The sale will also include a one-of-a-kind tachi sword (est. $120,000 – 140,000), crafted by award-winning Wētā Workshop, best known for their craftsmanship on the movies Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Blade Runner 2049 and Avatar (the work also popularized the term ‘avatar’ to describe a digital figure representing a particular person and was cited by director James Cameron as a primary inspiration for his blockbuster film series of the same name).
Additionally, there will be digital offerings, including an edition of dystrophic generative art, titled Infocalypse. These original digital artworks, created by the artist Tony Sheeder in collaboration with Stephenson and artist and software developer Crispin Sterling, take inspiration from Dioxin Posse, the graphic novel project which would later become Snow Crash. The generative art sale will be held on Sotheby’s Metaverse, marking a full-circle moment for the man who coined the term.
The concept for Snow Crash was originally conceived as a graphic novel which Stephenson created with artist and collaborator Tony Sheeder, however, due to the high cost involved (they planned to first film it as a movie, and then cut up stills to create the graphic novel), all that exists are a series of 35 mm slides created by the pair to pitch the project. In another auction first, these slides, which are offered together with their digital versions as a 1/1 NFT ($6,000 - $9,000), will be sold alongside the original painting by famed science fiction cover artist Bruce Jensen, used as the cover art for the mass market paperback edition of Snow Crash, published by Bantam Spectra in 1993 (est. $30,000 – 50,000).
Alongside the material relating to the publication of the novel is a one-of-a-kind hand-forged tachi sword inspired by the weapon wielded by the novel’s protagonist, with an estimate of $120,000 –$180,000. Also offered will be a leather jacket, created by Stephenson and Tony Sheeder for the character Y.T. to wear in the original graphic novel concept for Snow Crash, featuring the ‘Elmo’ logo used by her group, the Dioxin Posse, ca. 1989.
Concurrent with the auction celebrating Snow Crash is Infocalypse, blind mint edition of generative dystrophic digital art inspired by the 'Elmo' logo of the Dioxin Posse. Each work of digital art is uniquely generated based on a series of characteristics, and each purchaser will be randomly allocated one of the thousands of variations available. The project was a collaboration between Stephenson, Tony Sheeder (the artist behind Dioxin Posse) and artist and software developer Sterling Crispin, to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Snow Crash. The limited edition NFT series will be offered at a fixed price of $250 on Sotheby’s Metaverse.
“Half of my life ago, with my head full of computer graphics lore and visions of a satirical cyberpunk future, I sat down to write Snow Crash," said Neal Stephenson. "Last year, at the 30th anniversary of the book’s publication, I pulled the old manuscript out of storage and looked at it for the first time since 1991. Covered with hand-written edits and typesetting notes that have since been rendered obsolete by digital codes, it bridges the era during which video games and the Internet became ubiquitous in our lives."
