In terms of mainstream recognition NFTs are making waves with big name celebrities spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on them. My intervention is based around a particular portion of NFT’s that make hundreds of images off a single template (Bored Ape Club, Cryptopunks). I wanted to speak on the cynical nature of NFTs as it seems they only seem to be so popular due to being a speculative market rather than actually being appreciated by the artwork itself. “In Temporary Occupations, Alex Villar makes visible the “uses” of public space. The video shows Villar ignoring the city’s spatial codes and therefore resisting their effects upon the organization of everyday experience” Thompson writes about Craig Baldwin’s culture jamming project named ‘Billboard Outlaws in the Reclaim the Streets chapter.
As a counter I would be creating a parody account based on these works. Originally I wanted to create something original for the project until I read Jacklin Kwan’s article about fraud in the NFT world. After the passing of digital artist Qing Han who amassed a sizable following on social media through her evocative anime styled illustrations, several works of hers were being plagiarized and sold due to it being an unregulated market. “But like most emerging technologies, it was the tip of the iceberg. On Twinci alone, there are five other listings with Qing’s art. Some NFTs are being advertised for up to 500 TWIN (Twinci’s own crypto-coin), which converts to around £400 at the time of writing. There was even an instance where an artist minted an NFT attached to an apparent plagiarism of Qing’s work – the one she had posted alongside her cancer diagnosis.” Kwan writes. There are many such cases of blatant art theft on multiple different sites. For this reason I was going to create my own Bored Ape pieces to critique the blatant theft that happens in these spaces.
The question now is what aesthetic I was going to approach. I initially had two options on how I wanted to make the pieces. I could make a very inspired render or sink deeper into the depths of atrocious art. To make the parody more clear I felt using only the medium of MS Paint was the only true option. “The ability for the meme to empower and push back can be really powerful. They’re definitely sites of resistance against perceptions of abuse of power. They spread so quickly and evolve and transform, and it’s hard to shut them down in the way other forms of communicative protest can be silenced.” says Benjamin Burroughs, an assistant emerging media professor at the University of Nevada in an interview with VICE reporter Sage Lazzaro about the political power of memes.
I was considering how I would like the auctions to work. I felt as though the auctions were very important to parodying NFT as they are completely relevant due to their assumed financial value. I wouldn’t ever sell this work for my own profit as I feel that would be too unethical but if it went towards charity. Auctions can be held through the Instagram comments, and winners would be privately messaged in which they can pick an approved charity of their choice. Then they would receive the image but with a digital seal also made in MS Paint saying they now owned this image. From the Yes Men website they talk about the people they prank or make art out of and why they don’t sue them. “We've learned again and again that our targets are unlikely to sue us, because we can always win in the court of public opinion.” - Yes Men
Lazzaro, Sage. “Memes Are Our Generation's Protest Art.” VICE, 1 Mar. 2019, https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbzxa3/memes-are-our-generations-protest-art.
Kwan, Jacklin. “An Artist Died. Then Thieves Made Nfts of Her Work.” WIRED UK, 28 July 2021, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nft-fraud-qinni-art.
“You're Probably Not Going to Get Sued. but If You Do...” The Yes Men, https://theyesmen.org/lessons/youre-probably-not-going-get-sued-and-if-you-do.
Ackerman, Iain. “'It's like Buying a Star': Inside the Bizarre, Billionaires' World of Nfts.” WIRED Middle East, 14 July 2021, https://wired.me/business/cryptocurrency/its-like-buying-a-star-inside-the-bizarre-billionaires-world-of-nfts/.
Thompson, N. (2004). The interventionists: Users' manual for the creative disruption of Everyday Life. MIT.
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