Right-Click, Save Trust
NFTs and the Forging of Future Societies in the Guise of Art — Part V
From CryptoPunks, Beeple’s record breaking NFT to BoredApeYatchClub and the dramatic merging of the Punks and Apes under the stewardship of Yuga Labs in 2022, this essay is a 5 part series exploring how NFTs are not merely a value creating tool, but a vehicle for building future societies in the guise of art.
Part I: Origins of Crypto Culture — Transition into The Age of Value
Part II: CryptoPunks — Why NFTs Are Not the Same as JPEGs
Part III: Beeple — Community is Culture; Community is Currency; Community is King
Part IV: Bored Ape Yacht Club | An Expanded Concept of Art — NFTs as a Future Society Tool
Part V: In this part, I take a macro perspective to bring everything I have explored so far together and leave you with some final thoughts on NFTs and its place in our world.
V
Who Can We Trust?
The world is in flux and whether we like to accept a more decentralized future or not, it appears to be what those with the most resources are driving towards and the rate of adoption of blockchain technology seems to fit this thesis. Like most of human history so far, it isn’t individuals who are holding the light, but the collective forces of technology and power that have guided us forward.
While the ecosystem needed to maximise the potential of this technology is yet to catch up with the digital dreams of those pioneering it, the fight for power over who sets the premise for the next phase in human evolution is taking place right now. What we must remember is that humanity is not only inventing an alternative realm to inhabit, but also a whole new set of beliefs to govern our digital experience moving forward. As historian and philosopher, Yuval Harari points out in his book, The Sapiens, we cannot discount the power of collective beliefs and common myths like money and god invented by humans of the past, which continue to blend the fabric of large societies together even today. Could decentralization and other concepts emerging out of blockchain and the crypto movement be a part of the new wave of ‘myths’ being invented for the future? If so, whoever ends up in control of the narrative will no doubt shape the nature of our world for centuries to follow.
Today, the fight for power is really the fight for trust (Part I). Unlike in the past, where humanity has relied on centralized systems, blockchain has decentralized the ability to form and sustain societies. It’s not only mainstream actors that are now vying for power, it has opened the door for communities of all forms — technologists, artists, ‘memeists’ — to unite together and realistically compete with existing structures in the digital and physical realm. While it is unlikely that those in power will give it up very easily, in the case of NFTs, a strong underlying ideology nurtured by art and sustained through monetary incentives and crypto tokens seems like a real revolutionary force to reckon with.
The question that remains is, who do we want to place our trust in building the future? If Salvador Dali were alive today and started a country would you move there? What about Elon Musk, or Roger Federer? How about the worlds of Nike or Gucci? Or perhaps the Dalai Lama’s realm is where you truly belong.
It is easy to write off NFTs as hype but the distortions we are seeing today are similar to the early days of Bitcoin or even the early days of digital art where the medium is confined to those who are not only curious about new technologies but also have access to them. The fact that the traditional art world still hasn’t entered the NFT space yet is the reason why most of the art produced on this medium doesn’t resemble art in a way that comfortably fits in a box. Moreover, since access to buying NFTs is also limited to only those who own crypto currency, its aesthetics and price are primarily being driven from within crypto culture using one of its most central features — the community (Part III). This explains some of the biggest NFT projects so far all deriving from the need to economically activate a community rather than create art for art’s sake in a more traditional sense.
Additionally, there is also the question of what do you do with the art that you own? Even if you consider all NFTs as pure speculation, as a technology it has already solved the problem of digital scarcity and authenticity, two critical features that were lacking in the pre-blockchain era and extremely necessary for the future of digital art. For now, its use case may be limited to displaying them on social media or virtual galleries, but as I have mentioned, we don’t live in the old world anymore and NFTs are not JPEGs (Part II). It’s true potential is still unknown and if NFTs are as powerful as I think, then a new era of artistic renaissance is upon us (Part IV).
There have been numerous examples of skepticism and sometimes even outright rejection in the history of art where new forms of expression take years to filter through society before becoming accepted. Franz Kafka, is one that particularly stands out, who in his day was never taken seriously but is now considered the most influential existentialist writer of the 20th century; so much so that to be “Kafkaesque” has even entered the lexicon of language. This isn’t to say that all NFTs or artists are going to follow the same trajectory as Franz Kafka, but it is to keep our minds open to things that don’t quite make complete sense at first.
To recap, the same JPEG that once sat on your desktop screen, whose intrinsic nature was infinite in supply and limited in function, instantly changes character to a digitally scarce programmable asset whose potential expands beyond aesthetics once minted on chain.
So the next time you see a NFT and think of right clicking and saving the file, know that all you have done is taken a copy of an artwork, walked a few blocks to the nearest print shop, and made another copy of it on a Xerox machine.
On the other hand, who doesn’t love a good piece of art hanging on their bedroom wall?
Harsha Biswajit is a new media visual artist currently living and working in Berlin. With a background in economics and digital fine art, his work primarily explores the changing nature of reality brought about by technological advancements in our society. This theme has run throughout his career and most recently manifested itself in experimenting with and writing about NFTs and Blockchain in general to understand how this new technology is going to shape our future. His works have been exhibited in USA, India, France, Spain and Hong Kong, amongst others.
