web3

Amber Vittoria Experiments With AI in First CC0 Drop

Amber Vittoria

Published Feb 8, 2023

In a time where many artists and creators are doubling down on proven recipes for success, executing on the tried and true strategies that propelled them into the Web3 limelight in the first place, Amber Vittoria is going back to her roots to experiment as she moves forward in her already decorated career.

Only a month after releasing her first book, These Are My Big Girl Pants, the artist & poet is showing no signs of slowing down or working within the confines of her comfort zone. The Forbes 30 under 30 recipient sat down with Rob Messer of One37pm to talk about her journey, experimenting, and her first CC0 drop, At the End of the Start.

It was in February ‘21 where Amber’s husband, David, whom she met while working as Art Director at VaynerMedia from 2014-2016, introduced her to the world of NFTs. By May, she had a CryptoPunk and released her Inaugural Collection on the Ethereum blockchain. Since then, she has had an abundance of successful drops and has collaborated with many of the biggest brands including K-Swiss, The New York Times, L’ Oreal, Instagram, and Adidas. As well as having been featured in dozens of publications and podcasts, Amber is also the subject of One37pm’s original documentary, “Amber Vittoria’s Journey to Web3.”

One37pm: In your documentary, you recall how you were always creating art as a child. Did you write poetry growing up as well?

Amber Vittoria: I would always want to come up with interesting titles for my work. As I grew older, the titles of my work were very intricate and eventually flowed into becoming small pieces of poetry. As my work became more abstract, the poetry became a nice jumping off point for people who were viewing my work. Sometimes abstract art can be really intimidating. They’ll be like, “what is this?”

I wanted viewers to have a jumping off point for people. Usually, poetry gives people a sense of comfort when they’re looking at an abstract piece to see where my mindset was when I was creating it.

One37pm: You have mentioned that when your husband came to you back in 2021 asking what CryptoPunk you wanted, you replied, “I want the most punk CryptoPunk.” You have so many unique collections. At this point what would you consider the “most Amber” Amber Vittoria piece?

Amber Vittoria: That’s a good question. For me usually it’s the newest piece I’ve been working on because that is who I am at the moment. However if I really had to answer I would say, You Exist Everywhere. A big part of my practice is accessibility within art and this piece is open indefinitely. The price fluctuates with ETH but ranges between $10-$15 and exists infinitely for everyone. It speaks to the idea that we try to find the finite within infinite and the infinite within the finite. The work itself is more of an experiment. With all of my work, I try to push myself and step out of my comfort zone but I would have to say this one.

One37pm: You’ve said on record that your time with VaynerMedia has helped you learn to utilize social media and to help market yourself and your work. We all know the impact he can have in brand building. personal development, etc. but has there been anything that Gary (Vaynerchuk) has said to you back then that inspired you as an artist?

Amber Vittoria: He would always encourage the creative teams to experiment. In my twenties, I thought I knew it all so it took me a few years for that to resonate as most advice does. I remember when he would chat with the creative department at large, he would say, “experiment because you don’t know what is going to stick. You don’t know what is going to resonate with people until you try it.”

That is something that I try all the time in my practice. Even though my paintings do take a lot of time, I don’t try to be super precious with them. I’d rather experiment and have that experiment fail and inform the next experiment that I do instead of holding onto an idea for too long that isn’t working. I think that directly stems from how Gary led the creative department at Vayner.

Only a few short weeks after becoming a published author for the first time in her career, Amber’s most recent experiment of dabbling in A.I., has resulted in her latest piece and upcoming drop, The End of the Start. The timed open edition drop on Manifold.xyz will be available for 17 minutes on February 8th. After which time, Amber will randomly select a holder and send them a 1/1 edition of the physical painting-a genuinely kind gesture she has made before.

However this time, the Hundreds & World of Women collaborating artist has elected to make another selfless decision in making this a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) piece, which effectively waives all of her rights that she typically has when creating and minting projects. The decision to go zero rights was a direct result of Amber dipping her toe into the artificial intelligence buzz that has taken the web3 space by the storm recently.

Amber Vittoria: I’ve been playing with AI for the last six or seven months and I have to give artists a lot of credit who are using it as their primary tool. It’s not easy! The majority of the inspiration of my work usually comes from nature in terms of visual forms. A few outputs came from my tinkering and I was like, “these were really cool,” and inspired an idea pretty overtly and I painted that idea.

The reason I wanted this to be zero rights reserved is because I felt like AI sources from the infinite and I wanted this piece to be infinitely available for people to use if they wanted to. I really like that relationship of how AI inspired me and now this piece can inspire others.

One37PM: Do you think you will keep on using AI in your creative process?

Amber Vittoria: I would love to. It’s great to be able to tap into something to help your brain think differently. It’s really incredible to have as a tool. As AI becomes more prolific and more people utilize it to generate their work, I can see myself incorporating it more. I think people always have this misconception that AI is easy and that it’s the easy way out for artists. It’s far easier for me to paint than to use AI. I do like how it is creeping into my practice and informing how I think, getting my mind out of the box that it is usually in.

One37PM: Lastly, you have been such a big advocate for women in the space and for speaking to widespread issues that you have dealt with on a personal level like anxiety. As someone that does such an outstanding job at putting their work and themselves out there while dealing with that, is there a tip you have for someone who might be struggling to do the same?

Amber Vittoria: Absolutely, two things. Number one: Asking for things. The worst that can happen is that they say no. Reaching out to brands asking to work with me. Reaching out to publications if they want to interview me. When I was younger I didn’t think I could do that. I thought it would be rude but I wouldn’t be where I am today without doing that.

Secondly, remind yourself constantly that if you are in the arena, do not give your energy to the spectators. Focus on what you’re doing in the arena.

TLDR:

At the End of the Start