TLDR:

Space is one of the core themes in cryptoart and the NFT universe. This proposal is to ask Nouns to fund a repository of cc0 space images for all artists to use freely in their work. Sponsored by the Nouns DAO, the website will feature nounish elements as well as an "about section" with information about Nouns. The Nouns ecosystem will be proliferated through exposure to the artistic community as well as any potential exposure from the featuring of the space images on mainstream and specialized media. Total amount requested: 12 Eth.

About me:

If you prefer to watch instead of reading, check out this short video I made for my SuperRare application to learn more about myself and my work.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iffK8n9uYuJgV8BmHjQaYXPuhgGmvHxi/view?usp=sharing

My passion for space and astronomy started at a very early age and I started shooting astrophotography about 7 years ago when I first paired a camera to the eyepiece of my telescope. After doing this as a hobby for several years, two years ago I decided to quit my job in TV and film production to become a full time astrophotographer. In early 2021 I minted my first NFT and throughout this past year I've released two collections and over 20 1/1 NFTs. During this past year, my work has been featured across several media outlets such as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day and the European Space Agency's social media profiles, as well as a number of astronomy websites and magazines, and I've even had the honor of having one of my pictures used as a stamp of the Argentine Postal Service.

Goal:

As a way to give visibility to the Nouns DAO, a cc0 image bank of space images will be set up that will serve as a repository for artists working on space-themed art. Space is a huge theme in cryptoart and NFTs. These images will be free to be used as subjects, backdrops and to be repurposed as artists see fit without the need to attribute authorship, giving artists complete control. The url cc0images.wtf has already been secured to this end.

Nouns proliferation:

The website would be designed in line with the Nouniverse aesthetics and would contain an "about'' section with information about Nouns. Besides strengthening ties and gaining visibility within the artist community, space images are regularly featured on specialized and mainstream media, which could potentially increase visibility to the Nouns community outside the art/NFT circles, by being featured by space agencies and more traditional media outlets reaching the general public. When published in media, images would be credited to the photographer and the Nouns DAO.

Website Mockup:

About the images:

As technology has pushed forward during the past years, the ability to image deep space objects like distant galaxies or nebulae has stopped being the exclusive realm of observatories and space telescopes, and amateur astronomers worldwide now have access to hardware that allows them to photograph these stunning objects. Taking hours and sometimes several nights to shoot with long exposures, these hi-res images combine complex processing skills with specialized equipment, resulting in unique artworks that capture the beauty that lies in outer space.

Example images:

NOTE: These are example images from my current body of work, all of the images for the image bank would be shot specifically for this project as stated in this proposal.

Carina Nebula

Located 7.500 light years away, the Carina Nebula is a region of ionized gas and space dust almost 500 light years across.

Lambda Centauri

IC 2944 or Lambda Centauri is an emission nebula located in the constellation of the Centaur.

Sun

Active regions 2993 and 2994 in the solar chromosphere imaged through a Hydrogen Alpha filter.

Moon

30 panel mosaic of the Moon.

Deepscape the core of the Milky Way rises over the archaeological site of Yacoraite in the Andes. Image selected as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day on May 8th 2021.

Milky way Mosaic

Space in Cryptoart

Some of the most well known and successful artists use space imagery in their work, here’s just a few examples from top selling artists.

"Dunescape XXIV" by jstn

"Space Pool" by MiraRuido

"Follow Me" by Frank Moth

"Space Head" by xmuratakyol

Media appearences:

Here are a few examples of my images in mainstream media in the past year. All images from the cc0 Image Bank that are published in the media will be credited to the author and Nouns DAO.

Newsweek online edition

Nasa Moon account feature on Twitter

European Space Agency

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (exposure to 1.45 million followers on Twitter - 870k on Instagram)

Deutsche Welle featured article on astrophotography

Postage stamp by the Argentine Postal Service featuring my December 2020 Total Solar Eclipse photograph

All of the above are examples where the Nouns DAO could get exposure through this image bank.

In time, the repository can grow and add other categories of images for non space-related art.

Deliverables and timeline

A website with the Nouns DAO branding with a set of 30 space images available for free download under a cc0 licence.

Deep space images take anywhere from a couple of nights to entire weeks and require careful planning to obtain, so this is a slow rollout project. Tens of hours of exposures as well as extensive processing time are needed in order to capture these objects, and most objects only appear in the night sky during limited periods of time during the year so the collection would be slowly built throughout an entire year. Some of the images will be shot from my rooftop observatory but others require traveling to dark sky sites. The images will be a balanced mix of deep space objects shot on telescopes, solar system bodies (Sun, Moon and planets), widefield images (star fields, milky way shots, star trail images) and landscape astrophotography, to offer a wider variety of objects and backdrops for artists.

Launch of the website would be scheduled six months after proposal is approved with an initial amount of 15 images at launch, and another 15 images would be added after a second six month period (this second update could be scheduled at shorter, more frequent intervals with a smaller amount of images).

Budget

Project management and execution, consisting of planning and acquiring the images throughout a one year period - 5 Eth

Equipment upgrades (purchases to upgrade equipment already owned) - 3 eth

Expenses for dark sky sites travel - 2 eth

Website development and maintenance (according to scope of this proposal) - 2 eth

Total: 12 Eth

Thank you for reading! Space is the Place!

niftynaut put this proposal for CosmosAstroArt on-chain. nifty ≠ Cosmos