Beeple’s collage, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold at Christie’s

Why (and why not) NFT’s are here to stay

NFT’s or Non-Fungible Tokens are the new ‘thing’, the cool kid on the blockchain, for reasons I can’t completely understand but am nonetheless convinced of. And if that’s nonsensical enough to convince you to stop reading, then don’t. Let’s try to find out together and enjoy the process, since the art is in the telling.

On March 11th, a work of art created by an artist named Beeple, sold for $69M USD at a Christie’s auction. The high price was remarkable, however not unprecedented, Monet’s paintings or Giacometti’s sculptures have sold for more. The fact the artwork was digital not physical made it noteworthy, and so too was the fact that for the first time in history, a unique, encoded signature of sorts accompanied it, allowing the holder to prove it’s authenticity and ownership. Proponents argue that this ability to prove provenance amounts to an epoch in art history, for now digitized art can be non-fungible. Fungible? A funny word, and one truthfully, I had to look up. But one you too will soon come to know and even incorporate into your vernacular.

According to Oxford, fungible is described as having to do with commercial trade, specifically when an item is; ‘able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.’  A baseball card of your favorite player isn’t so rare when millions of them are produced. However, an autographed version of the card makes it all the more rare, and therefore much less fungible. Digital images on the other hand, can be replicated by download or screen capture and are wholly fungible. Until now that is. Digital content can now become non-fungible images through the use of an advanced technology called Blockchain. For those who wish to delve into the technicalities (I don’t) – click here.

And it begs the question, are NTF’s the New Coke, borne of great promise but unable to quench our thirst?

 NFTS have spring upon the world and so too are the marketplaces that sell them. According to Forbes, OpenSea, the self-described largest of marketplace of NFT’s, saw its sales rise from almost $5M in the first week of 2021 to over $100M within three months.

And it begs the question, are NTF’s the New Coke, borne of great promise but unable to quench our thirst? Truthfully, I’m uncertain, but when I recall the time in the early 2000’s when I scolded a friend for text messaging someone (aghast at his idiocy, I jeered and said; ‘Why text him? Just call him and leave him a voice mail!), then it reminds me that it’s not prudent to dismiss novel techno-advances outright. But let me you give an argument for and against it before I give you my verdict.

Digital art from a collectible standpoint has no tactile or olfactory element. You can’t smell it or feel it. Anyone who collects sports cards gets the unique smell of bubble gum and yearns to touch the powdery film upon the cards when you open the package. As a watch collector myself, I stare at my watches, from every angle many times a day, not so much to tell the time, but to admire their artful construction, how the light catches the crystal, how the second hand sweeps smoothly or how the colors of the dial and bezel play gleefully with the strap. All the while, I am humbled by the engineering within a watch’s automatic movement. There’s no battery or electronics, just springs, cogs and pinions working in harmony, like a little solar system, to tell you the time. Digital art has none of these and more so, given the perpetual tendency for the computing industry to simplify things, leaves me with the impression that if I worked hard enough, or if the software develops enough, I might come to possess the skill of the digital artist. I don’t remotely feel this way when I look at the impressionism of Monet, the photo-realism of Richard Estes or the fine tuned movement of a Rolex. In short, digital has no ‘magic’ for me.

Well … maybe not so.

A defining part of digital is experiential. Images, regardless of how they were constructed, can evoke deep emotional feelings and connections. Video’s moving frames, sounds and music, even more so. Take Beeple’s ‘Crossroad’, a  video of a humiliated Trump, lying dead upon the ground, naked and defiled, a video likely to incite feelings of elation or anger depending on your political persuasion.  Our polarized media has weaponized the power of curated imagery for the same reason, because it works. Digital art is just one more way to point and shoot, and so while it will bring beauty to the fore as art does, it will also serve to divide us. Like patches, badges or colored strips, NFTs will attest to our membership in a world of splintering tribes. Similarly, NFTS will become another means to convey status in our social hierarchy. Imagine showing your friends the latest Beeple or Banksy and have the Blockchain signature to prove it’s really yours, or your kids screaming for a digital greeting from Justin Bieber so they can stroll into the schoolyard with the bona fides to match? It’s the same reason that people buy Mercedes instead of Hondas, Prada over Sketchers, and any number of things that exceed basic utility. Like icing on the cake, the NFT will adorn the screens of our treasured mobile phones as they become an extension to those very human needs we ceaselessly crave – identity and the need to be loved. And since these desires are far more powerful than the feelings of admiration or esteem common to tangible collectibles, the NFT will also hitch a ride on the human journey. 

And while it won’t kick it’s fungible cousin to the curb, it may jump to the passenger seat and ride shotgun.