Duran Duran Connects Trees to Their NFTs As Part of Initiative To Start New Micro Forests Around the World Living Trees Traceable on the Blockchain In yet another world-first, legendary British rock band, Duran Duran, has this week announced a unique project that will connect NFTs to newly-planted, native trees in New Zealand as part of an initiative to start new micro forests around the world. Duran Duran will kick-off this ambitious initiative by gifting the digital owners of the existing "INVISIBLE" NFT collection, which was released last year in support of the band's 15th studio album: FUTURE PAST. Each of the 100 people who purchased one of the "INVISIBLE" NFTs will receive a brand-new eco-friendly NFT featuring a themed artwork designed by Huxley, the AI artist with whom the band collaborated on their "INVISIBLE" music video and NFT artworks. Along with the NFT, a living tree will be planted in Jardine Park, Queenstown, New Zealand, in the person's name. Each new tree will be traceable on the blockchain via the corresponding NFT.

When you hear the name Huxley, one of the first things that comes to mind is the classic dystopian novel, Brave New World. Set in the not so distant future, we are immersed into a world consumed and controlled by science and technology. Now, we are about to graced by that same imagination in the form of NFTs. Not the infamous author, but the artificial intelligence and programmable artist who lives in the Cloud. Designed by Nested Minds, Huxley is just what we described.

Duran Duran, the memorable hit band of the 1980s, returned in 2021 with the new album "Future Past" (BMG) and "Invisible" a video made with Artificial Intelligence. The video was directed by Huxley, an artificial intelligence whose "mind" was modeled after the cognitive and emotional processes of humans. In the introduction of the video, you can read that "It is the very first collaboration of its kind, between artists in different planes of existence. Although groundbreaking, this is not entirely new to Duran Duran's artistic career, during which the band has made music videos that strayed from prevailing trends. In that category can be cited "The Reflex", "Save a Prayer", "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "A View to a Kill", the latter a subject for the James Bond filmography. As for the use of artificial intelligence, it is the first time that it is used to "direct a video", although songs created with algorithms in the style of some authors have already been released. An example of this is the song "Drowned in the Sun" made in the style of Nirvana from the patterns of the music of Kurt Cobain. The song "Invisible" features Blur's Graham Coxon on guitar, David Bowie's pianist Mike Garson and indie-pop artist Lykke Li. The production of "Future Past" corresponded to the legendary Giorgio Moroder, the DJ and remixer Erol Alkan, and Mark Ronson. In a press release from the label, the singer of the band Simon Le Bon reveals that the band first went into the studio in 2018. "I was trying to persuade the guys that all we needed to do was write two or three tracks for an EP.