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Tezos & Museums: Musée d’Orsay & Keru’s Van Gogh Digital Souvenirs
Recorded: Nov. 15, 2023 Duration: 0:52:40Space Recording
Full Transcription
Music
Music
Music
I'm your host, Valerie Whitaker.
design, it's a
I moment you yeah.
No, I was just going to...
So, that's how we can get this idea after...
...come up with something that's really bringing a lot of...
Matteo and Sébastien, I'm afraid your connection has been lost.
I hope that you can rejoin us in a little bit.
But yeah, I just wanted to let the audience know that, in fact, the Oriens...
Oh, let me just check on all of our connections here.
I hope everyone can hear.
Okay, cool.
So, I'm sorry about that, Sébastien and Matteo.
I think, just to summarize a little bit of what you were saying, relating both to the palette and also to the letters from Van Gogh to his brother.
I do agree that these were incredibly meaningful motifs for the digital souvenir.
Orien, your profile picture today on Twitter is the painting that was conceived by Quirou as a response to that expression from Van Gogh in his writings to come back to Paris.
And I think a very sentimental, but historically relevant tribute in the context of the exhibition that explores the last three months.
And for anyone who's able to come to Paris and visit the exhibition, the palette, which is the subject for the Quirou digital souvenir, is within the exhibition.
And I think it's an absolutely stunning rendition of a beautiful physical object that will forever be recognized within that show.
So, Quirou, félicitations for that standard of excellence, I think, if nothing else than the application of the project as well.
I'm hoping that we can regain connection with you.
But in the meantime, Orien, I thought maybe you could tell the audience a little bit more about the other new technologies within the exhibition.
Whether or not they're on blockchain is, I think, less important than the full spectrum of what you've explored to create a really substantial narrative
around someone like Van Gogh, who was very much ahead of his time, who had an imagination like no one else, who I think inspires many of the people operating in the crypto art space, certainly.
And within the larger motif and exploration of innovation, new technologies, imagination, the future, I think it's really, really creative what you've done within the space.
So if you want to let the audience know what else they can expect within the exhibition, that would be wonderful.
Yes. Well, I was telling you, basically, we kind of leverage the fact that Van Gogh is one of the most well-known artists and also one of the most well-loved artists, at least in our collections.
And then we decided for this exhibition, which is, as you said, quite exceptional because it's an exhibition only on the last month of his life.
And we were able to gather some beautiful artworks. And we decided to create a whole story about it with in mind the innovation and new technology.
So we have an immersive virtual reality experience, which is basically also at the Earth of Van Gogh's palette, which is a different way to approach this piece, this physical piece.
And it's basically a 10 minute experience where you're deep diving into the palette and then you discover, obviously, you have, you learned a lot about his story of his life.
And you learned a lot about how we made the last paintings of his life. So it's absolutely beautiful. And if you're able to come to Paris, just try it. It's really a nice experience to do, to learn more about Van Gogh in a different way and to be able to really basically touch his brush strokes and his artwork.
And we have something completely different also, which is we brought Van Gogh to life with generative artificial intelligence.
Basically, it was a research project where they gathered all the letters of Van Gogh to his brother or other persons. And based on that data, they created, they brought Van Gogh to life where he is able to answer your questions and the way he will have answered, the way he will have talked, what was coming through his mind at the time, based really on the data that we have on this letter.
So it's both an innovation and a research program about genetic artificial intelligence.
And it's something really simple and like just you, you're in front of the screen and then you can talk to Vincent Van Gogh and it's quite a, quite nice thing to do.
And you can ask him anything you want and he will answer with the way, I mean, we imagine closest to what Vincent Van Gogh was.
Thanks so much.
Thanks so much.
And I'm Kevin was back with us.
And I know I summarized a little bit from, from the exploration of the pallets and the, the painting, but perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about your practice overall.
I know that you've, you've worked with several different cultural institutions and are very quickly expanding elsewhere and beyond, which it, you know, I think it's really important to also celebrate when projects like yours are able to very quickly grow and leverage a need that I think we all recognize requires this kind of bespoke attention to detail.
Um, it'd be great to hear a little bit about, um, your overall ambitions, uh, you know, across, across the globe, just so that everyone here understands, um, exactly where, where you're going with the Kalu project.
Yeah.
So, uh, so it's true that, uh, we are young company, but we extending quite fast.
So we are very lucky to be able to, uh, do such project with the museum.
Uh, also museum.
We also work with the Chateau Chantilly.
We work with, uh, different, uh, museum also abroad because, uh, we are going to soon open exhibitions in Asia as well.
Um, so that is actually, uh, great news for us and we hope to extend in, uh, other continents in the future.
Um, there, there is an infinite amount of, uh, possibilities with digital art.
So right now we started with this, um, these type of artworks with the museum of Orsay and we have a range of ideas.
That's really great.
We can't, uh, reveal everything today because we want to surprise people, but, uh, you know, there are so many options, um, to just give a, uh, an example, uh, digital, uh, generative art is one of them.
Um, and we have many other ideas to actually bring new experiences to people.
So they will not only enjoy digital art, but they will also, uh, enjoy their benefits as well.
And concerning the, the unique advantages they can have, uh, with the experiences you can offer people.
There's also a freedom.
That's, that's, that's, uh, actually really like incredible.
You can give people whatever you want.
If you're generous enough, you can really bring a lot of value to them, which is what, uh, the museum of Orsay did with a lifetime access to the museum.
And actually it can, uh, go to new, uh, frontiers as well.
Thanks so much for explaining that.
I, I really, I'm so impressed by what you guys are doing.
Um, I think the team is, is extremely ambitious.
And again, I, I re I think that the, the value here is also that you are exploring new opportunities.
And I'm, I'm extremely, extremely glad to hear that generative art is, is on the roadmap.
Um, oh, yeah, and I'll, I'll return to you briefly.
I know that, uh, we don't want to give away too much about what's coming up in 2024, but, um, there have been certain leaked flavors of, um, ideas that are percolating within the museum's programming.
Um, perhaps you could either give a hint or, um, some outlines to some of the things that the teams are considering for the audience.
Well, obviously, you know, I cannot say anything right now, but I don't want to tease you too much.
Uh, what I can say, um, without being too specific is that for the next project that we have, uh, we want to refocus on web free artists, um, to integrate our collections in a different way that we did with the digital souvenir.
Um, and, um, maybe to explore artworks that we have both a physical existence and a digital one.
Um, and, and we want the people and, and our visitor to be surprised to also feel, we want our visitor to feel integrated in the web free communities project.
Uh, and, and, and the same time we want the web free communities project to feel integrated inside the museum.
Um, so it's one of the questions that is driving the next project is basically, uh, how we can link those communities to our museums and how we can link, uh, our visitors to the communities.
And, and we would like to investigate this type of question with, um, uh, uh, presenting our collections and our museum or history, uh, in a different way.
Um, so I cannot tell you more and just stay tuned for the reveal of the project next year.
Absolutely.
Um, I, I can, I recognize quite a number of the people who are listening here and I have a feeling that there's going to be a lot of gossip in the coming months, um, which is good.
We're, we're very, very excited to, to see, um, how this all develops.
And I, I have to say again, Orion, I think the, the museum's attention and your team in particular is attention to community, to past and present, to existing talent.
Um, I, I don't know of any museum similar to the Musée d'Orsay's, um, with a historical collection that has made significant, um, efforts to explore.
The contemporary in a way that actually activates not just a visitor community, but an existing, uh, creator economy, which of course, um, within, you know, within Tezos, you find, uh, quite a rich and vibrant one.
Um, I want to go quickly to, um, back, back to Kerou very quickly, uh, also on the digital souvenir side, but, but just pushing the boundary a little bit.
Um, Matthew, Sébastien, and, and this is maybe an unexpected question, but so far the digital souvenirs have, you know, they've been interactive, they've provided benefits, they've been bespoke.
Um, and, and I know you're looking at, at generative, are, are, are, do you see these digital souvenirs as purely bespoke to the museums themselves?
Or do you see these as something that you imagine your global audience will collect as a, as a sort of tapestry that becomes a collectible in it of itself?
Like diary entries, um, or, you know, travel, travel diaries, these, these types of things, or are you really looking to maximize the value within the museums themselves?
I'd love to hear your internal perspective because they're very different approaches.
And yet I see the digital souvenir serving both functions.
Sure.
Of course we want to maximize the value for the cultural world because our idea at first was to really, uh, um, bring new experiences to people that are visiting cultural sites.
Um, which is why we work with the Hosset Museum and our first customers were Hosset, the Chateau de Chantilly, and other cultural sites.
But on the long term, we really want to, uh, go towards, uh, new, uh, industries because we can provide a lot of value to also, um, people that are a huge fan of sports events, huge fan of music, uh, huge fans of also different, um, uh, arts.
Not only, uh, what we can find at the museum of Hosset, but what you can find, for instance, uh, um, at the Sydney Opera or other things like that.
So what's great with the digital souvenir is that it's an artwork that's linked to the site, linked to the site, whether it's a stadium, whether it's an opera, um, or whether it's, uh, it's, uh, it's the Zenith in France, you know, a place where you can actually, uh, have some standup comedy shows or concerts, many different kinds of shows.
Uh, so there's a range of possibilities that is amazing.
And the goal is also to provide value to people because people are not only visiting cultural sites, but they are also experiencing other, uh, events such as concerts, such as, uh, such as, uh, sports, uh, sports matches.
Um, so they want to have a souvenir from all these experiences, not only their cultural sites, their, their visits of cultural sites.
So they would be able to, to find their, their, um, souvenir and enjoy all their benefits from all their experiences in one app, which is the Curru app, which is why actually we want to, to focus a lot on cultural, uh, on the cultural world, but also offer digital souvenir to new industries.
And are you also looking, I mean, I, I, I say this, I realized that I'm, I'm opening up a can of worms a little bit or putting you on the spot.
Um, given the number of, of creatives on this, uh, on this Twitter space, but are you also looking to, or have you already incorporated, um, uh, to Ooyan's point, working with, uh, crypto artists already?
Or are you still, or are you still, or what, what are your projections to actually incorporating industry specific, uh, talent, whether it be, you know, obviously in sports, it would be something more along the lines, probably of an autograph or, or some sort of, um, audio in, in the, in the world of visual art or, or audio art.
It might be talent.
Um, yeah, it would be great to hear what your, what your thoughts are on, on incorporating the, um, the essence of those experiences.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Of course, it's on the roadmap to, to integrate crypto artists.
So we have discussion with some of them in the current months.
We will have more discussions.
Yes.
Because, uh, uh, obviously like they are very, very talented artists, especially in the digital world.
And it's important to, uh, bring visibility to them because, uh, their talent should be, should be spread out.
So I think, uh, the fact that, uh, we collaborate with them would help them first grow and it would, uh, show people the range of possibilities that digital art offers.
There, there is, uh, there is a generative art.
There is 3d art.
There are many sorts.
And I think, uh, people should be aware of all the possibilities.
Thank you very much.
Um, Oriana, I'm going to take it all the way back now, um, and ask if you could please tell the audience exactly what the, uh, Van Gogh exhibition you currently have on entails.
I think it's a, you know, we've, we've mentioned already that it relates to the end of Van Gogh's life, that there are letters.
Um, but I think I'm hearing from you the motivations behind the exhibition itself.
Um, I'm, I'm sure it goes without saying that it's one of the most ambitious, difficult exhibitions to put in place.
But I, I, having been at the opening and heard the speeches around the sentimentality of the work, the groups of works, the number of collaborators, the effort put in the, the places that these paintings came from.
And, and even, you know, even a vase that's featured in the paintings, the efforts around, uh, interpretation of the letters and the life projects.
Um, I think if you could help to translate that for our audiences, I think, um, I think more people will be coming to Paris in the winter if, if we, if you were to do so.
Well, well, the, the current exhibitions focus, uh, as we said on the last, really the really final months of life of Vincent Van Gogh.
And, and, and what our museum wanted to show, uh, I say our museum, because it's, um, uh, an exhibition that was produced both by, uh, Musée d'Orsay and the Van Gogh Museum.
Um, because obviously, uh, we, uh, they, they, they, uh, they offer us a lot of their artworks too.
Um, is not the time, uh, where he was in the South of France.
It's really a specific times where he's actually, uh, going to Auvers-sur-Oise, um, with, uh, the doctor Paul Gachet, uh, which at the time, uh, was, um, his doctor slash, uh, sort of, uh, yeah.
Sort of, uh, yeah, he has some, I mean, he was able to help him on the more mental side of his problem.
Uh, let's just say like that.
Um, and, um, the fact is that at the end of his life, uh, Van Gogh is producing like basically one paintings a day, uh, which is quite crazy.
And we were able to gather, uh, most of this painting, uh, coming from other museums, but also private collections.
Um, and you can see day to day, um, what is going through his mind.
Uh, it's, uh, really, um, striking, uh, to see the, that he's just before his tragic accident, obviously, um, he was such still, uh, someone so, um, lively.
I mean, in a way that he was so, um, take by, I mean, so incorporated in his work, uh, if I can say so.
And, um, it's a, it's a really quite striking exhibition, um, but it's not, um, absolutely, it's not,
uh, what we can imagine, uh, if we're talking about the last month of someone, when you know that he committed suicide, uh, it's completely different.
Obviously, we wanted to try to explain that during the last month of his life, uh, Van Gogh was actually at just the beginning of the recognitions, also of this pier, uh, at the time.
Um, um, there's quite a striking moment, uh, uh, inside the exhibition, one of the letters, uh, I think it's, uh, quite touching.
Uh, Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, um, and he has these sentences where he say, uh, one day I will have an exhibition in small coffee.
Uh, and, um, a few days later, uh, obviously committed suicide and when we know how Van Gogh has been recognized later, uh, it's quite striking to see those letters and to understand it, um, and to be able to read it, uh, just, uh, with the artwork, uh, on your site.
You also have this mesmerizing final room with the letters that also explores, um, all of the different, maybe not all, but certainly some of the seminal films that have been made, uh, around, uh, Van Gogh, whether it be his life, his death, um, his imagination, uh, and, and some really, really beautiful creative, uh, video content.
Uh, I feel like the last two rooms in the exhibition without giving too much away, the first really knocks you off your seat because of the paintings and it's, it's really one of the most stunning rooms I've ever sat in, um, and, and certainly had to tear some people away from when leading, when leading a group of guests through and the final, final room with that mesmerizing montage of, of cinematic interpretations of a figure who's become
and, um, effectively in an iconic, uh, uh, say a myth almost this sort of dream of the artists, artists, um, it's really quite, quite spectacular.
And I, I've not actually seen that within the music context, um, before.
So really, I, I have to say congratulations to everyone who was involved.
Um, it's really a stunning, stunning exhibition, um, which is on and forgive me.
I, I won't forget the, the last date.
Um, it's in the, uh, early February.
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Until the 4th of February.
Amazing.
Um, yeah, I, I do feel like we've, we've reached the sort of roundabout of our discussion, but actually, um, I, I think I'll turn it over to, um, Keiru and, and, and Orian.
If there are any questions or further points that you wanted to add within this discussion for the audience, you know, I can see we have curators on the line, we've got artists, we have poets, um, there's, there's a myriad of different
listeners, um, if there's any final points that you would like to make that this is this.
I give the mic to both of you.
Yes, sure.
Yes.
Sure.
Thank you, Valerie.
Uh, actually.
I'm very happy to see that many artists came actually to, uh, to see, uh, this conversation and to, uh, to listen, sorry, to this conversation.
Um, it's true that we, we want, uh, to, uh, to develop and value a lot the artists in the future.
And so our goal is to identify very talented artists in order to collaborate with them and create, uh, uh, uh, not only visual experiences that, uh, bring a lot of value to people, um, but, uh, also, uh, add advantages that, uh, bring value to people.
And so it can be, uh, um, uh, for people to buy this digital souvenir that we will make this digital artwork, and then they can meet the artist, for instance, that can be one of the advantages.
So that we have many other ideas and, uh, it's great that, uh, that I see so many artists because we will check them out with, uh, the team, I think.
And, um, and I'm sure we will identify great talents in the future.
So thank you everyone for listening.
Um, well, obviously, thank you everyone for, for listening and thank you very, for hosting this, this talk.
Um, what I can tell is that we're really happy to see that, uh, our project can interest, uh, the work for communities and, uh, we would like to see you in the museum and to, uh, keep going on this discussion, obviously, and to be able to better understand, uh, what, what do you want, uh, from a cultural institution?
Such as ours, uh, which is, uh, grounded in 19th century.
Um, so yeah, it's, uh, it will be really interesting if we can, uh, keep on having this discussion.
Thanks very much.
Um, I also wanted to call out, um, that, uh, subsequent to this, this kind of addresses both of your points subsequent to, um, your experience with the WAC fellowship, uh, WAC has just published an amazing handbook of use cases from the perspective of different museums.
And for everyone who's joined this conversation, I'm, I think it's a really, really valuable collection of experiences, insights, uh, bespoke interpretations of the value of the blockchain technology, of Web3 communities, of really what's possible for the future, um, for each of you.
Uh, and I think this, this conversation has been, I think the first of its kind from hosted within the Tezos community or rather Tezos, uh, entity ecosystem, I should say, uh, that really transcends, uh, creatives, uh, a, an industry that's looking, an institutional, um, partner that is looking into the various different interpretations.
of the technology and all of, all of what's been created over the past two years, as well as a platform that's looking to really diversify a, a use case, um, that's very much embedded into, uh, the, the first stage of this partnership.
Um, for anyone wanting to learn more about, uh, the WAC fellowship, the WAC labs, or to join WAC weekly, uh, Diane Droubet is on, on the line, um, and you can certainly follow her and also the WAC labs program.
Um, for anyone interested in, in what institutions are, are looking to create, uh, the various different ways that people are thinking about this.
Um, it's an, it's an amazing platform that really has been the birth of this entire conversation.
So thank you very much for joining everyone.
Um, it's I think been a very fruitful discussion, uh, and I really cannot wait until the next one when we reveal more about 2024.
But in the meantime, everyone make your way over to the Musée d'Orsay.
If you cannot make it at this exact moment, make sure to visit the website, um, and Carou's website as well.
Uh, collect your digital souvenirs.
Uh, they are really, really special.
Uh, and when you next get the chance to go over to the Musée d'Orsay, you will find that they bring you plenty of advantages, not least the chance to win a lifetime membership.
Which I'm secretly hoping ends up, um, under my Christmas tree, uh, next year.
Thank you everyone so much for joining.
Thank you, Valérie.
Thank you, Valérie.
Thank you, Valérie.
Bye.
Thank you, Ariane.
Bye everyone.
Bye.
Bye.
