I spent the past 15 years flying to festivals, galleries, events, art fairs to exhibit and distribute my work while building my art practice. Most of these projects are unsustainable, so when I dec…

Artists are using blockchain tech to sell digital art. It's very interesting, but like crypto currency, it's a gargantuan energy sink. Fascinating intersection of art, tech, and politics.

  • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Well right now we live under capitalism, and artists deserve compensation for their work. Your argument requires the total devaluation of art as it is today. Plenty of artists make a living selling their work, and it's scarce because they can only make so much - my wife supplements our income with embroidery art sales. Other people I know depend entirely on their art for their livelihood. Selling art means something because art means something.

    You may have noticed that the article I posted is a critique of NFTs, hence the title "The problem of CryptoArt".

    • dvorak365 [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Art means something but the reasons people pay for it are to 1. use it (usually by displaying it) and 2. to show support for the artist. It's hard to sell digital art based on 1 when the piece is nearly infinitely reproducible by anyone able to interact with it (without bringing in intellectual property laws) and 2 is called donation.

      Crypto Art is an interesting marketing ploy to drive donations to digital artists targeted towards people who respond less positively to the straightforward idea of donating to an artist they like, but that's about it.