The way we consume media has fundamentally changed in the previous decade. Physical ownership has given place to digital streaming services that enable access to music, movies, and literature libraries 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Paintings, sculptures, and photography have mostly withstood these shifts to date. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), appears to be changing that as well as putting art at the vanguard of a consumer revolution.
“The pandemic has practically brought ‘art’ into the Internet,” Ulvi Kasimov, founder of the ART domain registry and a member of the Observer’s 2020 Arts Power 50 list, said. “In favor of digital works, NFTs, and shared access, formerly held desires for possession of a physical cultural object have vanished.” He added.
“There is a desire to produce digital experiences that genuinely feel less transient,” Shane Lavalette and Ashlyn Davis Burns, co-founders of Assembly gallery, agency, and creative studio, highlighted. “Hence the blockchain as ‘permanence’ and the notion of provenance in the digital domain.” They added that they will undoubtedly witness more digitally native art at NFTs, as well as artists working on projects that respond to NFTs and blockchain as a medium in and of itself, this is already occurring.
According to Kasimov, there is a generational shift at work, with younger art aficionados placing a higher value on “impressions and experiences” than on material items.
Whereas the shift from a culture of ownership to a culture of streaming has already occurred in visual arts such as film and television, it is only now beginning to be felt in the art world, thanks to the introduction of NFTs—cryptographically unique tokens that can be linked to digital content like artwork and music. For the first time, it is feasible to verify ownership of a digital artwork, as well as the existence of digital art with demonstrable scarcity.
From analog to digital to Web 3
“We’re transitioning from an analog to a Web 3 world,” Joe Kennedy, Co-founder and Director of Contemporary Art Gallery Unit London, emphasized. “Communication will fundamentally change, provenance will fundamentally change, aesthetics will fundamentally change.” “Many societal values will shift as a result of this generational shift.”
As the world of fine art has been flipped on its head by the introduction of non-fungible tokens. Unit London is one of a handful of galleries that have sponsored exhibitions of NFTs in recent months. Beeple, a digital artist, made headlines earlier this year when he sold an NFT of his work for $69 million, instantly making him the third-most valuable living artist. Mainstays of the traditional art world, such as auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s, have flocked to embrace NFTs since then.
House of Fine Art, London, is another gallery that will be moving into the NFT premises. “The only way art NFTs are going to keep expanding and people are going to keep buying, and collectors from the traditional space are going to move in, is if the top galleries are involved,” Head of Digital, Jake Elias.
Galleries, on the other hand, will need to consider how NFTs are altering the art industry. According to Lavalette and Davis Burns, the NFT environment encourages decentralization and a democratic culture. They explained, “There is inevitably a rejection of institutions and gatekeepers in this.” “This is a healthy rejection, since it opens up new options for artists to add value to their work in other ways, such as through community. Artists are finding success in developing audiences for their work without the use of galleries, museums, or other traditional venues, while also forging stronger direct relationships with collectors.”
Pioneers in the digital realm
That’s where digital trailblazers like.ART are making their mark. With less to lose, Kasimov believes the potential for gain is even greater. “Change frequently happens from the bottom up, with artists and the creative class in general: constructing the infrastructure of digital consumption,” he explained, citing individual artists’ daily sales records for NFT works.
ART is positioned to serve as a link between the traditional world of galleries, museums, and auction houses, as well as individual artists interested in participating in the cultural transformation ushered in by NFTs. It gives customers a one-stop shop for low-cost domain name registration and free website creation, as well as easy, direct access to blockchain platforms like the Ethereum Naming Service and NFT minting services, which are both important in the new sharing culture.
“ART allows the worldwide art community to participate in the digital and shared consumption revolution by lowering the obstacles,” Kasimov added. In the face of climate change, that movement could usher in a new way of thinking about consumption—a culture shift that we need to embrace. “Humanity produces to meet consuming need,” Kasimov added, calling government commitments to cut output a “false choice.” “It’s impossible to discuss changes in production without also discussing changes in consumption, or in other words, changes in how we live. This is challenging since our materialistic culture is the foundation of modern consuming; we live in a “culture of consumption.”
“It’ll be intriguing to observe whether—or when—the art community’s common culture spills over into other consumption modes and has a genuine impact on the world’s attitude to environmental challenges,” he said.
As NFTs gain traction in the art world and make their presence felt, that sharing culture will only grow and change. “There’s a lot of interest in space right now, and I think it’s going to become a mainstream aspect of culture,” Kennedy said. “I truly believe that the stars of the art world in the next ten years will be artists who use smart contract mechanics to guide their practice and create either generative or thoughtful digital work—both of which will have a significant cultural impact. Because it speaks directly to the current change we’re witnessing.”
ART is a next-generation domain registration service that allows artists to create a website address, pair it with a crypto wallet identity, develop a website, and generate digital twins and NFTs with digital certificates of authenticity that store provenance on blockchain.