News: Looking Glass Teams with Reggie Watts to Auction Holographic NFT Art, Paving Way for Popularizing AR Art You Can Hold

The moment many of the crypto savvy insiders in augmented reality and VR have been waiting for is here: we're finally getting our first big auction of NFT art that exists purely as a hologram.

This week, an auction will be held to sell off a unique 3D presentation, accompanied by music, developed by none other than AR and VR enthusiast, and music star, Reggie Watts.

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What makes this particular piece of art unique is that it will be displayed on the Looking Glass Portrait holographic viewer. The looping 3D video and music art piece is called "The NonCompliance of Being" and is the result of a collaboration between Watts and music group Panther Modern. The art piece, as well as the Looking Glass Portrait device, will be packaged together and presented to the winning bidder.

For the uninitiated, NFT (non-fungible token) art is the hottest new thing in the digital space. The use of blockchain technology allows the digital art to be unreproducible and unique, thus giving it the same kind of value as a real-world object or piece of art. In this case, the auction site is Zora, which is using the Ethereum ERC-721 token standard.

If this all sounds like smoke and mirrors to you, keep in mind that popular artist Beeple recently sold a piece of NFT art for $6.6 million. Similarly, other artists and influencers are rushing in to make their art available via NFTs on various platforms, with Canadian music star Grimes selling $5.8 million in NFT art just days ago.

Long-time followers of Looking Glass will remember that Watts was one of the startups' initial friends, as the company used the innovative musician to show off some of the features of the earlier Looking Glass devices.

"Since our founding, we've worked hard to support creativity in all of its forms, whether that's 3D digital sculptures, new forms of photography and film, or something never before imagined," said Shawn Frayne, CEO of Looking Glass Factory. "I can't tell you how excited I am to have our displays as the medium for this amazing project. We're looking forward to seeing all of the new ways holograms will be used to bring three-dimensional art in all of its forms into the real world and supporting the artists behind that work."

Another reason this particular collaboration should be exciting for AR and VR artists is that it sets the stage for giving fans a way to "hold" and display holographic art. The idea of viewing something on a 2D screen or canvas is fine, but when it comes to 3D art, the ability to actually walk around the art piece and allow it to "live" in your space for all to see is potentially a game-changer, primarily facilitated by the Looking Glass line of devices.

The auction will occur via the Zora platform and will launch on Thursday, March 11.

Update: You can listen to a full discussion between Reggie Watts, Shawn Frayne, and Adario Strange exploring NFT art, Watts' music video auction, holographic displays, AR, and the future of blockchain meets virtual content. The chat was held on Twitter Spaces this week via the video shown below.