**fakewhale:**
**When you think back to the early days of HEN and the NFT landscape, what stands out the most to you? Can you share any stories or experiences that epitomize the unique culture and community spirit of HEN?**

**djangobits:**
In January 2021, NFTs and art NFTs were nothing new. But Rafael Lima's HEN was so brutally reduced to the art itself that it somehow attracted people not because of sale prospects, like all the other shiny platforms. After its launch on January 29, 2021, only a handful of Tezos users minted some NFTs for fun and testing on this platform, which did not clearly define its purpose (see "[The Lost HicEtNuncs](https://objkt.com/asset/hicetnunc/24880)", made by Mike Tyka).

The first bigger buzz happened in February 2021, when artists, some seeking for a more sustainable platform than Ethereum, started to mint and talk about it, like Qartsi (Token #14), Rodrigo Koshino / Kosha (Token #33 and #66) and Mario Klingenmann / Quasimondo (Token #111). These very early mints of art on HEN suddenly made the platform shine and revealed it's subliminal potential as an exhibition place.

**Token #14**, [Qartsi](https://x.com/QArtsi)

**Token #33**, [Kosha](https://x.com/koshino)

**Token #111**, [Quasimondo](https://x.com/quasimondo)
<img src="https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmWXPSyoyDnFtk9c67ZS229WDhJcm37Qr69BTqEBxTrnLT" width="100%">

Within a few days, more individuals with a passion for art and substantial experience joined the platform. Presented on this minimalist, completely gatekeeper-free platform, the spotlight was solely on their artworks. The stream on the main page quickly became a wonderland of deep art and random trash (also depending on the eye of the beholder). It felt a bit like a flea market, but stuffed with hidden gems.

More and more artists were attracted by Hicetnunc and previous minters and decided to give it a try.

**Token #806**, [NeuralBricolage](https://x.com/NeuralBricolage)

In less than 60 days from its inception, 10,000 tokens had been minted, and by the end of March, nearly 1,000 tokens were being added daily, revealing an overwhelming and never ending flow of amazing artworks.

**Token #11400**, [Pointline_](https://x.com/pointline_) (my personal favorite, Generative Priroda, number 1)

Sales and prices were not at the core of the interaction; they didn't even exist in the initial version of HEN. To this day on TEIA, sales information remains minimal and tucked to the side, with the artwork occupying the central focus of the viewer's attention. And this is exactly what created that unique experience.

I am convinced that Rafael Lima's intention was not to create yet another Superrare knock off which aimed for profits. The early about page of HEN said "*such experiment was designed intending to imagine alternative crypto economies*".

This made very clear that HEN was an experiment. An undertaking with an unknown outcome.

One notable aspect was that many artists promptly spent their earned XTZ on other artworks they genuinely admired. If you examine the wallets of these individuals, you will observe numerous pieces from various artists continuously being added to their personal collections. This was the clearest indicator that people participated in HEN not (only) to earn money, but because they celebrated art itself. This was a unique collective art frenzy. That was the HEN.

**Fakewhale:**
**How did the ethos of HEN resonate with your personal vision of what an NFT platform should represent?**

**djangobits:**
I greatly appreciated that Hicetnunc, to a significant extent, remained undefined in its nature, which allowed people to experiment with all facets of NFTs, their art, technology, and the potential economics surrounding them. It served as an open laboratory that enabled individuals to explore and acquire knowledge. This was its distinctive quality, and potentially quite challenging to replicate.

I personally think that all types of platforms have their right to exist and with every new platform we learn collectively. But if your NFT platform is only about profits, optimized for sales and trading data, you shouln't be surprised to attract profiteers and traders only. If your platform is a laboratory, you will attract experimentators. It will be a lot more interesting to watch and engage.

**Fakewhale:**
**With the emergence of platforms inspired by HEN, such as http://objkt.com and TEIA to name a few, what lessons from HEN do you think should be carried forward and which should be avoided or approached differently?**

TEIA is the direct successor of HEN, cloned from it's code and carried on by the many people who took part in the HEN frenzy and who wanted to continue even after Rafael decided to close the laboratory. TEIA still has that unique feeling as the HEN had, if you browse it's frontpage. But as the TEIA collective has to organize itself and to find consensus what to do next, the room for experimentation also narrowed down in some way and some of the mystery that HEN was vanished a bit. I still think TEIA is unique and I hope it will keep it's open and art centered groove.

Objekt.com was born to facilitate some of the economic needs some people had when interacting with the HEN. In my view it made a lot of sense to have that as a separate platform for those people who wanted those features. Today objkt.com is THE nft platform on Tezos. I really love the platform as well as the great curation work they do. You can't compare it to HEN or TEIA - it's two different things.

I personally think one of the reasons why HEN found a sudden end, was that many people had huge expectations on what the platform should be or what it should become, overwhelming it's creator. The whish to develop HEN further was understandeable, but also contradictive to the idea of being an undefined place for experimentation.

**Fakewhale:**
**In retrospect, what do you believe was HEN's most significant contribution to the digital art community as a whole?**

**djangobits:**
Maybe the experience that things can be taken in your own hands. On how you engage with your audience and how you sell your art or how you organize as a global collective. The platforms you interact on, can be influenced and shaped to some extent. Or new platforms can be built, like fxhash for example, which also had it's origins in the generative and code based artworks that appeared on the HEN.

**Fakewhale:**
**How do you see the current digital art ecosystem in contrast to the early days of HEN? What fundamental shifts have you noticed? What legacy has been brought forward?**

**djangobits:**
Generative art is definitely something which had seen a huge boost because of HEN and fxhash. Suddenly generative art platforms popped up on various chains. My impression is that most platforms are more sales centric again. This is also understandable to some extent, but has it's drawbacks.

I also noticed that many people experimented on other chains, with some artists having their works spread over a couple of ecosystems. I personally won't collect on more than 1-3 platforms, so sometimes I loose track of what some artists do. But this as well, is completely understandeable form an economic and attention seeking perspective.

**Fakewhale:**
**In the aftermath of HEN's closure, what were your key takeaways from its journey? What would you have wished was done differently?**

**djangobits:**
I whished people were more patient and maybe more hestitant about wanting to move the platform to what for them was important. Most of what led to it's closure happened in good intentions, but many did not take the time to really understand the original intentions of the HEN.

Some of this might be the fate of any revolutionary project, where an initial idea attracts many, but then the ideas of many will sand down the edges of the initial intention.

Longe live the HEN!