On July 12, 2022, the “14th Five-Year Plan” for the development of Shanghai’s digital economy was issued, proposing that Shanghai will cultivate new elements of data including digital content and digital trade during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, supporting leading enterprises to explore the NFT trading platform construction, researching to promote the digitization of NFT and other assets, digital IP globalization circulation, digital rights protection and other related industries in Shanghai for early and pilot implementation.
Shanghai International Commodity Auction Co., Ltd. and 0-1 Universe unitedly held the “Interwoven Worlds – Digital Art Auction” at the “Light Paper Collector”, a platform for fine digital collections under the 0-1 Universe. Though this is the first digital art auction in cooperation between the two, Shanghai International Commodity Auction has already successfully held NFT digital art auctions, such as the “Roewe Metaverse” digital collection auction from SAIC Roewe, a Chinese auto brand in January.
There were 20 digital art lots in this new auction, 15 of which came with physical artworks, covering categories such as Zisha teapots, moldings, and prints; 16 of all lots were digital art orphans, many of which received high attention from digital art collectors after their release.
There were 10 high-value lots with a starting price of over 1,400 euros, including Liu Cixin’s authorized “Super String Computer” with his electronic signature and physical prints, the golden sand quartet commemorating Chen Peiqiu’s centenary with a Zisha teapot, the cyberpunk model game large-scale scene “sybercity 2077” with physical objects, the model game scene “Station 8” with physical objects, the model game scene “Truck Driver by the Sea with the model, Light Paper to Perfect Phase 1 to Phase 3 Collection with signed prints, BHQS “Moon” with physical prints, and Zero Shiba Inu Astronaut that is the first Light Paper Metaverse pet.
Liu Cixin’s authorized “Super String Computer” is the most popular in this auction. The lot comes from the middle-grade science fiction novel “Mirror” published in 2004 by Liu Cixin, a renowned science fiction writer. The novel won China’s 16th Galaxy Award, the most prestigious science fiction award.
The super-string computer, which looks like a suitcase from the outside, has a nearly infinite computing and storage capacity that can store the state of every elementary particle in the universe, and this machine can simulate the entire universe at the atomic level. This simulation is called “mirror simulation”, or “mirror”. In the work, the inventor at the center is carrying the “mirror” towards us, behind him is the scene of the creation of the universe, in front of him is the triangular totem of civilization, and the left and right sides represent the scientific civilization and the biological code of human beings respectively. The image very well expresses the setting of the super-string computer, a “cosmic simulator”.
Chen Peiqiu was a great master of guohua painting and calligraphy, often acclaimed as the foremost Chinese woman painter. This auction included a Zisha work by Chen Peiqiu in collaboration with Huang Pengcheng, a master of Shanghai Arts and Crafts. The Zisha teapot, with the flowers and birds on the body of the pot animated and created twice, gives new life to the classic production. The actual object has a square shape, and the difficulty of making square vessels is recognized in the industry. The symbiotic fusion of the digital collection and the physical object makes this pot even more precious.
This auction also features a number of fine pieces of molded play by industry greats, including “sybercity 2077”, a large piece of amazing size by professional figure maker Huang Yuebiao. Inspired by the most classic cyberpunk artwork, he presents the most direct visuals of cyberpunk high-tech mixed with the life of the underclass in a very impactful and conflicting art style that leaves nothing to the imagination.
The auction also includes a pet dog from the meta-universe – Zero Shiba Inu Astronaut, named Xiao Cai. Although Xiao Cai looks like an ordinary Shiba Inu, it will be an exclusive one and only, accompanying the collector to explore the metaverse full of novelties and unknowns together. It has even learned to do cute gestures and it can also change into various space suits to match the same suit of the collector.
There is also a gorgeous and beautiful lot in this auction – “Lady Face Summer Bloom Series #0001 – #0003”. This digital artwork is also the first one from Light Paper Collector. Lady Face is an independent and complete large-scale digital PFP project of top quality in China, and a rare domestic digital collection of female subjects.
This special auction of digital artworks in cooperation with 0-1 Universe is an important practice of combining digital innovation of auction and digital transformation of artworks. It is a new key to opening the world of intertwined reality and the new dissemination of digital art. In the future, Shanghai International Commodity Auction will also explore more new modes of digital art digital asset circulation that promote reality with the virtual and combine the virtual with the real, providing more new empowerment for the digital economy.
Shanghai International Commodity Auction is one of the leading Chinese auction companies, and its auction business involves all kinds of tangible and intangible assets. In recent years, the company has seized the opportunity of digital transformation, vigorously innovated and transformed, and promoted the construction of the Shanghai West Bund Artistic Center and digital auction platform. The auction combined with the meta-universe scene is one of the important exploration directions, based on providing a more technological and futuristic immersive auction experience for young customer groups.
0-1 Universe is a high-performance interconnection metaverse builder, with blockchain and privacy computing as the underlying technology, providing a blockchain-based digital asset management platform, virtual scene construction and other data trustworthy governance, and digital asset management related technology and product services. Light Paper Collector, the flagship application on the open alliance chain Light Paper Chain, focuses on the compliant issuance and operation of fine digital collections and will provide user digital asset access services for the majority of third parties through Light Paper Pass, and has been actively exploring and expanding new ways and modes of playing digital collections.
(Source: 0-1 Universe, Shanghai International Commodity Auction)
