Last month, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian hosted an art show with Curio NFT, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform and marketplace. The art exhibition that merges physical and virtual is called “Not for Touch,” and Tankian told Bitcoin.com News this week that he believes NFT technology has opened new doors for his artistic expression.

This week Bitcoin.com News interviewed the lead singer of System of a Down’s (SoaD), Sergi Tankian, on non-fungible token (NFT) technology and how it empowers him to express his art in new ways. In December, Tanian and Antique NFT Held an art exhibition titled “Not for Touching” featuring the artist’s NFT works.

Tankian has been an artist for years, but NFTs have given the SoaD singer a new way to “affect multiple senses simultaneously”, stressing that he has always been interested in “making a stronger impact artistically.” The following is an in-depth discussion with Serj Tankian of SoaD, as recorded by Bitcoin.com News on January 5th.

Bitcoin.com News (BCN): You’ve recently stepped into the world of NFTs. Can you tell our readers how you discovered NFT technology?

Serj Tankian: I just found out by watching the news. Learn how different artists publish NFTs. We were remodeling the house and I had a lot of reading time and I was like “Wow, this is really interesting.” Since I’ve been in art for many years, art related to music, I thought “Wow, that’s probably what I’m doing A new platform.” So that’s where the connection of this idea comes into play.

BCN: You recently collaborated with Curio NFT on an art exhibition called “Not for Touching”. Can you tell our readers about the event and how it’s going?

Serj Tankian: The event went really well and they set up a virtual gallery which was really fun for me. To be able to go into this gallery and see my creations, NFTs of course, and be able to view them, listen to them, and see their details. Then go the other way and see another NFT working on the other wall. It’s really cool, the setup is really good, and it’s my first dive into this world as an artist.

I’ve always been interested in the ability to affect multiple senses simultaneously as a way to have a stronger impact artistically. I did this with my musical art, we call it “eye of sound. “We use an app that does optical recognition, you walk into a physical gallery and you can listen to each painting with your smartphone or earbuds.

It’s like an immersive experience, and with NFTs, paintings can be truly brought to life using animation and digital painting. Like my good friend Roger Kupelian, who has worked on The Lord of the Rings and many movies, his paintings come to life with the background music. So I’m very excited about it because the launch of this product is incredible.

BCN: Do you collect any other assets from specific NFT collections?

Serj Tankian: I haven’t so far. To be honest, I’m not a big collector of physical art, although I do make physical art. I do have some good friends’ drawings. Maybe it’s because I’m a minimalist in some ways. I don’t like clutter, even on the hard drive. I have a lot of friends who are collectors who like to collect art, collect stuff, NFTs, and I’m just not a collector. I am an artist and I make.

BCN: Do other System of the Down band members like NFTs?

Serj Tankian: I really didn’t ask them. I’m not sure if any of them bought it. I would doubt, but maybe Shavo (SoaD bassist Shavo Odadjian) because he is very tech friendly and compared to the others. So maybe Shavo, but I’m not sure.

BCN: Why do you think NFTs are the “next step” in artistic creation?

Serj Tankian: I mean that sentence was directed at me. Because it gave me a new platform and allowed me to add a dimension of experience that I couldn’t physically add. That’s crawling into virtual space and I can animate the paintings and make them dance.

In the physical space, painted on the wall, they’re not dancing, but the music you get into it, which is beautiful. But now I can fill the space between the wall and the listener with NFT. I look forward to finding more spaces, both virtual and physical, that can further interact with multiple senses to increase the potency of the artist’s vision.

BCN: Apart from NFTs, are you also involved in other types of blockchain projects, such as crypto assets such as Bitcoin?

Serj Tankian: Not really. I don’t know anything about it. I’m completely naive when it comes to blockchain, bitcoin, and anything else.I don’t own anything, for me [NFT tech] It’s a new world to show my art, so it’s mine. But I really don’t know much about blockchain, but I have friends who bought bitcoin very early and they are very enthusiastic.

BCN: Many people believe that blockchain technology can eliminate parasitic third parties from various elements of our lives. Do you agree?

Serj Tankian: I think this is absolutely true. I think it’s a disruptive technology in some way, or it’s not disruptive, maybe it’s an alternative. You think about the gold standard and how money used to be based on gold. Then they abandoned the gold standard because they couldn’t find enough gold. They are out of scope, so most currencies are based on the integrity of the country’s government.

With blockchain and Bitcoin, you are outside that system. To me, the whole thing, including NFTs, is very interesting because human personalities who agree to evaluate things in a certain way are very interesting.

BCN: Are you planning to host more NFT exhibitions featuring your work?

Serj Tankian: I do. But I want to find the next level. I would love to have a physical gallery or museum show where each of my paintings has these physically isolated spaces and you can create more of this encounter between the virtual and physical worlds. There you can interact with multiple dimensions of art including paintings, definitely the music around you, maybe some tactile and smell elements, lighting, etc. and bring the virtual world into it. Maybe NFTs can be projected, in real space, I’m starting to think about multi-dimensionality and the increased potency of artistic effects.

What do you think of our interview with Serj Tankian of System of a Down? What do you think of his description of NFT technology? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is Head of News for Bitcoin.com News and a fintech reporter based in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He is passionate about Bitcoin, open source code and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written over 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News on the disruptive protocols emerging today.