When I dropped off social media (and nuked my accounts) following the installation of Dear Leader Trump, I kept creating art, but lost the pulse on the digital art community. My March 2024 series ‘NFTS Are Dead’ made fun of the space and its widely-alleged demise. But it turns out, in my time away from socials, that NFTs did actually kinda die. The art is still being created, the dedicated artists are still active, but the scene is gone? What it had been (the shallow, overhyped, profit-seeking scene), anyway, seems to be gone. And, IDK, maybe us artists who screamed “all these VC-backed platforms and slush $ and focus on PFPs and slop shit art isn’t doing us any favors, let alone in the interest of artists, let alone sustainable!” were correct. Looking at you, Rodeo.
I jumped back on socials a few months back but got kicked off X and Tuta[mail] - go figure. And I’ll try to get back on again even though I’m petrified of the surveillance state that’s coming. But, fuck, it’s already here and I’m sure they already know who I am, so. Why the fuck not.
Anyway, I checked in to see the state of NFTs and, well, it ain’t pretty. Damn, y’all died while I was away? I started with NFT Now. Not because I liked the rag (I really couldn’t give a fuck what the latest beeple-inspired ultra rare ape pigeon just sold for) but because I figured it would at least clue me in on how things are going more broadly in the space. But they hadn’t published in awhile. Like, since July of last year. Uh-oh. Turns out they’ve become ‘Now Media’ which … is some sort of web3, fourth turning, futurist Huffington Post amalgamation of unfocused things. Front and center is Matt’s ‘The Unwinding of the NFT Marketplace Era’ gulp which doesn’t bode well. Of fuck. We’re all dead? I sold an ACK for $700 last fall. Didn’t think we were dead. But here we are.
Damn, the list of dead platforms? Rodeo (I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!), KnownOrigin, MakersPlace, Foundation (hopefully not?). This ain’t good. But maybe it ain’t bad.
Because now the chaff has been sifted. The real ones remain. Shoutout to Objkt for being the OG and keeping things strong. And to SuperRare for not throwing in the towel (or something?). Artists? Keep building. Keep creating. Keep speaking through your work. Society needs us, and I’m still convinced digital art is the future of an increasingly decentralized world that’s in constant upheaval and change.
Me? It’s been so hard for me to create since Orange Dick Face rose to power. My work is punk. It’s antifa. This is precisely the future I was warning against. And now that nobody listened and it’s here and we’re all fucked, I don’t know what to warn people about anymore. We’re all living it. The creativity will return to me. My feel for expression will get clear again. But for now, I’m taking it in. And have launched this little blog/newsletter/zine thing as a place to dump my thoughts and promote the work of my friends. It’s something. It’s creating. Spread the word. Thanks.
CREATE > CONSUME
(Cover Image, ‘0181: NFTS ARE DEAD LONG LIVE NFTS’ by GAWD, released on Objkt, 2024)