Business Arts

ART/ARTH/BUS 334: THE BUSINESS OF ART
TASK SHEET # 1 4 /MODULE: WEEK 1 4 :

ART IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: “NFS” TO “NFT”

DUE DATE : Monday, April 29, by 9:00 pm! Please submit in Canvas, “Assignments,” only!
 This task sheet has 3 PARTS. Please complete ALL THREE PARTS.
 ONLY submit Task Sheets that are complete and based on the assigned readings. Paraphrase!: )

READINGS [ALL READINGS CAN BE ACCESSED VIA MODULE: WEEK 14!]
Laura Feinstein: “’Beginning of a new era: how culture went virtual in the face of crisis,” in:
The Guardian (April 2020):

Naomi Martin: “How Social Media Is Shaping Art – The Impact of an Instagram Obsessed
Culture,” in: Artland Magazine (no date):

obsessed-culture/
Nathalie Casemajor:“NFTs in the Art World: A Revolution or Ripoff?,” in: The Conversation
(2022):

INTRODUCTION: ART IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
The evolution of digital technology in the past four decades has influenced society in a profound way.
It has changed the way we share our lives, the way we perceive ourselves, our communities, our
surroundings, and the world, as well as the way we communicate, work, teach, learn, access news and
entertainment, travel, drive, sell, shop, bet, date, etc., etc., etc. – amplified during the recent pandemic.
Digital technology has also majorly influenced and changed not only how and what art is being
conceived and created, but further how art is being accessed, viewed, shared, sold and bought:
From the traditional display of artworks in a physical space, such as a museum or gallery, that an
interested viewer had to travel to, to an increasing dissemination of photographic reproductions of
artworks and monuments, as well as photographic works, reproduced in books, periodicals, catalogs,
etc. [see text assigned in Module: Week 12], to the era of digital technology, which again dramatically
changed the creation, dissemination, study, reception and collection of visual art.

SOME KEY TERMS
Digital Art refers to any artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or
presentation process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media.
Since the 1960s, various names have been used to describe digital art, including computer art,
electronic art, multimedia art and new media art. [Source:

NFS (Not for Sale) found on a label next to an artwork on display in a gallery or other art venue means
that an artist wishes to retain the artwork in their personal collection and it is not available for purchase.
In the digital age it means that the artwork is not available to be acquired with digital or real currency.

NFTs (Non-fungible Tokens) are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot
be replicated due to unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from other tokens.
NFTs can represent digital or real-world items like artwork and real estate. NFTs can be traded and
exchanged for money, cryptocurrencies, or other NFTs, depending on the value the market and owners
have placed on them. Cryptocurrencies are tokens as well, however, they are fungible.
[Source: ]

INTRO TO PART I: ART AND THE VIRTUAL TURN
In the assigned text author Laura Feinstein notes: “In a sector that thrives on in-person connection, the
loss of an audience is disastrous, yet resilient performers, institutions, galleries, even entire art fairs, are
moving to the digital arena, using streaming services and virtual reality […].” She writes that the
pandemic ushered in a golden age of virtual media and fast-tracked an “unprecedented access to some
of the world’s cultural touchstones, some previously financially or physically inaccessible.

YOUR TASKS FOR PART I
Read: L. Feinstein: “’Beginning of a new era: how culture went virtual in the face of crisis,” in: The
Guardian (2020):

Please answer the following 4 questions/tasks in c. 6-8 sentences EACH:
1) Explain how, according to Feinstein’s text, the selling of artworks has moved from fairs and galleries
to virtual spaces, such as the Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms, during and since the pandemic.
2) Visit the website of a major museum and take a virtual tour of one of their exhibitions and
summarize your experience [see list of suggested museums to visit virtually below].
3) Compare your virtual experience with your in-person visit of a museum at the beginning of the
semester and weigh the pros and cons of viewing art in person at a museum versus online.
4) Reflect on Feinstein’s statement: “While the world has never felt more physically isolated, digital
media have offered a bridge, as well as an exciting range of experiences.”
Some Suggestions for Museums for Your Virtual Visit

 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
 Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA)
 The Getty Museum, Santa Monica
 The Broad Museum, Los Angeles [see: The Broad from Home]
 Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (MoMASF)
 Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA)
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (MET) [look for a contemporary art exhibition]
 Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City [
 Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
 Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France [Podcasts via:
 Tate Modern, London, England [see:
 Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany [see:

institutions/neue-nationalgalerie/home/
 Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo, Brazil [see: mamonline via:
 The Nairobi Gallery [see:

gallery-national-museums-of-kenya/SwISoZIlsJNBKg?hl=en]

INTRO TO PART II : ART DISSEMINATION AND RECEPTION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
We live in an age where artworks have often become hip backdrops for selfies to be shared instantly via
social media platforms, stripping them of any context or their deeper and intended meaning. While
famous artworks and monuments have been used as backdrops in advertisements for decades, in a
culture of instant and constant sharing, anything from Chris Burden’s iconic Urban Light installation at
the Los Angeles County Museum, to Banksy’s cynical commentaries stenciled on public walls, to
Japanese born artist Yayoi Kusama’s immersive mirror-and-light installations, is fair game. This
phenomenon begs Naomi Martin, author of the assigned text, to ask, “if the experience is still about the
art, or if it is just another way to cultivate the vanity of the spectator and their overwhelming desire to
fit into the practices cultivated and endorsed by social media.”

YOUR TASKS FOR PART II
Read: Naomi Martin: “How Social Media Is Shaping Art – The Impact of an Instagram Obsessed

Culture,” in: Artland Magazine (no date):

obsessed-culture/

Please answer the 3 questions in c. 4-6 sentences EACH:
1) Explain the connection Martin’s text draws between
tagging and hashtagging. Compare and contrast – one
activity happening in real spaces and often illegally, the
other online and by pushing a few buttons.
2) Is the relationship between street art and social media
about profit? Please explain according to Martin’s text.
3) Please explain street artist iHeart’s artwork, I Hate You
[right], and reflect on his statement:“I see people walking
down streets barely glancing up from their devices.
Digitally we’re hyper-connected and yet so disconnected
from each other.”[see Martin]

INTRO TO PART III: NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T: NFTS, RIPOFF OR REVOLUTION?
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain, and is used
to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of
an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold
and traded [
Many artists have experimented with this new digital “device”, Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), to market
their digital creations since the emergence of NFTs in 2016. However, as author Nathalie Casemajor
states in the assigned text: “The public and media discourse about NFTs is polarized: in the eyes of
their strongest enthusiasts, NFTs represent the future of art, while their detractors consider them a vast
ripoff and waste of energy.”
While proponents have claimed that NFTs provide a public certificate of authenticity and proof of
ownership, the legal rights conveyed by an NFT are uncertain and ownership of an NFT does not
grant copyright, intellectual property rights, or other legal rights. In 2022, the NFT market collapsed
with the number of sales down by over 90% compared to 2021. In 2023, a report claimed that over
95% of NFT collections had zero monetary value [

YOUR TASKS FOR PART III
Read: Nathalie Casemajor:“NFTs in the Art World: A Revolution or Ripoff?,” in: The Conversation

(2022):
For further information see:
5115211 AND

Please answer the 3 questions in c. 4-6 sentences EACH:
1) How is an NFT different from a standard digital artwork and design and why would NFTs be
deemed more valuable than standard digital artworks and designs?
2) How does Casemajor’s text characterize the artists who experiment with NFTs and how does it
characterize the buyers and collectors of NFTs?
3) After reading Casemajor’s text, do you think NFTs are a rip off or a revolution in the visual arts and
are you more of a “crypto-evangelist” or more of a “crypto-skeptic”? Please explain your position.