Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been around for a few years now, but a trend has literally exploded in the last few months, maybe pushed also by the pandemic that confined us in our houses and in digital spaces, culminating in March in Christie's sale of Beeple's monumental digital collage for a record sum, $69,346,250. Confident NFTs will reshape the art landscape, Sotheby's launched an auction of digital art - The Fungible Collection by Pak.
The anonymous creator. who has been producing digital art for over two decades, is also the founder and lead designer of the studio Undream and creator of Archillect, an AI built to discover and share stimulating visual media. The auction - that will go live from tomorrow to 14th April - is released in collaboration with Nifty Gateway, a marketplace specializing in the sale and auction of non-fungible tokens.
Every asset for sale in The Fungible Collection is a non-fungible token (NFT). It is worthwhile remembering here for those readers who didn't follow our previous posts that a non-fungible token is a distinct, indivisible, scarce and verifiable token on a blockchain network (but the ownership of a non-fungible token can still be transferred from one address on the network to another).
The Fungible Open Editions will enable collectors to purchase as many fungible cubes as they wish during the sale period for a fixed price ($500 per unit). These fungible cubes can be purchased individually (in batches of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000) or many at a time (so when a Collector purchases 6 cubes, they will receive 2 "Five Cubes" NFTs and "A Cube" NFT; when they purchase 26 cubes, they will receive 3 NFTs with "Twenty Cubes", "Five Cubes" and "A Cube", summing up to 26 cubes in fungible value).
There is a game-like rewarding element in the auction aimed at exploring and understanding the concept of value in connection with art: the 100 collectors who purchase the most Open Edition cubes by the end of day 3, will receive Complexity, a collection of 100 NFTs; The Cube is instead a unique, "one-of-one" NFT that will be given to the individual who purchases the most Open Edition cubes by the end of day 3; Equilibrium is a "four-of-four" where each edition will be sent to the winners of a series of challenges, from solving Pak's puzzle to posting a dedicated hashtag (#PakWasHere) to the biggest social media audience or estimating the total sale of the entire collection prior to the auction beginning on April 12.
"The Builder" is instead a set of 30 NFTs that will be given to artists, builders, and creators (recipients will be determined by Pak) who have paved the way for Pak and other NFT artists.
Last but not least, "The Switch", developed to be used with a public call by it's owner, is a unique, "one of one" NFT that demonstrates the evolution of artwork in the digital realm.
Sotheby's Pak auction is therefore an experimental auction aimed at a younger generation of collectors (the starting bid for The Switch, but also for The Pixel, represented by a single and basic pixel unit, is $1) who may be interested in exploring the concept of value through CryptoArt.
The world of fashion is definitely not sitting back and watching: while there have been multiple experiments and collaborations with design studios and brands creating digital designs, we haven't seen yet a promiment fashion house or brand releasing a design as a non-fungible token (but how long will we have to wait? Probably just a few days...), yet things are quickly evolving.
Kate Moss has for example created three short videos with anonymous artist collective, Moments in Time. The videos show Moss engaging in everyday activities - sleeping, walking and driving. The three videos - "Drive With Kate," "Walk With Kate" and "Sleep With Kate" - will be auctioned off as NFTs through digital platform Foundation (auction opens on Tuesday starting at 9 a.m. EST for 24 hours) and part of the proceeds will benefit Adwoa Aboah's Gurls Talk charity (each video will be sold with a unique audio certification recorded by Moss acknowledging the buyer who will also be announced in a social post through the Kate Moss Agency).
In a statement accompanying the videos, Moss explains "Art for me has always been about the moment. Time is the thing that there is never enough of and that waits for no one. I'm intrigued by who will want to own a moment of mine. I was also drawn to the idea that this ownership can be used to help others in need hopefully gain more of it. I look forward to seeing this experiment through."
There's a difference between Sotheby's Pak NTFs and Moss's artworks: the former cater to passionate fans of digital art, abstract geometries and architectures; Moss's videos are actually more mundane rather than technological, aimed at offering short snippets of real life (they were recorded at Moss's own home and feature the model driving her own car and wearing her own clothes) while helping a charity.
So which one will you be opting for, Pak's abstract geometries or Kate Moss's mundane NTFs? Whichever you choose, remember, the term "NFT" is not just destined to become the word of the year: according to a report released earlier on this year by NonFungible.com, an NFT market analyst firm, the non-fungible token market tripled in 2020, with the total value of transactions increasing by 299%, so NFTs are definitely destined to become a leading emerging asset class for the Virtual Economy.
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