Knowing the boom that NFTs are now, it is fair to say that Rafael was a precursor not only in the sense that he saw how to create unique digital assets but also since he managed to personalize and contractualize the relationship between artists and collectors.
who is Rafael
A pioneer in digital art, Rafael is a Dutch-Brazilian artist whose artwork is a mix of Internet, bright colors and animated Flash animations. He describes himself as a url fetishist.
Inspired by creations of Katsui Mitsuo, Rafael plays with vector graphics and abstract lights. He recreates his thoughts into math and Flash, and creates a whole new visual language.
In its early stages; we used to browse the Internet to look up real things : news, places, books… Rafael started to wonder about what we could create on the Internet that was not available anywhere else. Also at the time, the web’s low bandwidth forced him to play with its limitations and Rafael fell in love with the internet.
He found a space for abstract and compelling explorations of colors, interaction, gesture and movement.
the only scarce things on the internet are URLs
In the early 2010s, domains were the only scarce thing on the internet. Rafael created fleeing and dynamic images in motion being assigned to a unique URL, that he then sold. He is amongst the first to create websites as art objects. The artwork is finished and is no longer an experiment once attached to a URL. The work has to have enough value to buy the domain and the domain would also give value and visibility to the art.
“To ascribe something value, we often need to understand it as something which is unique – not that it necessarily has to be an original, but it should exist as something which you, and only you, can own”
The person who bought the URL had their name put into the code and they could decide to exhibit, publish, transfer.
Some URLs:
Katsui himself was amazed to see those digital tableau on the internet. He found the process executed in an interesting and smart way, making sense and well priced, happy to see his DNA being passed along.
PDF contracts
With contracts, Rafael created a new relationship between the artist and the collector. Both the artist and the collector would sign a contract that the work had to remain publicly accessible.
The contract is available here http://www.artwebsitesalescontract.com/art-website-sales-contract-2014.pdf
In 2013, Rozendaal’s www.ifnoyes.com website sold at an auction at Phillips in partnership with Tumblr for $3,500.
In 2013 his audience was 12 million visitors a year.
Rafael’s NFT are available on Foundation.
art of internet 