This set of videos and articles raised some really great points about NFT’s that I really appreciated. I thought the example from the video of selling the nyan cat gif as a NFT was interesting. To me it is weird to think of that gif as something one person can own. it has been spread across the internet for so long it doesn’t feel like anyone actually owns it. Also, NFT’s do seem like a bubble that could pop. Moving to the next reading from Rhizome, there was a quote that really stuck out to me here “But NFTs could become a lot more interesting when, instead of forcing digital art into PNG form, they begin to operate as networked software tools that can facilitate new kinds of collaboration—forms of experimentation that, as Daniel Keller has pointed out, tend not to happen when market frenzies lead to high transaction fees and place all the emphasis on speculation.” I think this really speaks to the potential of NFT’s and what they could become in time. Algorithm based art that uses the medium to its fullest. Also, something we talked about last time, Speculation and high costs to enter are keeping a lot of people out of the space. Finally moving to the hyperallergic article there was another quote that really spoke to me, “The specific gambits convened around tokenizing memes and tweets tie into the already problematic tension between relatively frictionless flows of digitized information, and incentives devised to monetize clicks and likes, with individuals encouraged to equate all forms of expression with building brand identity.” This version of the internet where every “thing” on the internet is an NFT sounds very bad to me. The idea that all things on the internet are to be owned and have monetary value seems very contradictory to how the internet is now and how it has been historically. Also, this seems like an oversaturation of the idea of NFT’s.
