About Metaverse petshop

Metaverse Petshop is an ironic and playable installation inspired by the relationship between information space and real space, inspired by the pandemic and the recent surge of interest in the metaverse.

There is a growing worldwide ban on the sale of caged pets in stores. Is it ethical to cage virtual creatures, which can be said to have originally been locked in a cage (called a monitor), for sale in stores?

This work lets you purchase an ownership of a pet and release it from its cage using your smartphone. Pets transferred to your smartphone can be enjoyed on screen, and able to convert to NFT in a particular way for a longer life.

Pets generated in the cage will disappear if not purchased within around 10 minutes, and new pets with new patterns will continue to be generated in their place. Killing unsold pets is a problem, but does this also apply to pets as data?

This experimental project was presented in its beta version for the NADA art fair, and later upgraded for a solo exhibition at NowHere in July 2022.

About NFT in this project

Based on the audience responses at the NADA art fair we decided to add the ability to convert dogs to NFT, in a slightly particular way.

Dog owners can convert their owned dogs to NFT, but they must remove the texture (skin) from the 3D model of the dog and convert it to NFT as a 2D image. At that point, the 3D model of the dog must be abandoned.

In other words, It is the same way we strip the skin from an animal and turn it into leather to give it a longer life than the original animal.

See Metaverse Petshop collection on oepnsea

Press coverage

New York Times: At NADA, a Glorious Collision of Paintings and Ceramics
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/arts/design/nada-new-york-art-fair.html

Metaverse Post: ‘Metaverse Petshop’ by Japanese duo ‘exonemo’ takes NADA
https://mpost.io/metaverse-petshop-by-japanese-duo-exonemo-takes-nada/

Artnet News: ‘We’ve Seen a Huge Convergence’: NADA New York Dealers Are Catering to Collectors Who Want Both NFTs and Traditional Media
https://news.artnet.com/market/nada-new-york-2022-fair-report-2110180

The Art Newspaper: From NFT pets to a dystopian video game, digital art stands out at Nada New York 2022
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/05/06/must-see-works-nada-new-york-2022-edition

MetaNews: Nada New York displays metaverse art
https://www.metanews.com/nada-new-york-displays-metaverse-art/

Credit

Presented by exonemo
Supported by NowHere
NFT advisor Toshi / wildmouse