On Blockchain, Everyone knows you're a dog (or not)

“Chang Ming Yao Biennial”, organized on the akaSwap Artist Club, is a first ever exhibition using the smart contract of the Club. The exhibition is curated by Chang Ming Yao, with a total of 42 NFT works by 23 participated artists, exhibited in his Club called “Ming Yao's Game” from 17 September to 16 October 2022.

Before talking about the exhibition, let’s look at the mechanism of Artist Club on akaSwap. The Artist Club function is created by Tezos NFT platform akaSwap for creators and fans to build community interaction. According to akaSwap fans can join the creator's Artist Club by staking akaDAO (⩘), a token automatically airdropped to wallet through transaction on the platform. Each fan will share in the proceeds of the Artist Club on a pro rata basis.

There are many ways to show a collection of NFT artworks, from Oncyber, Deca and may other eye-catching online gallery, exhibition in virtual space or so-called metaverse. The connection behind these NFT artworks, no matter you own a piece of NFT artwork or not, still being controlled by those who created the showcase.

But what if the owner of the Artist Club has the flexibility over the smart contract? The NFT artworks listed in “Owned” page of the Artist Club are not created by the club owner — they are all submitted by other participated artists. These works are listed for sale, just like the work “Broken Social Scene” by ileiv oivm (Aluan Wang), it is still minted bythe artist but listed by the curator Chang Ming Yao. After the event, all of the works will be returned to the wallets of the participated artist.

“Broken Social Scene” by ileiv oivm (AluanWang): https://akaswap.com/akaobj/10205

After jumping into the world of NFT for more than a year, revisit of Boris Groys’s “Under the Gaze of Theory” in his book In the Flow (1) gives me some reflection to re-think. The collapse of traditions in art floating around the globe is happening everyday, but what if different forms of protest against these traditions collapse as well?

As Groys argues, ordinary people like you and me are all artists of ourselves for the Internet’s gaze, the Internet has made artists, rather than their works, to become the object of the spectatorial gaze:

“the Internet gives something like a whole picture. It's only one picture that we want: the only picture of our time is the Internet itself. It is obvious that this picture is made not for human eyes; humans cannot see the Internet in its totality. It is made, actually, for God: only a divine gaze—because divine gaze is infinite—is able to see the Internet.”(2)

The emergence of blockchain technology, therefore, gifts all of the artists a greater but yet limited vision to the internet. I think it may go too far to explore whether the purpose of art is to free artists from the final metaphysical illusion of postmodernity or not, yet the artworks and exhibition created on blockchain, like in the “Chang Ming Yao Biennial”, have already shown the possibilities to make a change that beyond our imagination.

If the “Chang Ming Yao Biennial itself is art, the only things about the art is probably the guidebook. And there a printed signed copy with illustration on the cover for the NFT holder, so it’s more or less like a non-fungible gudiebook. May be it’s an utopian dream, but it doesn't mean nothing left after all. Just like the cover the guidebook, a dog barking at the sky for its existence. Yes, on blockchain, everyone knows you're a dog (or not).

(1) Groys, B. (2017) In the Flow. London: Verso.

(2) “Boris Groys in Conversation with Johnson Chang”, Ideas Journal, Asia Art Archive (accessed on 24 Sep 2022)