auction
Weta Teams Up With Sothebys To Commemorate 30 Years Of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
Celebrating A Milestone Of Cyberpunk
Those fine people over at Weta have teamed up with Sothebys to create a series of physical and digital items tying in with the 30th anniversary of Neal Stephenson’s iconic Snow Crash novel. Here’s a few details from Weta’s head Richard Taylor…
I am writing to you on behalf of my dear friend Neal Stephenson and myself as we have undertaken an exciting endeavour over the past 18 months to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Snow Crash.
(Considered as one of the pillars of the cyberpunk genre and one of the most important works of modern science fiction, Snow Crash could be said to have served as the source code for much of our contemporary world, (from the metaverse to cryptocurrency, mobile computing to augmented reality, and much more, including Neal famously coining the term “metaverse”).
To this end, we have teamed up with Sotheby’s in New York who will be hosting an online auction from 27th Feb 2pm EST – 6th March 2pm ETS (auction Detail Page), comprising physical and digital items connected to the book. The auction includes Neal’s never-seen-before original typed and annotated manuscript, an original Snow Crash book cover artwork, and a beautiful, and masterfully designed and crafted, Snow Crash Tachi Sword. A real artifact from the fictional world of Snow crash. (Please click this link and turn the volume up!!)
This Tachi is the first of nine swords from the extended Snow Crash universe. The Tachi fuses one of the 20th Century’s most prescient science fiction visions with ancient traditions of sword-making in the digital age. It is an incredible, hand-forged one-of-a-kind Japanese-style Tachi and Saya (scabbard) in a beautifully crafted and internally automated Tansu case, that also houses a number of unique in-world artifacts and secret clues.
Snow Crash is set in both the physical and digital realms, and to celebrate this, we also created the digital twin to the Tachi Sword in the form of an NFT. A highly accurate digital model, which not only identically captures every detail of the physical sword, it may also bestow its owner with special abilities in a yet to be disclosed transmedia project from Neal.
We are very excited about what we have created and wanted to share it with you, as we believe this is one of the most important artifacts we have made in our 30-year career. A hand-forged sword symbolising humanity standing at the edge of a new epoch as we continue to explore new digital frontiers. It’s a Wētā Workshop masterwork, and the level of detail and care forged into this artifact is truly exquisite. We are very proud of what we have created and can’t wait to see how it will be received by collectors from around the world.
A list of all items can be found at https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/snow-crash/weta-workshop
If you would like to hear from Sotheby’s about our LOT please play this video: https://www.sothebys.com/en/digital-catalogues/snow-crash
Website auction: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/snow-crash/weta-workshop
Tweet: https://twitter.com/WetaWorkshop/status/1631021489695920136
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CpQkkwIurJW/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WetaWorkshop
LinkedIn: https://nz.linkedin.com/company/weta-workshop-ltd
Here’s the video promo too
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