CryptoArt; A Fusion Between Art and Blockchain Technology

Problem statement: 

The latest fusion between art and blockchain technology has created a new artistic movement called CryptoArt. This emerging method, which has recently attracted the art world’s attention, requires exceptional understanding and reading.The current research seeks to answer what turns this innovative technology into art and tries to determine whether CryptoArt can challenge market-oriented and commoditized art in the capitalist system.

The purpose of the upcoming study is to get to know the way technology works in CryptoArt and trace its formation grounds in the history of art, to achieve a better understanding of this new artistic movement, and also to study the emancipatory potential of CryptoArt in the market-oriented field.

The present study draws upon the opinions of thinkers such as “Lucy Lippard,” “Walter Benjamin” and “Jean Baudrillard” and uses a fundamental purpose and historical-descriptive method to answer its questions. This research attempts to study an example of CryptoArt; The non-random sampling method was purposeful and includes the work of the well-known contemporary artist Damien Hirst, whose project has been reflected in the media, and whose sale price has been significant.

The results make it clear that CryptoArt follows the concepts of contemporary art history to redefine art and show its relationship with life. In this new procedure, technology tries to restore the authenticity and uniqueness of modernism to digital art by adding a virtual asset to the works. Also, the findings indicate that encrypted art can bring opportunities and threats to the art world. On the one hand, it can decentralize and challenge the conventional frameworks of the capital-oriented art market, and on the other hand, it can become a tool to strengthen the commodification process and re-dominate capital over art.