With the ‘Moves’ NFT Series, Visual Artists and Musicians Lift Each Other Up

The inaugural installment of Moves, an ongoing NFT series, features an animated portrait of multidisciplinary artist Amina El Kabbany in a virtual, neon-lit room, swaying back and forth to a looped snippet of her song “Can’t Be There For You.” At a glance, the scene looks familiar: a musician dances to the beat of their own track as they perform, similar to COLORS or NPR’s Tiny Desk. But what’s completely novel about the work is its place in the metaverse—what many are calling the next version of the internet or cyberspace more generally.

Before Facebook changed its company name to Meta, the concept of the metaverse entered the mainstream with the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), cryptographic assets that allow people to own digital items. NFTs had a massive spike in popularity in early 2021, opening up a broader conversation around how digital art can be collected, much like fine art. They’ve opened new opportunities for musicians, too. According to research by music tech writer Cherie Hu, more than $60.2 million in music NFTs sold between June 2020 and April 2021.

Critics have raised concerns about the NFTs’ environmental impact and their potentially unsustainable growth, but there’s an undeniable excitement about their potential to open doors and earn revenue for artists. Moves aims to do exactly that. 

The project is led by Oakland-based artist and educator Tara Rose Morris, who has a background in animation and experience teaching about web3 and NFTs. Dropping multiple installments over the coming months, Moves will feature music by artists like AroMa, Clear Mortifee, Yosef Gebre and more, accompanied by Morris’ animations. “I’m bringing those animations into the NFT space specifically to help onboard folks and bring existing community into a space that can feel kind of inaccessible,” Morris says.

Launching with Morris and El Kabbany’s collaboration, “NymphaeaMoves,” Moves aims first and foremost to help artists build equity: For each installment of the series, one piece gets sold to the public and another goes to the artist’s personal collection, which means they get an NFT in their wallet. When each piece sells, the value of the collection as a whole will go up. Each artist can then choose to keep their share or sell their NFT at any point. Additionally, with each public sale, 10% of the proceeds will be put aside into a wallet dedicated to future artist minting costs or collective projects. 

For El Kabbany, this new way of interacting with digital technology is an opportunity for a major paradigm shift. “I just think that our mindset in the NFT space is being shifted so much into one of collective support and cooperative economy,” she says. “And that’s really, really cool to me, that people are helping uplift each other to create a network of abundance and sharing.” 

One specific use case El Kabbany recounts took place just the night before we spoke, when a friend let her know that they were giving away free NFTs on Twitter, and she jumped in and got one. Given that NFTs can appreciate in value over time, the small action can ultimately have a big long-term impact. “The same way that people came together during the beginning of the pandemic to really support each other,” says El Kabbany, “I see people really coming together and being like, ‘Does anyone need help?’”

“It’s these little touch points that allow folks to enter the space and have it be less tech jargon that I think will allow folks to feel more comfortable—along with a lot of educational resources,” Morris says.

When NFTs like Moves are created intentionally, there is unbounded potential for artists to tangibly benefit from their work. “One of the key terms in the NFT space is, ‘We’re all gonna make it,’” El Kabbany says. “I think that’s so cool. And I just feel like I found creative communities who understand the vision that I have.”