Disrupting the art market? Blockchain, NFTs and the promise of inclusion

Downloads

Pubblicato

2022-12-23

Fascicolo

Sezione

Saggi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/2946

Autori

Abstract

The market for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), a nascent phenomenon, has garnered widespread attention since early 2021. This article focuses on the stories, narratives and discourses that have taken shape concomitantly with the growth of the NFT market and are an integral part of its life. After reviewing the features of the contemporary art market, frequently described as “ripe for disruption”, the focus shifts to the characteristics and promises of the NFT art market, delving into success stories that celebrate individual empowerment, inclusion and community building as the nonfinancial values of NFTs. The final section considers the skeptical perspectives of cultural critics and artists who decry the NFT phenomenon as the latest frontier of capitalist financialization. The statistics economists have gathered and analysed are also taken into account to further clarify the NFT discursive dimension. Whether the craze for NFTs is an ephemeral bubble or a disruptive innovation remains to be seen.

Il mercato dei token non-fungibili (NFT) è un fenomeno emergente che ha catturato l’attenzione pubblica soprattutto a partire dal 2021. Questo articolo analizza le storie, le narrative, i discorsi che sono parte integrante della grande crescita di questo mercato. La discussione prende avvio focalizzandosi sulle caratteristiche del mercato dell’arte convenzionale, un mercato opaco, esclusivo e strano, come viene spesso decritto, per poi procedere alla disamina delle innovazioni e delle promesse del mercato NFT, incentrata su storie che celebrano l’empowerment individuale, l’inclusione e l’ethos comunitario come valori non monetari associati agli NFTs. La sezione finale si concentra su posizioni più critiche o scettiche che leggono il fenomeno NFT come la nuova frontiera del capitalismo finanziario. Per meglio contestualizzare questi discorsi, vengono prese in considerazione alcune analisi economiche basate su dati recenti. 

 

Riferimenti bibliografici

References

Adam G. (2017), The Dark Side of the Boom: The Excesses of the Art Market in the 21st Century. Ashgate: Lund Humphreis, Kindle edition.

Aitken R. (2020), “A Machine for Living”: The Cultural Economy of Financial Subjectivity, London and New York: Routledge.

Aluma-Baigent A. (2021), Crypto: Art, Currency and Capital, Major Research Paper, University of Ottawa, https://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/42756 13.1.2022.

Bruner R. (2021), Teen Artists Are Making Millions on NFTs. How Are They Doing It?, «Time», September 7, 2021 https://time.com/6093982/nft-art-teens-money/ 22.1.2020

Catlow R. (2021) NFTs and the “Art” World: Panic and Possibility, «The Art Newspaper», April 9, 2021. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/04/09/nfts-and-the-art-world-panic-and-possibility 4.1.2021.

Catlow R. Jones N, Skinner S eds, (2017), Artists Re: Thinking the Blockchain, Torque Editions & Furtherfield.

Cave S., Dihal K., Dillon S. (2020), AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking Abaout Intelligent Machines, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

De Boever A. (2021), The Death of Art (Once Again), «Boundary2» March 29, 2021 https://www.boundary2.org/2021/03/arne-de-boever-the-end-of-art-once-again/ 21.11.2021.

De Filippi P., Wright A (2018), Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press.

DiMatteo, L., Cannarsa, M., & Poncibò, C. (Eds.). (2019), The Cambridge Handbook of Smart Contracts, Blockchain Technology and Digital Platforms (Cambridge Law Handbooks), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108592239

Evans T. M (2019), Cryprtokitties, Cryptography and Copyright, «AIPLA Quarterly Journal», 47, 2, pp. 219-66.

Fraiberger S.P., Sinatra R., Resch M., Riedl C., Barabási A.L. (2018), Quantifying reputation and success in art, «Science», 362: 825–829.

Franceschet M. Colavizza G., Smith T., Finucane B., Ostachowski M.L, Scalet S., Perkins J., Morgan J., Hernández S. (2021) Crypto Art: A Decentralized View. «Leonardo», 54 (4): 402–405. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02003.

Frye, B. L. (2021a), NFTs & the Death of Art (April 19, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3829399 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3829399 25.1.2022

Frye, B. L. (2021b), How to Sell NFTs Without Really Trying (September 25, 2021), «Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law», Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3930430 25.1.2022.

Frye, B. L. (2021c), After Copyright: Pwning NFTs in a Clout Economy (November 25, 2021). «Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts», Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3971240 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3971240 25.1.2022.

Garber P. (2000), Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias, Boston: MIT Press.

Guadamuz A. (2021), The treachery of images: non-fungible tokens and copyright, «Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice», 16, 12, pp. 1367–1385

https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpab152

Hakki T (2021), How This Digital Artist Made $370,000 in Crypto on Their 18th Birthday

https://decrypt.co/55203/how-this-digital-artist-made-370000-in-crypto-on-their-18th-birthday 25.11.2021

Heiven M. (2020), Revenge Capitalism: The Ghosts of Empire, the Demons of Capital, & the Settling of Unpayable Debts, London: Pluto Press.

Iaconesi S. (2021), NFT what could possibly go wrong? The financialization of life, «Medium», December 17, 2021 https://xdxd-vs-xdxd.medium.com/nft-12cb8583ca23 27.1.2022.

Jones N, Skinner S. (2017), A Quasi Proto Preface, in Catlow R. Jones N, Skinner S eds, (2017), Artists Re: Thinking the Blockchain, Torque Editions & Furtherfield, pp. 9-19.

Kong, D. Lin, T (2021), Alternative Investments in the Fintech Era: The Risk and Return of Non-fungible Token (NFT) (August 30, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3914085 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3914085 1.2.2022.

Locke T. (2022), This 29-year-old launched a business to support Black NFT artists—and it made $140,000 in 10 months: I see it as a way to “rebalance power”, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/14/iris-nevins-launched-business-umba-daima-to-uplift-black-nft-artists.html 20.1.2022.

MacDonald-Korth, D., Lehdonvirta, V., Meyer, E.T. (2018). Art Market 2.0: Blockchain and Financialisation in Visual Arts. The Alan Turing Institute: London. https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/publications/blockchain-arts.pdf 3.12.2021

McLaughlin R. (2021), «I went from having to borrow money to making $4m in a day»: how NFTs are shaking up the art world”, «The Guardian», 6 November 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/06/how-nfts-non-fungible-tokens-are-shaking-up-the-art-world, 10.1.2022.

Moore D, (2021), Celebrating Black Crypto Art Beyond February 28th, https://media.consensys.net/celebrating-black-crypto-art-beyond-february-28th-b5edeb5642b 13.1.2022.

«NFT sales hit $25 billion in 2021, but growth shows signs of slowing», Reuters, January 11, 2022 https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/nft-sales-hit-25-billion-2021-growth-shows-signs-slowing-2022-01-10/ 18.1.22.

Parker K. (2021), Most artists are not making money off NFTs and here are some graphs to prove it, available at https://thatkimparker.medium.com/most-artists-are-not-making-money-off-nfts-and-here-are-some-graphs-to-prove-it-c65718d4a1b8 18.12.2021

Prendergast C. (2014), The Market for Contemporary Art, available at https://www.lb7.uscourts.gov/documents/13c3270.pdf 20.1.2022

Quiniou M., Debonneuil C. (2019), Glossary Blockchain, Paris: Les Èditions de l’immateriel. http://www.chaire.fr/wp-content/uploads/Glossary-Blockchain.pdf. 20.9.2021.

Randy M. (2002), The Financialization of Daily Life, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Reed E. (2021), Play to Lose: NFTs and meme stocks are contributing to the financialization of the self, «Real Life», May 3, 2021 https://reallifemag.com/play-to-lose/ 27.1.2022.

Reilly M. (2015), Taking the Measure of Sexism: Facts, Figures, and Fixes, «ArtNews», May 26,

http://www.artnews.com/2015/05/26/taking-the-measure-of-sexism-facts-figures-and-fixes/, 8.1.2022.

Reilly M. (2018), Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating, New York: Thames & Hudson.

Resch M. (2021). How To Become A Successful Artist, New York: Phaidon Press. Kindle Edition.

Rivers Ryan T. (2021), Will the Artworld’s NFT Wars End in Utopia or Dystopia?, «ArtReview» December 2, 2021 https://artreview.com/will-the-artworld-nft-wars-end-in-utopia-or-dystopia/ 30.1.2022.

Schär F., Berentsen A. (2020), Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Cryptoassets: A Comprehensive Introduction, Boston: MIT Press.

Shaw A. (2021), Art and Crypto: a Marriage made in Miami, «The Art Newspaper», 1 December 2021 https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/11/30/art-and-crypto-a-marriage-made-in-miami. 15.12.2021.

Shiller R. (2019), Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Simoncelli S, Iaquinta C (2018). Donne artiste in Italia: presenza e rappresentazione, Milano: Nuova Accademia di Belle arti https://i2.res.24o.it/pdf2010/Editrice/ILSOLE24ORE/ILSOLE24ORE/Online/_Oggetti_Embedded/Documenti/2018/11/15/Donne_artiste_in_Italia.pdf 12.11.2022.

Solimano A. (2022), The Evolution of Contemporary Arts Markets: Aesthetics, Money and Turbulence, London and New York: Routledge. Kindle edition.

Steyerl H. (2017), If You Don’t Have Bread, Eat Art: Contemporary Art and Derivative Fascisms, in Catlow R., Garrett M., Jones N., Skinner S. (eds.), Artists Re: Thinking the Blockchain, Torque Editions & Furtherfield, pp. 223-32

Whitaker A. (2019), Shared Value over Fair Use: Technology, Added Value, and the Reinvention of Copyright, «Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal» 37, 3, pp. 635-658.

Wilson K.B, Karg A., Ghaderi H. (2021), Prospecting non-fungible tokens in the digital economy: Stakeholders and ecosystem, risk and opportunity, «Business Horizons» https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.10.007

Zeilinger M. (2018), Digital Art as “Monetised Graphics“: Enforcing Intellectual Property on the Blockchain, «Philosophy & Technology» 31, 15–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0243-1

Biografia autore

Silvana Colella, Università di Macerata

Professore ordinario di letteratura inglese presso il Dipartimento di studi umanistici

Come citare

Colella, S. (2022). Disrupting the art market? Blockchain, NFTs and the promise of inclusion. Il Capitale Culturale. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, (26), 233–256. https://doi.org/10.13138/2039-2362/2946