MIT Reality Hack 2022

This last March I participated in the MIT Reality Hack. I led a team building an AR sculpture, Solana-minted-NFT fundraising platform called Monumental Restoration. Our model focused on Indigenous communities, specifically the Coahuiltecan Community of which one of our teammates Robert Pluma was a member. The platform allowed for tribes to work with us and a partnering 3D artist to build a dynamic, generative sculpture that would grow with community financial support. People could come to the AR space the sculpture seed was planted in and discover 3D NFTs in the surrounding “garden”. The minting of the fresh NFTs would grow the sculpture, starting as a small bud that dramatically evolves as more NFTs are discovered and collected. These NFT “shards” would be their own beautiful works of art representing the community. The tribe would make money by allocating a set amount of the total NFT mint to their own internal treasury from inception, growing in value as more people outside the tribe minted and sold the NFTs they found at the sculpture site. What would begin as a small seedling would grow into a massive, flowing sculpture in AR space, celebrating the tribe's culture and the community’s effort to raise funds. The dynamic digital nature of the sculpture would allow it to continue to evolve long after all the original NFTs were minted, with the opportunity to connect it with any data source they chose. We ended up receiving the silver grand prize of the hackathon and the best implementation of the ARitize Maps platform