Scroll for any amount of time on NFT Twitter and you'll see renditions and remixes of Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers #879 aka "The Goose," as artists across the space celebrate Cherniak's significant Sotheby's sale, in what has been dubbed Goose Day.
The Goose was auctioned as part of a continuance of the "Grails" collection sale, consisting of works once owned by the now defunct Three Arrows Capital (3AC) group.
Estimated to sell between two and three million dollars, The Goose surprised bidders and the Web3 space alike, realizing over double at $6.2 million USD after fees to Punk6529 -- who was "prepared to go higher."
Take a closer look at @dmitricherniak's Ringers #879, famously nicknamed 'The Goose.' Experts @katehannah, @sofiagarcia_io, and @michaelbouhanna discuss its captivating history & cultural significance. Discover more: https://t.co/pFiMNtYSpc pic.twitter.com/k28zaC6VbP
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) June 9, 2023
... and the final two minutes as the hammer came down, setting a new record for the artist and the 2nd highest price for a work of generative art. Congrats @punk6529! pic.twitter.com/QYzPcFIBmE
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) June 15, 2023
What makes The Goose so significant though and why has it now sold for millions of dollars not once but twice? The best answer to these questions comes from Cherniak himself, who in a recent tweet said "The Goose is and was significant because it helped open up this kind of art to a new, technically savvy group of people whose idea of creativity or culture is not the same as yours."
"Computer and code-based art is an art form that has been around for almost a century with very little fanfare, he explained, adding that "It is an extremely fascinating art form and has a rich history. It has been despised at many points throughout its history and its innovators were harassed. I am not an innovator in this sense, I have been able to develop my practice using the tools and documentation, techniques, as well as open source libraries mostly made by those who are my senior, and have contributed back where I can."
Cherniak continued to state, "Automation is my artistic medium and after spending years as an engineer solving fascinating and complex problems in creative ways, I wanted to do the same for visual art to make a point - maybe to myself and also to others as well. NFTs have been mostly discussed as an economic vehicle and a form of social mobility for artists but for artists using code, where algorithms, engineering practices, and randomness are so intertwined not just with output but our iterative practices, this kind of distributed computing system is a native form to our work."
While some verticals publish headlines like "3AC Bankruptcy Auction Nets $11M in What Might be Final Hurrah for NFTs," Cherniak said that the art form is "not going away and only more and more people will engage with coding as our population is forced to become more technical."
In other news, on-chain generative choreography in "Human Unreadable" showcases art longevity through an emotionally-driven collection experience.
Click here to view full gallery at Hypemoon
