Riding the Wave NFT: The Journey of 3 Crypto Artists

This article is from The Paper.
It cannot be ignored that the current so-called crypto art market is far more financial than artistic.

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In Beijing's art-rich 798 Art District, art exhibitions are commonplace, but this one seems a bit different.

In late April, the Goethe-Institut in Beijing is hosting a crypto art exhibition, with the term "crypto" appearing somewhat avant-garde. Inside the exhibition hall, groups of people gather together, and a slender woman with curly hair is one of the social centers. Her name is Song Ting, 25 years old, and she is a "celebrity" in China's current crypto art scene.

Crypto artist Song Ting

In 2020, the concept of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) emerged in the blockchain field. NFTs are considered unique and irreplaceable digital assets, with ownership circulating on the blockchain (such as Ethereum), primarily applied to artworks. Artworks are turned into NFTs on the blockchain, leading to the rise of crypto art, which can even be described as "overheated." At Christie's in London, a piece was auctioned for nearly $70 million.

Song Ting holds the record for the highest NFT auction price in China in 2020. Therefore, during this exhibition, people continuously come over to greet her.

To outsiders, NFTs are born from blockchain technology, sharp and mysterious. However, stripping away various professional terms and jargon, what is the essence of NFTs? Behind the astronomical auction prices reaching tens of millions of dollars, do NFTs hold any real value? Let’s delve into the frontline practitioners of NFTs—crypto artists—to seek answers.

How Crypto Artists Are Made

In the current crypto art market, the "story" behind a crypto artist somewhat determines their recognition within the community.

Most artists come from two directions: one shifts from technology to the art field, while the other originates from the art field but gradually learns technology; some even combine backgrounds from multiple fields.

Song Ting is a representative of the third type, crossing fields.

"The crypto community values stories," said crypto art collector Zhu Zheng, "and her story is the most compelling." Zhu Zheng purchased one of Song Ting's works for 100,000 yuan at the end of last year.

When the reporter first met Song Ting, she was basically bare-faced, dressed in a blue hoodie and sweatpants, looking casual.

When talking about work and ideals, her speech naturally quickens, and her slender body seems to be infused with "energy."

Song Ting was the top liberal arts student in the college entrance examination in Shenyang and studied Chinese language and literature in the humanities experimental class at Tsinghua University. She has also written science fiction novels. In her sophomore year, she began to learn programming through a linguistics course that required assignments to be completed in Java, and by the age of 19, she started advancing distributed storage using Docker open-source technology. In 2017, Song Ting entered the blockchain industry, earning her first "digital remuneration" of 0.2 Bitcoin by providing optimization suggestions for a white paper.

In the fall of 2018, Song Ting began creating AI and blockchain art.

"When I was very young, I told my dad that I am first and foremost a person, Song Ting. In the future, I will be someone's lover, a mother to a child, and a CEO to a group of people. Being your daughter is only fifth or sixth on my life's list, and you have to accept that," Song Ting showcased her "rebellious" character to The Paper.

"I'm quite angry. There are many things in this world that make me dissatisfied, and I want to change them." Song Ting cited examples, such as the relationship between liberal arts and science students, men and women, and the dichotomy between design thinking and engineering thinking, asserting that these relationships are not simply 0 and 1, black and white. "Who says girls must only study liberal arts? Who says liberal arts students can't code or create tech products?"

On May 20, at the China Guardian 2021 Spring Auction, Song Ting's NFT artwork "Peony Pavilion Rêve: The Butterfly Loves the Flower—Information Technology Penetrates 'Me'" became the first NFT art piece auctioned by Guardian, presented in video format, ultimately selling for 667,000 yuan. Song Ting's NFT artwork "Peony Pavilion Rêve: The Butterfly Loves the Flower—Information Technology Penetrates 'Me'"

Song Ting's NFT artwork "Peony Pavilion Rêve: The Butterfly Loves the Flower—Information Technology Penetrates 'Me'"

Reva, on the other hand, comes from a science and engineering background and was once an engineer.

The reporter met Reva at an exhibition in Shanghai. As a roundtable guest and artist at the exhibition, the "post-85" woman wore a ponytail, black-rimmed glasses, and a casual hoodie, appearing spirited and youthful, speaking slowly and succinctly.

Crypto artist Reva

Born in Shenzhen, Reva has been interested in painting since childhood, but during the college entrance examination, she followed a conventional path and enrolled in the computer science program at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. After graduation, she worked as a research and development engineer at China Film Group for four years, focusing on software development in film technology.

During the investment boom in high-tech in 2016, Reva also had two entrepreneurial experiences, first in the VR (virtual reality) and then in the AR (augmented reality) fields. In 2018, Reva decisively resigned and ultimately found her niche in "algorithm art," which involves generating images using algorithms and code to control image changes.

Reva stated that the emergence of NFTs provided a channel for her algorithm art to be seen. In August 2020, she created her first crypto art piece during a competition.

Now, Reva has created around 30 works, with 18 of them turned into NFTs on Makersplace, most of which have been auctioned off. Zhu Zheng compared her and Song Ting to "twin stars in the crypto art circle."

In March 2021, Reva's work "The Droplet" fetched the highest price for her pieces. This series pays homage to the dark forest theory from the science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem," consisting of five editions, each auctioned for 4 Ethereum.

Reva's NFT artwork "The Droplet"

Among the three crypto artists interviewed by The Paper, Chen Qiji is the only one with a pure art background.

Before university, Chen Qiji lived in Zhengzhou, Henan, and learned to paint from a young age, including traditional Chinese painting, freehand brushwork, and sketching.

Unlike the long-haired artist one might imagine, the 1991-born Chen Qiji resembles a big boy, with slightly long Korean-style bangs that need to be swept aside to avoid covering his eyes. Wearing black half-rim glasses, a black hoodie, and black sweatpants, he says it's to avoid stains from paint.

Crypto artist Chen Qiji

At 19, Chen Qiji went to the United States to study alone. His two years of business studies made him realize he was not suited for business, so he transferred to the Maryland Institute College of Art to study architectural design and visual arts.

After returning to China in 2018, his main source of income came from teaching art creation to international students. At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, Chen Qiji, who enjoyed browsing foreign forums, discovered that NFT was mentioned by bloggers in the art community. Upon learning that works could be recognized and monetized through NFTs, he took action.

"As an artist, why not create works that can generate income?" Chen Qiji recalled, "I first went on-chain around mid-last year, self-studying by watching many videos online, and then began to delve into blockchain art."

Chen Qiji's first digital artwork was a self-portrait. He placed the RGB primary colors of the self-portrait into a hexadecimal code editor, converting the image into code, and then pasted all the codes representing the color red to create a red image.

Chen Qiji's first digital artwork

Now, Chen Qiji is labeled as a "crypto artist," with over 30 digital works, 7 of which have been turned into NFTs. The most expensive NFT sold for $20,000.

How Crypto Art Is Generated

The different backgrounds of crypto artists often determine their creative forms.

Song Ting refers to her worldview of crypto art creation as "reverse cyborg." A cyborg represents a mechanized future, while reverse cyborg refers to humanity being refined and reflected in the cyborg world.

Song Ting's first AI and blockchain art piece was inspired by the Large Hadron Collider developed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). This machine allows tiny particles to collide with each other at the speed of light in a circular track, simulating the moment of the Big Bang at the collision of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), hoping for the birth of the Higgs boson. The circular CMS reminded Song Ting, who was learning ballet at the time, of the TUTU skirt worn during ballet.

In Song Ting's view, if the Big Bang could be replicated, it would evoke characteristics of love and beauty associated with women, similar to various mythological stories. The compact muon device is akin to a ballet TUTU skirt. The main part of the painting was hand-drawn by her and converted into a digital version, while the background was generated by AI on the blockchain. Song Ting's NFT artwork "Large Hadron Collider and Cherry Blossom Ballet TUTU Skirt"

Song Ting's NFT artwork "Large Hadron Collider and Cherry Blossom Ballet TUTU Skirt"

One of Song Ting's most unique NFT artworks, "Cyber Wonder Woman," was bid at 52 Ethereum on the Rarible platform, equivalent to about 240,000 yuan at the time.

She obtained portrait authorization from 119 Chinese female tech leaders and used a deep learning model GAN algorithm (Generative Adversarial Network) to generate a portrait, which was then co-created with others, including Yu Tongzhou, deputy director of the Media Institute of China Academy of Art, based on collaboration between humans and machines.

"The generated portrait is simply the blockchain circle's Angelababy," joked Song Ting's assistant. Every secondary creator involved in the distributed collaboration has an NFT, and every woman who provided portrait authorization also received a special edition NFT gift.

Song Ting's NFT artwork "Cyber Wonder Woman"

Currently, Song Ting's methods of crypto art creation can be divided into three types: the first is based on designing and building applications using a certain open-source language as a creative tool, such as NLP (Natural Language Processing). The second involves designing and collecting data herself, using GAN algorithms to collaboratively generate images. The third is based on creating using AI models on the blockchain.

One of her partners, Tian Jia, co-founder of the AI and Blockchain Laboratory Cortex Labs, stated that in the art field, native AI on the blockchain can be used to generate the seeds of art pieces: generating hash values on-chain and images off-chain.

Reva's algorithm art fully combines her technical background with her creative interests. She told reporters that she enjoys constructing images in a particularly rational or logical way, using mathematical functions or algorithms to create organic sensations in an inorganic manner.

"There is a strong sense of collision in this process," Reva said. Typically, works produced by algorithm control or mathematical functions have a strong mechanical feel, but after multiple adjustments and corrections, "the images that grow out will be a strange combination never seen before, very magical."

In her first two NFT works auctioned, all elements, such as ancient Chinese architectural window frames and dynamic smoke, were generated by algorithms. After being listed on the NFT trading platform Makersplace, both sold for 0.5 Ethereum (approximately $200 at the time). What encouraged her even more was later learning that the collector who bought these two paintings was a well-known figure in the community.

Reva's first sold NFT artwork "Chasing the Moon"

Unlike the logic-driven artistic creation of engineers, Chen Qiji's creations use more intuitive digital creation software like "Touch design." He believes his content is more emotional, attempting to discuss the fundamental issues of existence from a human perspective.

"The computer's creative process is more of my reflection, a reverse process, like a mirror," he said. "Some creations intentionally destroy certain key data in an image's code, creating art through reverse computer methods."

Chen Qiji has a series of works called "Matrix," where he magnifies a digital photo of his eyes hundreds of times on the computer. Just like using a microscope in the physical world, after magnifying to a certain extent, the photo becomes a blurred image, completely deviating from the original image.

According to the production forms of NFTs, crypto art creation can be divided into two types: one involves creating a digital version of a traditional physical form through photography and then turning it into an NFT, while the other is completed directly online using a computer before being made into an NFT.

Song Ting engages in both forms of creation; she recently became fascinated with the tie-dye art of Yunnan, spending a week in Dali learning from a master, often buying white T-shirts and qipaos to create various tie-dye patterns, which she then photographs or scans to digitize and turn into NFTs. Reva's algorithm art is created entirely on the computer, while Chen Qiji transitions from traditional physical creation to online digital creation.

However, Chen Qiji still places great importance on physical creation. He usually digitizes and goes on-chain first, then converts to physical form. He believes that crypto art will move towards reality, with digital content transforming into physical works.

"Purely digital, flat artworks are like drafts; they have consciousness but no body," Chen Qiji said, "just like a computer, hardware is the premise of software." He experiments with different materials to create physical versions of his works. For example, one version of his Matrix work, which he showed to The Paper, is a physical version made from materials selected through experimentation, showcasing various textures based on his understanding of physical media.

One physical version of Chen Qiji's NFT artwork "Matrix"

"It's like a person's soul can have different bodies," Chen Qiji said.

Where Will Crypto Art and NFTs Go

After crypto artist Beeple auctioned an NFT work for as much as $53 million, he converted all his Ethereum into dollars and chose to "escape."

Regarding Beeple's cash-out behavior, Reva expressed her disappointment and loss.

Reva considers herself a believer in blockchain, while Chen Qiji stated that he does not fully believe in decentralization. Song Ting believes that the only way for digital civilization is through centralized and decentralized collective collaboration.

Whether NFTs and crypto art have a future is still far from conclusive.

For some artists, the emergence of NFTs has indeed broadened the channels for their works to be seen and monetized.

Reva told The Paper, "In the past, monetizing artworks required intermediaries like galleries and auction houses, with commissions reaching as high as several tens of percent. Artists could not profit from secondary sales, but through blockchain, artists can directly reach buyers and sell artworks, and secondary sales can also yield certain profits for artists."

Professor Hu Jie from Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance stated that the essential role of NFTs is to record the ownership of artworks, allowing copyright rules to be better implemented. Although NFTs cannot prevent piracy, as images can be copied, they make rights confirmation, authorization, and protection relatively easier.

It cannot be ignored that the current so-called crypto art market is far more financial than artistic.

Chen Qiji told The Paper that the value of art NFTs lies in public recognition in the art market, which is influenced by impact and recognition. Currently, academic institutions are not heavily involved, with most participants being capital-based institutions.

"NFTs have not yet integrated with mainstream art communities, which is also challenging. Only when the threshold is high enough and the community is formal enough can mainstream art communities accept it," said Sun Yang, a researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute. Many emerging matters will have bubbles and flaws, just as many people turn everything into NFTs, leading to a mixed crypto community filled with inferior products, which is detrimental to the development of NFTs.

"Bubbles must exist to be cleaned up," Chen Qiji believes. All new things will have bubbles; we are currently in a bubble state, which may lead to a period of silence before a second rise, and the state may be different.

Hu Jie also believes that bubbles certainly exist, but they often represent a tool with great hope and potential, with far-reaching significance.

"NFTs are a long-term matter," Chen Qiji said. "Currently, NFTs are overly focused on their financial attributes, easily distorting the concept of art. People are increasingly confusing the concepts of art and NFT products. After the bubble bursts, when everyone calms down, they may slowly understand."

"I believe NFTs will be an important aspect of blockchain applications. Technology is neutral; when used well, it benefits; when misused, it harms. When applied in the right places, it empowers; when misapplied, it may become a tool for speculation or even fraud," said Wang Zhicheng, an associate professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management.