Volume: VII | Interview with Teej_0_o - creator of $ASH Wednesdays
1 July 2022 - Community is the Utility
Reading Key:
Intro from iseult
Welcome to IMPAKT! This month we are exploring the mind of Teej_0_o - creator of $ASH Wednesdays, “a free newsletter rounding up the biggest news from the past week in the $ASH ecosystem created by @muratpak”.
A good story is told many times. Our respective newsletters launched on the same day. I have much respect and admiration for what Teej_0_o is able to accomplish.
- iseult
Interview with Teej_0_o - creator of $ASH Wednesdays
How long have you written about the $ASH Ecosystem?
I have been writing about the $ASH ecosystem for six months now. I launched the first edition of my weekly newsletter, $ASH Wednesdays, on January 5, 2022. Coincidentally, this was the same day that you, @_seult, released the first volume of IMPAKT. I can vividly remember seeing your message in the #lorem channel of Pak’s Discord server sharing the tweet announcing your newsletter just a few minutes before I was ready to publish mine.
In full transparency, I thought to myself, “What do I do now?” I wanted to be respectful of your creation while also sharing what I had been working on without being duplicative. Thankfully, we both I think saw the inspiring outpouring of creativity in the $ASH ecosystem, wanted to cover what was happening, and took different approaches to document it. I delayed publishing until I made sure to include a section of my first newsletter highlighting your publication and interviews with Del and Lord Truffington. One thing I love about the $ASH ecosystem is the diversity of creators whether it be artists, designers, or writers – it truly feels like a unique community always willing to lift each other up and I think that’s at the core of what we are both trying to do with our writing.
So far, it has been 25 weeks with 25 editions of the regular weekly newsletter as well as 21 interview pieces that I try to publish biweekly but have opted more of late to produce on an ad hoc basis. Going back further, I think I have been commentating or writing about $ASH since its inception back in April 2021 around the release of “The Fungible,” which I say more jokingly than anything, but I was definitely intrigued and following from the start of that particular drop.
What is $ASH Wednesdays?
$ASH Wednesdays is a free weekly Wednesday newsletter rounding up news on the $ASH ecosystem created by @muratpak — “in case you missed everything anyway” — with a tagline inspired by Pak’s “Fomoverse” collection (I missed “F” myself). Each week, I make an attempt to aggregate all that transpired in the $ASH ecosystem in the past week and try to curate what I think is newsworthy including updates from Pak themself, new releases by #ASHCreators, and notable events like Twitter Spaces or community gatherings. In addition to weekly updates, as mentioned above, I also try to highlight #ASHCreators through one-on-one deep-dive interview pieces.
I often try to incorporate feedback and gather insight on what people might like to see in the newsletter through engaging primarily on Twitter and three key $ASH ecosystem Discord servers: WeAcceptAsh, ASH Nation, and The Room. I am super grateful to Del, Y4Si, and Donye.eth for their leadership in building out these incredible $ASH digital spaces and for their overall support. I think it’s important to create with a “by the community, for the community” mindset, welcome feedback on your writing, and to also think through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I try to be as unbiased and as neutral as possible with the acknowledgement that I myself have delved into collecting the work of #ASHCreators whose work I enjoy.
Why have you decided to create this newsletter?
Ultimately, I decided to create the newsletter because for the eight months after collecting “A Cube,” I became enamored not only with the brilliant designer that is Murat Pak but also by the burgeoning community of collectors that supported their work. I joined the Siblings Discord server in early May 2021 for example, which I think is one of the prime exhibits of Pak supporters or #paklings coming together.
In September 2021, I ruptured my achilles tendon playing basketball and was bed bound and unable to walk for weeks. During that time, one of the main things I took solace in was Pak’s Discord server and the community there. My injury coincided with a lot of excitement around Lost Poets, a project itself that has spurred a lot of creative offshoots and theories.
Since Lost Poets and Del and Mathijs’ early NFT releases in $ASH, it felt like the community grew rapidly and the number of NFT works released in $ASH increased greatly. At times it felt like it was impossible to keep up even for myself as someone who spent a lot of my free time navigating between the Siblings and Pak Discord servers and eagerly awaiting the next Pak tweet notification.
$ASH Wednesdays was borne out of my desire to help others who might not have the flexibility or privilege to be as plugged in with the hope that they too can keep up and not miss out. In an effort to “create what you want to exist,” I thought that there was a bit of a gap in news and media in the $ASH ecosystem and I myself thought that a weekly newsletter of updates could be helpful. I hope that people who read the newsletter find it useful and are encouraged to engage further with the $ASH and Pak community as a result.
What motivates you to continue?
I think what motivates me to continue most is the #ASHCreators community who for months have been hard at work releasing interesting art and design on the blockchain available for purchase in $ASH no matter what the price of the social cryptocurrency is. It inspires me that many creators have not wavered or stopped building as the price of $ASH has fluctuated.
I also find that the act of creating the newsletter has been a great way for me to exercise some creative expression of my own and connect with people in ways that I do not always have the opportunity to do in my day-to-day full-time work. As someone who has become a believer in NFTs through about a year and a half of direct participation now, I think it’s important to document the enormous transformation in the ways we interact with one another and technology with $ASH just being one example of the multitude of creators and communities at the forefront of that change. It’s amazing to see iteration in action – a weekly newsletter has now turned into almost 50 unique publications that I am proud to have authored.
Have any interview responses surprised you?
There have definitely been several interview responses that have surprised me. For one, it still blows me away that even as a relatively anonymous individual in the NFT space, I was able to interview and publish a piece with Paris Hilton. That would have not been possible if it were not for NFTs and Pak. More broadly, I was also grateful to the number of Ash Chapter Two creators who were willing to engage and do interviews together for the newsletter. It took a lot of luck, preparation, and persistence, but it was an awesome experience to be able to highlight the creators of that historic drop on $ASH Wednesdays.
It’s no surprise that Pak has been able to draw in some of the most well known, successful NFT creators as collaborators, but I have also been blown away by what I see as more of the “homegrown” core group of #ASHCreators who have carried the torch lit by the anonymous designer. People like Del for example and others like Baria Qureshi, TokenNDN, and Chank Fonts.
It’s crazy to me that a former member of The xx is now making music that can be acquired in $ASH as someone who was a huge fan of the band growing up. I thought it was not necessarily surprising but awe inspiring the way in which TokenNDN is building upon a long legacy of Native art that has often been subject to erasure by permanizing it on the blockchain. I think too that Chank Fonts has such a unique background and is adapting his expertise in designing fonts to this new medium literally from Prince now to Pak and the $ASH ecosystem. At first it surprised me, but now it has almost become a given that the people who congregate in the $ASH ecosystem are incredibly talented in so many different ways.
Growing up, what did you collect?
I am a child of the late 1990s and early 2000s so collecting has always been a hobby. From Beanie Babies to sports cards to Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh to books, comics, CDs, records and video games, my younger brother and I have definitely gone through a lot of phases of collecting. I have to say, I think growing up collecting various things made the transition to collecting NFTs a bit easier and something I could grasp relatively quickly. One of my first NFT experiences was with NBA Top Shot and I onboarded my brother to their platform, which gave us another thing to bond about around our love of basketball.
One thing I do appreciate greatly about NFTs is that they take up virtually no physical space and can all be contained in something as small as your phone. We have come a long way from the Game Boy and the Game Link Cable, but that nostalgia and experience has definitely inspired a new wave of collecting in me. I also enjoy seeing longtime creators in other mediums who have ventured into NFTs. For example, I collected a Raf Grassetti Batman comic book and played multiple God of War games he created the art for before collecting his NFTs.
What does it mean to be a Pak collector?
I think it can mean a lot of different things to different people to be a Pak collector. For someone like Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, it could be getting in on the ground level of one of the world’s most preeminent designers who will go down in history as one of the pioneers of the digital art movement. As a collector, Del told me that he thinks, “Pak is the pinnacle of the Smart Contract creator, there’s nobody else reaching the same levels of creativity and engagement.” I tend to agree with both Del and Pablo about Pak and love the way that Pak keeps things interesting from the art, design, and smart contract perspective.
To me, to be a Pak collector means to be curious, creative, and embrace change. When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you. Go down the rabbit hole. Create what you want to exist. Collect what you find interesting.
Which Pak pieces do you currently own?
I currently own one Lost Poet, one Golden Vanguard, one “Censored” NFT, three pieces from Ash Chapter Two, and a very humble amount of $ASH to make sure that I always have access to the #ash and #ash-creators channels in Pak’s Discord server. I once held “A Cube,” another Lost Poet, and an m(5) NFT. At this point, I think I own more non-Pak #ASHCreators NFTs than Pak NFTs. I would describe myself as a small collector and started my NFT journey in January 2021 collecting art NFTs on Nifty Gateway.
You included my “Censored” NFT, a reference to George Orwell’s 1984, in the cover image of IMPAKT Volume 3, which I thought was such a cool community participation initiative.
Have you named / written anything with your Poets?
I fed one Page to the Lost Poet I use as my PFP (Profile Picture) and named them “Merge Mass” and wrote “become mass” as my poem. I wanted to infuse one Pak collection with another particularly following the success of the initial sale of Merge. I am always curious how Pak is seemingly building out a multiverse of different projects and wanted to draw a connection to intertwine the two. It admittedly does not make much sense as a name or poem, but ties the two projects together.
Anticipating high gas fees, I sold my other Lost Poet ahead of Ash Chapter Two, which still would not have covered gas fees and it turned out that I chose not to mint because of the high fees. I sold my “A Cube” following Ash Chapter Two and my m(5) once the first Merge “treasure hunt” commenced. On the “A Cube,” I held for as long as I could until I had to attend to real life expenses. On the m(5), I found the treasure hunt game mechanic a bit hard to navigate and think I may revisit collecting mass once later mechanisms are revealed and Matter* is unveiled.
On that point, I personally think the “HODL” mentality in crypto and NFTs can be dangerous. Having been through a few market cycles now since collecting NFTs, if I have learned anything it is that it’s important to recognize the great risk involved and how easily everything can go to zero. I come from a family that has had negative experiences with gambling addiction so that is something I try to be cognizant of. I am also against sell-shaming – you never know what someone might be going through and the secondary market is vital to keeping things healthy. I feel privileged and fortunate to hold the few Pak pieces that I do and will always be in the market to collect more when able.
What is the role of an artist or creator in society?
I think the role of an artist or creator in society is to create something in others: a source of inspiration, a feeling, a political act, or a motivation to do something. Take Pak’s collaboration with Julian Assange on “Censored,” collectors of this new art medium became creators themselves writing all sorts of messages and in the process also donated to charity. I think “Censored” was an inspiring collection, it challenged people to think about freedom of expression and unjust incarceration, and it motivated people to come together to raise a staggering amount of money for a good cause. I generally think of art as a public good and am grateful to see and partake in the ways in which NFTs have reinvigorated supporting artists.
How do you view your legacy?
#TeeJ_0_oWasHere
I don’t know yet how I view my legacy – I am still figuring that out – but I know I was here or at least some part of me was and I tried to care for others and things bigger than myself.
Official Pak Project Links
Do you exist? mass.black
∴ AB AETERNO lostpoets.xyz
Creation Through Destruction ASH burn.art
Contribute
@_seult on Twitter
iseult#8848 on Discord
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.