My Collectable Ass

In the modern digital era, the value of art is no longer based on a physical object, like a painting, especially when art forms have moved beyond the physical. What is valuable instead is the information surrounding the work that give it a sort of exclusivity, even if the work itself isn’t rare in the sense that a picture of it can be readily accessible for download. What makes the art valuable is the social context around it—that people are talking about it, thinking about it, sharing it, contributing to its virality. The original work becomes only as value as the amount of copies it generates, as the more reproductions of it there are, the more cultural relevancy it has. A meme (in both the current understanding and the original Richard Dawkins definition) has no significance without it being shared and spread.The more cultural relevancy and virality, the more people are willing to pay to have the status of ownership, even if only through a certificate that doesn’t signify anything in terms of control of access and circulation, a recognisable work. The status comes from the knowledge of the ownership of the common object, and the actual content or artistic value of the work itself is irrelevant. Most NFT art isn’t masterpieces, but recognisable and easily reproducible, with the exclusivity all coming from the culture around NFTs and crypto. Anyone can download your monkey, so it’s not about hanging it in pride of place over the mantle

piece, but of being able to say “I own that!” when seeing it elsewhere as it is inevitably spread. Seeing other versions of it is what gives people the satisfaction of knowing they own something “popular.”