What About an NFT Museum? (WAC Weekly — January 5th 2022)
One of the latest developments in the arts and culture sector when talking about NFTs is the upcoming launch of the Seattle NFT Museum by Jennifer Wong and Peter Hamilton.
Recently, there has been an announcement of the first-ever NFT museum in Seattle, USA. An art and community-focused organization which aims at improving the NFT space by incorporating it into their existing lifestyle. However, there have been various discussions that include their impact on the art space.
The Impact of the Seattle NFT Museum in the Art Space
Over the years, art and culture have known different revolutions alongside years of various technologies. This means that with technology, art and culture are being redirected to fit into a more suitable ambience of the society. One of these innovations is the establishment of the Seattle NFT Museum and they have adapted into different means of reaching the visitors, and this includes:
1. On-screen ultra quality display
As a museum, the major responsibility is being the hub of various art items, explained by a curator to the visitors. However, with the evolution of NFT, museums have begun to tap into the development of Web3 & Metaverse; and one of them is the Seattle NFT Museum.
Unlike the traditional way of operating museums, the Seattle NFT Museum has looked forward to operating an on-screen promotion and education of NFT. This means, rather than having an object situated on a stand with an inscription downward, as a visitor, you will be viewing arts from different artists all around the globe on the screen.
2. Exhibition of art
Apart from that, every NFT (Digital Arts) that will be displayed on the museum’s screen will be as a loan from the artists. This has therefore sparked a question of whether the visitors will still be visitors or the viewing of different NFT on the screen will make them a collector instead.
The NFT space is wide and fits every category of persons, being a collector means that you’re continually finding Art that resonates with you and aesthetically supports your emotion.
However, having arts displayed on the screen is systematically turning the visitor into a possible collector and by impact, this could mean support for digital artists. Thence, making every artist also a possible collector.
This is one of the major concerns of the Seattle NFT Museum.
3. Educational medium
Another input of the museum as an NFT hub is the question of educating visitors about the NFT, Blockchain, Metaverse and other innovations.
According to SNFTM (Seattle NFT Museum), its mission is to bring the knowledge of NFT to the reality of everyone by screening the arts which are lent to them by the artists, creators, collectors, and galleries.
Thus, bridging the mysterious gap between NFT and the people. Hence, providing its visitors digital exposure and education.
The Challenges That Come with NFT Art
Digital artist vs. traditional artist
NFT is known for its major focus on digital art; however, it is important to also note the existence of the traditional artists who are not well educated in NFT. In light of this, there have been various questions such as “do the traditional artists need or have to key into the NFT digital art space?” Perhaps yes — Perhaps no.
But as an art enthusiast, one of the things that must be put into consideration is the idea of not diluting the existing culture of traditional art into the digital space. Of course, NFT is majorly about the investors, the collectors and every other person in the space, which can pose a major challenge that will be later discussed in this article.
Hype and commercial aspect of the NFT museum
The creation of the NFT museum is a timely establishment and also commercially smart. By this, it means that while they are keying into the innovation of NFT and web 3.0 and building an Augmented Reality feature kind of virtual assets, they are also maximizing it as an opportunity to commercially support the artists as well as the organization itself.
However, you should not also forget that as this may be reckoned to be a futuristic innovation, it has some darker sides. This may include copyright issues or “copyminters,” lack of artist authenticity, etc.
Lack of authenticity of art and art creators
One of man’s basic instincts is survival. Little wonder did Charles Darwin decide to lock himself up to write a book that can be summarized as “survival of the fittest.”
In this case, relating to NFT, artists or creators may find it hard to truly express their emotions in their artwork. Since the art that brings in cash is the best art. While a painting created by an artist for their fans may be neglected.
Almost absence of copyright
Truly, NFTs are built on Blockchain, but anyone accessing the internet can easily right-click on an NFT image or GIF and profit from it by claiming it as theirs.
Art prices vs. art itself
There’s a big tussle between art prices and arts as they both continually scream to the collectors. Hence, the profitability of art comes over the emotion behind the unique work of an artist.
