Wagner James Au / New World Notes

Above: The Mirage Gallery's display room in SpatialWeb

Here’s a question about NFT art that I’ve been thinking about lately, even before the value of the market took a huge hit: 

What will owners of NFT art actually will do with it, to justify the prices they just paid? 

With real life art, after all, people hang it in their home so they and their friends/family can enjoy it — or on the high end, lend it out to a gallery or museum to share with the public, either for a fee, or for the kudos for their contribution. The art work is special because it's one of a kind, and people have to go to a specific place, to enjoy it. But because NFT art is usually just a copied digital image like any other copied image on the Internet, what will make it special to their owners over time?

Come to think of it, the NFT art market probably plummeted in part because that question doesn’t have a great answer. Also, because that market’s been overwhelmed by speculators who don’t really care about art as such — a point made in this excellent essay by technologist Anil Dash, who literally co-invented the NFT.

Anil isn’t sure there's a way that NFT can remain relevant to artists, as opposed to speculators.  

“I genuinely don't know, but I hope so,” Anil tells me. “Thing is, if an artist has an audience and interest, they can usually just sell to their fans, regardless of whether the blockchain is involved. It feels like that only adds complexity.”

There may be a sustainable market for NFT art which better fits the virtual medium. For instance, the virtual portraits of great Black artists that Nettrice Gaskins creates using Deep Dream algorithms as her paintbrush:

Dr. Gaskins' Deep Dream portrait of Kendrick Lamar currently available as an NFT

“So far the process has been generative for me. I get paid and I even get royalties if and when the NFTs are re-sold,” Dr. Gaskins tells me. “I now have many more fans than ever before.” She tells me that some of these new fans are NFT speculators, but also, people enamored by the beauty of her works, which they came across on social media posts.

As for the long-term value of NFT art, Nettrice points me to this essay on the importance of the blockchain to add an artist’s “signature” to their work — and to her own essay on the power of the medium for artists outside the mainstream, where she writes:

For BIPOC/LGBTQ/Womxn/Disabled artists who have been intersectionally shut out of the Official Art Market, NFTs have the potential to help them/us make a living or supplement our incomes. The blockchain market removes the middle person or gatekeeper and empowers artists to use emerging technologies and networks in new or culturally relevant. 

Virtual worlds, already digital, are an ideal forum for displaying NFT art in a social space. August Rosedal’s Mirage Gallery is selling NFT of paintings created by AI-based “artists” which come with a physical canvas. But he’s also putting them in a virtual context:

“I've seen quite a few NFT owners creating galleries in Cryptovoxels and Decentraland,” August tells me. “I like what I'm doing with SpatialWeb [above] since it is entirely my own space and I didn't have to pay for actual land (since it isn't crypto property).“ 

That may be the case, but to judge by the low usage to Decentraland (less than 15,000 users last year) and the scant visits to Cryptovoxels (most parcels attracting way less than 20,000 visitors per month, according to a check today), there’s little interest in viewing NFT art as an activity in itself.

While NFT art goes in search to find a mass audience of genuine patrons, the market for talking about NFT art doesn’t seem to be going away just yet.

“For me, it's not about cash,” as Nettrice Gaskins puts it to me, “It's about new audiences. I have several requests for talks, workshops, and my work will soon be on view at the Smithsonian.”