Whenever you have a look at the NFT artwork of Idil Dursun, an architect and CGI artist whose work offers in future dystopia and cyberpunk aesthetics, it imparts an eerily acquainted feeling. A number of sci-fi traditions instantly bounce out at you: a little bit of Blade Runner right here, a touch of The Matrix there. However what’s most unsettling concerning the sprawling and seemingly countless cityscapes of Dursun’s artwork is that they don’t really feel like fantastical impossibilities; they really feel like a model of one thing you’ve already seen.
In the event you’ve ever walked by means of the middle of a dense city metropolis, you’ve seen bits and items of the weather Dursun seamlessly stitches collectively to construct her CGI environments. Spend a couple of weeks in any of the world’s busiest and most populated locations, and also you may start to doubt the sustainability of all of it. Cities like Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, New York, and Istanbul by no means fail to impress upon guests and residents how many individuals stay there.
The final metropolis on that record isn’t any exception. With an official inhabitants of nearly 16 million people (although some put that quantity closer to 20 million) residing on a small strip of land wedged between two seas, Istanbul’s pure setting has blessed it with pure magnificence and cursed it with restricted sources. Consultants predict that continued enlargement into town’s northern forests coupled with the continuing improvement of huge infrastructure tasks might lead to ecological collapse. This environmental context that impressed Dursun to start creating futuristic CGI environments, a course of she dove into after graduating from a college with a level in structure.
“Istanbul evokes me a lot,” Dursun defined whereas chatting with nft now. “All of Turkey does.” Taking a job at an architectural visualization firm proper out of college, Dursun spent her days studying technical expertise she would then take house and apply to her CGI work at night time. “[That job] helped me be taught quite a bit by way of studying technical issues like software program, the executions of post-production, all the pieces. I’d go house and apply these expertise and mix them with the talents I discovered in tutorials on-line.”
The dystopic cyberpunk components of Dursun’s CGI work draw from her fascination with subjects like overpopulation and the depletion of pure sources, along with her fellow architect Annibale Siconolfi. “I keep in mind seeing Annibale’s art work in highschool, and I used to be simply terrified,” Dursun defined. “[The scale] of the scenes was simply so huge. And I felt that these was not sufficient. I needed to make my very own. I had that urge to create.”
How Dursun began in NFTs
Dursun considerably randomly entered the NFT house in early 2021 after she noticed a pal on social media make a sale on Basis. She didn’t know a lot concerning the crypto artwork world then, solely having heard of CryptoPunks.
“I assumed they had been ugly as f—okay,” Dursun stated, laughing. “However now, I really like them. When you perceive the tradition, it turns into an entire completely different factor. My pal despatched me a Basis invitation, and I assumed, ‘Okay, why not strive it? It will probably’t damage.’”
Dursun minted her first ever NFT on Basis in March 2021. The piece, known as Threshold, attracts on the muse of a specific neighborhood in Istanbul known as Mecidiyeköy, one of many metropolis’s most crowded areas. Threshold options decrepit buildings and a bridge supporting a metro practice because it passes by means of an infinite gate to a different a part of town.
“Threshold is a bit meaning quite a bit to me. It was the primary time that I felt that I may very well be an surroundings idea artist, which is one thing I’ve needed to be for a really very long time. [That sale] actually gave me hope.” She credit the customer of that piece, the well-known NFT neighborhood member NorCal Guy, with serving to kickstart her and quite a few different artists’ NFT careers by shopping for their genesis works.
Bringing lore to her NFT work
Dursun defined that she created a lot of her earlier works with some unstated lore behind them, with Threshold igniting her need to inform a narrative by means of her work.
“Whenever you have a look at the art work, it sort of feels such as you’re a graphic novel,” Dursun elaborated. “I began developing with the concept for this major character, somebody making an attempt to flee from this dystopian world. In Threshold, for instance, the gate splits town into two elements. On the darkish half, it’s the facet of town whose sources have been drained. And the opposite half is the place the excessive elites stay.”
“The house has had so many dangerous days, and we by no means stopped chasing our goals and appreciating NFT tradition.”
idil Dursun
Dursun defined that nearly each different piece she creates is part of the identical lore-based universe. One other one in every of her works, Invasion of the Lost City, is in a separate a part of the world that Threshold inhabits, for instance. Dursun plans to attach the lore of those particular person items in some unspecified time in the future.
“I needed these items to really feel actual,” Dursun emphasised. “They’re not solely these fairly nightscapes or dystopian cyberpunk photos. There are tales behind them.”
Collaborating with Drift for TIMEPieces
In January 2022, well-known photographer and NFT neighborhood member Isaac “Drift” Wright invited Dursun to TIMEPieces, TIME’s Web3 neighborhood initiative. The 2 collaborated on the publication’s Slices of Time NFT collection. DRIFT submitted {a photograph} of the New York skyline at daybreak, whereas Dursun submitted a piece that reimagined what New York may appear like 100 years into the long run. In Dursun’s piece, titled Highgardens of NYC, the viewer can discover a CGI rendering of Drift sitting on a ledge within the decrease left nook of the picture, overlooking the entire scene.
“I’m an enormous fan of Drift,” Dursun exclaimed. “Someday, he simply texted me saying he bought invited to TIMEPieces. I used to be so blown away. Working with Drift was such a enjoyable expertise as a result of he does these nice images of cities, and I attempt to take issues to an entire completely different perspective. It was only a nice collaboration for me.”
Reflecting on the most recent crypto winter, Dursun stated that the NFT neighborhood in Turkey mirrors what she sees taking place globally, primarily as a result of it has thinned out a bit in latest months as fast flippers depart the house.
“Folks are available and see they’ll’t make fast cash after which depart the house,” Dursun noticed. “I imply, I’ve seen that occur so many occasions. The house has had so many dangerous days, and we by no means stopped chasing our goals and appreciating NFT tradition. That’s so necessary to me, being part of the neighborhood.”
Dursun’s subsequent challenge includes an animation she’s been engaged on continuous for weeks. She is going to show the work at a bodily exhibition someday within the close to future, however is holding particulars of the challenge near the chest in the interim.
The piece represents Dursun’s long-held need to broaden her creative repertoire from CGI stills to the animation house. And, after lately watching Netflix’s hit collection Arcane, a manufacturing whose animation model garnered critical acclaim for its distinctive mix of 2D and 3D visuals, she feels much more motivated.
“I hope I can nail it,” Dursun stated. “I really feel that I’ve reached my limits [with CGI stills], and I wish to develop extra. I’m additionally portray the art work. It’s a lot enjoyable working in each 2D and 3D.”
You will discover İdil Dursun’s work on Foundation, MakersPlace, SuperRare, and Nifty Gateway.