Alpha Centauri Kid and Transient Labs Unveil New Tech for Art Provenance
Ahead of Alpha Centauri Kid (ACK)’s upcoming Christie’s auction tomorrow (September 29), the digital artist has partnered with Transient Labs for a special release. ACK and Transient Labs are launching T.R.A.C.E., a new form of technology that will serve as a new standard for provenance, authentication, evolution, and documentation for physical and digital art. T.R.A.C.E. stands for “Tokenized Records for Artwork Certification and Evolution.”
Alpha Centauri Kid will also be presenting his latest work, “The Muse – Sage Green,” alongside pieces by Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston, and more. He will be the first digitally native artist ever represented in Christie’s “Post-War to Present” auction.
“The Muse” is an ongoing theme in ACK work, whether it be music, painting, digital art, or others.
“The Muse is the creative energy that drives me to pursue ideas and art as a whole,” he said in an interview with nft now. “Anything creative I do feels like I’m being led by a strong universal force, which I refer to as the Muse.”
ACK adds that the timing of these two milestones happened perfectly. “Feels great, timing just worked out,” he said. “It was meant to be, I believe.”
What does T.R.A.C.E do?
This technology will be important in propelling the traditional art market to Web3. T.R.A.C.E. represents a unique blend of technology and artistry. At its core, it’s a secure chip physically linked to an artwork, pairing the artwork with a certificate of authenticity on the blockchain as an NFT. Once validated by the original creator or designated representatives, the artwork’s lineage gets permanently logged onto the blockchain.
“TRACE should have broad implications across physical and digital objects and create a new layer of security and historical records for art, collectibles, and more,” the Transient Labs team tweeted. “It combines sovereign creator contracts (L1 or L2), Story Inscriptions immutably storing provenance on-chain, and cutting-edge, secure chips embedded into physical objects, which own the TRACE Digital Certificates of Authenticity.”
ACK says he was the one who approached Transient with this idea back in June of 2023, and they went to work straight away.
“This provenance is important to me because, as an admirer of art in general, I want to know where the pieces I love have been, who they’ve sold to,” he said. “Any stories about them that art noteworthy, to be stored immutably on the blockchain. I want to know what galleries they’ve been in, who they’re selling to.”
The full product release will be available on October 31, 2023, with a full announcement. The price has not yet been announced; however, the Transient Labs tweeted that it was “not expensive.”
Transient Labs is a Web3-based creative studio best known for its innovation and extensive collaborations. It also recently released the “Doppelganger Contract” with artist Patrick Amadon, an NFT contract that allows artists to add multiple images to an NFT.