Between process and object: NFTs and the artification of digital assets
Between process and object: NFTs and the artification of digital assets

Summary/Abstract: By bringing digital artworks to one’s everyday shopping list, NFTs have revolutionizeda large group’s understanding of art. In this article, I challenge the stance presented by authors suchas Taylor and Sloane that NFTs shift the consumption of objects to the liquid consumption of thenon-material by drawing on the aesthetic identity of NFTs as images. Firstly, I analyse the evolutionof blockchain products’ function from that of strictly fungible tokens to non-fungible goods. NFTsrely on art’s specificity and acquire their new identity by virtue of entering the art market, whichdoes not happen with ordinary cryptocurrencies. NFTs thus benefit from the contextualization of artas a socially and technologically mediated immaterial process: they emerge as instances of the artifi-cation of a non-artistic immaterial experience and become art-like. However, an NFT as a commod-ity is not pure code; it does have an image attached. This distinguishes NFTs from particular fungibletokens that hold added value due to their unique historical context.I further point out that the fact that NFTs have, as commodities, taken the form of digital images isan expression of a pervasive need for interaction with objects in today’s everyday digital experience.Also, the shift of NFTs from being just “specific” phenomena as art objects to “singular” phenomenaconstrued as authors of the ways in which they will be perceived and understood is discussed. NFTscreate their own impact, on the one hand, independently of their often poor artistic or aesthetic qual-ity, and on the other hand, as entirely dependent on their aura as mathematically and ontologicallyunique, visually perceptible entities.

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