Dystopian Future: Idil Dursun’s Vision of the NFT Industry
When you look at the NFT industry Idil Dursun, an architect and CGI artist whose work deals with futuristic dystopias and cyberpunk aesthetics, gives it a very familiar feel. Several sci-fi traditions jump out at you immediately: somewhat Blade Runner Here, a dash the uterus There, however, the most unsettling thing about the sprawling and seemingly endless cityscapes in Dursun’s art is that they don’t feel like imaginative impossibilities; They feel like something you’ve already seen.
If you’ve ever walked through a dense urban metropolis, you’ve seen the bits and pieces of elements Dursun seamlessly stitches together to create his CGI environments. Spend a few weeks in any of the busiest and most populated places in the world, and you might start to doubt its sustainability. Cities like Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, New York and Istanbul never fail to impress visitors and residents with how many people live there.
The last city on that list is no exception. With an official population of about 16 million people (although some say the number is closer to 20 million) living on a small strip of land between two seas, Istanbul’s natural environment has blessed it with natural beauty and cursed it with limited resources. Experts predict that the ongoing expansion of the city’s northern forested areas and the ongoing development of massive infrastructure projects could lead to ecological decline. It was this environmental context that inspired Dursun to create futuristic CGI environments, a process he began after graduating from a university with a degree in architecture.
“Istanbul inspires me a lot,” Dursun explained while speaking to NFT Now. “All Turkey does.” Taking a job at an architectural visualization company right out of school, Dursun spent his days learning technical skills he would then take home and apply to his CGI work at night. “[That job] Learning technical things like software, post-production execution, everything helped me learn a lot. I’ll go home and apply those skills and mix them with the skills I’ve learned in online tutorials.”
The dystopic cyberpunk elements of Dursun’s CGI work draw from his fascination with issues such as overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources, in addition to his fellow architect Annibel Ciconolfi. “I remember seeing Anibal’s artwork in high school, and I was in awe,” Dursun explained. “[The scale] The scene was just so extensive. And I felt that looking at them was not enough. I had to make my own. I had an urge to create.”
How Dursun started in NFTs
Dursun entered the NFT space somewhat randomly in early 2021 when he saw a friend on social media selling the foundation. He didn’t know much about the crypto art world then, having only heard of cryptopunks.
“I thought they were ugly as fk,” Dursun said with a laugh. “But now, I love them. Once you understand the culture, it becomes a completely different thing. My friend sent me a foundation invitation, and I thought, ‘Well, why not try? It can’t hurt.’
Minted its first NFT in March 2021 at Dursun Foundation ThresholdThe music draws from a specific neighborhood in Istanbul called Mecidiyeköy, one of the city’s busiest areas. Threshold Dilapidated buildings and a bridge that supports a metro train as it passes through a huge gate to another part of the city
“Threshold is a piece that means a lot to me. It was the first time that I felt that I could be an environmental concept artist, which I had wanted to be for a long time. [That sale] Really gave me hope.” He credits the buyer of the piece, a well-known NFT community member coconut cowGenesis helped kickstart his and countless other artists’ careers by buying their work.
Bringing knowledge to his NFT work
Dursun explained that he created many of his earlier works with some unspoken lore behind them Threshold Igniting his desire to tell a story through his work.
“When you look at the artwork, it feels like you’re looking at a graphic novel,” Dursun elaborates. “I started coming up with ideas for this main character, someone trying to escape this dystopian world. At Threshold, for example, the gate divides the city into two parts. In the dark side, it is the side of the city that has been drained of its resources. And the other part is where the high elite live.”
“There have been many bad days in the space, and we have never stopped chasing our dreams and appreciating the NFT culture.”
Idil Dursun
Dursun explains that almost every piece he creates is a part of the same lore-based universe. Another of his works, Attack the Lost CityA separate part of the world that is Threshold Lives, for example. Dursun plans to connect the lore of these separate pieces at some point.
“I wanted these things to feel real,” Dursun insists. “It’s not just these beautiful nightscapes or dystopian cyberpunk images. They have stories behind them.”
Collaborating with Drift for TIMEPeeces
In January 2022, renowned photographer and NFT community member Isaac “Drift” Wright invited Dursun to Timepieces, Time’s web3 community initiative. Collaboration of two publications Time slice Collection of NFTs. DRIFT submitted a photograph of the New York skyline at dawn, while Dursun submitted a work that recreated what New York might look like 100 years into the future. Dursun’s piece, titled High Park in NYCThe viewer can find a CGI rendering of Drift overlooking the entire scene sitting on a tail in the lower left corner of the image.
“I’m a huge fan of drifting,” exclaimed Dursun. “One day, he texted me saying he was invited to Timepieces. I was so blown away. Working with Drift was a fun experience because he does these great photographs of cities and I try to take things from a completely different perspective. It was a great collaboration for me.”
Reflecting on the recent crypto winter, Dursun said Turkey’s NFT community mirrors what he sees happening globally, mainly because it has thinned out a bit in recent months as fast flippers left the space.
“People come in and see they can’t make a quick buck and then leave the space,” Dursun observed. “I mean, I’ve seen that many times. The space has had many bad days, and we never stopped chasing our dreams and appreciating the NFT culture. It’s very important to me, as a part of the community.”
Dursun’s next project is an animation that he has been working on non-stop for weeks. He will exhibit the work at a physical exhibition in the near future, but is keeping details of the project close to his chest for now.
The piece represents Dursun’s longtime desire to expand his artistic repertoire from CGI stills to the animation space. And, after watching Netflix’s hit series recently mysticalA production whose animation style has garnered critical acclaim for its unique blend of 2D and 3D visuals, he feels even more inspired.
“I hope I can nail it,” Dursun said. “I feel I have reached my limit [with CGI stills], and I want to raise more. I am painting artwork. It’s a lot of fun to work in both 2D and 3D.”
You can find Idil Dursun’s work on Foundation, Makerplace, Super Rare and Nifty Gateway.
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