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In the article, “Beeple’s digital ‘artwork’ sold for more than any painting by Titian or Raphael. But as art, it’s a great big zero.“, Sebastian Smee talks about a “major shake-up” in the art industry with latest revolt towards the NFT (Non-fungible Token), which is a unique digital item stored on a database technology called blockchains, allowing users to secure ownership of their digital works. As time goes by, art, in many forms, constantly evolves over time with several influences like advances in technology and society by instilling values and changing experiences throughout time. Especially today, technology has become a prevalent influence in our art world in the way people create and access art. For instance, many artists now use digital applications like Photoshop on computer and “paint” on their iPad canvas to generate art. Smee further criticizes how the artistic value of NFT has been replaced by generating monetary value from the market by mentioning graphic designer Beeple, who sold his digital product “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” for a crazy amount of $69.3 million. Although I am a fan of digital art collection, I totally understand Smee’s criticism towards Beeple’s work in comparison to the worth of past valuable traditional paintings sold in previous auctions. I think there should be some differentiations in terms of auction standards between traditional and digital work because they not only use different mediums, but also bring creative approaches as well as different value to art.
