Volume: II | Zahra Akbari, CardoLove & Rod Ortega
6 February 2022
Creator Interview with Zahra Akbari
What was your introduction to NFTs and how did you first hear about them?
8 months ago a friend sent me a video on YouTube describing what an NFT is. I looked at it and went down the rabbit-hole. After a month, I started minting my work on Foundation. I began to collect after the first few sales that I had.
Before Pak, I just couldn’t believe that all of the other collectibles were doing so well. As a traditional artist- as an artist, looking at the pictures I was going mad, “Why are people paying so much money for something like this?”.
Then I saw Lost Poets and felt so relieved. Now, I can think differently. Pak is a gamechanger.
Was your first Pak collection Lost Poets?
Yes, a friend of mine introduced me to Pak and told me that they are having a drop. I used the money that I gained from my NFT sales and was fortunate enough to be there on the day of the drop.
When did you first realize that art was something that you wanted to pursue?
It was very weird for me. I think that when I was 10 or 12 years old, I painted something for my school and my teacher was impressed by it. They talked to my dad about me becoming an artist. He started to send me to different classes so it was not a choice for me.
As everything went by- I was unhappy but I realized that there was no other way for me, there was no turning back, and that this was me and I don’t think that I can do anything else.
What was your alternative plan?
When I was a child, I wanted to be a heart surgeon. I was always telling my mom, “I am going to do a surgery on your heart one day.” Haha. I wanted to be a doctor, that was my dream. I was good at physics and math so I thought, ok- I have the capability to do it. But things changed.
When did you first have success as a creator?
I came to London on my own at age 22 and saw my first real success was at age 23. My work was selected for a National Portrait Gallery in London. I think that I was the youngest in the show. I had just migrated to England and had a lot of different emotions about it.
The portrait is of the artist’s friend, Ali, and was painted in his flat in Glasgow. The two met in 2011 and became firm friends among a group of mutual acquaintances. Akbari Baseri says: ‘His charismatic face motivated me to paint his portrait several times. Among our crowd of friends, Ali’s character was very attractive, and his reserve and silence make him seem like someone from another time.’
Do you have a favorite work of art?
My favorite work of art in the NFT space is Pak’s Lost Poets collection. In the physical world it is the painting Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar by Rembrandt. To my eyes I have not seen anybody do art as good as Pak.
Each one of the portraits in Lost Poets is so complete in each and every aspect: color, composition, subject, the way they look- everything, it is so fascinating. For the years to come, Pak’s collection will be a very big inspiration for artists in the NFT space.
What does it mean to be a Pak collector?
It is an honor. It is so much fun and it is very exciting. I am learning a lot. Before Pak I was looking at NFTs just as something that people made money with. After Pak, I am thinking about it and trying to get used to the idea that I can use NFTs as another medium to show people what I want to speak about. I would really like to do something special with the smart contracts.
Can you tell me about any upcoming work or projects?
I am working on a painting and hope to finish it in the next few days. At the same time I am thinking about releasing my next collection as One-Hundred 1 of 1 works.
What does it mean to create in $ASH?
Working in $ASH is about believing in Pak. I believe in Pak and that is why I am working in $ASH. If $ASH is going to be the currency of this movement then I want to be a part of it. The other big reason why I care is because Pak is working with Julian.
Creator Interview with CardoLove & Rod Ortega
How was your trip? How were your travels?
I am quarantined right now and I have been in quarantine for a few days. Once you get to the airport, they shuttle you away from the group, and isolate you in a place with a bunch of other “contaminated” people. We waited there for hours before getting onto a bus headed towards a quarantine hotel. After we arrived they escorted us to our rooms in full hazmat suits. It really gave me a lot of time to work on DK’s drop in addition to Rod and I’s drop that is coming up.
How long have you been working on the Lost Chapters collection?
When Rod came out with the Rover trailer- he had no intention of doing more than that. I reached out to Rod and we started talking about the possibility of the Rover continuing to go around in the format of a choose your own adventure story. Originally, it was going to be a short project that developed as we released chapters. We are trying to do new things with smart contracts so we decided to postpone the collection because a lot of community members were suggesting for us to flesh out the project.
Rod and I build off of each other’s capabilities. I have had more time to experiment with the contract and thought of more interesting things to add to it. Lost Chapters is a choose your own adventure NFT story wherein you are a scientist attempting to “Save the World” there are different mechanisms which make for interesting scarcity dynamics.
As for artists- I do not know if I have mentioned this yet, but Danny will be helping us with the first chapter. In the future a number of $ASH Creators will be adding their own touch. Some of these collaborators include my good friends: DK, Danny, and Simply Anders.
I met up with Danny and Simply Anders before embarking on my journey.
How long are you in Korea for?
Well this wasn’t just a trip- this was a move. I am going to be working with NFT Siblings.
One of the core things that NFT Siblings want is accessibility of knowledge. I want to build up developers because there is a lack of resources. People have crazy ideas- their imaginations are limitless. I need to give them the medium to build. The goal is to build up developers. I want to uplift the people that are around me in the ways that I can.
It was not an easy decision to move to Korea. I had a stable job and it was the most money that anybody in my family has ever made. My family doesn’t understand blockchain or NFTs and never really considered it until I told them that, “I was thinking about trading my stable life for internet jpeg’s and crypto that is used for the black-market”.
Do you actually know any Korean?
In college I studied abroad in Morocco and Korea. I signed up for an intensive Korean language speaking course which was 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 10 weeks. It was no joke and was difficult. I will be honest, I got a D.
In-Between semesters, I didn’t have any money to get back home and was getting kicked out of my student housing. I emailed every single hostel in the area. One of the managers got back to me because he saw that I rock climbed. The manager was really into pull-ups and thought that maybe I would be good at them too. I started to work there and it came with free ramen, eggs, and rice. In the meantime I was doing any Craigslist opportunity that I could. Like correcting English, babysitting in English, I even sold my finger prints, voice, and face to Samsung. Eventually, I raised enough money to take a week detour in Japan before moving back home. If I hadn’t had that huge travel experience I probably would not have said yes to moving to a new country.
Do you notice a shift in culture regarding the internet?
Yes. In Korea they are pretty advanced when it comes to their technology. There are a bunch of internet cafes everywhere with extremely good internet. Most people go there to game and some people go there to register for classes because they know that the classes will fill up in a second. VR Arcades are common as well.
What was your first NFT mint?
My first mint was A Cube. I saw JC’s video and from there I was like, “I need an Avatar, this guy seems cool, this seems kind of fun-” and that was the beginning of my journey.
Did you buy your cube on the first, second, or third day?
I bought it on the third day. That was actually me and Rod’s origin story too. We met on Reddit and we talked a little bit about VeVe. It is a digital collectible platform and was my first taste of what the NFT world could be. One day Rod messaged me saying, “Pak is coming out”. I asked him, “What is a Pak?” and he said that, “They have A Cube”. And I asked, “What is A Cube?” so Rod showed me and I’m like okaaay. The classic, “I don’t understand”.
I don’t know why I thought it was a great idea to spend $1500 USD with a credit card for this cube. It was a jump because I didn’t know what I was jumping into. I learned as I went. When burning came out- I burned the first second that I could. thought that it was very cool to be able to burn these things for a new crypto.
With that $ASH I was airdropped Pages, I bought Pages, I flipped them into Poets, and was airdropped Origins. All of this stemmed from that one purchase. Everything. It is insane how much of an impact Pak has had on my life. I literally moved to Korea.
By profession, I am a self-taught programmer who studied math and physics in college. The internship that I was in allowed me to teach myself coding. Smart contracts are not too bad and I have already had a few successful drops, including: FOMO Hoodies and DK’s Trust.
How many sales would you consider a “success”?
Back when Rod and I were building Lost Chapters- we were not that well known in the community. We said that, “If anyone buys it that would be cool”. Since then, Rod has had successful $ASH auctions and we were both airdropped Carbon NFTs. Now we are expecting to sell and there is a different implication that comes with that. We want to make our game affordable and accessible for a wider audience.
Tell me what it means to be a Pak collector? What attracted you to Pak?
First it was the good faith that I had in Rod. Starting to interact with other people showed me just how attractive the Pak community is. I took a trip to NFT NYC for the NFT Siblings meetup. Interacting with a group of genuine people who are passionate about what they do and talk about feels like a sense of belonging. Overall it is the community that sucked me in.
Pak also has the most innovative performances. I referenced Pak’s contracts when I was learning with a goal to understand. Some of Pak’s contracts are more simplistic than I would have expected them to be with the performance that came of it.
Is Pak’s code elegant in design?
Definitely. I can tell that it is a clever mind that built it. It is well documented within the code. In Pak’s code there are a bunch of notes and sometimes- you can get a person’s personality in the code.
To contribute contact iseult at:
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iseultimpakt@gmail.com
Please consider donating ASH or ETH to: 0x56ec61c5ca992dbe5dba7e942cc4a055bf584f24
All donations will be used to acquire Pak and ASH Creator NFTs for a Virtual Museum.