'A Digital Art Renaissance' Was Launched by NFTs. It's Not Over Digital artists applaud an industry revolution as the.ART domain registry celebrates its fifth anniversary.
Digital art was created in the 1960s, but the 2020s will be remembered as the decade when it truly came into its own and upended the whole art world.
Technology, in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) like CryptoPunks, has been instrumental in upending conventional dynamics of the art market. Online platforms and markets have made it possible for artists to bypass gatekeepers, spawning a billion-dollar industry that supports creators.
A fresh era
The pandemic has aided with this shift as online art sales have increased from 9% to 25% of all worldwide art sales in 2021, according to Art Basel. However, the culture is also evolving. Ulvi Kasimov, the founder of.ART, claims that since there are no middlemen involved, artists can develop closer relationships with collectors and that NFTs have sparked a shift away from consumption toward sharing.
As a stepping stone to Web3, NFTs
Platforms like .ART, which offer free website creation to its 150,000-strong community of creatives and provide linkages to Web 3 tools like NFT minting and the Ethereum Naming Service, support the economic and cultural revolution brought about by NFTs.
In a time of rapid change, where internet and blockchain technologies have prompted comparisons with the roles of the printing press and accounting ledger in the European Renaissance, it serves to connect the digital world with the traditional galleries, museums, and auction houses.
However, there is a significant distinction: whereas the Renaissance in the 15th century was confined to Europe, the Renaissance of today is occurring at an unprecedented rate on a worldwide scale.
