Art meets new-age tech in Lisa Ray’s foray into the world of NFTS
To keep up with the rapidly changing times in the world of the Internet and to tie the ends of art and technology, actress Lisa Ray has come up with a new plaform ‘Theupsidespace’
Art, one of the hallmarks of human civilisation, has always been a catalyst for evolution. From cave paintings of prehistoric times to the classical art of Michelangelo, Baroque art of Velazquez, the Surrealism of Salvador Dali and to the avante-garde art of Pablo Picasso, art has always enhanced the advancement of mankind through ideas and expression. And when art meets technology, it creates wonders: a case in point is the music of A. R. Rahman which revolutionised how music is made in India. To keep up with the rapidly changing times in the world of the Internet and to tie the ends of art and technology, actress Lisa Ray, who is known for films such as ‘Kasoor’, ‘Veerappan’ and ‘Water’, has come up with a new plaform, ‘Theupsidespace’ that aims at empowering the artiste community through NFTS.
The initiative will put the spotlight on the artistes from Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. Lisa has been deeply connected with art since her childhood. In her opinion, “Art is not optional in our world. Especially in India, we live art. “I’ve been collecting contemporary Indian art since the 1990s and I can’t ignore how much my art collection has risen in value.” This affinity towards collection of art has translated in ‘Theupsidespace’ as art rises in value and is now an option for a wide audience due to NFTS and blockchain technology.
Talking about how the idea for the plaform came into existence, the actress told IANS: “Ayesha Khan, my co-founder, who is Singapore-based, we met during the pandemic. We connected over our mutual love of the arts from regions like south Asia (India, Singapore, Pakistan, Bhutan), south east Asia where we had both lived (Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore etc.) and the Middle East/ Levant (I’m now based in Dubai).” “At the end of 2021, Ayesha approached me with this idea of marrying art with tech and using it as a vehicle to both make art from these regions more accessible to a wider audience, empower the artist and advance the representation of artist and art forms from these regions in the global south to centre stage,” she added. Explaining the modus operandi of the plaform, the actress said: “Firstly, once our curator selects artists for an online exhibition, we offer to hand hold artists through the creation of their NFTS if they need help and don’t have the technical skills to do it themselves.” She went on to explain: “Secondly, with smart contracts that are baked into the NFTS, artists can receive royalties on sales in the secondary market, and the royalty amount is automatically deposited in their accounts.
Artists can take the initiative to connect directly with their audience and build their own community and profile, where everything is much more transparent than in the traditional art world.” But, the world of the Internet also brings along vulnerability for everyone in terms of cyber security and artistes are no different.