Art, Technology, and Culture - The NFT Series
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Welcome back to the NFT series, a curated exploration by segno*progetto, delving into the intersection of NFTs and the cultural domain!
Let's dive into the innovative artists, trailblazing designers, and visionaries at the forefront of this groundbreaking movement.
The landscape of the art world is undergoing a remarkable transformation, propelled by the ascent of digital artists and the proliferation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Beeple's groundbreaking sale of "Everydays" for $69 million in 2021 serves as a poignant symbol of this cultural shift.
In a surprising turn, NFTs, experiencing a decline in other realms, are finding acceptance in the museum space. Esteemed institutions like the British Museum and the Universal Hip Hop Museum are now embracing NFT artworks, acknowledging the burgeoning popularity of virtual experiences. As the term "metaverse" reverberates in the ears of museum professionals, the imperative to comprehend how online spaces will be curated, consumed, commodified, and traded in the years to come cannot be ignored.
In response to this evolving landscape, the world's first permanent NFT museum opened in Seattle on Jan. 14, 2022, aiming to "pull back the curtain" on blockchain-based digital art. It has been providing an outlet for artists, creators, and collectors to display their NFTs in a physical setting while aiming to educate the public about this fairly new market for digital art.
"We really realized the impact of being able to look at this type of art in a way where you actually slow down, you see all the details," said Jennifer Wong, co-founder and curator at Seattle NFT Museum.
Institutions like Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) and ICA Miami are actively incorporating NFTs into their collections to engage with new audiences. The artistic director of ICA Miami, Alex Gartenfeld, noted the transformative role NFTs play in artists' creativity, with digital art now at the center of the marketplace. As the metaverse concept gains traction, understanding the curation, consumption, and trade of online spaces becomes essential for museum professionals.
“Our collection, as well as our exhibitions and programs, seek to take on some of the most pressing and topical art and ideas that are happening today. Over the last two or three years, one of the most ubiquitous and transformative conversations has been around how artists explore and develop their creativity through NFTs.”
However, it is China that solidifies its position as the pioneer in forward-thinking initiatives, as Shanghai Museum has become the first world-class institution to develop its blockchain system, reflecting the country's significant investment in the Web3 realm.
On the occasion of "The Making of China: The Civilizations of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties", the exhibition that exhibits 314 objects and archaeological artifacts belonging to Chinese history, the Shanghai Museum has released new NFTs on a specially created platform.
The platform is called Museum of the Sea and was designed to activate the digital potential of China's cultural heritage.
“With the introduction of this new digital museum, Shanghai Museum will continue to promote Chinese culture and heritage, give cultural relics a new life in the digital age, and make cultural relics and artworks accessible to all, and appreciated by the whole society.” —?Li Feng, Deputy Director, Shanghai Museum
The exhibition feeds the?ongoing trend in Chinese cultural organizations of exploring ways of digitizing heritage.
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Three collections are already live on the platform:
Every NFT series released on the platform will be collected by the institution to ultimately create a digital (likely metaversal) museum housing virtual cultural relics and art. The Museum of the Sea has also?reportedly?cemented partnerships with several international IPs and local museums to grow the platform and in turn, advance national heritage.
On the other side of the globe, the British Museum collaborated with French startup laCollection.io to sell NFTs of 200 Hokusai works, including digital images of works in the exhibition and drawings from the museum's collection.
The initiative aims to reach a younger, more diverse, and international audience and will allow owners to resell the NFTs on a secondary market. According to the?Art Newspaper, Craig Bendle - the licensing manager of the British Museum - said the following:
“It is so important that as a museum we continually adapt to new markets and find new ways of reaching people that we may not reach through traditional channels.”
As art and museums continue to evolve in the digital era, what role do you believe NFTs will play in shaping the cultural landscape for future generations? Let us know in the comments!
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XOXO, Segnoprogetto