Art inspires technology by encouraging us to think beyond and outside of our reality.

When technology
imitates art, the results are beneficial to our greater good. Pixar designer, John Lasseter, once said,
“art challenges technology and the technology inspires the art”. Art and technology run forward on
parallel tracks in race to innovation with one attempting to beat the other. With this framing and
understanding, we find technology is always catching up but the beauty lies in that realization. As long
as we imagine and commit our spirits to artistic endeavors, we will find technological inspiration not
too far in the distance. Often, the only limiting factor that stands in the way of the impossible is nature,
but attempting to build art-inspired technology helps us understand our limitations.

The Museum of Crypto Art, or MoCA, is a virtual art gallery founded by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and
Colborn Bell and designed by Desiree Casoni. It was launched in April 2020 within Somnium Space, a
virtual space built on the Ethereum blockchain. MoCA displays a large collection of tokenized art that
the museum’s collectors have purchased as nonfungible tokens.

Throughout the year, the museum acquired and displayed numerous works of art, hosted several
gallery exhibitions, and held interviews and talkshows with various artists. In August, MOCA made
history for what was at the time the largest-ever purchase on NFT art marketplace Nifty Gateway,
acquiring “Picasso’s Bull” by artist Trevor Jones for $55,555.55.

The most obvious is that there are no limitations that come with a physical location. The museum
can be expanded, shrunk, and adjusted in any which way. Anyone with an internet connection
can access the space, democratizing museum appreciation and access. Additionally, works across
history can be shown and analyzed at deeper levels. Those works that have been historically
hidden can be brought into the limelight.

The commercial possibilities within this space also abound. Users can view the art in detail, then
be routed directly to the marketplace where they could purchase museum-sanctioned NFTs or
even sell their own works. There are also improved collaborative and creative opportunities with
brands, artists, and other museums around the world, expanding the idea of what it means to
experience art.