Just back from Non Fungible Conference Lisbon. I didn’t go to speak or show work – just to see what’s happening at the intersection of immersive digital art, AI, NFTs, and Web3 culture.
Earlier this year there was a chance I might show something at NFC, but juggling a few projects made it tricky to commit. So I went as an observer – connecting, catching up, and seeing lots of familiar names doing their thing.
I arrived the day before the conference and took a taxi from the airport, which turned out to be unnecessary – if I’d prepared, I’d have known the metro works well and you can tap in and out with just a bank card.
That night, I headed over to the Artist Villa for a private event – an exclusive evening of art, entertainment, conversation, and celebration at the Palacio Party with Trevor Jones, hosted in collaboration with Arab Bank Switzerland. Wonderful views over the city, and an easy-going start to the week.
Schedule
AI was everywhere – shows, talks, debates. TON and Telegram pushing hard as the Web3 entry point. Meme culture as infrastructure. Digital identity and ownership in works about memory and self. Bitcoin having its moment with Ordinals being used to store and curate digital art directly on-chain. NFTs were here for games, fashion, and assets. And institutions exploring how to bring digital art and blockchain into their systems.
The conference had the usual mix: talks, shows and panels across various rooms and spaces, and booths arranged around a large hall. Drinks and food stalls outside, along with walk-in shipping containers for Tezos, OpenSea and VIVID Ordinals. While there were many names I recognised, there were many more I didn’t – a reminder that even in the Web3 world we swim in fairly self-contained streams of people on social media.
Highlights
Rarible’s booth was an interactive standout. Not your typical screens of rotating digital art, but art that people could engage with and influence. Two artists I know were involved: Zhannet Podobed, who I met in Rome last year during Videocittà, and Ivona Tau, who I met last year during an artist residency in Naples and the New Fluxus event at Lanificio Digitale. Both had contributed work that responded to viewers in subtle, well-executed ways. Nice to see – and collect their works. There were many more interactive artworks on show at the booth and a great atmosphere.
Serc had a brainwave-reactive piece called Veil of Echoes, inviting people to wear an EEG headset and see their brainwaves visualised live as art on a large LED screen.
Vandaloruins had his Dark Tales booth – a series of mysterious photo cards and a custom device. Placing a card on the device triggered a story, and you could interact by typing in your own questions.
Alias Studio had both a booth and a session – a tool for artists to train generative models on their own work, and release those models in controlled or open ways, from curated prompt drops to public use. The system offers token-bound licenses for assigning usage rights.
I caught Colin Smith moderating a panel on TON – didn’t stay for the whole thing, but enough to get a sense of the possibilities. Frictionless onboarding to Web3 makes sense, and Telegram’s infrastructure can offer that.
I also finally got to see hologram fans in real life. Still a bit of a novelty, and nearly impossible to film properly, but surprisingly effective in person.
Talks
I drifted in and out of panels and talks. Saw Ivona Tau speak about GANs and aesthetics; Emily Xie sharing her process and code; and a few AI-themed panels featuring Jenni Pasanen, Primavera De Filippi, Trevor Jones, and others. I wasn’t taking notes – I wasn’t there to document. I just wanted to get a feel for the energy, the language, the crowd. Who is turning up. Who is pushing forward.
In between
I reconnected with friends I made online, some I hadn’t met in person until now, others I’ve met once or twice before at other events, and made new friends and had a handful of conversations that will stay with me. Great to finally meet E L L A and Irina and to see Ritchie again.
On the Friday I escaped the city for a bit, heading to Sintra to visit Quinta da Regaleira, then came back just in time for the beach party finale. Saturday was breakfast with Irina, passing on a copy of my Ode To A Haggis book, followed by a wander through the city and then to the airport.
Didn’t leave with a grand insight. But something is shifting – less shouting, more making.
Postscript
After the event, organiser John Karp shared a thread about how difficult it was to make NFC Lisbon 2025 happen – pushing against market fatigue, doing it in Europe, and staying independent. You could feel that. It didn’t have the polish or hype of a big corporate conference, but that wasn’t the point. It held together through people still showing up, still making things, still paying attention. And that gave it something real.
Written by
David Oxley
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