NFT mania

What makes an artist a crypto artist? Will being included in the museum increase the value of the artists work? I'm fascinated by where this is going.

@Brent Imai Will street art applied directly to the wall of the museum increase the value of the museum?

@Torben Torp-Smith Interesting idea. Maybe it depends on who put it on the wall. Also on the question of value, from who's perspective? I remember when MOCA put street art in the museum. For the people who often feel left out by mainstream art institutions, but who appreciate street art, for them the value of the museum might have increased.

Nevermind

Is the medium still the message? Is the NFT world the block chain extension of communication media, and as such, is it a value delivery system indifferent to content?

@Torben Torp-Smith Great questions! I think the medium is definitely part of the message in the NFT case since as you point out, the content can take on many forms and seems to only account for part of the value for the owner. Would the NFT work sell for the same price if there was no NFT way to monetize? What are your thoughts?

@Brent Imai I think the deeper question might be, "Where do we find the definition of VALUE". A movable target, to be sure. In a time when a shared cultural/social framework for thought and behavior has become fragmented (fractalized, if that's a term) beyond the notion of "nation" into notions of "individual freedom", have we reached the point, or zone, where, "Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder"? Is the idea of "value" contained in concepts of "furthering humanity", "collectible", "emotional resonance", "decorative", "challenging", "disturbing", "all of the above and more"? Did Harring, Calder, Basquiat, Banksy, Lee, or Blu start out thinking, "How can I make money on this?"? Maybe so. Anyway, so many threads to follow. Are there any that lead away from the Minotaur?

I used to think that there were only 4 drivers of human behavior (actually 2 drivers and their respective opposites) which are love, lack of love, community, lack of community. I have recently come to believe somewhat differently. Not that the above are not parts of the equation, but that there is a more singular approach to the drivers of behavior. I now like to think that the drivers are indeed 2, but they can be named comfort and convenience. Convenience is perhaps a corollary to comfort in that comfort can be either physical or mental/emotional and humans can sometimes subject themselves to very inconvenient circumstances to achieve mental/emotional comfort (climbing Everest, for example). In any case, under the current discussion of NFT's (and the Tulip Craze)it occurs to me that value (degrees of comfort) are directly related to the concept of "haveability". Can I "have" something. How difficult is it to "have" something? How exclusive is my "having"? Does my "having" separate me from others or connect me with others? How pixellated can my "having" be before it ceases to be having? How splintered can the true cross be before it loses the magic of salvation?