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Episode 7: Gazers by Matt Kane
www.collectorscorner.xyz @collectors_xyz (Twitter) Recorded: Sept 23, 2022 Episode Link Gazers 101 by Virtau
Collector's Corner - The Premier NFT Art Podcast
Into The Collection
Deep dives into the top generative art collections
Collection released: Dec 6, 2021 Collection size: 1000 Launch platform: Artblocks Curated Sale type: Dutch auction (no rebate) Resting mint price: 0.25 ETH (~$330 USD at the time)
Disclosures: At the time of this recording Collector's Corner members did not own this collection
Category: Moon
Special Trait: Dream Origin Moons
There are only 6 of these special moons - Read more here
Special Trait: Reflect
Category: Moon Size
Special Trait: Visualize
Category: Backgrounds
Category: Default Hemispheres
Category: Celebration Windows
Special Trait: Rockets
Special Trait: Gifts
Block
Cube
Dice
Circle / Round
Dodeca
Octa
Moon sizes 0 through 6 shown in the Aluminum background
Night
Aluminum
Slate
Northern (left) - Southern (middle) - Equatorial (right) default hemispheres
24 hour variant
Hour : Minute variant
Hour : Minute : Seconds variant
Minute Timer variant
24 hour
120 hour
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Astam's Top Picks of The Collection
Virtau's Top Picks of The Collection
Category: Clocks
Female artist gift
Male artist gift
Size 0
Size 1
Size 2
Size 3
Size 4
Size 5
Size 6
Can reflect after 12 moons (~1 yr)
Can reflect after 708 moons (~54 yrs)
Can reflect after 708 moons (~4600 yrs)
Gazers with the Reflect trait shown in the Slate background
With Special Guest: Virtau
Your Hosts: @astamcloud @jared_poz
Summary
Gazers is an incredibly nuanced and well thought out collection. Don't take our word for it though, just take a look at the metadata - there are 78 categories! Of course we cover the top ones but there are many more we expect to emerge and hold differential value.
That's why we were so happy to have our great friend Virtau join us for this episode. He is an expert on Gazers, as well as being an active member of their community and an avid collector.
I want to highlight two very unique aspects of this collection. The first is the use of time. I haven't seen another generative art project that has thought through how the nfts change over time, both in the past and in the future. For example, Gazers are a dynamic image, rather than static, and all of them speed up their frame rate after some months (some faster than others).
Additionally, the Gazer's community is simply amazing. They have rallied around this masterpiece and have created a culture of it's own. I know very few collectors who are more passionate than the Gazer's community, which helped me realize how important this really is for the long term viability and price of a collection.
Background
Before diving into the Gazers traits, there are a few concepts that will help you navigate the collection.
Gazers.art Gazers are meant to be viewed dynamically, they are truly built for digital screens. Matt Kane created a website for Gazers where they are best viewed.
-Market Gallery Every Gazer changes it's image every new moon. You can see all the past variations in the drop down at the top of this page, which allows you to predict how your Gazer might change at the next "lunation." Also some Gazers have images generated from moons before the project even launched! (This is called the Origin Moon date and will be explained below)
- This view shows Gazers in order of minting rather than in order of lowest sale as the Market Gallery does. Below each Gazer you see 3 images that you can hover over representing how the art looked in the new moon, the half moon, and the full moon for this specific lunation -There are other great resources on gazers.art, such as how many items are held by each collector, I highly recommend you check it out!
Moon refers to the shape of the moon. There are 6 shapes: Block, Cube (best viewed dynamically rather than static), Dice, Round, Doceca, Octa
What is Dice? It's random! Every new moon the Gazer has a chance of changing the moon shape.
Octa is the rarest and has the highest price premium. Dodeca and Cube also appear to be more in favor by collectors.
Interestingly, Dice hasn't commanded as much of a premium despite it's uniqueness, but we think this could change.
Another straightforward and important category, Gazer moons can be one of 7 sizes.
Size 0 (the smallest) is the most rare, but there is no real premium for this. Some collectors prefer larger moons, some prefer smaller, there is no clear winner.
Backgrounds refer to the outermost frame's color. Night is by far the most common (89% of the collection) with the simple black. Slate incorporates a smoky feel to the background, whereas Aluminum is strikingly different.
Slate holders are called "slazers" by the community, which is fun, and of course these hold a price premium given rarity (~5.5%) and a distinct appearance. Aluminum is held in even higher regard and most are locked up with top collectors.
Default hemispheres refers to the direction from which the moon changes every lunar cycle. See below for the nuances.
Northern is by far the most common (86%) followed by Southern (13%) and Equatorial (1%). Of course Equatorial holds a price premium given rarity, but Southern does not at the time of this writing, which we think could easily change.
Most Gazers image changes with the lunar calendar (79%), but 208 out of 1000 allow you to switch to a different mode where the image updates more rapidly. To toggle between the default calendar mode and the clock variant mode, go to OpenSea, click into the image, and press '0' on your keyboard
The 24 hour variant changes every hour. H: M changes every minute. H:M:S changes every second. Minute timer types go through a full lunation every minute!
There is a clear price premium for any of the 208 with the non-calendar clock trait. H:M:S holds the highest premium likely because of the nuanced appearance that emerges.
Every Gazer has a celebration on it's anniversary. Some Gazers have celebrations during other time periods as well, and some celebrations impact all Gazers, such as Stephen Hawking's birthday on January 8.
During these celebrations the images change, sometimes in fantastic ways. You can see a great examples on gazer.art here
The Celebration Window trait dictates how long the Gazer stays in that celebratory mode. It ranges from 24 hours to 144 hours. The celebration time stamp falls on the midpoint of the celebration window, so for the case of 120 hours the Gazer would change 60 hours prior to the event and stay that way for 60 hours afterwards.
Collector's clearly prefer the longer celebration windows, which are also more rare as 64% of pieces have the shortest 24h window
In the Background section we explained Origin Moon as the "birth date" of each piece. There are 6 Origin Moons that are special and relate to significant dreams in Matt's life that have had an impact on him and led him to the journey that eventually resulted in Gazers. We don't know what these moons will yield in the future, but there is speculation that given the significance to Matt there will be some sort of unique reward.
Matt released a tweet thread about this (link below), and given the rarity and potential significance it's no surprise these 6 trade for a hefty price premium.
One of of the most interesting special traits, Reflect allows you to scroll through the images of prior moons anywhere the NFT is rendered (rather than having to go to gazers.art) - what a boon for digital galleries!
Only 122 Gazers have this special trait signified by the "thinking" emoji on the metadata. Any Gazer with this trait can only start "reflecting" or showing prior lunation images once enough time has passed since the origin moon date for that piece.
For example, Gazer 988 has the reflect after 12 moons and it's origin moon date was 6/10/2021, so 12 moons after that date it was able to start reflecting. To see the reflection, check out the Opensea page, click on the image, and push the left and right arrows on your keyboard.
Some Gazers won't begin reflecting until the future. These are considered "locked," and some won't unlock for over 1,000 years!
A true mystery! There are 2 special gift traits, one showing a present and a male artist, and one with a present and a female artist.
There are roughly ~250 Gazers with one of these traits (they never overlap) and Matt has hinted that they will lead to...well a gift!
Interestingly at the time of recording these were showing up in the metadata, but now they are gone...coincidence?
A very cool special trait only present in 14 Gazers, Visualize allows you to click on the image anywhere it is rendered and drag either left or right to re-size the moon. In that way, these moons do not truly have a size trait! Not surprisingly there is a high premium for the rare Gazers that can Visualize.
There are 9 Gazers with the Rocket trait which has a corresponding date. For 6 of this set the date has passed and what happened? A mysterious NFT was air dropped to them (see below), time will tell what it leads to.
3 of the Gazers with the Rocket trait have yet to receive their special reward, and not surprisingly these all hold a significant premium (and are likely not for sale)
The NFT given to those with the Rocket trait, still a mystery!