The dizzying prices for which NFTs can sell has generated heaps of media attention, as have the types of NFTs for sale (there\u2019s an NFT of Lindsey Lohan\u2019s fursona?? It really is the end of days!!). Debates have escalated over NFTs\u2019 ability to provide creators with a platform and income versus their ultimate futility as a flash in the pan. But overshadowed by the screaming and crying about a stranger buying Taco Bell\u2019s NFTs (which include a gif of Newton\u2019s Cradle but it\u2019s tacos), are quieter but crucial conversations about artistic merit many NFTs warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah Friend\u2019s<\/a> work is an excellent example. Friend is an artist and software developer who\u2019s worked in the blockchain industry since 2016 and in 2018 was named one of Canada\u2019s 30 developers under 30<\/a> (and she was kind enough to chat with Art the Science<\/a> back in 2019). When we speak this time, she\u2019s hailing from the Starship Enterprise (okay, it\u2019s a Zoom background).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s been super hyped. It’s been insane,\u201d Friend says of NFTs. \u201cI make NFTs, and I want the world to shut up about NFTs half the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friend\u2019s NFTs probe what exactly NFTs are and what they represent for us culturally. NFTs are meant to be, as Friend puts it, \u201cthis sort of system of ownership and assets\u201d\u2014like with cryptocurrency, you\u2019re supposed to hold onto them, hoping they\u2019ll go up in value. They reward the self-interested and individualistic user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, what if we assume instead the user is collaborative and mutualistic? Take Friend\u2019s project Off<\/em><\/a>, an artwork, artist edition, and multiplayer game. The artist edition consists of 255 NFTs displayed on the project\u2019s website as a series of black rectangles labelled as devices: BlackBerry Z10, Dell XPS 13, Samsung Galaxy A50. The black images are the same dimensions as the devices. Each piece has a \u201cpublic\u201d image, the black rectangle you see on the website, and a \u201csecret\u201d image, which you get by email if you purchase a piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In each secret image is a bit of an encrypted message and a bit of the key you need to decode it. Across the 255 images is an essay waiting to be uncovered, and you need 2\/3 of the key to decrypt it. The NFT owners must therefore work together, sharing freely their NFT’s “secret,” so the group can read the essay. It incentivizes cooperation, simply asking people to not behave selfishly. You can think of Off<\/em> as \u201ca massively multiplayer prisoner\u2019s dilemma,\u201d as its website states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOff<\/em> sort of calls upon people to see if they will work together at a large scale to solve the puzzle that is really a benefit to everyone to solve. There’s sort of no real reason not to do it, except…the normal logic of NFTs, which is quite powerful,\u201d Friend explains to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hours before Friend and I chat, she launched another project, Lifeforms<\/em><\/a>. These NFTs \u201cdie\u201d if you don\u2019t give them to a new caretaker within 90 days. (Like Off<\/em>, which has physical versions that can hang in galleries, Friend made some physical versions of Lifeforms<\/em> as well, which she describes as \u201clumpy, squishy, kind of cuddly phones.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe common thread is making NFTs that don’t quite work, unless in some way you give them away, or share them,\u201d Friend tells me. \u201cAnd the reason I’m interested in this kind of system is that I actually think we’re surrounded by this kind of system all the time. What is the climate crisis but a collaborative coordination game that we are failing to play?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A natural point of annoyance for Friend and, I imagine, for many artists is that what gets overlooked about NFT art is, often, the art. \u201cI find it a little frustrating to see\u2026article after article about NFTs, but they never talk about the art,\u201d Friend tells me. \u201cThey usually talk about how much they sold for. I’ve also had the experience where an exhibition that I’m in has been reviewed or written up in a publication, but they don’t talk about the art at all, what the art is about, whether the art is good. They just list the prices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friend thinks the final form of Off<\/em> will take shape after the game has played out, and the attention has died down. She tells me that she\u2019d like to write a retrospective, where she interviews the collectors, as a way of giving the public insight into the dynamics, relationships, and strategies that formed along the way. \u201cI feel like its final form is going to probably be an essay, and I realized that kind of recently,\u201d says Friend. As for Lifeforms<\/em>, she teases there might be more coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what about the future of NFTs? \u201cI mean, the way these things go is things get blown out of proportion, and then they fall out of attention. And then they find their real home someday, you know?\u201d Friend tells me. She also points out that precedent exists for NFT collecting, like marketplaces for digital goods, marketplaces for game items, marketplaces where you can buy, for example, a World of Warcraft<\/em> character that someone else has gotten to a certain level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I ask Friend if she predicts that, a decade from now, people will still be collecting NFTs. She thinks for a moment and responds, \u201cYeah, I do. But I think it might be much more quotidian and less interesting than it is now, in some way.” She adds, \u201cI think it will be around, and it will somehow be much, much more boring than it seems at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more about Sarah Friend, visit her website<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * Share this Post<\/p>![\"Three](\"https:\/\/artthescience.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Reize_Off-at-IKG-in-Calgary-2-1024x705.jpg\")
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All images courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n