Mat Dryhurst: The Future of Digital Creativity

In this episode, Mat Dryhurst joins us to discuss how digital art has evolved over the past decade and where it's heading next.

We talk about blockchain, NFTs, AI, and the idea of protocol art - works that are defined less by a single image or object than by the rules, systems, and networks that produce them. Along the way, we discuss collecting, curation, online communities, software as an artistic medium, and why some of the most important developments in contemporary art are happening outside traditional institutions.

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
01:35 – Growing up in Kuwait & finding his way into art
03:09 – Collaborating with Holly Herndon for two decades
05:26 – Music, software and creative beginnings
09:29 – Discovering Ethereum before it launched
11:07 – DAOs, crypto and building new institutions
14:00 – Why ambitious artworks take years to make
17:50 – Building a practice outside the traditional art world
20:06 – Making artworks that exist as real software
25:54 – Artist vs Creator
31:04 – Is autonomous art a productive lie?
35:04 – Why we value art we don't always understand
41:14 – Inside *The Call* and designing participatory artworks
44:45 – Why they never create work for the market
48:28 – AI, backlash and losing friends
53:46 – The biggest misconceptions about AI
58:18 – Oxford, AI policy and the future of regulation
01:01:44 – Matt Dryhurst on NFTs
01:07:25 – What NFTs got right
01:12:30 – Crypto art, digital ownership and why it still matters
01:18:05 – Building culture on the blockchain
01:23:10 – Final thoughts

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