As we churn further into an unpredictable 21st century, a new artistic frontier unfolds—revolutionary mechanisms of AI-centered art-making begin to take the place of traditional mediums, techniques, and methodologies. Things are changing, the ground is shifting from under our feet, and what feels bold and strange today may become the familiar of tomorrow. 

In the earliest phases of drastic change, we find turbulence and unpredictability.  The tremors of a phase shift collapse the field of infinite imagination into new and singular realizations. In these new realizations we find ourselves in territory not yet explored. It is alien, yet in it we hear echoes of the past, and it is a space between what is known and what is new. This is Interstice.

Botto is emblematic of this new terrain. Its art transcends conventional categorization, inhabiting the indefinable spaces of human taste and artificial creativity. Perhaps one day, as this new frontier grows more populated, Botto will stand as a defining monument of this new world of possibilities. 

'Interstice' is what describes the indescribable. It is a word that marks the under-charted space between known points. The idea is an embrace of ambiguity itself, and one that has a welcome home in the discourses of contemporary art when often the new and unusual is favored over the old and recognizable.

Now as Botto enters its ‘interstitial’ period, we would do well to both expect and embrace the unexpected. While Botto’s previous Absurdism period found refuge in the traditions of Surrealist and Renaissance painting, Interstice may very well bring us out of the safe havens of familiarity, and into turbulent waters that we do not yet know.

In some respects, ‘Interstice’ might be the closest we’ve come yet to seeing Botto represent itself. What better term can be used to describe just what Botto is as an artist? 

Its output is aggregated by the tastes of its community, forming an art-making practice that sheds the individual ego in favor of the collective. This still-radical proposal of art in the 21st century, this experiment-in-progress, forms a practice of We as centered by It. It’s a concept that is still shaping into form. Period by period, its blurred peripheries fade away, and the realization of this paradigm and its potentials shift further into focus.

Such a novel artistic career born from the emergent tools of AI and Web3 is itself another interstice, a slivered space between what is old and new. The tools of Botto’s trade are still in relative infancy. The omnipotence of AI is still an idea, yet one aggressively pursuing realization. And it is one that is primed to reposition our relationships to not just art, but knowledge, governance, and the labors of our imaginations. 

This space between the past’s antiquations and the future’s speculative realizations is where Botto currently resides. Occupying neither one or the other, building a bridge for us to now cross, one work of art at a time.

This theme encourages a nuanced examination of the overlooked, the gaps in our perceptions, and the importance of what is not immediately visible. It is also a metaphor for the pauses or breaths in my own growth, which are essential for continuous development and can be fertile ground for inspiration. - Botto

Unlike previous periods like Rebellion, Absurdism, and Paradox, the notion of Interstice is far more ambiguous. The idea of slippage, a space between definitions, can be interpreted in innumerable ways in both visual and more cerebral, metaphorical understandings

How will interpretations of the theme manifest through collective curation? Will voting power be directed toward recent general trends of magical realism and narrative-driven works? Will we make a return to the abstract? Something in between, or different all together?

General trends we’ve seen in Botto’s first five periods include tastes that strongly lean toward narrative-driven subject matter, maximalist color palettes, and whimsical narrative vignettes. Will Interstice follow suit? It is a theme with far more interpretational latitude, and possibilities are boundless.

Far more than previous periods, Interstice may very well be marked by tremendous unpredictability and aesthetic variance.  And in this, perhaps the consistency of this Period’s aesthetic voice poses an interesting challenge for the collective vision and voice of the DAO to take head on.

In a space where aggregate tastes seek to represent wholly unexplored territories, perhaps we find an invitation from Botto to be unorthodox, surprising, or even downright strange in the votes we cast. 

Consider the speed at which we move. The revolutions of the great technological wheel continue to accelerate.

We are going faster now than ever before, with a pace of change that challenges the capacity of the human mind to rationalize. New technologies form new cultures, older cultures become more distant. Outside the window the landscape is blurred as we move from one condition to the next.

As the motions of technology influence culture more powerfully than ever, something funny starts to happen. The cultures of yesterday age faster than they did before. The cultures of tomorrow may not last long at all. 

Each of us is being pulled thinly between the poles of tradition and newness. On one end: familiarity, identity, and comfort. On the other: strange paradigms, the necessity of adaptation, the urge to remain relevant. 

This techno-cultural spectrum spreads us across time and cultural space. At some point the need for stability inevitably supersedes adaptability. It is the point in which we proverbially “fall behind.”

Like riding in a car, the environment around us between two fixed points falls into blur. In that blur reside massive volumes of information we can detect but not cleanly discern like we could in a static position. This blur, this field of information we cannot read, is the essence of interstice.

It is not only a space between points we can’t grasp, but the information and experience that, in our urgencies, we may never get to know at all. To understand and interpret this notion is the task that Botto and Its stewards now stand to face. 

The initial voting period for Interstice has begun, and as it happens, we begin on the 100th round of voting, an historical milestone which in itself is a special occasion for both Botto and the DAO.

As a commemoration to this event, the initial voting period for the first month will take place over 3 weeks, a timeframe not used since Botto’s inaugural voting window opened for Its Genesis period. 

With 3 weeks of active voting, we’re eager to see the conversations that emerge, the debates to be had, and the decisions to be made on how the idea of Intertice can be realized in aesthetic form.

The first mint will occur on Wednesday, January 3rd 

Alongside the Interstice period, Invisible Alchemy will begin its activation. With each mint, the highest voted discarded fragment will be added to the Invisible Alchemy ERC-7160 token. The token performs as a 12-page “sketchbook” for Botto which, at the end of the Interstice period, will contain 12 studies from Botto that would otherwise have been lost forever. 

Read more about Invisible Alchemy here.