I found the video “NFTs Are Fueling a Boom in Digital Art. Here’s How They Work | WSJ” very helpful in furthering my understanding of NFTs. I feel like I'm still slightly struggling with the concept of NFTs. The explanation of NFTs using the Mona Lisa (original versus gift shop poster) was very helpful for me. I think of NFTs as trading cards, like Pokémon. No one creature is exactly equivalent to another, they all have different powers and values.
As discussed in the article “Another New World” from Rhizome, I found the concept of CryptoKitties very interesting. As described in the article, these CryptoKitties remind me of Webkinz, the extremely popular stuffed animal/digital pets from the early 2000s. I personally owned many Webkinz. You could customize their outfits, play games with them, and build homes. Even if someone else had the same species Webkinz as you, like a hippo or a dog, the customization aspects made Webkinz extremely unique. The ‘breeding’ feature of CryptoKitties, while not involved in the Webkinz children’s game for obvious reasons, does remind me of this. I think the idea of CryptoKitties as a video game vs CryptoPunks as a piece of art also makes more sense to me as to why people would spend money on it. From visiting the website, CryptoKitties seems to include much more bang for your buck- users are able to play games, solve puzzles, and connect with other users in addition to creating their trademarked kitties. This is basically like paying for a video game with the added bonus of having an entirely unique character, although the average sale of a CryptoKitty for $65.76 still seems a bit steep to me.
This article “The NFT Market Feeds Our Obsession With Ownership” brings up a difficult issue. While I understand artists’ desire to mint their creations and profit from them, I think a line needs to be drawn. Gifs are a form of art. For example, Petra Cortright’s gif Hands, which I examined in my midterm artist report, is very artistic and is a stand alone work of art. I think this is acceptable to be minted as an NFT and sold. However, I don’t think that memes like Nyan Cat should be NFTs. I understand the desire to mint viral gifs or images, but I think at the point when these things reach virality they should be considered public domain. At that point, so many new iterations and remixes have been created that the material has evolved beyond the point of personal ownership.
