NFT’s has the keyboard become the new paint brush?

This is a moving NFT produced for Citywealth


By Karen Jones, Citywealth

I have spent my life working in the media including News Corporation, working in management, and advertising roles. I have also spent a portion of my time with the LegalTech industry in the USA and have studied fintech at Oxford University Said Business School and multiple online coding, data and fintech courses.

I also have a personal passion for art history, which I have studied for ten years at the Courtauld Institute for art in London. Why is this relevant? The media are at the cusp of new developments and see things before others do. I have also seen how art is affected by the events of history.

Think of Chairman Mao in 1950. He burned all art and antiques because they were bougie and did not fit with his communist vision. The reaction from Chinese artists was to develop political pop and activist art as a response.

Now think of Covid. I think Covid spring loaded crypto because all of us were stuck in our homes in a unique moment in history. People had to find things to do and crypto benefited from this. It was like the digital version of banking banana bread.

To explain NFT’s (Non Fungible tokens) they are digital files converted into NFT’s and stored as a unique file on the blockchain. However, don’t get too caught up in the tech or having to understand blockchain. You don’t need to know the engineering of a car to drive it. Like social media platforms, NFT’s will get integrated with day-to-day tech to make the future as simple as clicking a like.

Although there are earlier NFT’s, the most famous are crypto kitties in 2017 which were developed to demonstrate the use case for the Ethereum blockchain. Despite their success the real breakthrough for NFT’s came in 2021 with a collection called the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Also, Beeple, one of the most famous NFT artists, sold at Christies for $69million. From 2007 he made an NFT every day even on his wedding day and then after five thousand days, he collated those into one NFT that made worldwide headlines. He is now making a real-life art gallery in South Carolina to display NFT’s on TV screens.

Crypto and NFT’s are inextricably linked so in terms of price if crypto crashes so do NFT prices. In addition, valuation has been a problem on the major NFT sites. It is not realistic for reselling but as the software improves this is being addressed.

A lot of people don’t like NFT’s or believe in them, including crypto traders but as they have grown in value it has peaked everyone’s interest. People also say you can just take a screen shot of an NFT so there is no value in it. However, you can also take a picture of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, it does not mean you own it nor can resell it for millions.

I think differently. This is art history in the making. Because art always tries to find innovation. Being an artist is like a religious calling, you must suffer for your beliefs. I think the keyboard has become the new paintbrush.

In terms of innovators in art history I think of Pollock and his drip paintings. He was driven to innovate. He didn’t use the easel he used the floor. Think also of the impressionists like Monet with their new softer almost blurry images. They were considered vulgar and slapdash but now both artists sell for tens of millions.

There are also NFT’s in beauty, fashion, and retail. One retail company sells bottles of alcohol with physical storage and a digital NFT certificate. This brings a new crypto native customer and a new way to sell alcohol.

A high fashion dress company sold digital versions of their dresses and nine sold for c$5million. A beauty company included an NFT artist and a free NFT with each purchase. These are all new ways to market to customers, to be relevant in the digital world and to get growth. However, I issue a warning to real world companies who are chasing a quick buck.

Always remember it is a tech industry and the most successful NFT’s now are from the crypto industry like the Apes (which means apeing into a trade in crypto). So, thinking about the crypto world before the commercial world is a good mindset to have. The crypto world language is memes mainly featuring animals – look up the vibing cat.

Real life artists are getting involved – Damien Hirst just made a joint real-life print and NFT collection called The Currency. For $2k you bought the art then chose to burn (destroy) the real print or the NFT. He did a live show in a silver outfit burning his work to create rarity (a massive thing in crypto). It was a concept never seen before. It was art and innovation. It was art history in the making.

So, it is all art, no. Is all the art good? No. Have the art and creative industry found a new outlet for their creativity? Yes. NFT’s create a world for artists or content creators to go straight to market. Royalties were one question raised by the artists but this has now been addressed and platforms market that they do or don’t provide this option (traders like it less as adds to costs of sales).

I believe NFT’s are art history in the making and also that the keyboard has become the new paintbrush.

One of the highest selling NFT’s

Pak’s The Merge  https://www.barrons.com/articles/paks-nft-artwork-the-merge-sells-for-91-8-million-01638918205

NFT Collections Listed By Sales Volume https://coinmarketcap.com/nft/collections/

Here is my opensea gallery https://opensea.io/wwjonesy

Beeples first 5000 days https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924

Beeple on X https://twitter.com/beeple

Jackson Pollock drip paintings https://www.moma.org/artists/4675

Blockbar marketplace https://blockbar.com/marketplace

NFT artist https://www.carlachan.com/

https://www.jpmorgan.com/content/dam/jpm/treasury-services/documents/opportunities-in-the-metaverse.pdf

10 Hours - Cat Vibing To Ievan Polkka (Official Video HD) Cat Vibing To Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nQU_8Nm0Yk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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