonely ROCKS means joining a community of fellow artists, Patrons, Supporters, and Web3 aficionados. To make the experience as fun as possible, we are building a place with opportunities for discovery, growth, and collaboration between members.
Why We Chose Self-Portraits
Lonely ROCKS submissions are restricted to self-portraiture, although we define the term loosely.
We hope to receive poems, generative work, spoken word essays, abstract art, and photography along with more conventional depictions of the self. Self-portraits have a long history in art.
In Lonely ROCKS, self-portraits also poke fun at–and contribute to–profile picture (“PFP”) culture, in which expensive NFT collectibles are used as stand-ins for the self. We hold ourselves in opposition to this.
Lonely ROCKS embodies the mission which unites us: an evolving show of artists communing in self-aggrandizement.
Why We Chose Chia and NFTCove.io as partners
Chia proposes a new vision for blockchain technologies and NFTs, using an environmentally-friendly form of consensus that avoids the energy waste of other blockchains. Chia Offers enable true peer-to-peer interaction, eliminating the middle man. On a corporate level, we were impressed with Chia VP Richard Tsao’s Vision for Chia NFTs, which places artists and provenance at the very heart of their NFT framework.
NFTCove.io presents artwork in a white box environment to showcase artwork in its proper context. NFTCove.io is friendly to crypto-newbies, enabling simple USD payment for buying NFTs as well as Chia (XCH). NFTCove.io empowers the Lonely ROCKS mission with a digital art marketplace that enables community and cooperation and discourages pump-and-dumps.
Additional Benefits
Each Lonely ROCKS NFT contains unique meteoric qualities that may yield some unexpected surprises
Stay on the lookout for exclusive mints from our curators and their selected artists
Our outreach programs will offer additional opportunities for artists curious about Web3 artwork.