Bright Moments NFT Art Gallery adopts IRL minting to complement digital experience

Founded in March 2021, global art collective Bright Moments initially operated as an on-chain, centralized entity based out of California, but in January 2022 fulfilled their communities desires and made the transition to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

Their primary NFT project, CryptoCitizens, is a generative 10,000 art collection built on ArtBlocks that was algorithmically inspired by the cultural iconography and historical traditions of ten cities worldwide, and will be evenly distributed among participants from such regions. 

To date, in chronological order, the locations of minting have been: the Metaverse, Venice Beach, New York and Berlin. London is currently undergoing minting until July 30th, while Mexico City is slated to commence minting in November. The entire collection is scheduled to conclude minting at the end of 2023. 

In implementing this unique structure, Bright Moments is keen on incorporating an ethos of egalitarianism – a doctrine which professes equality of opportunity and in many aspects parallels the thesis of decentralization. 

For their most recent drop, CryptoLondoners, participants were granted three initial entry-points into the ecosystem. One third of the golden token passes were reserved for the local IRL community in snapshot nomination votes, another third allocated to existing CryptoCitizens via a ballot, while the remainder were sold on the open market to fund the project's roadmap. 

Alongside the CryptoCitizens project, Bright Moments has also released a series of collaborations with some of the leading artists within the NFT space, including Tyler Hobbs (the artist behind Fidenza) on Incomplete Control, Reflection by Jeff Davis, 100 PRINT by Ben Kovach, and Parnassus by mpkoz, among others. 

Situated in the heart of Mayfair, London on Albemarle Street, the luxury Bright Moments townhouse art gallery — birthed in partnership with Samsung, Coinbase Wallet, Ledger and Art Blocks — is visually distinctive from street view for its window display of a 136-pixelated orange fox head. 

Seemingly analogous to the Metamask logo, the orange mammal is in fact inspired by the remarkable statistic from the London Wildlife Trust that approximately 10,000 foxes inhabit the city of London. 

Overall, the Bright Moments minting experience was uniquely crafted, authentically executed and honorable in so much that the team recognized, and placed inherent emphasis on the importance of physical, tangible connection, whilst engaging in the primarily digital activity of NFTs. 

From the white-walled gallery room filled with colorful Jeff Davis art, wall-length mirrors, a Yahama piano, and the smell of infused candle wax, to the Pandora's box reveal and generative piece of ambient sheet music, every moment of experience was created with the intent of enriching what is often a tedious and solitary practice of minting NFTs. 

Alongside this, it showcased that physical interactions are not merely just desirable utilities synonymous with meetups, events and merchandise drops, but fundamental necessities to complement the digital experience. 

Driven by this curiosity, the gallery attracted an eclectic and diverse cast of participants on the day – a family of four with adult sons, two young women in their mid-20s, a young man in his mid-20s, and a woman in her 40s, among others. 

In conversation with ONE37pm, founding DAO Member of Bright Moments, Philip Mohun shared insights into the philosophical vision of the Bright Moments DAO, the duality of globally distributed physical and digital spaces, as well as the history of their governance token. 

ONE37PM - What’s your vision for the future of geo-based DAO communities - how will they interact, exist, communicate, and grow together? 

“Bright Moments is creating an archipelago of digitally connected physical galleries in major cities around the world. We establish a self-governed SubDAO in each city we visit, with signers elected by the local community. Each SubDAO shares a common initiation process through the minting of 1,000 CryptoCitizens, but has its own subculture that is unique to the local community. 

It's important to create connections between the communities. We encourage this through a ‘delegation’ process, where certain activities require someone to be physically present. This causes community members from different cities to interact to accomplish shared goals.” 

ONE37PM - What was your initial philosophy behind the creation of these bespoke and intimate IRL minting experiences? And how do you see that idea balancing with the digital activity of NFT minting? 

“We believe that being physically present during the creation of art is the most powerful way to connect creators and their communities.”

“Bright Moments is a beacon for generative artists and collectors, and acts as a watering hole where interesting conversations happen and new ideas are born.”

ONE37PM - Is the BRT ERC-721 token still operational? If so, how will it be utilized in conjunction with the Bright Moments DAO to support the health of the ecosystem?  

The original BRT token was an ERC-20 token. It was converted into an ERC-721 token, the CryptoGalacticans, upon a governance vote by the original DAO members.  

This change expanded seats in the DAO to include the eventual 10,000 CryptoCitizens, diluted the original DAO members by ~90% based on the confidence that this would be a net positive for the community, and unified the ERC-20 and ERC-721 token models.