The art-world over the last year has been abuzz with NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), especially post the sale of Beeple’s work, Everyday's: The First 5000 days, for $69.5mn by Christies to MetaKovan (Vignesh Sundaram) in March 2021. So, anyone remotely connected to digital commerce, art / collectibles / crypto monies need to be in on the conversation.
It’s here and its happening – no matter whether we have time to wrap our heads around what, whether, why or how! It appears largely to be fuelled by the explosion of new currencies, blockchain technology and is defining / redefining / changing the language of art.
The plethora of NFT platforms coming up, in India and internationally, the focus now is how quickly one can set up a site, align with a digital market platform, create a space for anything that might capture a buyer’s interest. At this point, it is difficult to predict whether the buyers would evolve to be collectors, but that seems to be almost moot, with the NFT space mirroring an e-commerce site.
The discussion on whether NFTs are art is not simple. As a creative expression of the current times, they have captured the imagination of a wider audience, more attuned with the digital world. They also allow engagement, through purchase, of digital currency investors. The heady numbers of some of the recent sales creates an added desirability. ‘
The NFT event in New York, NFT.NYC, in November 2021 was reported to be sold out and attended by both the start-up wonderkids and art world aficionados. The worlds of digital experts, gamers, fashion, music, hedge-fund managers, art mingled around this new commodity. The popular NFTs trading in apes, ducks and other similar images are snapped from the digital marketplace, the moment they come to the market. The NFTs are pushing the boundaries with original tweets, video games art, music, fashion, all making a claim on the market.
The market itself is fascinated by the ability to buy a digital image (which can be original tweet, verse, fashion illustration…the options are becoming limitless), backed by blockchain technology to establish ownership. In addition, since the trade is documented on the blockchain, the veil of pricing that galleries guarded zealously, no longer exists.
And to add some more tech, Metaverse, the alternate digital reality, where digital space is now expected to expand, seems to be the next stop for NFT trades. In fact Sotheby’s recently launched its exclusive digital art platform, named just that ‘Metaverse’ (https://metaverse.sothebys.com/natively-digital) , and Christies has undertaken successful NFT auctions in 2021. We know when these two powerhouses put their resources behind a tradable ártform’, the item has become mainstream.
Since this landscape has changed so dramatically over the last two years, it becomes difficult to predict where it will go next, but what remains interesting is how easy tradability, ability to establish originality and ownership, price transparency will restructure the established art market.
So what’s the flipside?
Some noises are made about the environmental impact of mining digital currency, but that is quickly absolved with the notion that technology will grow and become more efficient.
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