Hey everyone this is a summary of an art project I’ve been working on with my team for the last year, we will be releasing it in June. Not asking for anything just wanted to show it to you all to maybe connect with some artists.

666 pieces of art. Hand drawn digital Characters, all unique. They reside in a world that has been destroyed by negative energy and they themselves represent the last remains of positive energy in the universe.

These characters or digital avatars have an integral role in the RTC universe and fill the ranks of the RTC Resistance!

You can find a “Mission Statement” and a bit more about our team at:

https://www.reducedtoclear.wtf/the-crew

The backgrounds of the images are Photographs and Artworks submitted from 9 international Artists. So each image is showcasing multiple Artists.

Owning any 1 of these digital assets grants you access to all future art collections.

The collection is called “The land before FUD” (FUD is shit talking in internet speak)

This art is released as tokens on the ethereum blockchain and will be paid for in cryptocurrency, $ETH and ownership of the token verified through the purchase for eternity! It’s like a digital receipt that you can’t lose.

If you care to deepen your understanding we have been writing a short form medium article since July last year and the first article can be found here:

https://medium.com/@damienettema/thoughts-from-the-mind-of-rtc-ffc1468b47

So yeah it’s certainly a bit strange, artsy and techy but even in a low market there’s 4–10 million dollars a day that goes through these marketplaces.

You said you may have artist friends who might be interested, feel free to share with anyone you think might enjoy what we are doing.

- D

Website: https://www.reducedtoclear.wtf/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/reducedtoclear_

Medium Series: https://medium.com/@damienettema

TLDR: Web3 #realtalk + Why we are still here.

Our first article was published on July 22 and a lot has changed since then. RTC is still here when many are not. Why?

Lets be real sometimes we have wondered that ourselves. There is a stark contrast from the fresh faced NFT enthusiasts that entered the space almost 2 years ago to the perma tired, rug surviving web3 realists that now stand at the helm of RTC.

Its a volatile space, the highs are dizzying but the lows can shake the faith of even the most devout blockchain believer.

The rugs, the failed mints, the hackers, the scams, the L’s and the bag selling influencers may have something to do with those lows and these same issues are most likely the biggest roadblocks to mass adoption and it all comes down to people not feeling safe.

But its not all DOOM and gloom, just partially and I enjoy writing honest thoughts here for random strangers to read.

Which leads me to why? Why are we still here still building?

Because we love it and because DOOMape wont let us stop.

Because it has always been about creating dope art and etching the RTC name into the eternal epilogues of blockchain history and because of you, the people, the friends and all of the magic that has overshadowed the L’s.

RTC is alive and well, our team bigger and brighter than ever, our following the same.

So lets talk soon..

Stay tuned for the next article.

-D

We interrupt your standard broadcast of Community vision pt.3 to share some of our thoughts. We hope this article helps people feel less pressured to meet unrealistic expectations in our space. You are not alone.

The market is down, people are disenfranchised with their experience in web3 and projects are folding. The grandiose idea of making it overnight is now just a spec on the horizon and maybe was never as real as it once seemed. The idea that small “indie” projects need to have 1000’s of followers premint to secure a sell out is problematic for two reasons; Projects don't need to sell out right away and a big social media following don't mean shit.

Why do we need to insta sell out? To satiate the vampiric needs of flippers? To be shown on icytools so our collection moons? Or perhaps because we are scared that if our project doesn't sell out immediately that its not good enough? That may be true for some, but not all. The answer is we don't need to sell out right away and this standard is unrealistic for small teams and anyone other than projects with big connections or big money. Kind of sounds like web2 doesn't it?

Time and time again we see projects with 20k+ followings fail to mint out 5k collections. Indicating that 75% of their followers are either bots, lurkers, only clicking for giveaways, paid followers or even worse, people that know nothing about your project. In a basic DYOR process twitter following is recommended as one of the fundamentals yet upon simple investigation reveals a wildly inaccurate metric. What does it really give an indication to? If anything, potential Fomo levels, and if a project is held up only by this then it simply will not survive, our advice, flip quick and run.

Below is a sneak peak of some unrevealed traits to say thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Small teams with good intentions, a strong work ethic and professional skill sets are striving for a standard that is simply unobtainable and unrealistic @Zeneca_33 speaks on this in the thread below:

https://twitter.com/Zeneca_33/status/1513318631618318338?s=20&t=I6EIZMdSWsy4qeBM0PdNOw

But we here at RTC are not deterred, on the contrary. We have now acknowledged and shed these self imposed expectations for success and have gone back to basics, we implore you to do the same. We are here to create high quality expressive art, a unique and immersive user experience and to host a smooth and efficient mint.

This is a passion project, with love at its core and we want the web3 community to see what we are capable of.

No more expectations, just delivery.

Putting social media as a priority (Which is totally understandable in this space) almost cost us our sanity, but taught us some valuable lessons. We had it backwards; We’ve been chasing a following to expose our art when rather we need to expose our art to build a following. We grow from there. It may not be fast and overnight like NFTland makes you think it should be, but we no longer care. We are here for the culture, for the people and because we want to be.

Until next time,

RTC out

The story of our lore is both unique in its concept and its acquisition. The characters that guide the user through our website experience at https://www.reducedtoclear.wtf/ reside inside a post apocalyptic world that has been decimated by a catastrophic storm, caused by an unchecked build up of negative energy, aka FUD.

When imagining this world we aimed to incorporate generative art, artist collaboration and a clever use of web3 technologies. We were searching for Post Apocalyptic scenery purchasable as NFT’s. So the search began.

After many long nights in the depths of opensea we found what we were looking for in the 0 volume collection https://opensea.io/collection/post-apocalyptic-scenes We purchased our favorites and logged off for the night.

The next morning we awoke to the tweet below and begun a DM dialogue with our now good friend @CyberartRealm, the vibes were strong as this was his first sale and one that RTC had big plans for.

We immediately inquired about commissioning him for more backdrops and working specifically within the parameters of our story and lore. He agreed and the rest is history. @CyberartRealm has produced all of our website backgrounds (Landing, marketplace, doxx and mint page) and the process of creating and building alongside him has been both extremely rewarding and a testament to the creative power of NFT Technology.

Our doxx and mint page will be released shortly, and we are very excited to share these pages with our community.

RTC takes great pride in the fact that all of the assets incorporated in our website and universe from background to character will be purchasable as NFT’s. This is done intentionally in an attempt to decentralize the creative process and give our community the ability to fall in love with characters and scenery and then directly own them.

Further secrets to our universe and world will be revealed through story as the RTC journey continues and we so appreciate your patronage.

This article aims to tell the story of our lore from a different perspective that is unique to web3 and as always serves to inform and deepen the bond with our community.

We appreciate every one of you.

The next article topic will be our Marketing mindset.

Until next time,

RTC out.

We are looking for people that care. People that want to surround themselves with others that will make them laugh, answer their questions, support them in times of need and help them create. We are building a digital family and our “Land before FUD” Collection will be the first and most rewarded of its members.

So apart from becoming a member of the most bad ass family in web3, why would you want to join RTC in its voyage into the unknown? Lets talk about that over the next few articles.

Our art:

Our genesis collection has two base characters; Apes and humans. These bases are making reference (and making fun) of BAYC and Doodles. Our name Reducedtoclear is a reference to when you walk into the supermarket and you see the section with 75% off discount cheese and items that no one wants. We are the heavily discounted bluechip that you CAN afford.

We aim to make fun of the obscurity of a 99E floor for a jpg monkey and how unobtainable that is for most NFT collectors, also to acknowledge both collections part in the history of NFTs.

Damien, our artist is practically salivating waiting for people to deep dive into our collection. He has spent countless hours designing traits and understands as a collector himself, how closely people will pay attention once the eyes are there, we welcome those eyes. These traits pay homage to Music, Internet, Sport, Meme and NFT/Web3 culture as they are a reflection of the artist himself.

Below is a sneak peak of a few traits to say thank you for taking the time to be here and read the article. We appreciate you.

Another part of our artistic vision that we are supremely proud of is the “Metadata Shoutout” This is incorporated in ALL of our collections backgrounds being Photographs. Upon reviewing the metadata on secondary that refers to the background trait, instead of it saying “Background 4” It will shout out the social media account of the photographer that took the photo. These photographers are our personal friends and family that we want to share the spotlight with. Any chance we get to support talented creatives through the RTC brand, we will do so.(Especially holders of our genesis collection).

As a new friend of ours @KatHeartFG recently said so eloquently “Whats the point of ascending the mountain if the only person at the top is you?” We will ALWAYS put our community first, ALWAYS keep our eyes open for creatives that need support and ALWAYS push for innovative ways to do so.

We aim to be intentional and transparent with every move we make from the flight deck of RTC. We will not take a step unless the right one is there to take, so we build slow and we keep our community informed throughout. This article serves to explain our intention in regards to our artistic vision, the next will be our lore.

Until next time,

RTC out.

Reducedtoclear, or RTC for short, is a brand. We announce ourselves as this so that we are not limited in our creative potential and so we can build a foundation that is not focused on merely one output. The world we exist inside is of is changing so rapidly, that the only course for success is to constantly evolve and never loose touch with the culture we exist within.

Our world is web3, NFT’s, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Our culture is strange, complicated, accepting, inspirational and innovative and we aren't going anywhere.

As it stands RTC is a team of 3 individuals that soundly believe NFT and blockchain technology is the future of our society and we aim to contribute positively to that future. Our team consists of 3 Founding members; Myself (Damien) As Artist and Team leader. Will, as our Developer and Pat handling all things marketing. Our team aims to deliver our first NFT collection “The land before FUD” Series as soon as we believe there is demand to do so.

Our 3 person team and the relationship we have forged give us an unparalleled ability to creatively solve problems as soon as they arise, to create workable assets and content in a moments notice and to maintain a workspace that allows the 3 of us to constantly think and push well beyond the boundaries of web2.

Our small family also serves to represent to our community what 3 passionate, relentless and hardworking individuals can do when they align with a creative vision. RTC is that vision.

Our team has already delivered on a working and immersive website https://www.reducedtoclear.wtf/ A strong brand twitter presence https://twitter.com/reducedtoclear_ purchasable merchandise https://www.reducedtoclear.wtf/merch and a 90% completed generative NFT collection.

Priority number one for us currently is building a community and staying relevant. Myself and Pat recently attended NFT NYC and saw an increase of 100+ genuine followers and received nothing but love and support as we represented ourselves and RTC. From the 9th floor of the Marriot Marqui all the way down to the dingy Brooklyn comedy club we were asked to be guest speakers at. RTC is doing the work. Feet on the ground, conversation after conversation no shilling, just connecting.

We currently host our Twitter spaces on Sunday 6pm PST in the attempt to facilitate conversations that grow the space and the communities of all that are included. Our subjects remain broad and are decided on by the team.

Until next time,

RTC out.