Artists and startups seek to solve NFT’s buyer’s dilemma: how to display digital art

Sure, digital art can be displayed on a regular monitor or television or uploaded to a digital photo frame. But proponents of purpose-built frames say the new medium deserves a new kind of display, both for aesthetic reasons (it might have a better resolution, for example) and to offer a personalized user experience.

“It’s about taking this work of art and bringing it into the world in an interesting way,” said Beeple, his real name, Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist who recently sold an NFT for $ 69 million.

Currently, digital artworks are primarily viewed online. Platforms such as Flawnt and Showtime allow NFT owners to select and display their collections in Internet galleries and social networks. The nature of digital art means that anyone can post copies of it virtually anywhere on the internet, including websites and social media platforms like Instagram.

But new ways of displaying digital art in the real world could help make it more visible to more people outside of this internet bubble, thereby achieving a more pervasive appreciation of the form, said Zoe Scaman, founder of the culture strategy studio. and Bodacious Entertainment Ltd.

“Sometimes you have to lean on the old world or the familiar to help people navigate the new,” he said. For NFTs, that means “allowing other people to view NFT collections in the same way that we allow people to view traditional art collections, whether in our homes, by lending them to galleries, or by keeping them in some way. ,” she said.

Galleries have already begun to adapt to showcase digital work: The NFT “Chain Reaction” exhibition at ABV Gallery in Atlanta this week shows looping art in a room of wall-mounted displays, Scaman added.

Beeple sends buyers of its NFT artwork display frames specially produced by Infinite Objects Inc., a New York City-based startup that makes “video prints.” The QR codes that are linked to the unique NFT of each work are signed by the artist and are integrated into the back of the frames, which are sent in elegant gift boxes.

The frameworks are designed to be interface free. Animated digital artwork loaded in each frame cannot be changed to another, nor can animation be stopped, rewind, or paused; customers need to put them back in the box or drain the battery to turn them off. Each painting is less like a tablet or television and more like a statue or figurine, said Roxy Fata, director of operations for Infinite Objects.

Qonos Inc., another startup, is taking a contrasting approach with its own digital art frames, which cost $ 999 for a 17.3-inch model and $ 1,499 for a 24-inch version.

The company’s founder, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Moe Levin, said that Qonos wants to be “almost like the Spotify of NFT art.” People who purchase a digital canvas to display their own art can also choose pieces from a vast library and upload art playlists designed to suit different moods, Levin said.

“Because that’s one of the big problems with NFT art,” he added. “There’s a lot of bad art and a lot of good art, and it’s hard to sort through all the noise to find what you’d like.”

Art displayed from the Qonos library is displayed with its attribution credits. The startup is devising a system to pay royalties to digital artists when their work is displayed in someone’s Qonos frame, Levin said.

The first batch of 2,000 marks from Qonos sold out this month in less than 24 hours, he said.

Beeple, meanwhile, is working on the next version of an NFT framework. He declined to say what it would look like eventually, other than that it might not look like a frame at all. Rather, he said he hopes to create something more sculptural that “feels like a physical embodiment” of the art itself.

“I want to make an object that, as soon as you walk into the room, if you’ve never seen it before, it makes you say, ‘Okay, what the hell is going on?’” He said.

Write to Katie Deighton at [email protected]