Will NFTs offer a pathway to a payday for smaller local creators?
We maxed out our crypto wallet minting an NFT to learn what all the fuss is about and find out what impact it will have on local creators.
Check out our NFT here
Once upon a time in Morocco, a single copy of a CD was stored in a vault at the Royal Mansour Hotel. This CD was to be sold at auction and would be the only copy in existence. Wu-Tang Clan worked on the album for 6 years in secret. At a time when the physical distribution of CDs was being eroded by internet pirates and streaming, they hatched a plan for a new way to release music. The album sold for $2 Million USD to a pharma millionaire, with the stipulation that it couldn’t be distributed for commercial gain until 2103. At the time this was regarded as some sort of gimmick or prank and laughed at as a ridiculous price to pay for music files. Fast forward to 2021 and NFTs are dominating discussion in the art world and the evolution of the Wu-Tang model may have come of age.
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin 1 of 1 album
The Wu-Tang Clan sold their album in 2015 through a NYC auction house. That same year the first Ethereum-based Non-fungible Tokens were released with little fanfare at a London conference. While the CD asset was physical, the principle behind the Wu-Tang’s experimental sales model is essentially the same as for NFTs, and answers the question: “How do you sell something of artistic value that has been created digitally and, by its very nature, is easily reproduced?” The blockchain now plays the part of the Moroccan vault which has democratized the art marketplace for all creatives. Digital artists have embraced NFTs as a way to distribute and value the work they do as a true artform, and now put them on par with painters and sculptors in the auction houses. A digital artwork that was 5000 days in the making sold for $69 Million USD just last week.
NFTs allow creators to upload files to an auction market and are not interchangeable, therefore creating rareness and authenticity. Read more about the finer details in this great piece by The Verge
For a long time, while superstar artists make millions at auctions with high profile sales, many artists have struggled to get paid for their work, especially on a local level. There are many amazing artists in Canberra, working in the digital art space, but often those endeavour are sidelined to forever being passion projects. The very nature of the digital medium being easily accessible online, and freely shared on social media, means the value of art is often perceived as free.
Crowdfunding showed some promise as a way for artists to fund and get paid for their art, but it always felt like a charity exercise. NFTs may change that, giving people the chance to invest in an artist and receive something of value in return. Something that can be traded, collected, and even grow in value over time, like a Monet or Picasso would.
We caught up with Claire Abdulla just as she launched her first NFT gallery experience called Crypto Fine Arts, minting art works on OpenSea (the largest NFT marketplace). Items like these are often highly sought after and can be lucrative for creators at all levels. You can find her gallery here featuring the The Blue and White Edit.
“I think any digital artist is pretty excited about the whole idea of NFTs at the moment.”
Claire Abdulla NFT Gallery
Claire has long been making a living from her digital art, working on client projects including Canberra’s Rac Rila but now says NFTs offer the ability to do it yourself.
“It’s kind of a buzz - the idea that you can make money off of making digital art, without having to have your work in a gallery, or having to make work for a client.”
She is dipping her toe in the NFT waters and experimenting with a few releases, while also having some reservations about the environmental issues that arise from the use of blockchain technology and its huge computing power requirements. Largely, however, it’s a game changer for local artists.
“I think it’s a very weird space to be in as a digital creator. If you’re making videos you kind of have to convince people that videos are worth paying for.
An NFT contract enables a way for us to 100% accurately identify something as being the authentic version of itself. That’s a pretty special capability that has not existed in the art world before, like ever!
With resale royalty fees going directly to the creators, this is a big shift in how artists can be continually compensated for one piece of artwork. So maybe the idea of being a poor artist will be flipped on its head in the future and being an artist will be the new 9 to 5 career?”
Full interview with Claire can be found here
Tommy Balogh ‘Montezuma’
Canberra’s Tommy Balogh is not a digital artist but is looking to NFTs even though his work lives in the physical world.
“It’s not just for digital artists, it’s for any form of art that can be minted on the blockchain. This would include painters. It’s gonna change the industry!”
Jess Herrington believe that not only are NFTs a game changer but they are also changing what contemporary art looks like.
“I feel like as a digital artist, all of a sudden a lot of work I’ve seen online for some time has sort of become mainstream. And I feel like the aesthetic of contemporary art is changing in terms of what’s dominate because of how NFTs have come about.”
So, we decided to jump on the bandwagon and mint a token ourselves and find out how easy it is to actually create, and distribute to market, an NFT.
Here’s what it takes:
Create the artwork. This can be almost anything. JPEG images and GIFs are used as the visual representation of the NFT, but other items can be attached as unlockable links. The ‘cover image’ is typically the ‘artwork’, so it's important that this is something that stands out. This is where the artistry really comes into it. It can be challenging working within these confines, so creative solutions and unique ideas do well.
Start a Crypto Wallet. We used one of the most popular, Coinbase Wallet. This is needed to link to the marketplace site and pay the associated fees to mint a token.
Purchase some Ethereum. This is the currency required to buy NFTs in the marketplace, and also upload fees for artworks, aka gas fees. We used Coinbase.
Upload to a marketplace site. We used Rarible which also sends to Opensea which offer an eBay-style marketplace for digital art. This cost about 0.06 Etherium, or $120 AUD. (It took us 2 goes to get it right, once it’s up it’s locked and no edits can be made)
Sell. You need to pay a final fee to make the auction live on Opensea. Wait for a buyer.
The biggest obstacle to NFT minting is the ‘gas fees’ every transaction cost money and this amount fluctuates based on how many users are operating online. Right now, it’s very high and this is going to price a lot of creators out. All up to get our first NFT out it cost about $350 (plus a few times we fucked it up) so be careful though the steps. You do need to be a little tech savvy but online tutorials helped us. The hardest part is navigating the crypto wallet side and making payments. All in all anyone can pretty easily get an NFT up.
Our first NFT can be found here
It will go to auction and the highest bid will win.
You have the chance to become the #1 tenant at the Mustard Flats Residences. This will be a 1 of 1 chance to become the most valued member of our lovely community in Canberra. You will also become the owner of the first episode of the Mustard Flats Podcast ,with Kirklandd & Citizen Kay (with a Letter of Authenticity in the unlockable link) - as well as naming rights holder on the YouTube video. Presented By (*your name or business here*): A history-making moment in the Mustard Flats development.
We are looking for Canberra NFT artists so please get in touch.
Canberra NFT Artists We Like
