1NFTs and Digital Art
Name: zhibin huang
Course: FAH 380
Date:2024/10/31
Number: 1006693981
2Introduction and Background
NFT or non-fungible tokens have emerged as an exciting innovation in the sphere of art
and have altered the processes of buying and selling art pieces (Balduf et al., 2022). NFTs are the
unique and indivisible digital contents, which are stored on the blockchain system and therefore;
ownership can be easily verified. With high-profile sales like Beeple's "Everydays: Such pieces
as the “First 5000 Days,” which fetched $69 million at Christie’s in 2021, show how the NFT
market has enthused and challenged conventional art organizations (Lyubchenko, 2022). The
phenomenon has turned into a supply source for artists to gain revenue from their newly created
pieces of digital art and a new investment asset class for investors. Nevertheless, they have also
sparked discussions about its feasibility, the fluctuations in the stock market, and the real essence
of virtual currencies.
Statement of Goal
The purpose of this study is to understand the ways in which NFTs are disrupting the
traditional art industry, specifically looking at ownership as a key aspect of disrupting the art
market that is defined by traditional ideas of provenance. Thus, in this work, it is planned to
evaluate the feasibility of the presence of digital art based on the analysis of the structure,
accessibility, and market response to NFTs.
Research Questions/Issues
This research will address the following core questions:
1. How do NFTs impact traditional concepts of provenance and authenticity in the art market?
2. To what extent does NFTs impact the accessibility and popularity of art curation?
3. To what extent have traditional forms of art and art markets adapted to new forms, specifically
digital art and NFTs as a financial commodity?
3These questions will assist in developing insights about NFT as disruption of art market
and using limitations and opportunities associated with the integration of NFTs into
consideration.
Description of Methodology
This research will use a qualitative method to examine how NFTs are disrupting the
traditional art market milieu through stakeholders and industry stories. As qualitative research,
the study plans to conduct interviews with artists, collectors, art dealers, and market specialists to
also have different angles on NFTs and their effects on concepts such as ownership, provenience
and value. Furthermore, the method of content analysis of articles and press releases of the
industry, along with the statements of leading art establishments, galleries, and auction houses
such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s will supplement the understanding of how the digital and the
traditional domains present and situate NFTs. It also reveals important qualitative aspects of the
market that reflect both optimism and concerns about digital ownership in art.
Identifying Some Terminology
1. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Tokens that reflect the ownership of exclusive objects or
information and are backed by blockchain (Jeong, 2022).
2. Blockchain: An open-source public ledger that ensures safe execution of the
transactions and improves tracking of ownership rights of the artwork that has been created with
the help of new digital technologies (Delaplaine, 2022).
3. Democratization of Art: The rise of options for artists and buyers actively involved in
the art market through online services and blockchain technologies that give an opportunity to a
larger audience in art consumption and production (Kulakova, 2022).
4References
Balduf, L., Florian, M., & Scheuermann, B. (2022, November). Dude, where's my NFT:
distributed infrastructures for digital art. In Proceedings of the 3rd International
Workshop on Distributed Infrastructure for the Common Good (pp. 1-6).
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3565383.3566106
Delaplaine, S. (2022). The Brave New Virtual Art World The Evolution of Digital Art: NFTs and
their Effects on the Art Market in 2021 (Master's thesis, Sotheby's Institute of Art-New
York).
https://search.proquest.com/openview/91ece1b415ca4ac848b565863cd0e7ae/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Jeong, S. Y. E. (2022). Value of NFTs in the digital art sector and its market research (Master's
thesis, Sotheby's Institute of Art-New York).
https://search.proquest.com/openview/4048fa58bc86292c778a2768ee1ac850/1?pq-
origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Kulakova, O. S. (2022). Digital Art in the Light of NFT: Market Role and Legal
Uncertainty. Digital Lj, 3, 36. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-
bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/dgtllwj3§ion=14
Lyubchenko, I. (2022). NFTs and digital art: 21st century avant-garde impulse?.M/C
Journal, 25(2). https://journal.media-
culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2891