Oekaki Babies
I canât pinpoint the exact moment that I went from being a casual collector, to fully obsessed with acquiring as many Oekaki Maker NFTs as possible, but I do recall the moment that I laid eyes on one of the early Oekaki generations. The feeling invoked in me could be described in one word: Moe.
But before we start tumbling down that winding rabbit hole, it will probably be a good idea to talk about their creation.
The A.I. Questionâ
Oekaki Maker is a collection of âNeo-chibi aesthetic enthusiast network cohesion lainpilled artisanal AI generative synthesis NFTs.â
Oekakis are chibis drenched in anime and internet culture references, styled to appear as if they had been rendered using an Oekaki boardâs drawing appâŠand they were created with the assistance of AI. With âAI artâ still being a very heated topic, addressing its use is unavoidable. As an artist myself Iâm not free of concerns about what image-generating AIâs will mean for art as a profession in the future, but my love for Oekakis leading me to learn a little about the process behind their creation, showed me that it isnât a zero sum situation: There are other possibilities.
If youâre someone thatâs also on the fence about AI-generated images, but you're already here, reading about NFTs, then it means you survived the previous moral panic that gripped the online art scene. If the hysteria then was overblown, could it be the same here?