All works are available from an online marketplace called the Foundation, and bids start at about 1 ETH, or $ 3,700 at a time.
Under the digital hammer
Over the last 18 months, the world of art has undergone a radical digital transformation.
The champagne drinking class wants to bring down the checkbook and instead go into the gallery with a cryptocurrency wallet and buy new, desperately cool digital artist work.
Digital art has long been easy to duplicate online, making it difficult for artists, galleries, and auction houses to assign history and value to items.
Daily: Digital collage by Beeple for the first 5000 days. Sold for $ 69.3 million. Christie’s
But with the recent introduction of NFT, a non-fungible token, the world of art is a world of history and cool, hips that is coveted to appeal to young and wealthy children at home in the “Metaverse”. Got a new tool for both marketing.
The essence of NFTs is the tradable code attached to digital items such as images and videos. A secure network of computers records assets in a digital ledger, providing buyers with proof of credibility and ownership. When the owner of an asset changes, the ledger records each owner.
Because these digital ledgers are public and NFTs are programmable code, artists and galleries can pre-arrange commissions with artists whenever their work is on sale.
This says that auction houses such as Christie’s are a good alternative to the paper-based “Certificate of Authenticity” that accompanies the sale of original artwork.
Last year, the 256-year-old auction house promoted the sale of the most expensive NFT-related digital artwork to date. Beeple, an American digital artist also known as Mike Winkelmann, Every day: First 5000 days It was sent to the blockchain and sold at auction for $ 69 million.
The work itself was a collation of Winkelman’s 13 and a half years of effort to create and post digital photographs every day.
This sale has blown people’s hearts, brought NFT technology to mainstream awareness, and marked the beginning of an insane practice in NFT-related digital artwork production.
The popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs currently sell for millions of dollars each.
Beeple’s every day According to data from analytics platform Dapp Radar, over US $ 10 billion of NFTs sold last July were traded and over 300 million NFTs were created on various blockchains.
Bored monkeyThe set of monkey photos, which look like stones, are currently sold for millions of dollars each and serve as exclusive tickets for high-end parties hosted by the group that created the NFT, Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The Sports Code has created an NFT to serve as an exclusive ticket for fans to meet players or to commemorate a famous victory. Fashion brands are releasing a wave of elite digital clothing for NFTs.
But the advent of technology that proves who owns and creates digital assets has also exposed the darker side of cryptocurrencies: rampant unregulated speculation and fraud.
Recently called YouTube video Line goes up: NFT problem I got a virus.
Created by Canadian documentary maker Dan Olson, this work critically considers the underlying NFT technology, the vibrant and active culture of “Cryptobros”, and their money-making agenda. ..
“NFT [are] Today, it dominates the collective brain space of digital artists and sucks up all the oxygen in the room, “Olson tells the viewer.
He disassembled the Bitcoin and Ethereum mechanics and said their variability, laborious trading hours, and fluctuating “gas” charges make them useless as a wide range of payment methods.
But he says the NFT is a brilliant front of the unsustainable bubble that is the speculation of cryptocurrencies.
He points out that NFT-related artwork can only be purchased and traded using cryptocurrencies, so it only serves as a means of increasing the value of the tokens used in the purchase.
“NFTs exist to get you to buy crypto,” he says.
As part of his critique, he aims for the “artwork” itself. The Bored monkey It’s not a technically complex digital piece, nor is it CryptoPunks, another popular set of pixelated digital characters.
Often recognized as the first NFT-created digital art, Canadian design studio Lava Labs released 10,000 CryptoPunks for free in mid-2017.
They were snapped by people familiar with the internet. Many say their expedition has cemented their importance in Internet culture and therefore their value.
But Olsen points out that works such as CryptoPunks, which were initially free but now sell for millions of dollars, show how broken and immature the NFT art market is. increase.
“It’s not about art, it’s about speculative value. It’s not about you, it’s about something that might be of value to someone else in the future,” he says.
A group of NFT “traders” gather in chat rooms and forums to plan which assets to stack next before cashing out and moving on.
“It’s a casino, not a market, and we’re betting on infinitely digitally replicable image and video receipts,” he says. “As long as you can raise the line, it doesn’t matter in itself.”
And like anything related to cryptography, fraud is lurking everywhere. Last October, female CryptoPunk (CryptoPunk # 9998) Sold for $ 532 million.
But when it was discovered that the owners of the work were actually trying to sell it to themselves, they were probably frowned upon to raise the price and create hype.
This tactic is known as “dressing clothes” and is widely recognized as the driving force behind volatile NFT prices.
But serious art buyers are keeping an eye on NFT speculation that is rampant in the enthusiastic world of the online market, developing ways to distinguish between awkward internet trolls and the next beeple.
Australian collector
Towards the back Hygiene At the exhibition in South Bondi, there is actually an exhibition of beeple.
Electric purple animation called To ether Gently pulse on a high resolution screen.
It’s not for sale, but some brief conversations with other patrons reveal that this and the adjacent work by Trevor Jones is a big draw card for people to get involved.
To ether Shows two astronauts reaching for the giant glowing Ethereum symbol. Ethereum is a blockchain that enhances smart contracts and is the main technology behind NFTs.
Next to each screen is a QR code that allows prospective buyers to scan for information about the artist, starting price, and the underlying cryptographic signature to verify that it’s locked to the blockchain.
Much of the most popular digital art built into NFT technology has some form of cryptographic motif.
nevertheless To ether People are gathering in a spacey image Bitcoin Angel, Part of a wide range of releases by Scottish artist Trevor Jones.
Jones animated Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th century baroque sculpture Ecstasy of St. Theresia For digital files to move. In the animation, St. Teresa is in her angel’s arms, watching her angel stab her with an arrow and her golden bitcoin spilling from her chest.
When Markwood Ward, Melbourne-based investment manager at Apollo Capital and owner of the artwork for Beeple and Trevor Jones, appears on my side, I’ll understand what’s happening here. It is said that.
Woodward is an avid NFT collector who built his venture capital career by discovering and supporting emerging technologies in Silicon Valley before moving to Australia.
“These are great,” he said, looking up at the work of Beeple and Jones, which he lent to curator David Porto Beckefeld. Hygiene Performance.
Like a proud father, Woodward picks up his cell phone and shows him a collection of other digital artwork that he has easily collected, alongside the digital asset boom.
He says the history of digital assets is a game changer. Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg, also at the opening of the exhibition, agrees.
Bragg has long been the face of government-cryptocurrency interactions. Last year, he released a set of recommendations on cryptographic regulations currently under consideration by the Treasury.
But apart from his interest in fledgling technology, known for the potential for banking turmoil and volatile price volatility, Bragg has long defended the rights of indigenous peoples.
Talk to the crowd Of satellite At the beginning, Bragg outlines how NFT technology can be used to establish fair payments for artists.
“We’ve all seen indigenous works of art hanging in galleries with price tags of thousands of dollars,” he tells the gathered buyers.
“And many of us know that most of the money isn’t returned to country artists, especially as the work is sold over and over again and the prices are getting higher and higher.”
Art collection is one of Woodward’s passions and is reflected throughout society in many ways.
In his collection, Woodward identified early momentums experimenting with new techniques. He participates in a large amount of user-generated artwork.
“You can view your collection anywhere, anywhere, and send it as a gift to your friends and family. I know that if you choose to sell, a certain percentage will be returned to the artist,” he said. Says.
“As a collector of the digital domain, it’s powerful.”
