Lisa Reihana, Ane Tonga, Scott Lawrie and Deborah Rundle discuss a time of change for visual art with Claire Ulenberg at Creative Matakana. Recorded in May 2021.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become a hot issue in the world of digital creation, particularly so in the visual art world.

A panel of artists and curators discussed the issue at Creative Matakana in May 2021.

Hear Lisa Reihana, Ane Tonga, Scott Lawrie and Deborah Rundle talking about a changing art world. They discuss gender diversity, indigenous art, COVID-19 and the rise of NFTs with Claire Ulenberg.

Scott Lawrie:

If something is fungible, it has the same exchange value. So if I have a dollar and give it to you, and you give it back, that's fungible. Something non-fungible is something like a small painting, completely unique. It can't be replicated. The other thing you need to know about NFTs is that they are "evil tools of capitalism." They are just another form of exchange, and you have to swallow that bit. They are not revolutionary in terms of what they will do for the arts necessarily. It will certainly be the death of some galleries because galleries have not part to play in an NFT exchange for an artwork. It is the artist selling directly to a purchaser for crypto-currency.

Lisa Reihana:

You know it's not any different from what's happening anyway. If you sell an artwork, it comes from print media, like in the early 1900s, you put a value on something. It's a patent. America was really good at selling patents. It's just that they're embedding it in the blockchain. The problem with cryptocurrency at the present time is that it's being embedded on top of something else. What all of us artists need to be aware of is the footprint, the amount of energy and resources it takes to run these things through the world.

Potentially it gives artists a new kind of rangatiratanga, enabling them to run your own business, but you also have to look at the code that's sitting underneath it. Who is running that code? All of us in the arts industry need to be asking "What is the footprint that we are creating?"

Scott Lawrie:

To your point, Lisa. It's technology-based and technology changes. There are already new authentication systems which are much lower in power, so you don't have to take the power that runs a small country like New Zealand. They now have different authentication modes which are much, much greener.

And some artists have done amazingly well. If you look at Jess Johnson for example, she's moved into that space. She's done an edition of five. They all sold for an ethereum each, whatever that's worth now, about two and a half grand, directly to the artist…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details