NFTs

NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) are a way to electronically sign digital documents. In the world of art, they enable the signature of a digital artwork, whether an image, a video, a music, a generative or interactive artwork, etc.. The signed artwork is written to a blockchain (a kind of worldwide registry) in an immutable way. Therefore the signed artwork becomes unique, even though the original artwork remains copiable, visible, etc.. It is the difference between a record of John Lennon and a record of John Lennon signed by him.

This unicity creates a rarity which generated a huge amount of excitement on the art market, because it opens the doors to speculation. Digital objects aquire a unicity that until now only belonged to physical objects. The speculative excitement, the questionnable artistic quality of the first NFTs and the fact that the blokchains seem to consume huge amount of energy, has in return created a great defiance among the historical digital artists against these NFTs. The debate rages on.

I have chosen a third way : I consider the NFT simply as a new way to show and sell digital artworks, to meet an audience of collectors. And a new way for collectors to collect, even speculate if it pleases them. It is also a new way for collectors to support artists by buying their artworks (directly from them).

My NFT artworks continue my current practice : new artworks designed to be seen mainly on screen in a browser, variations or prolongations of existing artworks, etc.. that address my favorite subjects.

In order not to play the speculation, my NFT artworks are sold as multiples with an accessible price. In case the artwork is re-sold, a percentage of 10% is paid to me, which seems fair.

Of course, I also continue to create and show installations and physical artworks. These are exhibited in gallery and are not avilable as NFT. There is a complementarity.

My NFT are available on the hicetnunc.xyz online platform. I have chosen this platform both because of its engagement in art-oriented NFTs, its decentralized and collaborative spirit, because it stores its files in the eco-frienldy opensource IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) peer-to-peer file system and because it sells the NFTs using the Tezos cryptocurrency. The Tezos blockchain (XTZ) is open and participative, but mostly it is eco-friendly, as opposed to the more known Bitcoin and Ethereum, which consume an unbearable amount of energy.

The choice of hicetnunc.xyz and Tezos is for me a responsible and political choice.

You can find below my artworks sold as NFTs. You can access directly to my page on hicetnunc.xyz here.

Notes :

– NFTs are purely digital artworks, viewable in a browser. They are not physical artworks. For my physical artworks (installations, large format generative, videoprojection, drawings, etc..), see the category museum artworks.

– to buy NFTs, you need cryptocurrencies. This is more easy than it looks like. Here is an how-to page.

Antoine Schmitt – April 2021