Interview: Digital Artist FVCKRENDER and D.S. & Durga’s David Moltz
The digital artist and fragrance maker on their new NFT perfume and bridging scents and the Metaverse
Internationally renowned digital artist FVCKRENDER (aka Frederic Duquette) partnered with New York-based immersive fragrance brand D.S. & Durga to create a non-fungible perfume called Manticore Musk—which launches today at 3:33PM ET. Merging scent (both real and digital) with the Metaverse, the new fragrance recreates the mythical aroma that is believed to have been found in a clay jug discovered in 1924 in the ruined temple of Technaós and labeled with the same name in Cretan Doric. The collaborators not only revived this fabled aroma, but they also translated it into algorithmically-created, digital perfume bottle NFTs which each comprise different notes of the fragrance.
Engaging multiple senses is how you really blow someone’s mind. Scent is the perfect pathway for that, showing people what the capabilities of digital art and virtual world building really are.
There are 5,555 1,111NFTs in the collection that are each priced at 0.11 ETH. Every Manticore Musk token holder will receive the physical scent in addition to access to FVCKRENDER’s Metaverse platform LVCIDIA, private Discord chats, in-person events and exclusive perfume releases. To learn more about the unique and innovative project, we spoke with artist and David Moltz on smelling the digital cosmos, evolving the olfactory world and the significance of the senses.
How was this collaboration born and what was the creative intrigue to work together?
David Moltz: Supaku came to me about making a non-fungible perfume. I didn’t understand it at first, but I was very intrigued. I am always excited about pushing the boundaries of what perfume can be. I love the idea of freedom to create perfumes not of this world and then make versions of them IRL. We can make our own mythology with ingredients that could never be made like stardust from Antares and Manticore muskpods.
Are you passionate about scent? Have you wanted to bridge the sense of smell into the virtual world for a long time?
FVCKRENDER: I’m passionate about innovation. Engaging multiple senses is how you really blow someone’s mind. Scent is the perfect pathway for that, showing people what the capabilities of digital art and virtual world building really are.
Was it challenging to figure out what LVCIDIA smells like?
FVCKRENDER: Working with D.S. & Durga, we dug into folklore to figure out what the smell of LVCIDIA is. It’s rooted in history but also completely otherworldly, striking the ideal balance. Manticore Musk toes the line between fantasy and reality, just like the world of LVCIDIA itself!
Thinking about decentralization, blockchain, tokens and the Metaverse, what scent notes come to mind? Are they in Manticore Musk? Or is the composition more an aromatic expression of FVCKRENDER’s visual work?
David Moltz: It’s absolutely endless. I tend to work in small details and build a whole aromatic narrative. Manticore Musk is a recreation of a fabled jar of nether secretions found below a ruined temple in 1924. FVCKRENDER’s crystals definitely get an aromatic nod in the versions I’ve made thus far.
D.S. & DURGA has always created multi-sensory worlds to express their scents including moodboards, playlists and narrative. Was it different this time thinking about virtual space?
David Moltz: It actually was the same process—me writing out the whole world first and brainstorming. But I could go wild creating so many notes. Now I have that world and can make a real world version to sniff!
Today the scent is singular. Can you imagine a scenario where the properties of each NFT dictate the formulation to the aroma?
FVCKRENDER: Absolutely. I can imagine a million different ways for this to grow and change. It would be super dope to have a more specialized formula for sure. The most important thing is that we’re innovating and experimenting.
The Manticore Musk project and minting information can be found here.
Images courtesy of the artist/D.S. & Durga
