Snark.art, a Brooklyn-based blockchain laboratory focused on digital art, announced its first major project this week with artist Eve Sussman. The work, titled \"89 Seconds Atomized,\" explores collecti
Snark.art, a Brooklyn-based blockchain laboratory focused on digital art, announced its first major project this week with artist Eve Sussman. The work, titled "89 Seconds Atomized," explores collective ownership through the fragmentation of one of Sussman's video pieces.
Sussman based the project on her acclaimed 2004 video "89 Seconds at Alcazár," which premiered at the Whitney Biennial. She created that original work with Rufus Corporation as a response to Diego Velázquez's 1656 painting "Las Meninas," capturing moments surrounding the composition depicted in the seminal masterpiece. Velázquez's painting stands among the most studied and discussed works in art history.
For Snark.art, Sussman took the final artist's proof of her video and divided it into 2,304 digital atoms. Each piece represents 400 pixels of the full frame paired with the video's multilayered soundtrack, compressed into each atom's 10-minute duration. Starting November 30, collectors can purchase atoms at $100 each using credit card or cryptocurrency, with a maximum of ten per buyer. Buyers receive a unique digital signature verifying ownership with each purchase.
The mechanics of Sussman's work create an unusual arrangement. Individual owners can screen their own atoms at any time. But reconstructing the complete video requires something different: every atom owner must approve a communal screening request. An owner who wants to see the entire piece can petition the community for temporary access. If all owners consent, the full video plays. If even one declines to participate, the screening proceeds with missing sections.
Sussman described the shift in how her work circulates: "Collaborating with Snark.art has been a process of reimagining what it means to distribute an artwork in an entirely different way. The exciting part of this experiment really begins once all the atoms are dispersed to the new community of owners and they need to collaborate to bring the video to life as a whole."
Snark.art launched in 2017 under CEO Andrey Alekhin and head of product Misha Libman. The company functions as a meeting point between the art world and the blockchain community. Alekhin outlined the vision: "We started Snark.art to engage both the art and blockchain communities. Artists are by nature experimenters, and digital artists in particular are often at the forefront of new media practices. The community behind blockchain is similarly experimental and conceptual. Instead of working in parallel, Snark.art will engage both communities to identify new use projects for blockchain as an artistic medium."
The company plans collaborations with not-for-profits For Freedoms and Pioneer Works, projects by curator Sara Raza, and artists Tommy Hartung, James Clar, and Simon Lee, among others. Snark.art will debut Fortune Cookie, an experimental poetry project created with an artist known as Mr. Fox, in 2019.
Libman discussed his aspirations in an August post: "I would love it if one or a few of our projects fundamentally changed how blockchain technology is viewed. It's become so difficult to have an impact on people. All eyes are on a cell phone or a laptop, this is a new reality, and we could really do something quite incredible with that. Something that could have resonance globally. If something we did got the attention of that global audience, actually moved them emotionally, aesthetically and made them rethink the way they live, they think, that's my dream."
