Diary Entry — Bubblegum Cards

I saw an X post today from an NFT artist celebrating a sale. It read like something between a love poem and a product announcement: “gm and SOLD ❤️‍🔥 … my gratitude flows like shadowed rivers … may the flowers bloom endlessly in your hands.”

The reaction it triggered in me was physical. I felt like I was back in the playground in the 60s, swapping bubblegum cards. The thrill wasn’t in the image on the card, it was in the set, the collection, the chase. Some cards were beautifully printed, others looked rushed — but they all carried value because of their place in the game.

That’s exactly what I see happening now. The cards have been replaced by tokens, and the hype language fills the gaps where permanence used to be.

But I can’t do it. I can’t write “gm and SOLD” and pretend that’s the centre of the work. It’s not me. It never has been.

What I’m building with APP is slower, more awkward, less shiny. It doesn’t promise eternal bloom in a stranger’s wallet. It promises a record, a trace, a timestamp, a physical anchor. It’s bubblegum cards versus the library ledger. One fades when the fashion shifts. The other sits on the shelf waiting to be found again.

That’s all APP is: a refusal to play the playground game, and a commitment to leaving something behind that doesn’t vanish when the bell rings.

APP Archive Footer

Document: AOF Provenance Protocol (APP) – Diary Entry: Bubblegum Cards
Version: v0.1 (2025)
Date of Issue: 2025-09-02
Publisher: Art of Faceless (AOF)
Hash (SHA-256)

0db7c1a378b5c5d4f98c4edb8cd6e87f6517cda677229a848e7e0f84846830a6

Licence: © Art of Faceless 2025. Personal use permitted. Commercial use requires written licence.