WTF is Rare Art?
Creeps & Weirdos, 2017 Rare Art NFTs, attracted a flock of NFT hunter & gatherers — they came for digital numerals on a ledger and stayed for the rare art that DADA artists create in visual conversation.
“Yes, you can still make a screenshot of the digital artwork, but now, thanks to Blockchain, it will be like making a photocopy of a dollar bill. The value is in the token associated with the digital art”, explains the original anouncement.
But still it took people a little over three years to grasp that aspect of Blockchain. Back in August 2020, long-term pulse feelers of cryptospace saw the tsunami coming, and anounced that “Cryptoart will be the Lambo for the 2020 Bull Run of Crypto.” Meaning, there’s too much money, and not enough sinks; Lambos are sooo 2017, how about cryptoart then…
Another explanation could be that after the DeFi craze cooled off, Mr. Crypto Market went looking for the next thing (everything gets big around here, as soon as the market moves). In September 2020 already there were a number of good analyses, to back up the 2017 explanation of the visionaries.
“Everybody is looking for the answer, but the question is hard to find, when you can’t even hear your mind,” sings one DADA OG in 2018.
What is Value?
At the height of capitalism most of us believe that one needs to do things that solve a problem, that change the world (profitably), that pay off. But that is not “true”. That is the truth of capitalism, a system that optimizes for profit. Its a simple, linear system:
In crypto (or capitalist system in general) that meant: buy low (cost), sell high (revenue). If you have no clue about art, you can still operate by this formula, and win the finite game. So the “Creeps & Weirdos” smart contracts priced in terms of 2017 (extremely low cost), and tokenized in 2017 (mindblowingly rare, even if you just go by the timestamp):
By this logic: Value is the potential for profit.
Such a mindset makes you hyper focus on the only things that count: numbers.
It is kind of a shaky value system based on pure belief, speculation, and group think — ask the crypto day traders, collector’s feeling after a bidding war, or hope what they bought One Billion Dollars some day.
Disclaimer: This is how everything and everyone operates in our current system.
Hence, the Nifty hunter and gatherers were shocked when they discovered, that the Creeps & Weirdos smart contracts were weird: 40% or secondary sale would go to the artists?! “B-but that increases the cost!” Mr. Market screamed in their heads. “What?! We cannot sell anyways because “industry standards” don’t support such contracts?” (Just a hint as to what reinforces the myth of the starving artists)
And then after a few deep breaths they realize, it’s actually not their problem, but the problem of platform and marketplace operators.
“Markets are so 2017” — indeed. And like the centralized exchanges of 2017, the cryptoart market is still run by a handful centralized marketplaces and platforms. You don’t need a crystal ball to guess what’s next.
Whilst everyone else is catching up on the NFT and decentralization potential for digital art, DADAkin had started their next expedition into the future.
What’s the cost of creativity?
“Art is similar to innovation, where you have to do a lot of experimentation. The trick is to foster an environment where artists can create and experiment freely, independent of financial or political pressure, and yet derive passive income from their creation.
As Jonathan sings, who wrote a song a day for 4000 days(and here’s why), you “don’t have to be good at art, just speak to me, use your heart. On DADA, dada we speak, visually…”
And this goes both ways. Actually in all directions. On DADA you see the free and playful visual conversations between artists. That art speaks to you. You want to talk back with whatever you got.
“This transformation is happening all online, through the digital.”
People are finding connection to one another, and maybe connection to their inner game through browsing through DADA visual conversations — for now drawing is the only action that is enabled — and sensemaking together in the Invisible Economy sessions.
So, yes Rare Art NFTs mean these digital art pieces are provably rare once minted on a blockchain, be it a 1/1 or the 2/5 (no, it is still not fungible because it is not the 1st nor the 3rd but the 2nd of an edition of 5, which does have meaning).
But it seems many of the new DADA rare art NFT holders realize that the art they are holding is truly rare. Not only because they were tokenized in 2017 (which is valuing a historic point in time). They brought them to a place in which drawings are created as conversations. They are unique not only because of the artist, but because of what another piece of art triggered in an artist so they replied.
Then a piece or the whole conversation becomes rare to you because it spoke to you when you saw it (or much later, and you went back looking for it).
That moment is rare.
That feeling, even if you lack a word for it, is rare.
You are part of the creation of Rare Art NFTs.
That’s a gift.
