The Non Fungible Token (NFT) emerged at the same time as cryptocurrencies, when Mike Winkelmann’s (beeple) Everydays: the First 5000 Days 2021 went under the hammer for $69 million at Christie’s auction in March 2021, and the avalanche was set in motion. Winkelmann instantly became the third most expensive artist alive. The hitherto anonymous NFT, which can be used to buy small 24×24 pixel CryptoPunks figurines, for example, went on a rampage, shaking up the art scene.
The NFT has given digital art the opportunity to be marketed, so we might as well think of it as the book printing of the 21st century, which now can be used to buy not the Bible but, for example, the Nyamnyam cat by anyone in the world. Anyone can then create and sell their own digital art in any number of copies to satisfy the customer’s desire for uniqueness and ownership. This phenomenon may also remind us of the famous Banana with which the customer did not actually buy the work of art, but only the possession of it, since he could always buy a new banana and replace it when it rotted.
The works on display exist in physical and virtual reality, with one NFT and a tangible original work by each of the creators. Virtual reality is undoubtedly the staple of the 21st century, so the emergence of artworks in the digital world is not surprising. It raises important questions about how our experienced reality exists, how outdated will our familiar physical reality seem in 100 years’ time? Like academic art education seen through the eyes of today.
We are living in a constant state of change, perhaps faster now than ever before. In 10 years the then cutting-edge technology will become obsolete and in a few years a device like the smartphone can change our lives, without which our basic activities may become impossible from the perspective of a generation socialised in the world of smart devices. Our presence in the online world is so important that anyone who disables it is almost like a volunteer hermit giving his or her life.
Exhibiting artists: Barabási-Albert László, Borsi Flóra, Csízik Balázs, Janosov Milán, KristofLab