Kevin chats with Sarah Zucker (aka @thesarahshow) about how she creates her unique voice in the art world. Here, they discuss the art of "quality degradation," the current glitch art community, platform loyalty, and the importance of NFT authenticity validation.

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Kevin chats with Sarah Zucker (aka @thesarahshow) about how she creates her unique voice in the art world. Here, they discuss the art of "quality degradation," the current glitch art community, platform loyalty, and the importance of NFT authenticity validation.

BIO

Sarah Zucker is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles, known throughout the Internet as @thesarahshow since 1996. Her art merges the gorgeous and grotesque through humor, psychedelia, mysticism, and the interplay of cutting-edge and obsolete technologies. Sarah has been involved in crypto art since early 2019, tokenizing single and limited editions of her screen-based artwork on the blockchain. Her NFTs can currently be found on SuperRare, NiftyGateway, Foundation, KnownOrigin, and Rarible.

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

SHOW NOTES

  • Who is Sarah Zucker (aka @thesarahshow)? [00:34]
  • How Sarah began her path to "10-year overnight" stardom in the NFT art world. [02:09]
  • Is art made on a computer "real" art? Not according to Sarah's choleric (but weirdly prescient) grade school art teacher. [06:25]
  • How Sarah continued exploring her boundaries as a digital artist while pursuing theater even after calling it quits on her visual art education. [08:05]
  • Is "legacy settings" a subtle threat from Adobe to Sarah's medium of choice? [12:08]
  • Does Sarah consider herself a glitch artist? How does she see future art historians categorizing the crypto art period? [14:10]
  • For Sarah, creating art is a personal journey with multiple facets informing the technique. [18:48]
  • Where did the name @thesarahshow originate, and how applicable is it to the narrative of work she's doing today? [22:09]
  • The process that went into creating the Electric Dream "VideoFeeling." [25:50]
  • Why Sarah believes in being transparent about the tools she uses: "It's the witch, not the wand." [32:00]
  • Thoughts on remixes, derivative work, and straight-up plagiarism/theft in the NFT space. [33:43]
  • Why Sarah believes in platform agnosticism. [44:35]
  • What makes Async Art such a unique platform? [45:23]
  • Is the NFT world still in its early days? [47:26]
  • The reputational risks an established artist takes by associating themselves with an unproven platform. [49:45]
  • How can someone vet NFT art to ensure it's the real deal? [51:24]
  • What's the story behind the cat featured in Sarah's "Loaf" pieces? [56:42]
  • The process behind Sarah's Portrait of the Cat in Digital Decay stereoscopic piece and similar self-portraits. [58:28]
  • Does Sarah incorporate newer technology into her process, or does she stick with the old stuff? Why? [1:01:12]
  • That time Kevin got a peek into Trent Reznor's studio and creative process, and how it perfectly illustrates Sarah's "It's the witch, not the wand" maxim. [1:03:30]
  • How Sarah channeled her drumming background to create live visual effects for performing bands. [1:05:18]
  • One mainstream artist Sarah can't afford, but would love to collect. [1:08:20]
  • NFT artists Sarah would love to collect. [1:10:08]
  • How should a creator process feedback? [1:11:17]
  • Is Sarah bearish or bullish on future worlds/metaverses? [1:13:50]
  • Up and coming artists who have caught Sarah's attention. [1:15:07]
  • Why the popular sci-fi/retrowave aesthetic of NFTs will probably shift as the collector base expands. [1:17:02]
  • The joy of the hunt for new and exciting artists, and why Sarah advocates for artists to also be collectors. [1:19:45]
  • Viewing galleries in the metaverse. [1:22:50]
  • Parting thoughts. [1:25:19]

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