Why can a JPG image be worth tens of millions, and new media art usher in an explosive moment?

On March 11, 2021, digital artist Beeple's artwork Everydays: The First 5000 Days fell to Christie's for $69.34 million, becoming the world's first all-digital work to be sold at a traditional auction house.

The third most valuable work in the history of auctions by a living artist, "Every Day: The First 5,000 Days" starts at just $100, but such a starting price greatly underestimates the enthusiasm of collectors.

By the last minute, 2.2 million visitors had visited the auction page, and the work, which took more than 5,000 days, sold for nearly 700,000 times more than the starting price.

Digital artist Beeple made history on that day, breaking through the perception of the real world and allowing encrypted digital artworks to break into the public eye.

While lamenting the changes in art, everyone has a huge curiosity about the technology behind it, what is NFT? What is New Media Art? Such issues have become a hot topic of discussion in the past year.

In reality, however, Every Day: The First 5,000 Days isn't the first crypto art to break the circle.

In March of the same year, a group of art lovers burned the world-famous street artist Bunkers' morons on the streets and sold the NFT digital version of Morons for 4 times the price.

This show, which is more like a performance art performance, makes everyone really realize that there is a new extension of the boundaries of art.

As Leo Tolstoy said, "Art is the mirror of life", and with the development of the metacosmonic era, art is undergoing great changes.

In the past year, the new media art industry has undergone earth-shaking changes, and finally ushered in its own explosive moment.

What is New Media Art?

So what exactly is new media art? We may wish to do a small experiment first, ask this question in the circle of friends, without asking for help from Baidu, how many people can answer it?

The answer may be very few.

The reason is that there is no other reason, not that new media art appeared late, or that the influence is not far-reaching enough, but simply because art always subtly changes us, along with daily production and life behavior.

Just as many of us find it difficult to clearly express what "land art", "realism" and "romanticism" are, new media art is a new art discipline, a product of the times, and has inadvertently penetrated into contemporary art.

To put it simply, new media art is an art based on optical and electronic media that uses modern scientific and technological means to explore culture and aesthetics, bringing together the most cutting-edge digital technology, biotechnology, quantum theory, economics, linguistics and other disciplines.

It is an art form that places more emphasis on the interaction between the viewer and the artwork.

New media artwork is a kind of flowing and constantly reshaping art, which uses computers, networks, and videos as creative media to change the public's perception of traditional art.

As a pure art discipline, new media art is a very large category, including digital art, interactive art, algorithm art, sound art, video art, light art, generative art, etc., which is a more complex but clear system.

New media art is not just "NETART", but "ART IN NET", nor is it just a cold technological innovation, but a leap in public aesthetics, a milestone event in the history of aesthetic development.

At present, many colleges and universities at home and abroad have opened new media art majors, and Tsinghua University, China Academy of Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Tongji University, Carnegie Mellon University, New York School of Visual Arts and other well-known colleges and universities are prominently listed.

As a branch of new media art, digital media art is one of the most important and extensive forms of expression of contemporary new media art, which is expressed in the form of pictures and gifs, and reshapes the four-dimensional space of art by increasing the participation of time and the perception of the audience for painting, photography and installation, giving the audience a wholehearted experience.

Since the development of digital media art in the 1960s, countless amazing works have been born, and have laid a solid foundation for the current outbreak of new media art.

As Flaubert said, "Art and science always meet at the top of the mountain", art is brilliant because of the expression of feelings, science is sublime because it reveals the law, and new media art integrates the boundaries of science and art, and achieves each other.

How has new media art evolved?

New media art seems to cover all areas of contemporary art, so how was new media art born and developed to this day?

Before answering this question, we need to know an important premise, that is, art not only creates social wealth, but also reflects on social culture.

The process of art feeding back social civilization is the crystallization of public wisdom, and new media art demonstrates this very well.

At the end of the 1960s, the information revolution popularized the personal computer, and the Internet became a new artistic medium, creating the foundation for the birth of new media art.

The new media art, which is at its core in communication and interaction, has its roots in conceptual art, Dadaist behavior, and early futurist manifestos.

Early new media art included sound art, video art, and light art, and its representative figure, Korean-American Baek Nam-joon, pioneered many precedents in the field of video art, video installation, and video performance, and won the praise of the "Father of New Media" with "TV Buddha".

At the end of the 20th century, with the continuous advancement of technology, with the support of the media industry and relevant government agencies, artistic utopias such as ZKM (Center for Arts and Media), AEC (Center for Electronic Arts), and ICC (Inter-Communication Center) were established.

It aims to promote the dialogue between contemporary art and science and promote the further development of new media art.

At the same time, new media art exhibitions have repeatedly broken the cognition of the real world. The emergence of large-scale curatorial exhibitions such as the "MULTIMEDIALE" Multimedia Art Biennale has enabled new media to be disseminated and more widely used by audiences.

And many outstanding artists have made us personally feel the shock brought by new media art.

Bill Viola's work uses human physical and perceptual faculties to interact, touching generations of participants through fluid art. James Turrell's color series "Space of Light" allows users to have a new definition of distance, color, and size, "fascinate" a series of viewers.

Japanese TEAMLAB uses space and light and shadow to allow viewers to redefine the concept of time and space. Random International's Rain Room allows experiencers to enjoy a walk in the rain without getting wet.

Science has given new media art the ability to "change the world" and redefine artists.

As Langdon International put it in an interview, "The engineering challenges of building such a device are fascinating, but at the same time it's a social science, and no designer is going to create a meaningless device."

The new media art installation allows the audience to experience the energy it has. The creative process is more fascinating than ever, with the viewer defining the artist's identity, perception and enjoyment of the experience. ”

At about the same time, Internet technology gradually matured, giving birth to the emergence of computer graphics, providing new creative tools for new media artists.

The tools for ordinary users to make diagrams on their computers range from Microsoft drawing to coding to various Adobe software, making a large number of digital artists emerge on the new track of new media art.

DAI FAN, known as the "avant-garde icon of the 21st century", the 18-year-old genius artist Fewocious, the NFT god Pak, beeple, who changed the history of traditional auction houses, and so on.

Artists experiment with new digital tools and artistic mediums, connecting their work to different disciplines such as visual art spaces and music and poetry.

Nowadays, crypto art, algorithm art, interactive art and generative art are popular, and the birth of NFTs based on blockchain technology provides the basis for the confirmation of rights of digital artworks.

Its immutable, transparent and unique properties make a GIF diagram more than just an image that can be infinitely reproduced, but a digital asset with real value.

At the same time, the development of AI intelligence has made the tools for generating art more "foolish", such as the software "DeepDreaming" developed by Google, which opens the door to generative art to ordinary people, provides imaginative tools for creators, enhances the general public's sense of participation in new media art, and allows anyone to become one of the creators.

The development of new media art closely follows the rhythm of the development of the times, steadily and imaginatively promoting the process of human civilization.

Why is new media art exploding?

The outbreak of new media art is not an elusive "black swan" event, but a long-planned "foreshadowing".

As we said above, new media art brings together the most cutting-edge science and technology, realizes the unity of art and science, and the development of science has brought inexhaustible impetus to the shaping and innovation of new media art.

At present, computer languages are no longer simple binary stacks of 0s and 1s, and the code structure is constantly being streamlined and optimized, providing a basis for the realization of more complex programs.

Artificial intelligence has developed from the initial machine intelligence to the present, and has a rational thinking and low error rate that are difficult for humans to reach in the field of robotics, language recognition, image recognition and expert systems, which has become the key for human beings to enter the era of intelligence.

Computer science and AI have come to a stage where they are more inclined to develop consumer-grade scenarios, and entertainment and art are the best means of communication for any industry.

More scientists are not just searching the ivory tower for truth, they hope that the theories can be argued in experimental, more interesting ways. Scientists have a deeper humanistic concern, which in turn has given birth to algorithmic art and generative art in new media art.

As Hegel said, "The value of art lies in the manifestation of an inner vitality, feeling, soul, style and spirit by means of external material forms, which is what we mean by a work of art." ”

New media artists allow the audience to feel that art is life, and to perceive the rhythm of the times at close range.

In addition, the development of the Internet has gradually changed from the Web 2.0 era to the decentralized Web3.0 era to meet the needs of user interaction, and the confirmation of digital assets has enhanced the status of artists and the scarcity of artworks.

The innovation of NFT has given value to all things, making new media artworks mushroom in our field of vision.

The EverLasting Beautiful by renowned crypto artist FEWOCiOUS, Genesis by 87-year-old comic book artist José Delbo, Finite by anonymous crypto artist Pak, metarift.

Commemorating performance art Maurizio Cattelan's "banana & tape" that sticks bananas on the exhibition wall of the fair... Digital media artworks are no longer a topic discussed in niche salons, but a global carnival.

The outbreak of the global epidemic has made certain changes in the global economic structure, the digital economy has flourished, the meta-universe era has entered the public vision, and people's curiosity and concern about new media art have swept the world in an instant.

For the metaverse, which reproduces all the production and lifestyle of the physical world in the virtual world, and has a sound economic system and trustless identity authentication, new media art gives the metaverse a novel user interface and immersive experience.

People can connect with the world, interact with it, and create about it according to their preferences.

New media art has built the foundation of the interaction of the meta-universe world, and the opening of the meta-universe era has brought a catalyst for the explosion of new media art, and a JPG picture can be worth tens of millions is not only a game of capital operation, but a rallying call for the opening of a new era.

Where will new media art go in the future?

The development of new media art has only a history of about 60 years, and for an emerging art discipline, the future of new media art still has a long way to go.

So where will the future of new media art go? Is new media art the ultimate form of art? These topics are worth pondering and exploring.

Technology + art will change the development of the industry

The development of new media art is inseparable from the progress of science and technology. New media art and technology are like shadows and objects, closely related, we can even simply think that new media art is the mapping of technology in the field of aesthetics.

With the continuous development of science and technology, the display forms and achievements of new media art will continue to subvert our cognition and even change the development of the art industry.

In addition to the Google-developed "DeepDreaming" we mentioned earlier, Wombo Dream, a software that can help us "braille into painting", has recently set off a new wave of AI creation.

TikTok, Douyin has a popular "lip-syncing" short video, some celebrity still photos have become funny singing videos, many celebrities have been recruited, and the company behind it, Wombo, is the creator of "Wombo Dream".

Users only need to enter a keyword and a description in "WomboDream" and choose an art style to get their own masterpiece.

Even if the keywords entered are the same as the style chosen, the pictures generated will be different each time, perfectly interpreting the true meaning of art.

By the end of last year, WomboDream users had generated more than 10 million images and provided creative inspiration to many artists.

Technology unleashes human labor and creativity, giving it more time and opportunity to think about a wider range of issues.

When human beings create and upgrade technology, technology is also changing human beings, which is a mutual process.

With the blessing of the power of science and technology, art is no longer limited to the burst of personal inspiration and superb skills, and artistic creation has become more imaginative and imaginative, and everyone can become an artist.

Whether it is AI creation, algorithmic art, or installation art, interactive art. New media art deeply moves us by enhancing the perception of participants.

As technology advances, we look forward to seeing more imaginative and creative works. The humanistic feelings and social values in these works will deeply affect the next era.

NFTs will allow artists to enjoy better treatment

The advent of NFTs has enabled new media artists to get the pay and respect they deserve.

Its core significance is not the impact of the expanding commercial value on the art market, but the gradual change in people's perception of ownership, which will make a deep change in the foundation of the social order.

For a long time in the past, new media artists wanted to monetize and have to connect with the real world, and after being disseminated through the Internet, they always needed to license products or cooperate with brands to make digital art commercial in the traditional sense.

The advent of NFTs allows artists to jump out of physical bondage and anchoring, perfectly solving this puzzle.

The immutable blockchain technology on which NFT relies makes the data around the artwork and transaction process more open and transparent and traceable, greatly avoiding the dilemma that digital art can be copied through screenshots, and making the ownership of digital art have a smoother management system and clearer definition.

Technology has become a deterrent to evil, and NFTs can be seen as a higher-dimensional, longer-term change in the way human civilizations cooperate.

More and more artists are getting better treatment because of NFTs. After Beeple, "Beach with Poetry" from The Great Compassion Universe's "Text Gene Project" series fetched a hefty $140,000 price.

His Futuristic, Gibberish, and Virtual Butterfly series create a sophisticated and transcendent singular aesthetic that sets a precedent for digital art in the Asian metaverse.

Many well-known domestic digital artists such as Tian Xiaolei, a digital artist who explores the relationship between people and technology, Chi Lei, a trendy art dark horse with millions of fans, and Chen Tianzhuo, a contemporary art creator, have also entered the game, and new media art has been revitalized because of the existence of NFTs.

Everyone can be a creator and a collector

At the same time, the explosion of the era of new media art has made it possible for everyone to become creators and collectors.

The creation of new media artists is no longer limited to physical painting and sculpture, no longer limited to overly exquisite aesthetics, but has a richer form of expression, and images, pictures, and installations can be used as part of new media art.

The tools of artistic creation have also made a qualitative breakthrough, and everyone has the talent and qualifications to become a creator.

The Great Compassion Universe was originally a 3D game scene builder, and when it first tried artistic creation, the Great Compassion Universe chose to create sculptures for a short time.

However, his inspiration was unleashed in his sculptural work, and his creativity was limited by physical media.

So free creation with a free medium seems to have become an indispensable part of his artistic career.

Digital art offers him infinite possibilities, and through algorithms, he hides organic information in a chaotic system, allowing the world to see the unique charm of Asian digital artists.

As ordinary people, we may not be able to form a unique way of expression, but the era of new media art provides us with simple and easy tools.

Whether it's the aforementioned Wombo Dream, Google-developed DeepDreaming, or Nvidia's 3D design collaboration and virtual world simulation platform Omniverse, Epic Game's Unreal Engine, anyone can become a creator of new media art by skillfully using related tools.

New media art based on blockchain technology has changed the global perception of ownership, making it possible for everyone to act as a collector.

Collectors have more forms of art options and can more easily and safely acquire works of art and trade or liquidate them on the secondary market.

The future of new media art may have countless possibilities, and national creation and collection are an indispensable part of it.

The metacosm allows new media art to present more innovative forms

2021 is the first year of the metacosm. If civilization in the information age is a superimposed tower, humanity is like Sisyphus carrying these difficulties forward.

Yet, as Albert Camus put it, "The whole joy of Sisyphus's silence lies in the fact that his fate belongs to him, and his rocks are his business." My world, which has never been dominated from now on, is neither desert nor fertile land for him. The struggle he had to fight to climb to the top of the mountain was in itself enough to fill a man's heart. ”

The Metaverse Age is not the last of entertainment to the death.

Human civilization is virtual reality at one end and a sea of stars at the other, parallel and interdependent. The arrival of the metacosm is an accident in necessity, a product of the development of science and technology to a certain stage.

At the moment of exploring the positive role of the metacosm, we have further promoted the iteration of science and technology and art.

The addition of metaversals provides more innovative forms for new media art.

Let VR games, AR interactive experience, holograms, 3D printing sculpture groups and other futuristic and technological expressions become an important part of new media art, enrich the display methods of new media art, enhance the perception and interactivity between artworks and the audience, and make the sense of immersion provided by new media art for participants more intense.

At the same time, the metacosm provides a detailed material library for new media art creation, which stimulates the inspiration of creators and makes more artists think about the relationship between man and nature, man and technology, and man and the future.

The arrival of the metaverse era was further accelerated through the creation of artists.

postscript

The emergence of new media art has opened the door to the Garden of Eden and brought the world a horn of abundance, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg of new media art, and this small part has changed the world and changed the way people look at things.

Art is endless, what remains unchanged is art, and what is constantly innovating is also art.

As Goethe said, "There is no better way to escape the world than art, and there is no better way to connect with the world than art", we should look at new media art with an open mind, constantly accept it, and create value for it.

In addition to being hands-free and creative, the development of human civilization is inherently absurd and dramatic.

Under the uncertainty of the rapid iteration of the times, the new industries that have been born and the relationship between technology and life in the future have become the most important issues that the next generation must pay attention to.

Not long ago, the "Museum of Posthumanism", a series of video installations held at the Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, brought infinite emotions to the viewer, and what stopped the audience was not the surprising image of artificial intelligence and technology in a fantasy future world, but the human astronauts who danced at the bottom of each installation.

Although times are changing, we always have "love and freedom".

Perhaps new media art is not the ultimate form of the art industry, but there is no doubt that it has given art a new soul and permeated every aspect of our lives.

As an integral part of the metaverse, new media art not only provides a new display form for the metacosm, but also enriches the format of the metacosm industry.

As the metaverse era iterates, we will see a variety of novel new media art exhibitions, crypto art works, and more young artists willing to challenge their limits.

The future is coming, are you and me ready?

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