The changes that have accompanied advancing technology have become an indispensable part of reality as virtual reality has become an indispensable muse. Now more than ever, the prominence of virtual art has become slightly bewildering, as a mere decade ago selling a virtual artwork for a staggering $69,000,000 would have been inconceivable.
It seems that there isn’t room for much resistance as this change swooshes along everyone to join the forceful minority, the ones who have a specific vision of the future that drives their extremist actions – and buying virtual art for enormous sums of money is one.
The month of March witnessed the popularization of a new technology called NFT or the “Non-Fungible Token”, a digital solution that facilitates for the selling and acquiring of digital assets. NFTs cannot be traded like money; they can only be bought or sold most commonly in crypto currency. The terms “NFT Art”, “Crypto Art”, or “Blockchain Art” are used interchangeably to refer to protecting original digital artwork ownership by providing the rightful owner an official certificate. The art can still be duplicated, but data about the art, its owner, and ownership are stored in a blockchain ledger secured over thousands of servers. Consequently, the value of the digital art is not so much in itself as it is in the unique and prideful ownership of it that can be bought and sold whilst protecting the artist’s rights to a percentage return each time the work is resold (1).
Mike Winkelmann’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” is the digital artwork that sold at Christie’s auction for $69,000,000, which is more than some Picasso, Van Gogh, and Manet paintings as it ranks among one of three most expensive artworks ever to be sold by a living artist. The digital artwork is a collage of Winkelmann’s 13 years’ long collection of digital artworks which sum up to 5000 works, creating a mosaic-like digital piece. The buyer is an Indian billionaire, blockchain entrepreneur, and coder who goes by the name Metakoven, who has placed the digital art in the Metaverse digital museum. Metakoven explains that he would have bought the artwork for much more as he anticipates that the artwork will become of even greater value in the future.
But what makes a digital artwork worth $69,000,000? More generally, one must take a step back and ask, “What determines the value of art?” In one article, German art specialist and journalist Heni Neuendof outlines multiple factors that render an artwork valuable. First and foremost is the intuitive reason linked to the limited supply and high demand of an artwork (2). Veteran art dealer William Acquavella says, “You can remake your money, but you can’t remake the painting” (3).
According to gallery director Augusto Arbizo, other factors include the artist’s career, ownership history, the significance of the artist’s stylistic contribution to art history, and its representation of a particular artistic movement. On the other hand, the physical attributes such as size, medium, style, and quality of an artwork are also price influencers. Immediate recognition of the artwork that invokes prestige of ownership to the owner is as well undeniably vital to the determining of an artwork’s worth (3).
Understanding the fundamentals upon which art is valued and acknowledging the reasons behind the race to buying digital art can help foresee the faith and future of art in its digital forms. “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” is the first artwork to be sold with the NFT technology; consequently, it will inevitably be recorded as an iconic work which paved the way to the placing of value on digital artworks.
Protecting digital art will encourage digital artists to produce more and finally make a living which in turn will stimulate creativity and uniqueness. Perhaps contributing to growing digital museums that are complimented with virtual reality instruments will accentuate the value of a digital artwork.
The phenomenon of placing extortionate prices on intangible works says a lot about the future of art. Could assets in the virtual world become more valuable than those in the real world? If the craze of acquiring digital works through NFTs continues, assets in our digital or virtual worlds viewed through an Oculus will most probably be more valuable than those in our physical worlds. In such case, the possibilities of creating in the virtual world will be endless. Art’s value will have less to do with its physical attributes and more to do with the virtual experience it delivers. Imagination will inevitably extend to whole other dimensions. The future is exciting to futurists and terrifying to traditionalists, but the realists must adapt.
What are NFTs and why are some worth millions? – BBC News
Art Demystified: What Determines Artworks’ Value? | artnet News
The Value of Art: Money, Power, Beauty | Artnet News