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After gaining access to Andy Warhol's inner circle, Jean Baudrillard slashed the world of fine art.
"Just because there is no more art doesn't mean it dies. The French philosopher claimed in his 2005 essay "The Conspiracy of Art," which attacked a system of gallerists and collectors that turned great art into a commodity, "It dies because there is too much.
The Matrix movie series was inspired by Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, which he applied to the art industry to demonstrate how monopolistic practices have compromised artists ("There is more and more information and less and less meaning," the philosopher observed in 1979). Many accomplished artists (some even revered) lost themselves to the insanity of market forces when the non-fungible token (NFT) frenzy took hold in January of last year, creating digital collectibles purely because everyone was cashing in on a gold rush.
Even the most brilliant artists fall prey to the powers of collective mania and groupthink, which encourage short-term, reactionary thinking. They too get caught up in the cultural and economic tailwinds, selling out as commodities, as Baudrillard remarked, rather than offering analytical critiques of the system that generates these periods.
There is no one "correct" approach to make art, and haphazard expression can result in some of the best works. Artists, however, lose their voice in society when the medium is so profoundly influenced by the obscene trading of commodities, as intensified by the NFT frenzy.
The technology enabling insider trading and money laundering, as well as JPEGs of cartoon rocks selling for $1.3 million, contributed to the regrettable fact that NTFs exacerbated all the issues with the traditional arts market. It's about time the NFT craze crashed because everyone knew it was a bubble.
(Agnieszka Pilat)
The cliche in IT circles is that the developing crypto economy is in a "Builder's Market" as the ecosystem consolidates. Tech entrepreneurs and artists who are developing NFTs are pausing to reevaluate their initiatives and considering how their works fit within network architecture. NFTs have the potential to provide artists with enormous value, from fractionalized ownership (like Particle's decision to tokenize a Banksy painting) to incorporation into live experiences, despite all the flaws iterated in the last market cycle. Additionally, it is likely that the production of NFTs as digital artwork will continue to soar, flooding websites like OpenSea at the same rate as the articles, blog posts, and opinion pieces that have dominated social media and the news business.
NTFs, unfortunately, magnified all the problems of the traditional arts market.
According to Baudrillard, the overproduction of NFTs might destroy art and make the medium worthless. Good writing and reporting still exist (and are essential to the democratic process), but it is more difficult to identify them in the daily barrage of recycled commentary, which is rewarded by social media algorithms that promote polarization.
The nose appreciates a "Builder's Market" as a fresh start. NFTs are here to stay and will be the means by which more digital art will be uploaded to the Internet; after all, Meta, DALLE, and other tech companies already use artificial intelligence to instantly render complex works of art. NFTs already play a significant role in the traditional fine arts industry. Instead of the other way around, when the dollar or cryptocurrency is their main master, artists need to carefully consider how they incorporate emerging technologies into their larger body of work and use them to convey deep and nuanced human emotions.
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