A conversation with collection founder p0pps, some juicy hyperlinks, and news from the squad at TITLES.

We hope everyone is enjoying the summer and Grimace shakes. No cage fights here, just another edition from the folks at TITLES. This week we interview founder of NFT collection The Regulars about creativity and his process, and toss you a number of links covering the latest in new media. Lastly, we’ve got exciting news coming out from our team at TITLES that we’d like to preview.

HOTLINKS

• Can anyone fix California?

• &ME drops a new set on Keinemusik Radio.

• What work, personal life, and the boundaries between them were like before smartphones.

• $5000 Japanese mini pick-up tucks are taking over the US. I love them.

• Chris Dixon wrote a book dubbed “Read, Write, Own” about the power of blockchains.

• Text the New York Times a fruit emoji and they’ll hit you back with a recipe.

• BBC journalists have uncovered a global network of monkey torture.

• PartyDAO is settling the “on-chain” v.s. “onchain” debate the most native way possible, on Ethereum.

• Without the AI underclass, AI will continue to eat itself.

• Criterion has curated 16 films from the past 50 years that have explored our AI infused lives.

• A beautiful summation of why we can’t think ourselves to the answer.

SPOTLIGHT

So tell me a little about yourself and your work…

I go by p0pps and I've been building in web3 space since 2021. I love experimenting with new tech and have a background in post-production/media. When I first heard about NFTs I was a bit suspect, but it clicked eventually and since then I've been a big proponent of digital assets and on-chain art.

Do you have a common style, aesthetic, or themes in your work?

I generally love things that take on a life of their own -- like the way strangers on the internet come together around a specific concept. That's the most exciting kind of energy to me, and the more playful the better. So a theme in my work is developing concepts that get a group of people to do something or behave in a certain way.

When I started my career I was working as a PA on film sets and was thinking a lot about how film directors get the crew to work together and make creative output. I started experimenting with this idea in a bunch of ways across different projects. The projects I was doing back then were severely unfunded so I often ended up using 'regular people'. This lined up with a natural inclination to eschew what is tasteful and status-y. With NFTs there's kind of a built-in audience and a built-in system for implementing rules in the smart contract. I created an NFT project called 'The Regulars' in 2021 and since launch it's totally taken on a life of its own which has been exciting.

nft://1/0x6d0de90CDc47047982238fcF69944555D27Ecb25/6311?showBuying=true&showMeta=true&size=medium

Tell me about where you draw your inspiration from…

With the Regulars I knew I wanted to do something different from what I was seeing in the NFT world -- mainly procedurally generated flat art inspired by the original crypto punks. I'm a huge fan of Larva Labs and cryptopunks but wanted to make something with CGI, as I had been playing with procedural pipelines with Houdini. There were some existing cgi NFT projects but they all felt cold and sterile and all the characters looked frozen in the exact same position. So my goal was to achieve warmth and humanity using cgi, and to create as much variety as possible. I found inspiration in old yearbooks from the 90s and of course the work of Botero who is a master of heavy, imperfect forms. The artwork for the regulars took 5 months to complete and there were a lot of twists and turns along the way.

What new or old tools have you been digging lately?

Like everyone, I'm exploring language models and generative Ai. The Regulars has a really unusual scale for a set of character IP, it's 10,000 unique characters with their own vibe and personality. With Ai we have this new ability to generate content at scale, so I'm keen to see what's possible using these new tools to build in the regular world. Also, the tools that bring characters to life with animation or face replacement are evolving so fast and it's been incredible to see how the community is creating content and bringing the characters to life.

https://twitter.com/EclecticMethod/status/1672993823595667459?s=20

How do you think generative models will change or influence your creative process in the short and long term?

I've used generative Ai a bunch and it's very helpful for whipping things up. I think it's cool that it puts more emphasis on the idea than the actual execution, and it can empower the average person who might not have photoshop skills, or the time, to create content.

The Regulars is special is because of the sheer scale of the project. When I was making the art I liked the challenge of making as much variety as possible with procedural techniques, but I never predicted what it would be like to have a set of 10,000 unique characters with their own stories and personalities. I think this is one of the most exciting aspects of the project moving forward, especially with all the new Ai tools and a community that is taking stock in their own characters. Given that generative Ai allows for creative output at scale, combined with the fact that Regulars work really really well for face-oriented Ai apps, I'm very excited about where we are headed.

What appeals to you about Ethereum?

These are the formative years for digital scarcity and digital money, and Ethereum is at the center of all of it. I've been stoked to be hands-on with the smart contracts and programming. It reminds me of the early days of Javascript which was like 1% of what it is today, and any individual could release something that felt novel and pushed things forward.

What does creativity mean to you?

I think of moments where you're like "what if we tried this?" or "wouldn't it be funny if we did this?" and there's ingenuity and experimentation. When something goes from idea to execution and something new is born into the world, that's a magical thing.

Is there anything fun you’d like to plug?

Keep an eye out for what we are building with the Regulars! Between the amazing community, characters, storytelling, and interactivity we're working with a novel set of variables to create something super special.

NEWS

On July 25th, we’ll be launching our next iteration of SOURCE. What’s coming? We’re releasing our AI-powered creative suite for remixing onchain media. Each week we’ll be dropping limited availability slots to the app. You can get ahead of the line by getting on SOURCE today by minting our NFT and downloading the app via our Guild. See you there.

Much Love,

TITLES