The Magical World of Crypto Art with Bruno Pitzalis

Before getting into the Crypto Art topic, Bruno gives a quick guide through the hot topic of metaverses, NFT's and how one can be part of the digital world. He also debunks some misperceptions that quickly had risen within the first year of the very existence of this new reality.  While Bruno reveals his main inspirations within the Crypto Art movement, how he selects artists for his exhibitions and which artists are currently hot, he has a direct call to action to the creative community as the digital world is in great need of creative input. Listen to our interview and find out why color creatives are so necessary at this early stage of this new movement and what future role color has in this digital world. 

Bruno Pitzalis is a Crypto Art expert, curator and sale advisor. In June 2021 he conceived and coordinated "Dystopian Visions", the first Crypto Art NFT auction in Italy for the Cambi auction house in partnership with SuperRare. Thanks to his twenty years experience of working in the field of communication and documentary direction, he has developed a peculiar vision and strategy for the creation of applied value. He currently holds the role of Communications and Brand Awareness at MoCDA (Museum of Contemporary Digital Art), head of MoCDA - The Foundry, cultural populariser of the Crypto Art scene, he is collector and collaborator of Artribune and has a column on Crypto Art.

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Transcript

Judith van Vliet: Welcome back to the Color Authority. This is Judith van Vliet, and today I'm going to be discussing a very hot topic, a topic that we knew nothing about a year ago together with Bruno Pitzalis. Bruno is a crypto art expert, curator, and sales advisor. In June 2021, he conceived and coordinated Dystopian Visions, the very first crypto arts NFT auction in Italy for the Cambi Auction House in partnership with Super Rare. Thanks to this 20 years experience of working indeed also in the field of communication and documentary direction, he has developed a peculiar vision and strategy for the creation of applied value. He's currently holding the role of communications and brand awareness at the MOCDA, the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art. And he is head of the MOCDA The Foundry, a cultural popularizer of the crypto art scene. He's a collector and collaborator of Art Tribune and has indeed a column on Crypto arts. Good morning, Bruno, and welcome to the Color Authority. How are you today?

Bruno Pitzalis: Hi Judith, I'm good. Thank you for having me today for your postcard in the happy to be.

Judith van Vliet: One of your I know you are super, super busy, but I'm very happy that you're here and I know that you've done arts direction in your life. So color is a big thing in your life. I ask everybody the same question what is color to you?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, Judith. Yeah, you're right. Color, I mean, had different roles in my life. So color to me can be different things. Yeah. Let's start with the moment. I was working as an administrator, advertising role to attract attention mostly. So I used to choose color in order to make the creativity stand up. As a director, I used color in postproduction mostly to deliver feelings. And now, working as a creator, or better, as a Web 3.0 innovator, color assume an entirely different new meaning. Through regarding to the prepared scene, I could refer to color as a soundtrack of this new hot movement. Normally a movement that is decentralized and therefore it doesn't have, let's say that many typical shared cultural aspects. But the color palette, at least for the artists from the first wave, has been a significant share aspect among the artistic artists.

Judith van Vliet: So you're an expert indeed in Crypto arts. Super interesting. When I came across your profile, I need to interview this guy. Can you however, explain people? What do you do? Because I think it's still so new and people will not entirely understand what it is, what your profession is.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, right now when we talk about crypto art, we're referring actually about a wider contest. So we're talking about the Web 3.0 ecosystem and the roles linked to these existence are different and there are, let's say, new ones coming up every day. So my role involves with the ecosystem. I began entering the scene as a crypto, enthusiastic but basically participating in the first metabolic talking with some artists and collectors spending lots of hours on Twitter. Then I was collaborating with an auction house in 2021. So I've decided to propose to us the first exhibition in crypto art auction in Italy. And most of the people getting into NFT's now are beginning to be aware of what happened back then, just now. And as for today, there remains the only crypto article after the moment. My involvement into the scene grows week by week. I act as an educator, a writer, a spokesperson, a creator, and a tech creative. The Web 3.0 system is in very early stage, so the opportunity are basically countless.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah. So first things first, because for you talking about midwest NFT's crypto blockchain, it comes very natural. I can tell you that. I think a large part of the audience, they're probably like NFT what? So maybe we can first explain a little bit of the words that you're actually talking about. So meta versus what are they and are they for everybody?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, metaverses are basically digital environments where digital experience takes place. It can be a new place simply for gathering, to discuss or to create. For the crypto, the metabolism played a very important role back to the early days of the movement. We were only locked down still. So the only way together, I never discussion about that. It was basically to find something digital. So that is why, by chance actually, we combine metaverse and art. We used to meet on Arium is a tailored metaverse where artists used to expose their collection and to make the actual curator and exhibition. So we used to get there, we used to talk about that, having curatorial tours, auction, and the discussion was somehow more alive than how I realized that we could have back then, especially in.

Judith van Vliet: The lockdown, of course, when everybody was at home, digital life was the only one technically existing. Can everybody enter the metaverse or is it limited membership? How does it work? How do you go to a metaverse?

Bruno Pitzalis: Okay, right now there are different metadata, of course. So most of them are open. For example, the center end is open. You can actually link your wallet to enter the metaverse and that will allow you to, let's say, buy, wearables or by heart or otherwise you can enter as a guest. So even if you don't have a wallet, a crypto wallet, you can enter and experience the center line. The Sandbox, for example, is still in beta version. So it only is open when they make new release. And then in probably six months time it will open for everybody. Then we have Arium or other meta verses that are on blockchain or are not. You can easily enter with your laptop, with your mobile. You just need a link. And you are in the metaphors.

Judith van Vliet: Okay, you just mentioned wallets, you mentioned the word NFT. So NFT non-fungible tokens, what are they exactly? How do you get them? And obviously they're in your wallet because it's your digital wallet, which you're paying, of course, skins, fashion, arts, what else can you buy also with them?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah. NFT can be anything. When we say the word NFT, we are actually referring to the technology. So an NFT is any digital assets register on the blockchain, such as an image, video or audio file. It can be anything. But if we are talking about art and crypto art, we are referring to an art movement similar to pop art. And here we are entering a completely different discussion. There are moments in history recognized founders and artistic principles. So at the moment, I think the discussion has lots of mistakes in it because there's a lot of people talking about NFT's thinking that everything that is an NFT can be, can be sold for a lot of money. But we actually need to be very clear about the distinction of NFT, which is a technology, and crypto art, which is actually an art movement.

Judith van Vliet: Okay, so that's very clear. Yeah, I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in the world about NFT's. How does it so if you have a wallet, how do you set up a wallet? So you need a wallet to be purchasing stuff, especially crypto art. If you want to buy art online, you need to have a wallet. So that is something that anybody also can just set up. Right? Because I think after this podcast a lot of people want to yeah, no.

Bruno Pitzalis: It'S very easy to set up a wallet, but you got to understand first what you want to buy because there are different wallets for different cryptocurrency and different movements are based on different wallets. So let's say if you want to get into the first moment of crypto art, that is pretty much only based on the ethereum blockchain. So you can open a wallet with MetaMask, for example, or let's say you want to buy art from the second way of crypto art. So the second way of crypto art is mainly based on tezos and then you will need to open a different wallet. So at the moment it's very easy to open a wallet, but technology needs to make a step further. So we don't have at the moment, just one wallet to take care of all the blockchain and all the cryptocurrency. So before actually buying an NFT, you got to learn what artists you would like to buy and what blockchain. The art is actually inactive.

Judith van Vliet: So, yeah, we're still not quite to, let's say, the unifying world of art, of the meta versus indeed just a little bit of because we are going to talk about that as well, because obviously now there is a little bit of confusion about the real world, the digital world, if they're ever going to merge. But first things first, because digital art, what you're obviously talking about, it's not new, but now people are really into buying digital art. Why do you think that's happening now?

Bruno Pitzalis: I'm obviously not a digital art expert. I am a crypto art expert. But I think the difference between digital art and crypto art, I mean I'm talking about the moment we live in. The real difference is that now we do have a technology, a way to be sure that you actually entering in process of something. Before with digital art, there was not the technology like we have now with NFT's and smart contracts to actually certificate a piece of art since we had the Blockchain smart contract. Now you can actually own for real that piece and actually you can demonstrate and exchange the piece in the market. So that is why there's so much attention now about digital app because we have technology and we have the market true.

Judith van Vliet: I heard about some stories that were not very positive of people indeed that bought something online and then they lost the link or they couldn't find the link anymore and then the money that they had spent was apparently gone and that's not obviously it's going to be avoided by indeed, obviously blockchain and Smart contracts. As you said. When you look at crypto arts in general and then the world of traditional arts when we met, we talked about this as well. Do you think there is one day there's going to be a fusion of the two or do you think that they will remain two different entities?

Bruno Pitzalis: I'm not sure about it actually talking in a wider perspective about life. I don't know where do we live just in a virtual space or we still have a real life. But in terms of that, we are actually experiencing already the merge of the tools. Like for example, when you came meeting me at the museum, we were actually showing digital art in a physical space. So we are already experiencing the merging and I think it will keep happening.

Judith van Vliet: How important is this digital presence you just talked about, Sandbox, where brands are also releasing new obviously technologies or indeed stuff that in the end they want to sell. Of course. But how important is digital presence for individuals like me and like yourself, but also brands and artists?

Bruno Pitzalis: This is about the digital perception of ourselves, which is something that the new generation already think about in a very, how to say, critical way. So social network has been the first step into the digital perspective of ourselves. So the new generation are aware of the fact that the way they look into the digital space is very important. Somehow it's more important that the way they look in the real life. Which, I don't say it's a good thing, but that's what it's happening. So for example, that's what happened in crypto. Most of the collector, let's say the basic profile of the Cripto art collector is the profile of a person that spend lots of time programming or being in the digital space. Most of the big collectors are people that found their fortune in the tech industry, so they already spent more time into the digital world than into the real world. So for them, owning crypto pants and having the opportunity of exhibit the crypto bank is the profile feature of Twitter. It's the best way they can show that they somehow achieve what they wanted in life. Which can be very strange. Like, let's say back in the day, if you were a rich person, you wanted to have art to be exposed in your place, in your flat and now totally changed. So the most you want is to have a crypto bank as a profile picture on your Twitter, so everything changed.

Judith van Vliet: Is it a mistake to think that in the middle verse in crypto arts people that are in this movement, that they're all young?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, it is a mistake. There's lots of young people, but some of the artists, very well established artists, are actually pretty old because they've been experiencing for a long time into the digital art field and they always been very aware of the tech innovation. So they were ready when the blockchain and smart contract came along, so they took advantage of that. And even collectors, we still talking about digital and computer as if they were something new. But basically we spent the last 25 years having a constant interaction with the digital world.

Judith van Vliet: So when you say pretty old, we're both 40, 41, what is pretty old? I sometimes feel old, but then the other day I talked but what is pretty old? What generation are we talking about? Boomer talking about X?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, I'm not the good in generations nicknames, but let's say there's artists and collectors that are like at least 55, which is kind of general.

Judith van Vliet: We're both adults as well, but we're trying to pretend we're not indeed. But yeah, it's interesting because everybody thinks Metaverse NFT so that's generation Z, they are 15, 16, 18, 20. But it's interesting to see that there's old generations in the Metaverse crypto arts collectors, where are they situated? Is it Europe? Is it United States? Is it Asia biggest market?

Bruno Pitzalis: It's obviously in United States there is where all started. But of course, because we're talking about the centralized movement and market people are from every part of the world. So it's very difficult to say that the biggest buyers are from Asia or United States. Most of the time you don't even know where they're based. So again, this is the centralized world. So talking about trying to figure out where are the biggest collectors or artists, it's very difficult.

Judith van Vliet: This is a nightmare for people who are in marketing because they don't know where their customers are, they don't know who to target.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, but that's the deal with the innovation. For example, I'm obviously in touch with lots of brands and communication agency and every time we go there and we have a discussion. Here's the topic point. We always getting into that point. They just asked us, so how do we get in control of this? And we watch them and we say, you don't. We're talking here about a different way of doing things. And basically, yeah, that's where the discussion ends.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, they will be just like, okay, never mind. That means we're not interested or they're not interested now because they haven't changed. They're not ready for this new world and this new way of doing business. In the end.

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, I'm telling you something, Judith. Obviously when I began into this new world, I guess let's say stacked in the loop, I was okay, it was a new word, didn't care much about the old world, especially because we were into the lockdown still. So I was feeling in a kind of a bubble. And then the old ward actually came along. And now that I spent the last eight months having to deal with the old world, I'm actually asking myself why am I doing this? Because the discussion always goes back and I feel like miserable. I feel I'm doing something wrong, which I'm not. I can go and meet these people. I can explain. But then if we reach a point where the discussion goes back to old paradigm is where I think I should.

Judith van Vliet: Say, yeah, that's where you have to draw the line because you're done, you've explained it, it's the end. Do you think that in the metaverse? Well, one thing if all metaverses are going to be connected, because now as you said, you have the central end. You have obviously the world in Fortnite, there's different places and for every place you need a different wallet, you need a different profile to get in. Do you think that first of all, all those meta versus are going to be connected as one? And when will they be connected to, let's say, what you call the old world, the real world or the physical world?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, this is a very oppressive I really don't know. I really don't know. Right now, metaverse are not talking the same language, that's for sure. So I wish that there will be just one metabolic, but then again, who's going to run it? So we have it now meta, which is actually trying to be the only metaverse, but we don't know when. We come out recently actually yesterday we just read that Metaverse is going to keep 47.5% of each NFT created in the meta world. So all the community is already lost at it. So again, it's the old war coming back. I have no idea. It's very difficult to imagine what will happen even in terms of tech. Like to have just one metabolic. It will mean that everybody will have to use the same tech, same cryptocurrency. I don't know how it's going to happen.

Judith van Vliet: And that means again that you have centralization and not the decentralized system that obviously is currently in place. What intrigued you personally? Because you just said in a lockdown. I was in my bubble, I was in my digital world. Apparently you were liking it and then you got into again the physical world. But what makes your heart tick about this digital world? What is it for you?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, I've been involved into art since forever. I did art school and then kind of wanted to be an artist for all my life. I tend to perceive myself as a creative person. Actually, I am sure I am a creative person, but in the sense that to me I only able to feel emotional when I create things. Even in a relationship, if I do create something, I feel good, if I don't, I don't feel that good even in the afterwards. Again, always wanted to be an artist but never understood what kind of artist. So to me, to be an artist, it means to see things coming before other people. And what made me want to enter this art space? Because it was new. As I told you, I always been into the arts scene, but never like it too much. So something that happened 20 years ago, it was with the street. So 20 years ago there was the opportunity to go on the internet and go into this website which was called Pictures of all. It was one of the first online shop for art. It was an art shop made by Banksy and other street artists. And so you could easily buy banks for £80 with a credit card. But 20 years ago it wasn't so easy to buy with a credit card. So there was the trailing and now again, I had the opportunity to see something that in my opinion, it was art and I could buy it without entering the circuit of the traditional airport, which is obviously not inclusive at all. So this is something that really got.

Judith van Vliet: Me into because obviously in crypto art you completely cut out galleries, you as an artist sells directly to your clients, there's no percentages to be paid. It's all direct and possibly also more inclusive, as you said.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yes, you wouldn't imagine, but when I did the first auction in Italy and it was in auction house and we did the first exhibition too, and we had really aligned a few people, young people, in front of the optionals and they didn't want to enter it, they wanted to come inside and see the NFT, but they were not so confident in entering. So I had to go out and take them basically by end because they never enter an auction house. Obviously when you go into auction house, it's like, okay, I don't want to go there because I don't have the money to buy objects. It was very strange to me. But at the same time it was obvious. And it may actually understand me why I decided to do that operation with an optional because I actually wanted to bring young people into and lower the.

Judith van Vliet: Threshold for them because I've been to auction houses many times here in Milan having world worked in the traditional art world and it is indeed high threshold I mean I have to be very honest as also imported Milanese you dress up because you're going to the auction house it is a different level. At least it feels like it's a different level of people that are going so you're trying to level up when you're going indeed so I imagine all those young people being embarrassed to get into the auction house yeah.

Bruno Pitzalis: That's what it is and when I was talking about you. The first vernisage we used to add in metaverse and as an avatar you are a two brick avatar and one of the brick shows your webcam so I remember we were on this very search with very high artists I mean now they're very well established back then we're just friends and we used to turn off and on the webcam and most of the time we were showing us that we were like in the bed or drinking beer in the kitchen so it's a completely different way of experiencing the artwork in the market.

Judith van Vliet: Completely so going indeed to the NFT art of the future that you partially created in Milan at the Dart so we went there. You gave me a private tour and a world opened up to me because there's many different colors. There's many different artists and different aesthetic directions when you curate. What do you look at when you are picking the artist for your show?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah okay I normally choose artists for the impact they had in the crypto art movement so to me again because now the offer. The artistic offer is very huge it is important to have people that were into the movement into the community from the beginning or at least that they are in the community now because it's very easy to make an NFT but it doesn't make you part of the community or part of the movement that's normally the selection that I used to do and now I'm keeping trace of their artistic paths but always being aware of newcomers and new concepts. Artistic improvements to bring into the scene in a positive way we are still writing these are chapters so it's very difficult moment to play it in a safe way when creating an art show we are still creating the literature so yeah.

Judith van Vliet: We're trying what role does color play in the crypto art world?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well. In the crypto art movement or let's say the diffusion or the market itself obviously colors as very important role because we talk in art market or art movement that is being diffused on Twitter. On social networks so callers need to be the first way to get attention so we saw lots of flu colors and very particular color palette colors those colors have to bond with concept and vision of art. So this is mostly what I think about the use of colors in crypto arts.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, so you see fluo colors. So fluorescent neon is very expressive, very bright colors in these, right?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, that's obviously, let's say, the base of the movement because we're talking about Mexico's and we're talking about cyberpunk. That's the kind of environment where this kind of artists came out from. Most of them were involved into the movie market, so most of them used to work for Marvel, for Disney, for Ridley Scott. So we're talking about the kind of environment so yeah, we obviously talking about flu colors, very strong colors.

Judith van Vliet: Who are indeed the artist? You just said where they're coming from, but I think that's very interesting to know. Who are those artists? Are the graphic designers? Were they indeed game producers? They come from the film world. Is there a particular profile or are they coming from more areas?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, they're coming from more areas. Most of them are coming from the digital art world. Then we have what I used to call like digital creative in general and they came from words such as graphic design or 3D design or animation. So there's a bit of everything. But right now, because we entering into a new chapter of crypto art, you can actually see who has an artistic approach or who was just somebody very able to use software.

Judith van Vliet: So it's changing again, how do you see that difference? Like who is just trying to create a nice NFT and who's really artistic?

Bruno Pitzalis: Well, I talk with them a lot first and then I began with them. So I know basically all the artistic history. For example, there's an artist which is called Vittorio Bonaparte and he's exhibited at Dart and we probably had a discussion about it. So now he has an entire wall for his artwork and it's so funny because one of the first artwork he actually sold, he sold it into my auction back in the days and into the world I have now is last year of artistic path. So I can actually starting from the first piece to the latest one, I can actually see the improvement of the changes and the research on the concept and styles and so on. So obviously, to be aware of the way of the artist, you need to always talk with them, talking about projects and see what they do, how they present them, to have a wider picture of their artistic approach and basically to find out if they are good as artists or they just technician.

Judith van Vliet: So if now there are young artists, young designers listening and they want to become a crypto artist, is there already education? How can they learn this?

Bruno Pitzalis: There is kind of education, I mean, I do lots of education but yeah, there's not that many books. There's a couple of very nice books but they can't find everything on the Internet, that's the real opportunity. It's pretty hard to find the good stuff. But if you start on Twitter, if you start following the artist and the collectors and some good institution like MOCDA, for example, you can start to have a good entering point.

Judith van Vliet: What role you said that color has an important role because of the social media, because of obviously the digital use. And you talked about bright colors, you talked about fluorescent colors. Is there another color trend that you're seeing personally that you think is interesting for those who are listening?

Bruno Pitzalis: In terms of crypto, you mean crypto? I think the use of the color as part of the concept of the artwork. So color, especially in a digital artwork, can be much more than just color. You can actually build an artwork regarding color because you're working with the RGB. So when you actually mix and match the three primary color, you can actually make things disappear or pop up. So, for example, I am a very small crypto artist too, and that's what I do. I actually work just with pre-colors and very simple animation. But when the RGB colors used to be all together in the same place, they actually became white or black. And there's a meaning for that when.

Judith van Vliet: We talk about graphics. So of course graphic is connected to color, but what type of graphics do you see currently being used in crypto art?

Bruno Pitzalis: That's so much it's very hard to make just one view of the uses of graphics. You have a lot, you have simple graphics, so very exaggerated interaction of graphics. So I don't know in terms of size, there is not yet categories into crypto. Okay? So we are very safe. And because of that, it's very hard to make categories, for example.

Judith van Vliet: So everything is possible right now?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, everything is possible. We really are in an early stage. Twelve months just past from the day when people sold his artwork and went mainstream. So we have it now, the first exhibition. Anything needs to be done?

Judith van Vliet: No, I totally get that. It's only been one it's not even been a year. It's crazy times because we talk about color in my group with color, marketing group with color or professionals in general. We really talk a lot about color in the metaverses also because for us it's important to understand what is the meaning of color online, what is the meaning of color in these digital worlds? What future do you think color has in metaverse?

Bruno Pitzalis: Very good question. And I would like to say first that we need people to work on colors on metaverse and on the digital environment. That's the first thing. Right now, metaverse has a big problem, which means lots of people are willing to enter a very excited enter into the metaverse and explore. But the problem that metaverse needs to solve now is actually to make people stay in the meta VR and in. My opinion that has something to do with color as well. Like, you enter in a space that is overwhelming. So colors and sounds need to be seen in the way to make actually people feel comfortable in the metaverse. That's the biggest problem the metaverse has right now. They're very fast. So you get in, you're very excited, but because you're very excited, you don't spend long time in it.

Judith van Vliet: There's too much going on. Right?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, there's too much going on. The biggest problem into the crypto scene, which is defy or the art movement is that you enter and then you overwatch and the risk to burn out is really under the corner. So we need to slow down a little and colors will actually help in doing that.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah. So maybe it is indeed. It's funny how we're seeing this metaverse as right now at least a very bright place, fluorescence, a lot of going on. Maybe indeed loud music. But in the end, maybe what people are more comfortable with is creating something that it's new. It has to be new, but it needs to be sometimes maybe more connected to where we are now. Which also maybe in our homes, we're comfortable, we are relaxed. We have maybe some jazz music or something that makes us feel good. Whereas in the mid averse right now, like you're saying, I mean, I visited Fashion Week on the central end and I was just like after half an hour, I was just not burned out. I think that's a big word, but I was just like, okay, this is like, too much. Like, there's too much going on. There's too much things. There's too many colors. I was even bumping into people constantly because maybe my tactics are not perfect, but it's true. Maybe connecting more what we have in the real world and bringing that into the metaphors could be an option for people to want to stay there.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah. In my opinion, that is the way, at least if you want to enter the message and be sure to meet people every time and not just when you do have events. Because when you do have events and actually we organize events in our museum on the Decentraland and sometimes you have 500 people in a very small place. We need to find a way to add people, but to maintain the people there and to actually have the people, I need to be in the better verse. Not just for a quick experience.

Judith van Vliet: Exactly. Yeah. So color can do that. Hopefully that's a good message to the people that are listening. When you say also about just generally color directions, is there an event or is there an artist that you think color wise is really interesting? Like maybe indeed not necessarily going to these very bright colors, but somebody's already getting there and who is maybe an interesting artist also to be obviously investing in.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, sure, there are a bunch there's a lot. Yeah. Joseph Pelosi and Fabio Catapano. I saw him, both of them. Fabio Catopano, the latest one, is actually touching a lot about colors and animation. I've been seeing his latest work for the past week and is focusing on that. Joseph Pelosi does very complex 3D animation, works with Avatars or very particular situation. But, for example, in his latest artwork, which is called Orgasmica, and he just dropped it two days ago, there are four or five different situation, and each situation is very cinematic, and the use of color is very cinematic. So in each situation, you really found the best way to use color to deliver. His concept is message. Capello works with static image. He has a dystopic vision. But the use of colors, it looks like they use into oils. So it's very particular because you have a digital work, but it looks like oil painting, but from the future. So, in general, I see the use of color as one of the most important aspect to be considered, again, in a heart environment that see now lots of artists, huge exposures on social networks for the first connection to the viewer, you need to know what you doing with colors because you need to pop up in such a wide and fast running offers.

Judith van Vliet: What is the biggest misunderstanding when it comes to the digital world that we are now slowly entering in?

Bruno Pitzalis: I don't know. There's too many.

Judith van Vliet: What's the one that annoys you the most?

Bruno Pitzalis: The one that annoys me the most is that it's very easy to make money out. That's the biggest one. And the second one is that because it's digital, it's easy. And again, treating the digital world as it was something not part of our life. You know, I always need people that kept saying, yeah, but it's digital. It doesn't have a meaning, it cannot value. It is not that important into my life. When I actually hear this, I think, well, I don't think you're actually doing any task that doesn't involve interaction with digital. So I think you better realize the point you're in.

Judith van Vliet: True. So it's funny how some people, or a lot of people still say that it's digital, so it's not real or it doesn't have value. But traditional institutions, governments, banks, they are threatened by the crypto world. Why would they be threatened? If in the end they're saying it's something that's not real, it doesn't matter. Why do you think that still is?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, Judith, we already talked about this. It's because it's decentralized the control. Yeah, you cannot really have control on it. That doesn't mean that we are actually experiencing the risk to have, again, control. But, yeah, that's the main point. Institution banks are very afraid of something that they cannot control. But even before getting into the control part, they cannot even assess that easily. There are obviously some walls to enter the space, especially if you're not so digitalized and we add in here a completely different parity. So if you're not embracing that, you will never enter it and you will never understand. I mean, you can have a bite of it most of the time. When you just have a bite of it, you get bored. So they rather kind of destroy it and not consider. But it's real, it's happening.

Judith van Vliet: I mean, we see it everywhere. It's happening something completely different. So before you enter the world of crypto art, you were a film director, you traveled the world. I mean, you're still traveling the world, but you traveled the world for many different projects. What inspired you to change direction? Was it the lockdown? Was it covered?

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, I think it was the coincidence of different factors, but yeah, let's say within the lockdown, I obviously had to change my life. Traveling wasn't an option anymore. So in a very short time, I've lost what has been enriching my life the most, because I've been traveling, and not just traveling, I've been actually living in places. If you follow me on Instagram, my nickname is Border Spacing, and that's because that's what I love to do back then. I love to entering a new country by foot. So I rarely took flights to get into a country to another. So I always try to move with buses. And that was my adventure process. So before filming a story, I used to spend quite a time into places to understand the culture, get into the life, and to see if reality was real. Okay? So if it was very real and I could actually interact with the reality, therefore I could think about making a story and hoping that some of what I was filming could actually be experienced from some viewers. So when there was the lockdown, I lost it all and I came back into a society where I didn't have a place anymore. I mean, ten years expressed by then, so didn't work very much into friendship, relationship, that kind of thing. I still wasn't locked down, I didn't add much. So I really focus on myself, I try to work a lot on myself. So I'm glad I had a full year of being in contact with myself. But then crypto art came along and I see a new adventure, a new world. So I entered the new world with the first virtual Bernice search and then I found an entire new world to be experienced and to get some life out of it. And yeah, as for now, this world apparently does not have the intention to stop any soon. So I stand here yeah, hearing how.

Judith van Vliet: Busy you are and you're still crossing borders, so maybe more now flying, but also you're crossing them digitally. But definitely it's a very interesting and intriguing world. What is the advice, as one last question, what is the advice that you can give to people who are listening? How to invest in crypto what are really things they need to be looking out for or careful with.

Bruno Pitzalis: First of all, if you never invest it, there must be a reason. And the reason is you never knew enough. So when you don't know enough about something so if you really want to invest, first you should get into know what you would like to invest in, which means lots of studies and be present and then thinking, do I really like this piece of art or do I just want to make an investment? So again, as it was before, into the real world, you got to know what you're doing. So you got to study, get to know people and to understand what you actually invest in it.

Judith van Vliet: So that's actually very similar to buying traditional art. You have to know the artist. You're going to go in a different space, you're going to go maybe to a physical space. But there's a lot of studying behind.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, of course, of course there is. The difference is you can actually talk with the artists, we can actually talk with the curators and yeah, the spaces are different and obviously at the moment it's still easy to get into their massage. You don't have to know very special people. You do have all the access on Twitter. Basically you just need to follow the right people, get to know others. Up until now it has been a very inclusive environment.

Judith van Vliet: The future is inclusive no matter what we're talking about.

Bruno Pitzalis: Yeah, that's what we would like to add, a more inclusive future. But then again, we need people and right people to do that. So I hope it will happen.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, well, you're part of the movement, so I think a lot of people are going to be looking at you to see where to invest. And also I think a lot of people are going to be looking at the artist that you mentioned for their color use. And I want to thank you for being part of the Color Authority podcast. I hope you enjoyed it too and I love this conversation. I finally know more about your world and I think it's very intriguing for people who are listening. So thank you so much.

Bruno Pitzalis: You welcome, Judy. It was a great opportunity to have a further discussion to this world, especially with someone that talks about colors. And again, I think colors are everywhere into this ad movement, but even into the environment where the discussion about this movement is taking part. And again, I think there is very much to do, especially talking about the meta verse environment for color designer because we're talking now about future environments that are basically designed by tech people. So again, we reach the technology, but now we need creative people into the environment. This is the stage, we are in it. I'm talking with a lot of the top players, both meta versus tech industry. And they all say to me, the same. We do have all the developers, we have all the tech and we are lacking of creative people. So where are they creative?

Judith van Vliet: They're listening to this podcast. So that's a good thing.

Bruno Pitzalis: This is an open call today.

Judith van Vliet: It's an open call. Yeah. Well, again, thanks Bueno. And I think you're going to be getting a lot of emails because of what you just said.

Bruno Pitzalis: Okay, we will give them an answer.

Judith van Vliet: I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Bono. The very next podcast is going to be with the founders of Certosa Initiative, the very new initiative for Milan Design Week happening from the 6th until the 12 June here in Milan. I'm going to be talking with Margriet Vollenberg and Remi Versteeg about what they are planning for this exciting new Design Week edition. So stay tuned and if you are enjoying the Color Authority, please rate review us on Apple podcast and Spotify. And I'll see you back at the next episode. Have a great colorful day.