It's been a while since I’ve written one of these has been such an important processing tool for me, but the episodic nature of SCENES has made it hard to take stock.

There have been over 170 submissions over the first 3 Scenes which is crazy. It took me some time to process this. I often preach about metrics that matter, such as why a follow is worth more than a stream but it even took me some time to see how much more valuable a submission was than a sale. It’s funny how even when we move to a new format such as NFTs to escape an issue we end up recreating it so easily. In my mind the amount collected would be the marker of success, and now I’m in the process of the project I can see more clearly. The marker of success is emotional value for the participants.

Expectations and hopes: I had a few things in my mind that hoped this experiment would test or at least I would learn more about , now I realise these should not have surprised me. The simple root of the problem is as always: what I want to do sits in a grey area and doesn’t follow simple narratives. It’s always been one of the things that attracted me to using the block chain in the first place, but I think we all underestimate how long it takes people to form new habits and embrace new ideas. I had thought that by providing something of value to people that they would be tempted at least to support the project in return, or at best find value in collecting their memories and the song that helped elicit them from the quietness of their past. This has been very rare so far.. so maybe the process itself felt like an act of support, or maybe sharing it after did.. or maybe the submitters own emotional experience doesn’t carry the value I had anticipated beyond the moment. I know for sure that for lots it’s been a moving experience, so I wonder if something deeper is just not what we look for while online. I think the rails and rituals we are comfortable with within platforms that form our daily lives are underestimated. Engage, like, share or save. Move on. The big lesson is that people are online to be entertained, to kill time.. not to connect, or share or take part.. well not in the way we have been used to anyway. Those things may be happening, but through different and maybe quicker processes. They are more fleeting perhaps. They share their experiences by aligning with another just through the mere act of consumption or a share.. and instant share within the framework of a platform they are used too. So, you need to have a connection with those audience members before you ask them to break their rituals and habits, or you have to accept the slow pace of enacting change one person at a time, which is where I have found myself. Building a fan base one person at a time through an emotional process, which has been hard, but i know that every connection i make is strong and will last.

Even within the niche communities of web3 music , the action of stepping off the regular platforms to collect music doesn’t quite make sense yet. There are set models of how people interact, they see it happening and they are comfortable fitting into that, they know what the actions are and the things to say. We have pfp type models which of course have a more understood underbelly of speculation, but to buy a thing as a memento of a personal experience (although this is very normal I would think) it’s not a process people have felt a natural urge to follow. It may be that if something is un-memeable, or doesn’t bring kudos by association then people don’t know how to or don’t feel driven to support it publicly.

In my early drafts I called SCENES an exploration of our relationship with nostalgia and how we share our lives on social media. It was exactly this, but not in the way that I thought. To me the content of the submissions was the output that would show us something, but in reality the response to the concept and the reactions to taking part have been the biggest eye opener.

People scroll. They see a thing. They click it. Then they are faced with a challenge, and not at a time they chose. This really has been the most interesting moment. Pretty much all new people have come through 2 paths:

• My Web3 community that is established

• Or the major social network apps: View content > new follower > DM

Because of this I have had to go back to creating content, and back to reaching out into the void. It dawned on me quite early on that the value proposition of SCENES was more suited to those looking for something emotional, something they could resonate with or get some form of processing from. This and a love for electronic music. I was essentially looking for validation from the wrong places, forming my goals around narratives similar to those I had chased in the commercial music industry; “I need my big drop to sit alongside these (insert artists) big artists, to raise myself to their level and get validation from their tastemakers”. But no. What SCENES is doing is setting me apart, it's a MVP, it's a proof of concept. I want to continue creating experiments that push the boundaries, that are ahead of their time and dont need to fit the commercial narratives of platforms in order to exist. They will always sit in the grey, they will always push the boundaries because that is the exciting thing about technology, and where examples of a new future for creators will most likely be found.

As the project grows and lives in the world people start to understand it more, they become familiar with the ritual, then become familiar with the language and aims. Those of us who are taking part and forming a network of people that have a shared ethos and interestings or maybe just the emotional capacity to reflect and disconnect. We have entered into a time particularly in the circles interested in the possibilities of the blockchain where the long term viability of speculation as a driver of growth is starting to be questioned, and although it is very much still the centre there is at least an interest in projects like mine, that look beyond the builders, the speculation and shilling, and aim to create experiences that can be represented and archived on the blockchain. These networks formed about real world interests and emotional value will be something we look to in the future to find our people and signify the things we care about. Music, nostalgia, emotion and community.

Scenes has gone from a drop to an ongoing piece of performance art, providing a commentary on the relationship between personal moments, music and our complex relationship with social media. What now excites me most is taking this piece of art out into the world once it's complete, and letting it speak for itself.