jpegs.cool

I was invited to the Intern Program, a rotating project by @0xMQQ, where each person receives 6.9 SOL to collect NFTs, create a thread, and pass the spot to someone else. The idea is simple, and it became a way to reflect on taste, on collecting, and on how we engage with a space that keeps shifting.

Most of the time, I collect work by friends—people I’ve built relationships with through conversation, collaboration, or long-term exchange. It’s not really about strategy. It’s about shared context. We’ve followed each other’s practice, talked about ideas, and watched things evolve. That kind of collecting becomes intuitive. For this project, I wanted to shift the focus. Spend more time looking outside that circle—at artists I didn’t know, projects I hadn’t seen, and work I wouldn’t have come across through the usual channels.

Lately, there’s been a noticeable wave of new art entering the scene on Solana. Many artists are showing up, some from other chains, bringing diverse references and aesthetics. Some seem genuinely drawn to what’s happening here. Others are just experimenting. Either way, it’s reshaping how things move.

Naturally, such a shift elicits a response. You can sense a divide: some people who’ve been around longer are skeptical, others are excited. That dynamic isn’t unique to this context—it happens in every scene, whether it’s art, music, or tech. The new shows up. Some embrace it. Some resist. I observe.

All the pieces I collected are from http://VVV.SO, the platform I’m building with friends. I’ve seen many artists come through—how they personalize their mint pages, how collections are structured, and how their approaches evolve over time. But even with that kind of access, I realized I wasn’t always engaging directly. It’s easy to develop a sense of what makes sense and just keep collecting within those boundaries. This time, I wanted to follow what felt unfamiliar.

That didn’t mean avoiding people I already know. Some of the collections I chose are by friends whose recent projects feel aligned with this broader shift. Work that breaks away from the usual formats and seeks new ways to challenge expectations. So while part of this process was about discovering new voices, it was also about paying closer attention to the ones I already knew.

Taste gets shaped by repetition. The more you see something, the more it starts to feel like it matters. It becomes easy to confuse visibility with value. But taste can be interrupted—if you’re willing to question what you’ve gotten used to. This project gave me a reason to do that. To pause. To look at what I’d usually scroll past. To collect without rationalizing every choice. To spend time with things I didn’t fully understand in the first place. Because if you never step outside your habits, they start making choices for you.

COTIDIANO by @CaoLinSan