Europe’s first Crypto Art Festival  Rare Effect returns this month to Lisbon, Portugal - bigger and better than ever. From October 27 to November 06, Arroz Estúdios, an acclaimed work and event space for emerging artists to showcase their work, will host the exciting event, which promises to bring together art lovers and creative communities from around the world. The project is being funded by DGArtes and NEAR Foundation - the non-profit organisation that funds social impact development projects built on the world’s fastest-growing climate-neutral blockchain NEAR. 

Now in its second year, Rare Effect will explore the relationship between the physical and the digital world, creating a bridge between the traditional art world and the metaverse.  Rare Effect 2022 will have more than 90 exhibiting artists, both national and international, afternoons with a 10-day program of music with renowned musicians, panels discussions and workshops about Crypto Art, Web3 and cryptocurrency, as well as interactive installations and performances including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and light installations and sculptures. 

This project is built to showcase both local and international artists and creatives and to educate them about future technologies. The theme for this year's Rare Effect is to build awareness of the issues surrounding Migration. The Rare Effect Open Call goes on to say “Migration is happening all around us. It's a part of many animals' yearly cycle and it's necessary for our acceleration in the technological world. As humans, we have developed the ability to migrate but it's not always a privilege afforded to us all.” 

Through the concept of Migration, artists will submit and present many different types and mediums of digital art for example screen-based crypto art, VR, AR, projections, performances, music and cultural panels to discuss what it’s happening and changing in the cultural and technology world.

The Migration theme has been broken down into five categories: 

*Climate Migration* - the forced migration of humans and species due to climate change

 *Transhumanism* - the migration of the human consciousness into computer systems 

*Freedom of Movement and Forced Human Displacement* due to conflict or persecution (refugeeism)

*Seasonal Migration Systems* - swarms, flocks, pods... 

*Gentrification vs. Regeneration* - the process of city development and how we can nurture our communities as they grow. 

As with past editions, Rare Effect vol. 3, will show and share the possibilities that technology brings to the art world. From innovative media exhibitions, to the use of tokenization/NFTs and crypto wallets, visitors can interact with the art installations as well as to break with some of the barriers existing between what is physical and what is real. 

Idealised, conceived and built from a community of artists, creators and enthusiasts all over the world - this is an event not to be missed. “We are more than a festival and we’ve kept the same mission since Rare Effect, Vol. 1 in February 2021. We are the materialisation of the digital, a sandbox for ideas and creation, an event to stimulate experimentation,” said Steven MacKay, Cofounder and President at Arroz Studios.