(something from last year – going through the journals and posting exerpts)
NFTs are an interesting way of bringing the commodification of objecthood to digital art. But the objecthood is not stored in the object, but rather in the faith that an arbitrary but unique calculation that points to a place where an indistinguishable copy of a digital file is stored. Whereas a painting is an object, in so much as anything can be, the Token is just that, a placeholder, a pointer, a map to a location. It’s as though the documentation of provenance is also the proof of existence. The certificate is suitable for framing. It’s a fascinating outgrowth of Art as pure commodification that what is important here is not the Art but the Authorship, and not really the Authorship but the Authenticatability of the Art as transaction. There’s no real requirement aside from faith in a storage vending service that what is pointed to is immutable. It’s the perfect late capitalist creative expression where there is nothing outside of the financial transaction “product”. That isn’t to say people won’t get rich off of them; they may actually be a fantastic investment opportunity for the right portfolio.
scottsingercg 