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In this episode of Unlocked, we speak with Rob McCarty about augmented reality as a new layer of artistic expression. We explore how digital works anchored in place challenge traditional ideas of display, ownership, and permanence, and what this shift means for collectors today.
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When MetaSpark shut down, millions of AR artworks that artists had made using Meta's platform disappeared overnight. The terms of service had claimed a perpetual, galaxy-wide licence - and when the platform closed, the work went with it. Rob McCarty watched that happen and co-founded Illis to build what was missing: an AR art platform where the artist owns the work, the provenance lives on-chain, and the artwork is anchored in the physical world with a timestamp and a location that can't be erased.
Rob McCarty's career moved from advertising agency work to Samsung's 360 camera team to Meta, where he helped launch Spark AR - before the platform's closure illustrated precisely the problem he would spend the next chapter of his career solving. He co-founded Illis with Tim, a former Snap creator, to build an AR art platform that gives artists ownership and permanence rather than platform dependency. Illis uses NFC tags for physical-digital authentication, on-chain provenance for geolocated and timestamped AR artworks, and the concept of "spatial provenance" - digital artifacts anchored to physical locations, creating what McCarty calls a spatial archive of stories from people in the world.
The failure of MetaSpark is the most important case study available on platform risk for digital art. Artists who built on it lost their work when the platform closed - not because of malice but because the structure of platform ownership was incompatible with the permanence that art requires. Rob McCarty's response - building Illis with NFC authentication, on-chain provenance, and spatial anchoring - is a systematic attempt to build the infrastructure that prevents that loss from recurring. This conversation explores what that infrastructure involves technically and philosophically, and what spatial provenance adds to the concept of digital art ownership.
MetaSpark closure and platform risk
The disappearance of millions of AR artworks when MetaSpark closed is the clearest possible demonstration of why platform dependency is incompatible with art's need for permanence. McCarty's account of what happened - and his response - is directly relevant to any collector whose digital art lives on platforms rather than chains.
Spatial provenance as new concept
Anchoring AR artworks to specific geographic locations and timestamps creates a category of provenance that purely digital works don't have: a history that is tied to place, moment, and physical presence. This spatial archive could become one of the most significant forms of digital art documentation.
NFC tags and physical-digital authentication
NFC tags embedded in physical locations or objects, with UIDs minted into the NFT at genesis, create a binding between the physical and digital that survives platform changes. McCarty's use of this technology reflects his understanding of where the permanence risk actually lies.
Meta Ray-Bans and the form factor future
McCarty's conviction that the Meta Ray-Bans represent the future form factor for AR art encounters - seeing digital work layered over physical reality through glasses rather than phones - reflects a long-term view of where the medium is going.
"As soon as we start to anchor these digital artifacts in the world and they're time stamped and they're geo located... we can have this spatial archive of stories from folks in the world."
Platform risk is the most underappreciated threat to digital art collecting. If the works you collect live on platforms that can close, you are exposed. Rob McCarty's work on Illis, spatial provenance, and on-chain anchoring gives collectors the conceptual framework they need to evaluate that risk - and to understand what genuine permanence for AR art actually requires.
Unlocked is the podcast by 100 collectors - the global network for digital art collectors. Each episode, we speak with artists, curators, collectors, and builders shaping the digital art world. No market speculation. No hype. Just honest, substantive conversations about art, practice, and what it means to collect today. New episodes release throughout the year. Find Unlocked on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 100 collectors is a membership network. [Explore membership →]
