And it is about to affect every industry including Fine Art
Originally published in Art & Museum Magazine 3/13/2018
David Rockefeller liked to quote Oscar Wilde’s on the relationship between artists and bankers, “When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss Art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss Money.”
Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of future crossovers to come between art and finance, computer science and physics, the global middle class from west to east and now, art and technology. What has spurred these recent intersects in our society? Is it an unlikely pairing, the creation of a sub-genre like Popera or Hip-Hopera, or an algorithmic transition to cast light on the conditions under which order must occur? Crossing disciplinary boundaries has always been important to resourcing and growth as the exchange of different ideas and approaches form new connections and breakthroughs.
However, algorithms have become the ‘Agony and Ecstasy’ of the internet with its infinite search ability and potential harm to humans who receive too much information. Credible research exists aimed at actual brain rewiring issues from internet engagement overload.
Enter Blockchain mania, the revolutionary technology with its multiplicity of applications.
Initially introduced by digital currency, Blockchain technology now has shown consequential in finance, identity management, intellectual property, mortgages, voting, healthcare, and fine art. Blockchains are relevant decentralized data storage solutions encoded to prevent any alteration of history and have the potential to revolutionize every industry. Blockchain is about how we exchange value as it lowers uncertainty.
It is important to understand Blockchain as an open global platform running applications on Ethereum without distortion, downtime, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. Ethereum wraps a network around the entire earth with access to the platforms, and allowing user data to remain private. Blockchain is the shared global infrastructure that enables the creation of markets, the storage of registries and the exchange of value without the middleman.
Blockchain already has had a substantial impact upon the art market and the art world.
The price of art is based upon supply and demand. The value of art is a compilation of many more ethereal aspects like where the work has been shown, who collects the artist, who or what establishes the works social redeeming merit, and so on. Blockchain records authentication, ownership, provenance, and sales prices. It can also monitor selling activity to include the artist in successive sales, limiting a collector’s profit.
Transaction fees are greatly reduced by the elimination of the middleman. In addition, Blockchain allows the purchaser to buy shares of a Monet, Van Gogh or Jasper Johns opening up art investment to everyone. But this is not just another art fund.
Fakes and Forgeries are some of the more destructive aspects of the art market. Perhaps you may have heard of Elmer DeHory, the most prolific art forger in the history of art. His fakes were so genuine they fooled the experts in many different genres. Blockchain offers unalterable records which verifies sales beginning with origination and that trace the journey of artwork to current owners. This solves the major problem of confirming authenticity and protecting artwork copyright.
Institutional participation in Blockchain technology is growing in appeal. This is because the technology is impossible to destroy or falsify, and the open and transparent access potentially improves relationships among museums, auction houses, researchers, collectors and galleries. It is changing how the world of fine art operates together.
New Business models are being developed by entrepreneurs and art professional service providers. Art platforms are being created enabling anyone to access the ledger and the journey of artwork demonstrating a shift of industry surrounding Blockchain technology.
Just as many other industries implement Blockchain technology for more efficiency, the art world is evaluating the theoretical implications upon the way art is created and presented. Despite the impact, pro or con upon our society, there is no doubt Blockchain technology is a game changer across the spectrum and fine art is no exception. Although still a small part of the art market the advent of digital art, digital galleries, digital platforms for artists to secure their attribution and sales, digital art festivals or art fairs are all monetizing art and altering the focus away from art as a cultural treasure towards art investment only.
If unique works are trading like currency does this mean crypto-currencies can be considered art?
Despite the challenges of this new currency frontier such as internal disputes and a reputation for enabling drug dealing, how are we to assess the use of Blockchain in the art world. Is Blockchain software emerging with a significant impact on security?
From major banks to stock exchanges, the financial industry has quickly adopted the technology for its capacity to drop transaction costs. As Blockchain penetrates every aspect of our economy there is a real concern about the implications the technology will have upon governance, identity, and supply chains. Whether the technology will shape reality in a way that is not being perceived is still an open question.
Even though Blockchain is still in its infancy, it likely will gain momentum among many in the art world especially as the technology breaks through into other industries. The art market’s lack of transparency and regulation is oscillating at the moment from operating on trust alone to a system of transactional standard.
What remains is the philosophical question to resolve what happens to originality, connoisseurship, and reality as we know it…. All which remain to be seen….