Collection Spotlight: Bastard Gan Punks Are Different
One of the first trends a new NFT collector will notice are the endless waves of Crypto Punks-inspired/spinoff/knockoff collections out there. The reason is obvious — the collection that started it all should be an inspiration in what is (likely) still the first generation of NFTs. That said, many (most) of these projects are hastily made, low-effort attempts by developers and artist to make a quick buck on whatever 8-bit character collection pops into their head first.
It’s worth noting that a good number of these collections actually do sell out and make a cool few million bucks in the process.
I get about 10 Upwork requests a week from people looking for either a) graphic artists to create their 10,000 piece generative art collection idea or b) blockchain devs to handle the minting process. A good third of these ideas are likely something along the lines of Crypto Aliens (Crypto Punks but with alien bodies), Cowboy Punks (Crypto Punks but with western garb), 90’s Punks (Crypto Punk but with 90’s nostalgia colorways and celebrities of the era); you get the idea.
99% of these collections lack the magic allure of a great NFT collection — the artwork feels like a crappy knockoff, not an original statement.
BASTARD GAN PUNKS (Version 2) takes a different approach; the 11,111 pieces are all remixed, mashed together versions of the original Crypto Punk artwork created with machine learning. In the creators’ words:
BASTARD GAN PUNKS project has started as a hobby NFT project of me (@berkozdemir). There were two main reasons for me to initiate this project:- to practice Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) with my own dataset, as part of my artistic research at Masters programme at ArtScience Interfaculty- even though Cryptopunks were way cheaper last year than now, I had no money to buy any, so I challenged myself to make “interesting enough” remixes of them. So I came up with the bastards concept. Bastard GAN Punks carry the genes of original Cryptopunk, but they carry many different traits from several punks, so they don’t know who their actual parents are. And you know, sometimes BASTARDS are much cooler than their parents. Look at Jon Snow for example lol
Repurposing the original CP artwork for a new collection that pays homage hits a different mark. It feels like you’re building on the original concept instead of ripping it off.
This is why I love the collection. This is why I own #4183.
(The 90’s Punks idea might actually be solid, too)
