Lost Pets of New York

Advised by Highley Varlet

"Lost Pets of New York" is Series Three of "Post Clarity," a five part NFT docu-series cataloging creative duo Highley Varlet's 7,000 mile walking journey around the five boroughs of New York.

The collection documents every lost pet poster the pair encountered as they walked five marathons a week for one calendar year throughout the city. There are two distinct aspects to the documentation process: the website and the NFT collection.

The website (LostPets.NYC) is a curated display of the posters themselves. When one loses a pet, often the first action considered is posting notices in the neighborhood to alert the community and ask for assistance. In aggregate, “Lost Pets of New York” reveals that while there's largely a collective understanding of what information should be conveyed on these notices, human execution can vary wildly when urgency and impromptu design combine.

The NFT component of “Lost Pets of New York” takes documentation one step further. The poster image is cropped down to just the image of the pet, and from there converted into pixel art. At this level of image fidelity, the file size is small enough that the art can be stored on the Ethereum blockchain itself - aka, “on-chain.” This means that so long as the decentralized network exists, the images will persist in perpetuity. The effect created is in essence a digital cave painting that will serve as a permanent memorial to the animals lost.

100% of the mint proceeds from “Lost Pets of New York” and any secondary sale royalties, alongside any donations into this Community Fund, will go to Rikers Island Cat Rescue, a 501c3 charitable organization dedicated to caring for and rehoming cats found on the Rikers Island jail complex. The emergent NFT medium holds tremendous possibilities for charities looking to partner with artists, create long tail revenue streams based on royalties and escape the traditional ‘tote bag and coffee mug' model of rewarding donations.

Highley Varlet is the creative moniker of artists Mike Varley and Jessi Highet. You can learn all about their walking project “2020: Total Clarity” at HighleyVarlet.com.