For my second artefact, I took inspiration from NFTs which I found out about in class.
NFT, standing for a non-fungible token, is a one of a kind digital asset typically in the form of an image, 3D model, GIF or in-game item. These NFTs are paid for with cryptocurrency, most often Bitcoin or Ethereum. They've recently gained notoriety as they give more artists a source of income without the need of any third party.
When I first heard of these I thought it was both interesting and exciting as it gave new possibilities for 2D artists like myself. So I started to draw my own to catch a glimpse of what it could be like selling NFTs. However, while I was drawing these and doing research alongside them, my opinion started to change.
There first of all seems to be a lot of theft happening with NFTs. The system is almost completely unmoderated and it is very easy to steal a digital asset, especially an image. So many people are taking artists digital work and selling it as an NFT without any credit or money going to the original artist. I've dealt with theft before as an artist on the internet and it can be devastating. It takes a lot of attention away from your online accounts and can cause a lot of animosity.
While also looking through the NFTs on websites such as https://opensea.io/, I noticed that a lot of NFTs seem to be disingenuous, which I also noticed while drawing my own. Most of them are very simple and easy to create illustrations. Most are just duplicates of each other with slight changes. I started to understand why as the images I was creating became tedious to create.
Art to me is an expression of one's self or ideas. A lot of the time it has some meaning or is telling a story. However, NFTs are nothing more than very simple profile picture style images. Their only focus seems to be to grab attention and make money instead of an expression of the artist.
Most NFTs are also randomly generated by a computer using the artist's assets. To me, this also just felt like a disconnect from my artwork as so many of these NFTs are not created based on aesthetic or composition and carefully selected colour palettes. They feel thrown together in a desperate grab for money.
So for mine, I asked my closest friends to pick a series of random numbers instead. Each number corresponded to one of the NFT style assets I made. The results of their numbers are what you see at the top of this page.
Many purchases and items sold with crypto are also can be similar to gambling, as the worth of currencies fluctuate and when NFTs are resold it is not guaranteed to make more money than its original price.
Cryptocurrency is a decentralized form of earning and so it is much easier for crimes to be committed with it, linking back to the very common theft happening within the NFT space.
For these reasons I decided I no longer wanted to be involved in NFTs/ crypto, however, I had already started my illustrations so I finished my existing assets anyhow. They had taken a long time to create anyhow, and I was running out of time to make my final artefact. If I had more time and interest in the project, I would have made more assets to add to my devil style characters such as horns and accessories.
References:
Conti, R., 2022. What You Need To Know About Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). [online] Forbes Advisor UK. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/uk/advisor/investing/nft-non-fungible-token/> [Accessed 20 January 2022].
N26.com. 2022. What is an NFT and should you invest in them?. [online] Available at: <https://n26.com/en-eu/blog/what-is-an-nft> [Accessed 20 January 2022].
Zizi, O., 2022. Why these 10 artists hate NFTs. [online] Businessofbusiness.com. Available at: <https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/nfts-turning-artists-into-millionaires-overnight-these-10-creators-are-against-the-hype/> [Accessed 20 January 2022].
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