In 2019, artist Lans King had an NTAG216 NFC microchip capsule implanted in his left hand by Jowan Österlund of BioHax International in Helsingborg, Sweden. Stored on the microchip capsule is a cryptographic code that represents an Ethereum blockchain registry of the artist-self.
View this post on Instagram
King will consistently maintain a microchip in his hand for the duration of his life. Collectors will have access to the artist’s geolocation and biometric information, continuously upgraded with the latest technologies, through a dynamic, programmable, visual NFT on an encrypted domain. In Terms of Use, the microchip is the key element of conceptual artwork. King’s biomedical information, location and other private metrics are exposed on full display.
It is perhaps the first ever artwork to be fully integrated within the corporeal body of an artist. Evoking a prophetic politics, in that ultimately, everyone shall be integrated with technology, Terms of Use reveals a potentially dangerous future. Investigating subjects of humanhood, techno-theology, commodification and Black ancestral sacrifice, the work is a re-imagining of the blockchain.
View this post on Instagram
Lans King (b. 1968) is a British-American interdisciplinary artist currently working in Paris and London. Through his ongoing project, The Hyperreality Show, he explores the blurred lines between real & virtual, analog & digital and even truth & fiction in the media. Furthermore, he considers themes of liminality, spirituality and symbiotic duality between humanity and technology. For his artistic process, King invented his own term, The New Synthesis, in which he combines algorithms and digital printing with traditional painting and drawing techniques on large format canvases. His body of work is multidimensional: an ecosystem that includes paintings, videos, installations, sculptures, digital/NFTs and signature painting-video/NFT hybrids.
Part off PROOF OF SOVEREIGNTY: A Curated NFT Sale by Lady PheOnix
