The problem is, which world are you viewing NFTs from?

This article is from the Orange Book, author: Li Hua.

There are many articles analyzing NFTs, and I would like to share my feelings about NFTs, hoping to provide a perspective. The theme I express is: from which world do you view NFTs, the physical world or the digital world?

I have many CryptoKitties. When gas fees were low in the past, I would buy a bunch of cats every few months, purchasing cats with new features and those I liked, which were not expensive, just over ten or dozens of dollars.

The initial motivation for buying cats was simple. I imagined that in the future, when cyborgs dream of electric sheep, I could gift my CryptoKitties, which would then be the oldest electronic pets, to my AI friends. Although I still don’t have AI friends, I have friends on the blockchain, and I would give my CryptoKitties to accounts I like or have interacted with. I would guess what kind of cats they might like, and even though it felt like parting with them, I happily sent the cats away, just like giving away cards I collected in real life.

From which world do you view CryptoKitties? From the physical world, you see an NFT, which has a long string of descriptors to describe it; from the digital world, you see a gift that can be bought and given to friends.

This address is a house I have in Cryptovoxels (CV). Click link to enter directly. (It's best to access it on a computer. Press H to bring up or hide the help menu; press F for flying mode, allowing you to hover in the air; press ESC to exit the space; use the mouse to enter the space and control direction; use the arrow keys to walk.)

This house is an NFT, representing a 182 square meter space on an island; to the right of the entrance, there is a painting, which is also an NFT. Since I own this painting, it will display a silver border, while if it were someone else's painting, there would be no border. On the counter facing the entrance, there is a menu where you can click to buy hamburgers, all of which are NFTs, created from voxel models I made and minted as NFTs.

There are some tables and chairs in the room, and these can also be NFTs (not yet supported). If you want these objects, you can buy their NFTs, just like buying furniture at IKEA. They can be functionally produced NFTs with unlimited sales, which would be very cheap, like just the gas fee at minting (cost price); they can also be limited edition designer NFTs, which would carry additional value and be relatively expensive.

What I want to convey by writing this is that from the physical world, NFTs are an abstract concept. You see meanings, significance, and value related to this concept; from the digital world, NFTs are the environment you are in. You do not see NFTs; you see the things that NFTs represent and the value of those things.

Currently, the hottest area of NFTs is NFT art or crypto art. When we are in different worlds, what do we see?

The vast majority of today's crypto art is the issuance of works from the physical world in NFT form. Does NFT-ization enhance the artistry of the work? Or to ask, when a work is presented in NFT form, does it bring us more emotional impact?

If it is an oil painting, clearly not. The significance of an oil painting only exists when you stand in front of it with the lighting perfectly arranged. If you burn an oil painting and mint a version on the chain, even if it is the only one in the world, I believe it has no value because the power to touch people's hearts has vanished.

If it is digital art, the medium itself is consistent with its medium after NFT-ization. Regardless of whether it is an NFT or not, the feelings it brings us are the same, and its artistic value has not changed. However, NFT-ization can bring benefits such as value discovery and clear display of ownership relationships, which can influence the overall value of the work.

From the physical world, looking at the role of NFTs in physical world art, you see that NFT-ization is not significantly related to the artistry of the work itself. NFTs in the physical world serve as a new tool for art, artists, and collectors. This is good and highly meaningful and promising, but it is unrelated to the art itself. Simply NFT-ized works cannot be called crypto art.

Now let’s jump into the digital world. This address is a square in CV. Once you enter, you will be in mid-air and see the following scene.

Try flying straight down from the center position 1 to the bottom of the rotating pillar, then fly up into the sky from the bottom; try entering the center of a rotating body inside the sphere from position 2, standing there or quickly shaking the mouse; you can go to position 3 and wander around in that space.

Finally, you must enter the blue and white buildings at position 4. It is a group of exhibition halls, and you must walk through all the buildings with your computer's sound on. You will be moved by its light and shadow, as if you have stepped into an Edward Hopper painting. (You can directly enter venue 1 from this link. The image below shows the location of the venue.)

The above are just ordinary installations and buildings in a regular square, yet they can touch me. For instance, if Anish Kapoor creates his installation in digital space, allowing the work to truly move, what kind of feelings would that evoke?

Installation art is limited by the laws of the physical world, unable to carry the artist's full ideas or showcase the full charm of the artwork, but digital space could be a paradise for installation art.

Using installation art as an example, I want to express that only those artworks that burst with vitality because of the digital world/digital space, only those that bring us new emotional impacts in the digital world, can be considered crypto art. This may include installation art, algorithmic art, interactive art, etc. I believe that new forms of art born in the digital world will emerge in the future. When the space we live in changes, the evolution of art is bound to occur.

From the physical world, it can be said that crypto art is like a raging fire; from the digital world, it can be said that crypto art has not yet occurred. From the physical world, NFTs are a tool for art; from the digital world, NFTs will open up new fields for art, and may even become the mainstream field of art in the future.

A perspective that better illustrates the above point is to imagine viewing an exhibition. In the past, we viewed exhibitions in physical venues, but in the future, we may more often view exhibitions in digital venues. Only works that have expressiveness in digital venues, that burst with vitality because of digital space, will be exhibited more. They will occupy the mainstream because they appear more frequently in people's vision and because of the needs of people in the digital world (when I am in digital space, I need works that can touch me in that space).

Regarding NFT art, many people may have the biggest doubt: the work you own for 1 million, I can download and store on my computer, in a sense, I have obtained that work for free; many people sincerely believe or forcefully argue that this matter is not important.

I do not know whether this matter is important or not, but using installation art as an example, if I own this work, it is not difficult to realize that the NFT in my space or in a space I authorize presents a voxel, which is a piece of art; while in someone else's space or computer, it presents a pixel, which is a photo of the artwork. Similarly, algorithmic art may not load in spaces not owned by everyone, interactive art may not interact in spaces not owned by everyone, and dynamic digital art may be static in spaces not owned by everyone… This is what I believe to be a possible direction of evolution, it is not about whether infinite copying is important, but about the fact that this will not happen.

But all of this is predicated on jumping into digital space, into a programmable space.

Finally, while writing this article, two things happened, and I feel it is necessary to supplement the viewpoints in the text:

1. I saw a new NFT creation and trading platform design that utilizes the programmability of NFTs to dynamically aggregate the artistic, collectible, and social attributes of NFTs within a single NFT work. Thus, in the physical world, as a tool, NFTs may realize new forms or carriers of art in the physical world, rather than just being used for the NFT-ization of works. In my previous article, I only wrote about stimulating new forms of art in the digital world.
2. I saw a great digital venue setup that brought vitality to the digital works exhibited within it. This means that some digital works, even those originally from the physical world, may better showcase their artistry or appeal due to digital space, thus becoming more valuable. In my previous article, I wrote that general digital works do not change in artistic value because their medium has not changed, and I overlooked the changes brought about by the change in exhibition space. However, this change is unrelated to whether it is an NFT or not; it is related to the exhibition space.

Another point to mention is that while the text refers to Cryptovoxels, if you are not familiar with this market, do not hoard land or speculate on land. CV has no land limit, and it will periodically release new land at prices below market prices, as CV hopes that those who want to play can afford land.