Representing the creative future

NFT’s & Young creatives: Could we be saying goodbye to the idea of the ‘starving artist’?

Are NFT’s what we really think?

Proof of NFT ownership has defined 2021 as the most valuable asset. Technically, proof of ownership defines everything that is precious – from Rolexes to the Mona Lisa, all things come with a proof of value. The conversation around NFT’s is as intense as ever, but do we really know what NFT’s are?

For creative students, going into the arts has never been associated with immediate wealth. Even years on, many artists and designers do not make money from their creations or worse still, get copied, with all proceeds going to the bigger brands or artists. However, most artists nowadays don’t have to go the way of poverty like Rembrandt or El Greco – from social media to working for brands and finding supportive sponsors, the art and creative worlds have opened up somewhat and can still be financially managed to a certain degree, although the living costs of cities have made this a tough option.

Copies, fakes, and delayed payments mean that creative work is unstable and at times, soul-destroying as a result of the lack of clarity between work and financial compensation.

However, individual control over one’s artwork and continued royalties are rare. Copies, fakes, and delayed payments mean that creative work is unstable and at times, soul-destroying as a result of the lack of clarity between work and financial compensation. This is where the NFT comes in. As a non-fungible – or not replicable – item, it can give permanent value to a digital creation, with a unique signature on the blockchain that cannot be changed. With the pandemic, the NFT has exploded into popularity, most notably with the artist Mike Winkelmann, commonly known as Beeple, who recently auctioned an NFT for $69 million U.S. dollars at Christie’s auction house. Although NFT’s have exploded now, variations of them have been an ever-present part of the art world for a lot longer.

“There is something of a false pretense in the way that NFT’s were presented to us in the past few months as this new and shiny thing.” – Dr. Lee Weinberg, tutor on the MA Culture, Criticism, and Curation, Central Saint Martins

Dr. Lee Weinberg, tutor on the MA Culture, Criticism, and Curation program at Central Saint Martins has been working on digital culture and design and can add to the NFT history conversation. “This is what is most baffling to me – this sudden urge to understand what NFT’s are, this urgency to explain what they are, and to come up with adequate theories and ways of describing them. NFT’s are by no way the first means found to monetise, evaluate, and verify the authenticity or disseminate digital art. There is a whole sub-category of art called crypto art that looks specifically at the monetisation and dissemination of art on the blockchain. (…) There is something of a false pretense in the way that NFT’s were presented to us in the past few months as this new and shiny thing.” Art historians like Christiane Paul, chief curator/director of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons School of Design and an associate professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School have said that digital art is a far more expansive field than the NFT’s we are seeing now. Digital artwork can explore past the boundaries of the physical space and allow for new concepts and ideas, including artwork created by AI systems.

The boom that NFT’s have created is a useful prism through which we can look at how young artists, creatives, and even writers could establish themselves by selling non-fungible pieces on marketplaces.

At the moment, there may be certain types of NFT’s that you hear more about – like Jonathan Wolfe, a digital artist from Calgary, U.S., who only learned about NFT’s last year through a tip from a friend and has now sold more than 130 pieces of art amounting to $1.3 million. The potential for financial freedom through NFT’s doesn’t just stop at the original sale – as the piece is non-fungible but can be re-sold, the artist or creative pockets a cut (10-30%) of each transaction. This is an interesting model to use as the basis of all creative transactions, whether that is art, fashion, or writing. What if, by definition, all creatives could benefit from the sale and resale of their work? The boom that NFT’s have created is a useful prism through which we can look at how young artists, creatives, and even writers could establish themselves by selling non-fungible pieces on marketplaces. The creative and financial control for the eternal life of the piece would be the artists’ or creatives’ alone.

Blockchain’s decentralised function has made it a comforting space for those looking for success outside the system.

Amon Kale, a graduate of the BA Fashion Design course at Central Saint Martins is exploring what the role of non-fungible tokens could be for creative education while creating talks with industry leaders, helping students learn what NFT’s could bring to their work. “My focus primarily is on creative education. I’m trying to create a platform with the university for students to be able to monetize their work, but it’s really not necessarily about that. It’s one thing to just be like – here’s a new avenue for you to sell your work, like a digital gallery. NFT’s can be broken down into something really basic like that, but I don’t actually think that’s useful. I think it’s a tool for empowerment in a different way. In all the conversations that we have about empowering different groups, a lot of the time, it’s looking at an individual level, but there’s something that overarches all of those things: pay people more money and get money into the hands of these people. They can empower themselves in ways that we couldn’t even imagine.”

This level of autonomy would bring a different way of looking at the power structures within traditional creative environments. However, those structures are also beginning to permeate the NFT space, with traditional art institutions like Christie’s taking the biggest sale of an NFT piece. Blockchain’s decentralised function has made it a comforting space for those looking for success outside the system. Kale is very aware of that too – “It’s about being very careful about how these things can perpetuate institutional biases.”

Could publishing platforms like Mirror.xyz, built on Ethereum and likened to a Medium on cryptocurrency, be a possible way for future media publishers to work

It’s important to look at the possibilities of NFT’s outside of art too, as the art and fashion space is home to many different types of creators. Digital fashion is opening up a whole new world for designers that transcend the laws of nature, while engaging with generations that are increasingly more agile on phones and in digital spaces. Designers like Auroboros and marketplaces like The Dematerialised and Dress X are taking big steps towards AR fashion shopping becoming the norm, allowing for a whole host of new designers to take advantage of a bigger customer base.

Could publishing platforms like Mirror.xyz, built on Ethereum and likened to a Medium on cryptocurrency, be a possible way for future media publishers to work? The essays and stories within it are not dissimilar to newsletters, which have become a default way for individual writers to gain a source of income outside of their publications. Content that addresses a niche or particular interest to a select group of fans, supported through donations is exactly the same formula as the one used by Mirror.xyz. With media publishing changing through the development of digital platforms like Medium, Mirror.xyz seems like the next step.

Mining, or creating new cryptocurrency by solving a computational puzzle, is extremely energy-intensive, with one year of mining being compared to the whole energy use of Argentina.

However, other pitfalls exist within creative NFT’s too – the main one being sustainability. Mining, or creating new cryptocurrency by solving a computational puzzle, is extremely energy-intensive, with one year of mining being compared to the whole energy use of Argentina. However, as the field is still relatively new, other, more renewable options are being explored. What this means for creative fields is that to make one NFT, it takes about a month’s worth of energy usage for the average EU citizen. For an industry that is already facing many issues with sustainability, this makes it seem like NFT’s are not a viable option.

“We are not looking to create another avenue for enormous amounts of energy to be expended on things that are not real.” – Amon Kale, Central Saint Martins BA Fashion Design graduate

However, there are more sustainable options being explored and Kale is determined that his research will find a way forward. “For me, the main thing is that there are serious and real issues around sustainability in terms of NFT’s, especially on the larger platforms that use Ethereum blockchain. That’s probably the biggest issue along with how these things are playing out in terms of power dynamics that already exist in the art world. But in terms of sustainability, nothing that we are pursuing right now uses the Ethereum blockchain or will be using energy-intensive blockchain. Everything we’re looking at right now is extremely sustainable. We are not looking to create another avenue for enormous amounts of energy to be expended on things that are not real.” NFT research needs to be informed by the conversation around energy use and climate action, especially in fields that focus on the creator economy where this may be overlooked in pursuit of new products.

For students, the tokens allow for a second path to creative autonomy outside the systems that can systematically discriminate or exclude them, driven by the idea of a continuous source of passive income and financial freedom.

NFT’s are certainly proving that an original creation still holds the most value, even in the digital realm. As art, fashion, and the creative fields at large, move online and get involved in the digital space, NFT’s are going to allow creators to profit from their work. Although the world is moving back into the physical space, many will still be looking into digital and NFT’s as a way of developing on the pandemic boom. For students, the tokens allow for a second path to creative autonomy outside the systems that can systematically discriminate or exclude them, driven by the idea of a continuous source of passive income and financial freedom.