Pixel Perfect

In the constantly evolving art world landscape, creators and collectors alike are eager to explore the new frontiers that today’s technology allows both in the real world and in the mythical metaverse.

- BRUCE SCOTT

Artists are always at the forefront of any emerging technological revolution, anxious and eager to experiment with all the cool new tools they can add to their creative arsenal.

At the same time, however, most serious art buyers are slower to pick up on these trends, preferring to invest in pieces that have accumulated value and notoriety over multiple decades (or even centuries). But for those willing to take the leap into the unknown, the rewards can be substantial - whether you look at it from the point of view of the creator or the collector.

Anyone following current art trends will no doubt be familiar with NFTs - or "non-fungible tokens" - which have been around now for almost a decade. A quick Google search reveals that the world's first NFT, called "Quantum", was minted back in 2014 and was sold in 2021 via Sotheby's for a whopping US$1.47 million (RM6.36 million). Of course, that price tag pales in comparison to an NFT entitled "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" created by the artist Beeples, which in 2021 was sold to a single buyer for an astonishing US$69.3 million (RM300 million) at Christie's Auctions.

By the same, err... token, the NFT craze, which seemed so promising in 2021, went a bit flat in 2022, due in no small part to the very real uncertainty about the whole cryptocurrency sphere - the underlying foundation of the NFT market - which every day seems to be hovering on the verge of collapse. Add to that the perception by the general populous that these "digital da Vincis" are nothing but overpriced images of cartoon monkeys - a rather popular theme in the NFT world for some reason - and it's not surprising to see why many have dismissed them as a passing fad.