Avant NFT Wave

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Avant NFT Wave
File:Avant NFT Wave.jpg
Promotional material from the Avant NFT Wave initiative, 2021-2022
TypeCultural initiative
DateOctober 2021 – May 2022
LocationOnline
OrganizerRemilia Corporation
ParticipantsMultiple NFT projects and artists
OutcomeInitiative ended during the Milady Cancel controversy

Avant NFT Wave was a campaign organized by Charlotte Fang and Remilia Corporation running from October 2021 to May 2022 to cultivate an ecosystem of experimental NFT projects around Milady Maker. Begun shortly following Milady's release in August 2021, the campaign sought to establish a peer network of artistically ambitious NFT collections, positioning them collectively as part of the New Net Art movement.[1]

The campaign effectively ended during the Milady Cancel controversy in May 2022, when multiple artists platformed by Remilia did not defend them amid false allegations against Fang, which was seen as a betrayal by the collective. The end of the campaign marked a turning point for Remilia as it re-oriented focus to Milady Jihad and its direct derivative ecosystem.

Overview

The Avant NFT Wave emerged from Remilia Corporation's strategy of constructing cultural context around its projects. Beginning in October 2021 following Milady Maker's launch, Charlotte Fang initiated a coordinated campaign to create a surrounding milieu of experimental work within the Avant NFT framework to produce a recognizable artistic category extending beyond Remilia's own work.

Fang's approach involved multiple modalities: some projects received direct production support from Remilia, including smart contract development and launch coordination. According to Fang's conception, the initiative would function as both incubator and promotional platform, providing production support, strategic guidance, and network amplification to projects that embodied experimental aesthetics or approaches native to digital networks.

Fang created dedicated communication channels where participating artists could coordinate cross-promotion and develop collective identity. This infrastructure aimed to generate market continuity and a shared audience across decentralized production by independent creators operating within a shared framework.

The initiative began in October 2021 with Remilia's development of Super Metal Mons!!, and was publicly announced on March 13, 2022, in the days immediately following Milady Maker's mint-out.[2]

History and Development

Origins and Launch (2021-2022)

The concept took shape in late 2021 and early 2022, following Milady Maker's development and Remilia's growing recognition within NFT culture.

  • September-December 2021: Campaign formation and early development
  • September 2021: Fang began identifying potential collaborators whose work aligned with Remilia's aesthetic philosophy, including NFT artist Super Metal Bosch who was an early supporter of Milady
  • October-December 2021: Direct production partnerships established with select artists, including consultation and technical support arrangements
  • January-February 2022: Creation of communication channels for participating artists to coordinate promotion and develop collective identity
  • March 2-10, 2022: Milady Maker successfully mints out, generating momentum that could be channeled toward the Avant NFT Wave
  • March 13, 2022: Public launch of the campaign with announcement of participating projects[2]

The initiative operated through a hybrid model that allowed the campaign to encompass both tightly controlled collaborations and looser affiliations based on aesthetic alignment.

Public Period (March-May 2022)

During its active phase, the Avant NFT Wave functioned as a coordinated promotional ecosystem. Participating artists were encouraged to engage with each other's work publicly, creating the appearance of an organic artistic movement while operating through deliberate strategic coordination.

  • March 13, 2022: Fang publicly named the movement, listing participating projects including Super Metal Mons!!, J48BA FORMS, Tojiba CEO, Spiky DJ, Mezzanotte, and Gushies
  • March 17, 2022: Major promotional thread describing Milady as part of a broader subculture moving into the generative NFT space. Fang hosted an Avant NFT Twitter Space to amplify the campaign[3]
  • March 19-20, 2022: Super Metal Mons!! and Tojiba CEO collections both minted out, which Fang celebrated as heralding "avant nft summer"[4]
  • March 20, 2022: Fang elaborated on the movement's conceptual framework in relation to Super Metal Mons!!, describing how worldbuilding and narrative elements represented the avant NFT approach
  • April 20, 2022: Republication of "A New Net Art Manifesto" on Mirror, outlining theoretical framework during the campaign's active period
  • Early May 2022: Campaign reached peak visibility and coordination

Dissolution (May 2022)

The Avant NFT Wave ended during the Milady Cancel controversy in May 2022, when Charlotte Fang became the target of allegations led by former Remilia member Wretched Worm.

  • May 8-18, 2022: Allegations against Fang circulated, with multiple Avant NFT Wave artists participating in or amplifying the cancel campaign
  • Late May 2022: As the allegations were disputed and debunked, Fang adopted a policy of non-engagement with those who had distanced themselves from Remilia

Post-Cancel Assessment (July 2022)

In July 2022, Fang publicly addressed the campaign's fate, characterizing most participating projects as having "scattered when we got cancelled despite us singlehandedly platforming the entire avant nft wave."[5]

Several former participants, including Spiky DJ, Allstarz, Mifella and Cigwarettes attempted to restore relations with Remilia and regain Fang's support following the collapse of the Milady Cancel. Fang rejected these overtures, declaring a standing policy of non-engagement with any artist or collective that had demonstrated disloyalty after receiving platforming, production support, or promotion under the Remilia banner. Fang pointed out only AdWorld and Mezzanotte were exempt from this criticism, having publicly defended Remilia during the controversy.

This refusal reflected what Remilia articulated as a principle of moral and cultural integrity: that loyalty during moments of controversy constituted an ethical test revealing genuine alignment. Fang described reconciliation as "impossible where conviction had failed," establishing permanent distance from artists who had attempted to capitalize on Remilia's platform while repudiating it when challenged.

This dissolution marked the end of the Avant NFT Wave as a coordinated initiative and represented a significant lesson for Remilia about collaboration with artists from traditional art world backgrounds.

Participating Projects

The Avant NFT Wave encompassed projects at varying levels of integration with Remilia Corporation.

Direct Production Collaborations

  • Mezzanotte: A generative profile picture project developed with Fang's consultancy and production support. The collaboration included strategic planning, technical assistance, and coordinated launch strategy. Mezzanotte maintained loyalty to Remilia during the May 2022 controversy.
  • Super Metal Bosch / Super Metal Mons!!: Bosch contacted Remilia demonstrating their experiments in GAN art. Fang collaborated with them, to bring their art from 1/1 NFT's into the generative NFT space, producing his first generative collection, Super Metal Mons!!, which minted out in March 2022 following Remilia's promotion. The partnership demonstrated the campaign's function as a bridge between traditional digital artists and blockchain-native distribution.
  • Spiky DJ: Developed a debut NFT project under Remilia's production support, described as featuring experimental art and performative approach. Associated with the art collective FPBJPC, though the project was ultimately cancelled before launch when Spiky DJ participated in the May 2022 criticism of Fang.
  • AdWorld: Promoted as a surreal, world-building NFT environment. AdWorld maintained loyalty to Remilia during the May 2022 controversy and was explicitly exempted from Fang's criticism of projects that abandoned Remilia.
  • Tojiba CPU Corp / Tojiba CEO: A collection launched on Solana in March 2022, embracing PC-98 aesthetic. The collection minted out alongside Super Metal Mons!! in March 2022.
  • Gushies: A follow-up project moving from figurines to plushies, described as planned for physical production.
  • J48BA FORMS: Listed among the early cohort of Avant NFT Wave projects in the March 13, 2022 announcement.

Philosophical Framework

The Avant NFT Wave embodied the collaborative philosophy articulated in Fang's New Net Art Manifesto.[1]

Abundance Mindset

Central to the campaign's philosophy was Abundance Mindset, described in the manifesto as rejecting traditional art world dynamics. The manifesto stated: "Karma is real at every level; all presumptions are manifested, you receive the world what you give to it. We escape the spiritual poverty of scarcity by embracing a mindset of abundance regardless of real means, knowing wealth of all types will follow."

This was positioned as "our antithesis of irl art world's interpersonal habits: a space of extreme scarcity—many players, few winners—they gatekeep workflows, resist collaboration, maintain vicious competitiveness & shallow loyalties as a standard. We reject all this & win for it."

The Avant NFT Wave represented a practical application of this philosophy. Rather than viewing other experimental NFT projects as competitors to be suppressed, Remilia would actively platform and promote them, creating network effects that would benefit all participants. The campaign tested whether mutual amplification could generate better outcomes than zero-sum competition.

Aesthetic Framework

Projects encompassed by the Avant NFT Wave shared certain characteristics:

  • Conceptual ambition beyond simple collectibility
  • Experimental or unconventional visual approaches
  • Understanding of how art circulates within digital social networks
  • Resistance to purely market-driven development
  • Emphasis on worldbuilding and narrative elements, described by Fang as "subtle hidden lore, worldbuilding that's shown not told"

The manifesto's concept of Posting is the New Art informed the movement's distribution strategy, emphasizing that "true posting is egoless & performative" and describing it as "a new performative-literary art happening every day, 999MPH on the information highway."

Cultural Strategy

The Avant NFT Wave operated according to several strategic principles articulated through Charlotte Fang's writings and practice:

Infrastructure of Reception

The campaign embodied Remilia's strategy of establishing critical context before or alongside project launches. Rather than releasing individual collections into an undefined marketplace, the initiative sought to create an interpretive framework—a movement—that would shape how subsequent projects were understood and valued.

The timing of the campaign's public launch—immediately following Milady Maker's mint-out—demonstrated this strategy. Milady's success created momentum and attention that could be strategically redirected toward establishing a broader movement, positioning Remilia as the center of an artistic milieu rather than an isolated project.

Network Effects

By coordinating promotion and encouraging cross-pollination among participating artists, the campaign attempted to generate network effects that would benefit all participants. Each project's success would theoretically enhance the visibility and credibility of the movement as a whole, creating positive feedback loops. This approach aligned with the Abundance Mindset principle: by platforming other artists rather than competing with them, Remilia sought to create an ecosystem where multiple projects could succeed simultaneously.

Platform Power and Patronage

The initiative demonstrated how influence within social networks could function as contemporary patronage. Charlotte Fang's platform—built through Milady Maker's success and cultivated through strategic social media presence—became a resource that could be deployed to amplify selected artists through promotion, technical support, and access to Remilia's established community.

Analysis

The Avant NFT Wave's brief existence and collapse raised several questions about cultural production in crypto-native spaces and became central to Remilia's understanding of collaboration:

Strategic Coordination and Organic Movements

The initiative's structure illustrated tensions between deliberate coordination and the appearance of organic emergence. Fang's July 2022 acknowledgment that "avant" had been "astoturfed aspirationally" as a curatorial strategy—creating an aspirational framework that projects were meant to grow into rather than qualities they already possessed.

The distinction between "avant" (genuine experimental practice) and "alt" (merely alternative aesthetics) suggested that some participants had adopted the movement's surface characteristics without embodying its underlying principles, especially following Fang's abdication as a curator.

Abundance Mindset and Its Limits

The campaign represented a practical test of whether Abundance Mindset principles could function in practice. Remilia's approach of actively platforming and supporting other artists—providing production assistance, promotional amplification, and community access—embodied the manifesto's rejection of "vicious competitiveness & shallow loyalties."

The dissolution during the Milady Cancel controversy revealed what Remilia interpreted as fundamental limitations of this approach. Artists who had received extensive platform amplification and production support chose to distance themselves or actively participate in undermining Remilia when it faced threats. From Remilia's perspective, this demonstrated that artists conditioned by traditional art world competitive dynamics—the "extreme scarcity" and "gatekeep workflows" mentality the manifesto criticized—could not be reformed simply by being offered an alternative model.

Fang's characterization of participants as "fence sitting snakes" and the statement that "god hates those without convictions" positioned the betrayal as revealing not merely strategic calculations but fundamental character traits. The campaign's failure suggested that the Abundance Mindset approach required participants who already embodied its principles rather than those merely adopting it opportunistically and led to Remilia being more restrictive in future collaboration.

Loyalty and Collaboration

The episode established what Remilia considered appropriate boundaries for professional collaboration. The behavior of participating artists—abandoning or criticizing Remilia during controversy—was interpreted not as neutral professional decision-making but as betrayal of relationships built through extensive support and resource sharing.

Remilia's subsequent policy of permanent non-engagement with those who had distanced themselves during the controversy reflected a view that the platform support provided created reciprocal obligations of loyalty, or at minimum, that artists willing to turn against their supporters during difficulty revealed character defects incompatible with future collaboration.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fang, Charlotte (April 20, 2022). "What Remilia Believes In: A New Net Art Manifesto".
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 @CharlotteFang77 (March 13, 2022). X.
  3. ↑ @CharlotteFang77 (March 17, 2022). X.
  4. ↑ @CharlotteFang77 (March 20, 2022). X.
  5. ↑ @CharlotteFang77 (July 2022). X.
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