To NFT or not to NFT
Is That A New Question?
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This year, 2021, seems to have been the year of the NFT. Certainly the exposure and interest generated has been very high. It’s a “new” sort of thing because of the technological aspects, but is it “good” or “bad” or still an “unknown?”
I’ve long been a digital artist and photographer, so the ability to take a finished digital artwork and give it a property which makes it certifiably unique for marketing and ownership purposes really caught my attention. I’ve spent many long hours happily involved in creative effort only to end up with a JPG image that I can share around, usually for free, and just feel happy about. In other cases I creatively coded routines that helped yield infinitely variable images through special software.
On occasion I’ve been able to market my skills and get paid for doing digital manipulations that in the end can be viewed as an image. That is still a limited system for reward. At the time, the goal was a level of personal enjoyment in the process, the results of which transcended whether or not I got paid.
Enter the NFT opportunity
The quality of this method of ownership and uniqueness seemed to be immediately visible to me, and of interest. Many old ideas for images and effects have popped up in my mind again as I contemplated how this could be useful or fun, as well as financially rewarding. After working for many years with fractals, I understand “unique” in some special ways, but the end product of a JPG hasn’t been easy to monetize.
Now with the NFT , I can go back to those tools and generate some new works which I can “mint” into an NFT. That gives it a special way to be valued and used for display art, to be kept or traded, and possibly many other uses that in various ways pays the original artist to begin with and has possible royalties too.
Plus, an NFT can have various additional behaviors so that the work can react to various inputs and become customized to factors such as time of day or season, or other external data inputs. This means that an artwork can be animated, changing, and interactive instead of being just a singular flat image.
The possibility of providing a physical copy of the artwork along with the original digital work is another interesting possibility. It seems kind of absurd to take a painted masterpiece and use it only as the model for your digital photo which becomes the NFT. However some artists are painting large pieces, then photographing small sections of the larger work and selling just the digital images while they retain the original work, which is not part of the NFT.
I like the idea of providing a digital work along with a physical artwork as part of the end product, but here’s another thought. Once a graphical work is photographed, there are thousands of things one can do in changing, adding, modifying, and blending that photo with various processes and other images to generate a final work that simply CAN’T be done with physical paints and tools.
I have numerous ideas to explore, but the bigger issue revolves around the energy efficiency and practicality of the NFT as artwork. That power of uniqueness is derived from thousands of hours of really intense and heavy computer operations. That’s how the blockchain operates, and where this transparent record of ownership and uniqueness resides. Can that be made more efficient? Is it really less “green” than more traditional artwork marketing methods?
OK, let’s take a look at some factors. An artist may have a studio somewhere that needs lights, heat, other utilities and a place they can work. They need physical materials, paints, fabrics, frames, brushes, various tools, papers and numerous other things which inspire, aid, and otherwise help the creative effort. The artist also needs to eat, drink, and live in hopefully a healthy way.
Then they take the finished works to a gallery. Yes, there are many ways art can be marketed and each of those have “costs” in terms of carbon footprint and time expended. The gallery is typically a physical place where wall space is used to display the art and possible collectors can look at and evaluate the works for sale.
Lets not forget how everyone gets around? The artist and friends have cars or even a bus uses fuel and requires mechanical devices. The art materials industry has factories and trucks, the stores have employees and a place to maintain. The gallery has employees, and some of them do a lot of driving. A showing brings many potential collectors to a location to socialize and consider buying. Lets not forget the cell phones, computers, and other media like newspapers, TV, and internet exposure.
We’re just getting started and already we’ve realized that there’s a huge carbon footprint involved in ordinary life. Its always been that way but the industrial revolution definitely has made it worse. Forget art, we might need to go back to growing beans and potatoes! That’s not practical for maybe 80% of the population today, given how things work in most countries.
I think we’re looking at how rotten the existence of humanity has gotten to be with our departure from the methods, guidelines, and purposes which our Creator gave us originally. We can’t from our human perspective begin to “fix” all of those problems, but we do have to live where we are day by day as best we can.
In addition, this inside look at things should send us back to the Bible to rediscover what God intended for our lives. He definitely doesn’t want us to be bored or unhealthy, and He gave us exceptional abilities to think and to do. He’s got a plan to fix the world and us, but we need to get on board with His plans so we can participate in improving our own lives.
That being said, it seems that perhaps the NFT doesn’t fare so badly compared to the older systems of artwork producing, valuing and trading. We each have different reasons to be creative and different ideas which drive us.
I could care less for those big ugly pixelated works that have garnered thousands of dollars and tons of attention! If someone likes that and wants to spend big money on them, its their thing, not mine. For me those don’t identify the potential for NFTs. As various art sellers have pointed out, an artwork’s value is in the eye of the beholder.
It appears that while the technology of the NFT is new, the search to find and use value from creative effort is as old as humanity.
Each artist has an inner vision which they seek to express in some way. I like the idea that I can work with my inner vision and processes, and introduce the finished work to a digital marketplace with a way to track the interest and profit from the activity.
At some point this whole system including fiat money will collapse as will most of society’s norms. Then I won’t be able to sell artwork anywhere, nor will I have time to pursue creative technical endeavors. That’s when knowing God’s plan for us and for earth will be more valuable than the careers we have today.
For now I’m interested in the NFT for possible designs and projects. It looks to be worthwhile in the “green” sense as well as practical in many other ways too. As gas prices skyrocket, the driving thing becomes nigh impossible and that’s going to kill practicalities in our lives in so many ways.
The largest domino setup ever has been laid out across the planet and somewhere, likely many somewheres lots of them have been stepped on and tipped over. How long before those effects impact the “dominoes” relative to your circle of existence?
I still have to work doing various crafts and skills to survive so making NFTs could possibly fit into that picture. I invite all who read this to dig deeper into God’s plans because the plans humanity has made and followed is not going to hang together for very much longer. God has always known that and He is waiting for each individual to invite His personal input and help.
Are you an artist contemplating NFTs? If so please comment with your thoughts and ideas and results.
Many thanks to an article posted by Carolin Stoffels, How I sold my first 24 NFTs. Notice how she compares ordinary gift card usage to the use of NFTs!
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