0:16BI like the flowers. I think the flowers aren’t bad.
0:18AOkay, that’s that’s my art.
0:20BYeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. So I was gonna leave that. Are these your stickers? Oh, these are matcha XYZ stickers.
0:24ANo, they’re not my stickers, but I do have stickers. I can put them out. I’m about to put some art out because I have to finish this artwork too.
0:29BNo stress, no stress.
0:31AWe’re working on all the sticks art right now. Oh, stickers right here.
0:37BCool.
0:38AYou can take a sticker too.
0:39BOkay, yeah, yeah, put them down, put them down. I like that, I like that. I’ll even put them in the video. Check out the stickers, check out the stickers. It’s already recording. Okay, awesome. So what’s up everybody, my name is -- what’s up everybody, my name is Maceo. I’m out here with We Them Media. I’m the founder from Philadelphia and we’re in Manhattan today for the ETH Conf. What’s your name?
0:58AShanelle Julia Rosita.
1:00BOkay, where are you from?
1:01ABrooklyn, New York. Okay.
1:03BAnd what are you working on? What brings you to this conference?
1:05AI host workshops for tech folks, people that are in high-stress environments to have a creative pause and to reflect and release and use art to transmute their feelings.
1:15BOkay. And how did you start doing that? Like, how did that become a thing that you get to do? That’s like a privilege to be able to do that kind of work.
1:21AYeah. I started doing it at Miami Art Week. I was out there exhibiting anyway, and we’ve been in the tech space doing, you know, NFTs.
1:28BIs that like Art Basel or is that a whole different time?
1:29AWell, Art Basel is its own thing. Miami Art Week is the big umbrella thing. So I wasn’t at Basel, I was at Art Week. There’s a differentiation there.
1:37BYeah, do it.
1:37AThank you.
1:38BBring the nuance.
1:39AYeah. So we started there doing hosting workshops. And so we’ve done it with Solana. I’ve done it at Basecamp and we’re building it out. Like it’s happening in real time. Everybody’s building. Okay.
1:51BVery sick. Congrats. This red light’s on, so I want to make sure it’s recording the audio. Yeah. Awesome. I’m not worried about that because it’s in between us, but I want to make sure that before I keep you going, right, we have the actual audio. Okay, cool. Okay. So you’ve been doing that. So how did you start being able to monetize in that way? Like, I feel like for a lot of creatives, it’s like, how do I pivot into services? Like, that has to be the game, right?
2:13AYeah.
2:13BBut a lot of us struggle to actually create that. Like, I myself am getting into that space now with like editing, you know, being able to be a post house.
2:18AYeah.
2:19BBut I feel like, you know, my friend in Nigeria, Yama, he said every creative, if they’re serious, they need to go into services. And when did you kind of get that mindset? And like, how did you first start experiencing that success?
2:29AWell, again, building it out as we speak, but, um, but you’re here. It’s experiential. Experiential, I think, is where we’re headed because with all the tech and all the things we can automate and whatnot, the more that we have things that can go on autopilot, people are craving that like hands-on IRL experience, experiential types of events and things like that. So anything that can engage people and get people to connect, and also anything that’s visually interesting. When you’re in a tech space, there’s lots of numbers and words and things like that that are technical and --
3:00BAbsolutely. Can be boring.
3:00AIt can be redundant after a while. Having those like pops of color and line and movement and flow helps people to expand the way in which they operate and also helping with Networking too, because there’s a lot of there’s a lot of social ineptitude with all this tech stuff.
3:16BYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of people here who are on a spectrum who are ADHD who feel like a lot of anxiety around being social. I myself, and in that bubble, I won’t pretend. We’re out here. We’re out here, right? But I think a beautiful thing about this space, I would say the tech, the crypto industry, is that it’s a lot of people from around the world who have experienced that and have been able to find belonging in community in a movement, right? Thinking about the open source future, you might say.
3:38AYeah.
3:38BAnd the right freedom and freedom money.
3:40AYeah.
3:40BYeah. And I think whether or not we stay on that track at you know. is, I think, up in the air for a lot of people right now. But how much do you know about crypto?
3:47AI mean, I’ve been in the space technically for a few years now. I know more than I let on, I guess I’d say. But yeah, I like Ethereum, Solana. I go to their coworking space often. I have a lot of my projects, like my daily art projects. I have this daily project that I put out every day on Tezos.
4:06BOh, hell yeah.
4:07ASo in Tezos, there’s a lot of artists and whatnot that do that.
4:10BOh, you got the Pizza DAO sticker? I keep that.
4:11AOh, yeah. Yeah. So this is my project that gets me to draw on paper every day since I taught myself how to draw on iPad the last couple years.
4:19BThat’s incredible.
4:19AI found myself working more on screen than on paper, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose the original craft. What are you working on? Oh yeah, I’m working on some Knicks art. I’m probably gonna do this whole like series.
4:29BSo how do we keep the Knicks in 4 mentality?
4:31AThe Knicks in 4 mentality? Uh, we kind of lost it, so we technically lost the game already. But, um, yeah, we are just gonna not do too many weird things. Not do, you know, not get too juju with it. Let’s just stay consistent. And the consistency for me is to not watch the game specifically. But to be in the energy of the game. So I think we just, we just keep with that. I think we’re good.
4:52BSo maybe the question now is, how do we keep the Knicks in 5 mentality?
4:55AKnicks in 5. Just be New York. Just New Yorkers doing New York stuff. Nothing weird. No beating anybody up. But you know what I’m saying? Do the consistent New York stuff. Bagel and cheese and all the little New York bodega things that we do. Let’s just keep our regular New York rituals. Don’t do anything out there.
5:14BSo chopped cheese or bacon, egg, and cheese?
5:16ANeither. I actually don’t eat meat or dairy.
5:19BOkay, okay, okay. So what’s your, like, vegan alternative?
5:22AFruits?
5:24BOkay, that’s right. So go eat your fruits, Nour. Go eat your fruits. Go support your local fruit vendor. They’re out there on the corner, they’re working, they’re not going home until they get rid of it. So go ahead and buy that. You know you’re gonna buy some bullshit today, so go buy that fruit.
5:35AYeah, corner street guy, corner fruit guy is a thing.
5:38BI know, I know. I came from Bushwick. I seen you out there at 10 PM last night.
5:41AOh yeah, I’ve been buying my mangoes. I bought 40 mangoes in one shot the other day and ate all of them. So yeah, support your local mango guy.
5:50BI like that. I like that. Go to Jamaica. Go buy your mangoes from the lady standing there. She’s standing there waiting for you. Okay. Okay. And so what is crypto?
5:59AWhat is crypto?
6:01BLike culturally? No. Like however you want to answer it, actually. I was in Times Square today before I came here. I went up to like maybe 6 people, asked them like, you know, what’s one question you have for the experts today at the crypto conference? And I’m asking you because you’re here. What is crypto?
6:15AI’d say crypto is freedom. That’s how I think of crypto. I think of it as an opportunity opportunity to challenge and question the way things have been going, because we already see there’s been shifts anyway happening, and money, money is changing. A lot of things are going to be obsolete, and I think it’s time that we flip a lot of the traditions that have been put on us on its head, because things do need to be questioned. You always should be questioning, always should be looking to elevate, and crypto is an opportunity to do that, but with money.
6:46BHmm. Do you have a message for the builders?
6:54ADon’t forget to create just for the fun of it.
6:57BAh, I knew it. I knew it. And I’m curious, like, where do you wanna be a year from now?
7:02AIn another country, cuz I want better produce.
7:06BOkay. Okay. And select one.
7:08AIt’s hot here, but, um, we’re thinking of Mexico.
7:10BOkay.
7:11AMexico. But I lived in Ghana briefly, so maybe on that side of the world. Portugal also came up in my astrocartography. So I’m thinking about a few places, but Mexico is the place I’m considering first cuz they have a great art scene.
7:22BOkay, well, I’m looking forward to coming and being able to follow you around and shoot some content with you in Mexico. We’re manifesting it, we’re manifesting it. My Astro, I don’t know what you said, but I’m banking on that to bring me there too. My team is primarily in Nigeria and Kenya actually. And I haven’t been to Ghana yet, but we actually did some content at EthAccra last year, which was pretty sick. I don’t know if you met Abena, she’s here. But she organized the big tech conference, ETH conference that happened there the last like 3 years. Abena, she’s here. Well, if you see her around, she’s walking around.
7:48AOkay, let me know how it is today.
7:50BOh, I haven’t seen her yet, so I don’t know. And yeah, thank you so much. And do you have a message for New York?
7:56AJust stay New York, man. Just do New York shit every day. That’s it.
8:00BAnd you wanna shout your socials out?
8:02AOh yeah. My social is @iamjuliarosita and our company name is Loop and Line, but we don’t have socials yet. So just follow me and I’ll tell you everything you need to know. @iamjuliarosita.
8:12BYou wanna spell it?
8:13AOh, I-A-M Julia, J-U-L-I-A Rosita, R-O-S-I-T-A. Those are my 2 middle names, but my name is Shanelle.
8:20BOh yeah. Well, thank y’all for watching. Like, subscribe, go smash those buttons as they say. And, uh, and yeah, thank you, Bayo, and everybody else who’s involved in editing this. We appreciate you. We love you. Booyah! Can you say booyah? Like, 3, 2, 1. Booyah! I like that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.
