Art.Net.Content

In The Age of NFT’s, Part 2

“The whole history of IT has in fact been that of a tug of war between the scientist specialist and the amateur enthusiast…Those who make no demands of the computer will receive no benefit. It is up to all of us to make demands, to press for what we think it will be possible for it to do. IT is far too important a resource to be left in the hands of experts.” Digital Art History, A Subject in Transition Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Trish Cashen and Hazel Gardiner, 2004

Art and technology have always had a dynamic and interdependent relationship that has sparked profound philosophical discussions about the nature of existence and the individual capacity to bring monumental change. The parallels between the Renaissance's information revolution with the advent of the printing press and the necessity for a paradigm shift with the re-definition of truth, with the development of civil life, the life of the "city", as a platform for a flourishing art market that changes the rules of display and the conditions for art's viewing. The technological advancements during this time place humans at the centre of creation and emphasise human agency as a dominant power impacting the world and society. These humanist values provided the groundwork for modernity and modern life as we know it today. Similar connections could be made between the exponential rise of technology in the twenty-first century, with the inclusion of the internet, and people's perceptions of their ability to participate in this debate as partaking in a global conversation. This appears to address a far deeper question of what it means to embrace a global identity and to then choose to live a second life virtually. This decision becomes even more crucial when one considers how inherently and irrevocably inequality is linked to reality and how technology resurrects the dispossessed. Alan Turing, the British inventor of the computer, envisaged it as a "universal transformation” engine rather than an insulated discussion between people in white coats. It had the power to alter the very fabric of existence.

“In art, this change will be complete when the way we make, circulate and understand art is completely different from the way we do it now, and when the way we understand the difference between copies and original and between art and non-art will have adapted to the new models created by the information age.” Domenico Quaranta, In Your Computer, Brescia 2011.

No one alive today would deny the impact that the internet, computer screens, and social media have had on our society and our perception of the world, but there was still a divide with art prior to NFTs. Digital artists largely defaulted to being "service providers." Images displayed on phones and laptops retained their potency as content but were difficult to value on their own due to a lack of tangibility, ownership, and the fact that they were infinitely reproducible. Even though the legacy art world provided a venue for digital art with new media, something crucial remained missing: the context in which the work was viewed. "For a long time, it did not make sense to show net art in real space: museums or galleries. For good reasons you had to experience works of net artists on your connected computer" Olia Lialina, "Flat against the wall", 2007

Contemporary art constantly demonstrates its freedom and individuality by distinguishing its works from those of mass production and mass appeal. I will look at lowbrow art, not defined by the stylistic choices that an artist makes but rather as an abstraction of ideals that the community adheres to and the movement away from those core concepts and what it could mean. Taking a cursory glance at the driving force behind cryptocurrencies, one of the founding pillars in the conception of blockchain technology is the concept of consensus or decentralization. With NFTs being an integral part of the crypto culture, there seems to be a link between digital media transforming the realm of viewing and the inherent ideals held by the crypto community. The act of minting itself detaches the work from immediate geographic and socio-political contexts, allowing for a more democratic exchange of images and their symbolic and cultural values, thus permitting a far wider segment of diverse populations to experiment and create. Digital media provides the opportunity to create outside of traditional contexts and thus to create with the possibility of entering an international, digital conversation that is balanced by the community that has access to said technology.

Note: This serves as a repository for my thoughts on technology, art, and their intersections. I plan to expand on some of the insights offered here in the future. I'd also like to thank John Barrymore and Colette Robbins for all of their feedback as I was writing this piece. Going forward, I hope to have even more incredible art conversations with artists and collectors alike.