Some Thought Experiments + Things About NFT Art As A Non Artist

As with many new concepts the name has yet to be settled on. NFT Art, crypto art, tokenised art are all possible contenders and I am sure more are on their way. I will attempt to explain what it is by taking you through a simplified version of making it:

1. An artist creates a piece of art on a computer or uploads a piece of art to one (for example, an image or video created on a computer, a photo or even a hand drawn picture. In fact, anything that can be considered art and can be made digital.)
2. The artist accesses a marketplace whereupon his art can be “minted” or “tokenized”. It is done so with a unique key associated with the artist.
3. The art now exists on the internet . A unique token attached to it. And a unique artist key attached to that.

Pixels.

So, in the same way that a unique key allows someone access to their bitcoin. A unique key exists, owned by this artist that proves he is, indeed, the artist.

I am in turmoil when I consider NFT Art. You don’t own anything “real”, it’s just a thing on a screen and what are you supposed to do with it once you’ve paid for it? I’ve bought some pieces and I think I’m getting closer and closer to my conclusion with each day that passes. I went through a similar process when I stumbled into the world of cryptocurrency. These are paradigm shifts that require us to forget what we thought we knew.

A quick flick through my news feed tells me that NFT Art is on the minds of many people at the moment. Groundbreaking moments are relatively easy to create for the bold thinkers during these relatively early days in the space. If you’re burning some valuable art while tokenizing it, selling a blank white square of pixels for thousands of dollars or you’re a top-selling band who’s going to put their next album on the ethereum blockchain then you’re one of them.

Below I’ve collected some ideas about ways to think about crypto art.

Hourly Rate

How much time was spent creating this art? How many hours of practise and training and failing has gone into making the person who created it? If you pay a plumber or builder £15 or $20 an hour to make or fix something how much should you pay a 3d modeler for sole, irrefutable ownership of this image or video that you enjoy. Think about the cost of the art and relate it to how long it takes you to earn that money too. If it makes you happy giving money to the creator is a great way to potentially get more of those feelings in the future.

Would You Buy A Photograph?

People already pay millions of dollars for photographs. In a way digitally tokenized art is no different. With both formats you have paid money for something that is easily reproducible. In fact, a good way to consider this is to think about how crypto art is a superior way to own art over a photo in numerous ways. If you buy a photo you really have no way of making sure it never gets re-printed, with Crypto Art anyone can check how many copies exist. If you buy a photo you must now keep that physical object safe, it will also degrade over time. Crypto art will not degrade and keeping it safe amounts to careful control of a password.

There Are Similar And Successful Markets

In a similar vein to the practise of buying photographs as art there is a healthy resale market for art prints and posters ( check out artcollectorz and expressobeans ). Again, here are people trading easily reproducible pieces of art simply printed on paper for thousands of dollars. With these comparisons i’m not trying to do anything other than indicate that there is a proven and profitable market for things that can just be viewed on the internet and/or printed out on a home printer.

A Seller’s Market

Imagine you are an artist. You enjoy making things. You stumble upon a place on the internet where people are willing to pay $250 — $25,000,000 for pieces of art that are being created all over the world. You see that these people don’t need managers to sell their art. You see that international boundaries are made irrelevant by this marketplace. Then, you find out that it’s possible to seamlessly profit from subsequent sales of your art in the second hand market ( the artist can set a percentage value to a piece of art, further sales grant that percentage of the sales figure back to the artist ). Your next thought is probably related to getting involved in this new idea.

A market relies on sellers gathering. If a market has an unheard amount of positives attracting factors for a group of sellers they will gather. If a high quality of sellers gather around one idea the buyers will come. Crypto art has shifted this choice to the artists.

But I Can’t Touch It

I understand, you spend some hard earned cash on a piece of digital art and all you can do is look at it on the screen. Here are some things to consider regarding this sticking point. With some pieces the artists are actually packaging in a physical product too. I expect this trend to continue. With more commercial crypto art marketplaces popping we may see the reverse occurring too. You might buy a physical product that comes with a non-fungible token to prove ownership. Worlds collide.

You can of course print yourself anything you like with your bought image. A quick google search will reveal a myriad of items that some enterprising company can run through a printer. The sky is the limit.

The Future Is Close

This leads me nicely into another factor I see rapidly developing. First we had chunky flat screen tvs and mobile phones, then they got thinner. We have tablets and screens on our watches. The thin LCD display has become ubiquitous. They’re cheap and getting cheaper. I posit that it’s only a matter of a few years before wall hanging, thin LCD screens hit impulse-buy cost territory. I expect to be able to direct said frame to my digital art wallet and automatically see and display my new purchases.

It’s Actually An Upgrade

As more artists enter this new world expect to see art that was previously impossible, or at least, tricker to achieve. I’ll give a few examples to bolster my claim. First we have Async Art. Here the artist can program features to alter the art even after it’s been sold. Imagine buying some art, it’s displaying on your digital wall frame and you notice the artist has added an extra element. Just for you. It could be made to change infinitely, never the exact twice. I’m struggling to think of another artistic medium where this is possible or accessible.

Welcome To The Matrix

At huge risk of getting far too geeky, we already have digital virtual worlds where people can hang their virtual art. It might not be your idea of fun but it’s coming. If you think ahead can you see this as an emerging trend in the decade to come? How will easier and more accessible virtual reality affect this? Take a look at some work by Michael Kozlowski for an idea of where things are going.

Innovate

In this relatively young space I believe there are many broad innovations that are yet to occur. Owning pieces of crypto art could be made to give discounts or special gifts. There have already been instances where owning a few pieces of art automatically granted you another piece for free. Artists will revel in this ability to add their own surprises and “easter eggs”. The only limit is their imagination. And that is something, by rote, we know they have in abundance.