Music NFTs: blockchain for artistic research?

Abstract

Seminar Resources

NFTs have been around since 2014, but only in 2021 did they became an important part of the art world. Since 2021 major museums and art galleries, as well as a growing number of artists fully embraced Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as a new digital mode of exposing, producing, and distributing art.NFTs are embedded in blockchains: decentralised networks of information exchange on which different kinds of data can be stored without a centralised controlling entity. While commonly associated with cryptocurrencies and financial ledgers of transactions, blockchain technology can support many other types of data (including visual, audio, and video files). Through their unprecedented decentralisation of informational flows, blockchain technologies bring opportunities to better protect information, especially in times of post-truth, fake news, and information bubbles. For the arts, it might bring radical changes to the ways in which art is generated, communicated, disseminated, and transacted.

Despite its vertiginous expansion, the blockchain revolution is happening under the radar of many people and institutions. With this seminar, the Orpheus Institute wants to initiate research on NFTs in relation to musical practices in general, and to artistic research in particular. The seminar aims at mapping the field, exploring the potential of blockchain for music creation, and launching the basis for a blockchain network at the service of artistic research. ​​​​​​​Convened by Paulo de Assis, Orpheus Institute, Ghent; Adam Łukawski, Orpheus Institute, Ghent and Leiden University; Paolo Giudici, Royal College of Art, London. Moderated by Paulo de Assis, Orpheus Institute, Ghent PresentersClaudio J. Tessone, UZH Blockchain Center, University of ZurichCatherine Mulligan, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of LisbonMarcus O'Dair, Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts LondonPaolo Giudici, Royal College of Art, LondonKosmas Giannoutakis Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York Juan Carlos Vasquez, Independent composer, sound artist, and researcherKristof Timmerman, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp Ine Vanoeveren, Royal Conservatory of Liège and Royal Conservatoire of AntwerpDiane Drubay, TZ Connect and Tezos ecosystem, BerlinOlly Jones, VP Partnership Workshop with Adam Łukawski, Orpheus Institute, and Leiden University