19/08/2022 I Tried to Understand NFT Art. It Wasn't What I Expected

NFT art has plenty of issues. But with the right tech, it could become totally normal in a few years.

When I began my quest to understand NFTs, I did not think I would end up buying one. Yet there I was, scanning a QR code with my phone in the middle of an art exhibit, spending $69 of my own real money to become the proud owner of a jpeg.

The image, namedIndependence, is of a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty surrounded by a pair of metallic snakes, designed by an artist who goes by the name Fvckrender. (He may be a big deal in theNFT art world, but I still had to bleep out his name in my video.)

For three days this summer, I ran around a New York City NFT convention, toured physicalNFT art galleriesand spoke to the artists and entrepreneurs building this new realm of digital property -- and of course, tried to understand what people evendowith their NFTs. I learned thatNFTs are much more than overpriced cartoons of bored apesyou buy using cryptocurrency -- although there are plenty of people trying to get rich off various pixelated animal heads.

Bridget Carey scanning a QR code to buy an NFT called Independence.

Look, ma, no crypto. In learning about NFT art, I find myself buying a piece by scanning a QR code and entering my credit card number -- as easy as buying shoes online. But what do you do with digital art?

Candice Greene/CNET

This new way of buying and selling digital property is -- no question about it -- absolutely wacky. A lot of it is also problematic. Yet to my surprise, while immersing myself, I found a side of it all that is almost hopeful and inspiring in its potential for the art world, and I learned what it will take for NFTs to be part of our everyday lives.

Arts

https://www.cnet.com/culture/internet/i-tried-to-understand-nft-art-it-wasnt-what-i-expected/

Interesting NFTs
Dreaming at Dusk
More than 15 years ago, Tor onion services were brought to digital life. An ecosystem of onions has been blooming ever since. To commemorate this landmark in the history of privacy, we collaborated with @ixshells to create a one-of-a-kind digital artifact: a generative art piece derived using the private key of the very first onion service, duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion. This auction benefits the Tor Project, the nonprofit protecting your human right to privacy. 1020*1280 / 60fps / .mp4 / RSA1024
Ethboy
Young Vitalik takes on the role of Picassoā€™s son Paulo dressed as Harlequin in this artwork but the octahedron Ethereum logo replaces the chequered pattern of the original jester outfit. Leaning against a large chair, the boy genius fiddles with his fingers in a somewhat nervous manner; nevertheless, he stares directly at the viewer with what appears to be a confident, ā€˜Mona Lisa-likeā€™ smile. Vitalik has no idea what the future has in store for him, but heā€™s prepared to face any obstacle ahead as he begins life's adventure.
Cristiano the Legend
Minted in early 2019, this is the first-ever football related collectible about Cristiano Ronaldo and his legacy. A boy from Madeira that redefined how we view football today. A delve into the legacy making halfway to a thousand goals reveals the extent of feats he has achieved over the course of the 15 years. A footballer who never lets his team down, and a name so famous half the population of the world knows him, Cristiano Ronaldo the legend for you. With all his incredible tricks and goals on the field, Ronaldo perfectly exemplifies that nothing is impossible. This item is part of the history and belongs to collectors richā€”or brave enough to acquire it and respect its value through the years.
Beautiful Worlds
Welcome to the ā€˜Beautiful worldsā€™ where nature and technology have merged into a single entity. These are Ai generated and hand finished visions of solarpunk future in which I would really like our future generations to live and prosper: the future we might have if we took the very ā€œalternative routeā€ which now lies before us: replacing states and corporations which free federations of communities and cooperatives, using decentralist and ecological technologies to create a world beyond economic scarcity and social hierarchy, defined by autonomy, mutual aid, diversity, and inclusiveness. The long-term goals of solarpunk are freedom and well-being for all by adopting and developing such ecological technologies as: solar, wind, wave and geothermal energy rather than oil or gas to generate electricity; a world of decentralized eco-cities, permaculture and vertical farming, free and open-source software, open-source hardware, small-scale fabrication laboratories, micro-manufacturing, 3D-printing, and countless examples of commons-based peer-production online: meeting the maximum amount of needs, in the shortest time, using the minimum possible amount of energy. Itā€™s a world of decentralized and confederated eco-communities, using technology for human-centric and eco-centric ends rather than for accumulating power and profit ā€“ mending the metabolic rift between first nature (the natural world) and second nature (human culture) ā€“ and where social hierarchies of race, gender, sexuality, and disability are considered horror stories from the past ā€œoil ageā€. Solarpunk desires societies of polycultural ethnic diversity and gender liberation, where each person is able to actualize themselves in societal environment of free experimentation and communal caring; This philosophy proposes that in order for the social and natural worlds to reconcile, humans must first transform their relations to each other ā€“ recreating society along egalitarian, cooperative, and democratic lines ā€“ and then transform their relations towards nature ā€“ adopting an attitude to cooperation, rather than domination, towards the planet and its nonhuman forms of life. Text by Connor Owens. This artwork took me a year to create and for you it will take a year to discover. Master autonomously updates once a day at 12am with one of 366 original artworks. Enjoy!
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