Tom Sachs' Rocket Factory and the Beauty of Handmade Art

In Paris, I witnessed one of the most fascinating art creations of my time. There isn't even a genre to define the bizarrely fun Tom Sachs’ Rocket Factory - self-described as a trans-dimensional manufacturing plant.

Watch this video for background, and don’t throw away those Mars rocks cause you’ll need them to fuel your spaceship!! :fuelpump:

Overview of Rocket Factory Launch  

In short, when it launched, people were allocated NFTs of random cardboard-y-looking, childishly drawn rocket ship pieces without knowing what to do with them. There were three components: nose cone, body and tail, but people weren't told what the purpose of these was until a few hours later. 

After a lot of rumours and chaos, it turns out that one of each was required to build a complete rocket ship; and each has one of 30 brands and different rarities.

After people submitted a full set, these NFTs were burnt, and a new NFT of a single rocket was minted, one thousand rockets in all.  Turns out that if you had the same branding/logo on all the components, you would get a rocket superior to an otherwise Franken-rocket.

As fun as that experience would’ve been, Tom then shocked fans by hand-creating these rockets individually, blasting them from launchpads with a crew at launch, and recording the whole thing!! Owners were then mailed their rockets!! The launch of this creation is best described here

What I Witnessed in Paris NFT Show?

At the Paris NFT show, Tom again out did himself. I lined up at his booth to get a photo taken to receive a personalised Identification Card with an NFT chip which would give access to a space exploration-themed Metaverse with 3D creation tools.

I went to their website, and it turns out there are Mars rocks you can buy to fuel your ship. And spaceship tickets :ticket: which I don’t even know what they are for, but I am definitely going to find out! Take my money!

To get an idea of what Tom has achieved, let’s think about what he’s created. Compared to an artist who creates, says, an oil painting, Tom has created an immersive experience that takes the owner on a journey that continues to evolve and continues to give access to more experiences in the future. 

Instead of a static piece of art, he has created an original story backed by a series of insanely awesome videos, a website, visuals on social media, sculptures, digital art, digital collectables in the form of NFTs, the utility for these NFTs and a match with activities in the real world, a marketplace to trade, an actual friggin rocket launch, an art experiment, a continuous revenue stream, possibly hundreds of fun new jobs, a wholly immersive experience which brings back childhood memories throwing in sprinkles of mystery, intrigue and randomness.

The most important thing of all is a dedicated and engaged community that feels a sense of connectedness in sharing its creative vision. No doubt that owning and displaying these NFTs is proof of social status and real money as these continue to appreciate (one piece I saw was selling for 20ETH).

Lessons to be Learned

There is a huge lesson here for artists, collectors, brand managers, tech heads, VCs, Elon Musk and actually every ducking person with a bit of cash who wants to get involved with an artistic movement defining our time.