Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art
Heralded by promises for the long-awaited economic empowerment of digital art and the paradigmatic shift of creative production, the art market’s fusion with blockchain technologies and the crypto economy has polarized opinions among artists, cultural workers, and economists. Its capricious dynamics...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Digital |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6470/3/1/5 |
| _version_ | 1797612441515851776 |
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| author | Dejan Grba |
| author_facet | Dejan Grba |
| author_sort | Dejan Grba |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Heralded by promises for the long-awaited economic empowerment of digital art and the paradigmatic shift of creative production, the art market’s fusion with blockchain technologies and the crypto economy has polarized opinions among artists, cultural workers, and economists. Its capricious dynamics and exuberance largely shroud the continuation of the art market’s ideology and the reinforcement of the disturbing political vectors of the crypto/blockchain complex. In this paper, I address several interrelated aspects of art tokenization in a compact and comprehensive critical framework that may be useful for a constructive discourse of contemporary digital art. By focusing on the core poetic principles of artmaking—which concern the historically informed autonomy of expression and socially responsible freedom of creative thinking—I identify some of the prospects for advancing digital art towards an ethically coherent and epistemologically relevant expressive stratum. The opening sections Introduction, Markets, and Contrivances outline the art market, its adoption of crypto technologies, and its influences on the production and expressive modes of digital art. Sections Ideologies and Myths describe the ideological and technical issues of the crypto economy, while Shams and Fallouts delve into the conceptual shortcomings and ethical, political, and creative consequences of the standard art tokenization rhetoric. The closing sections Options and Conclusion present the considerations for a productive assessment of blockchain technologies in digital art and summarize some of the alternative approaches for navigating and interfacing with the crypto art world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:41:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dcedc892e12e4567a44b5ac2eeed86d3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-6470 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:41:17Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital |
| spelling | doaj.art-dcedc892e12e4567a44b5ac2eeed86d32023-11-17T10:36:01ZengMDPI AGDigital2673-64702023-02-0131678010.3390/digital3010005Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital ArtDejan Grba0Interdisciplinary Graduate Center, Digital Art Program, University of Arts, 11000 Belgrade, SerbiaHeralded by promises for the long-awaited economic empowerment of digital art and the paradigmatic shift of creative production, the art market’s fusion with blockchain technologies and the crypto economy has polarized opinions among artists, cultural workers, and economists. Its capricious dynamics and exuberance largely shroud the continuation of the art market’s ideology and the reinforcement of the disturbing political vectors of the crypto/blockchain complex. In this paper, I address several interrelated aspects of art tokenization in a compact and comprehensive critical framework that may be useful for a constructive discourse of contemporary digital art. By focusing on the core poetic principles of artmaking—which concern the historically informed autonomy of expression and socially responsible freedom of creative thinking—I identify some of the prospects for advancing digital art towards an ethically coherent and epistemologically relevant expressive stratum. The opening sections Introduction, Markets, and Contrivances outline the art market, its adoption of crypto technologies, and its influences on the production and expressive modes of digital art. Sections Ideologies and Myths describe the ideological and technical issues of the crypto economy, while Shams and Fallouts delve into the conceptual shortcomings and ethical, political, and creative consequences of the standard art tokenization rhetoric. The closing sections Options and Conclusion present the considerations for a productive assessment of blockchain technologies in digital art and summarize some of the alternative approaches for navigating and interfacing with the crypto art world.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6470/3/1/5artificial intelligenceblockchaincrypto art marketcrypto economydigital art |
| spellingShingle | Dejan Grba Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art Digital artificial intelligence blockchain crypto art market crypto economy digital art |
| title | Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art |
| title_full | Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art |
| title_fullStr | Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art |
| title_full_unstemmed | Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art |
| title_short | Faux Semblants: A Critical Outlook on the Commercialization of Digital Art |
| title_sort | faux semblants a critical outlook on the commercialization of digital art |
| topic | artificial intelligence blockchain crypto art market crypto economy digital art |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6470/3/1/5 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dejangrba fauxsemblantsacriticaloutlookonthecommercializationofdigitalart |